Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Tennessee teen Savannah Leigh Pruitt found safe after 19 days missing, adoptive dad jailed

Episode Date: February 1, 2019

Savannah Leigh Pruitt returned home to Tennessee Friday, nearly three weeks after disappearing. The 14-year-old was found safe in Wisconsin Thursday, the same day her adoptive father was arrested on a rape charge. Nancy looks at the investigation with Cold Case Research Institute director Sheryl McCollum, private investigator Vincent Hil,  Atlanta criminal lawyer Darryl Cohen, Los Angeles psycho analyst Dr. Bethany Marshall, and Crime Stories reporter Robyn Walensky.l Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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with action information that you can use to change your life and protect your child. Give that as a gift, not another onesie. Find out how to protect your child when you're out at the mall or the store or the grocery, in the parking lot, at home. Find out about protection regarding babysitters and daycare, even online. I'd rather have that any day of the week than a plastic toy or, God forbid, a toy gun. Join Justice Nation. Go to crimestopshere.com. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On January 14, 2019, Savannah Lee Pruitt,

a 14-year-old female from our county, was reported missing by her parents, Christina and Randall Pruitt. Our investigation has basically led us to this point. She was last observed by cell phone GPS to be in the Corbin, Kentucky area, possibly moving north to an unknown destination from there. And in her bedroom, shockingly, her sheets, her bed sheets, the fitted sheet was gone. The window screen slashed.

No sign of 14-year--OLD SAVANNAH LEE PRUITT. BUT BOMBSHELL IN THE LAST HOURS. A BREAKTHROUGH. LISTEN. She was found in a home in Wisconsin. The details of how she got there, who she was with, or any connections to that area, the sheriff says are still under investigation. That's been the leading agency on it. The assistance of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, the FBI and the Department Children Services. They have all done a great outstanding job on this to locate her missing from here to Wisconsin, the time frame that they did. All these agencies have just been outstanding, the job that they've done. You're hearing from our friends at WATETV Knoxville.

That's Madison Keevey speaking to law enforcement. How did a 14-year-old little girl end up so many states away from home? She was spotted around 11 p.m. going to bed at around 5 o'clock in the morning. The little sister says she's gone. The window opened. The screen slashed. Her charger still there. Why? And even more disturbing news, we learn her stepfather arrested. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. With me, an all-star lineup, director of the Cold Case Research Institute, CSI expert Cheryl McCollum, PI, author of Playbook to a Murder on Amazon, Vincent Hill, renowned Atlanta criminal defense attorney, former felony prosecutor Daryl Cohen joining us from L.A.

L.A. psychoanalyst Dr. Bethany Marshall. Right now to CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter Robin Walensky, author of Beautiful Life, CSI, Behind the Casey Anthony Trial. Robin Walensky, when I first heard there had been an arrest and no Savannah, I had to get up and leave the table with the twins. I just could not take the thought of this another child dead, kidnapped and dead. That's not the way it turned out. And now the stepfather, I don't get it. Let's just start at the beginning, Robin. What happened? You know, Nancy, it is amazing that this has had the ending that it's had. This little girl, she's 14. She disappears from her home. She's the oldest

of four children. There's the mother and the stepfather living there. They had lived in that area. They had just moved from Georgia over to Madisonville, Tennessee. And she's seen at 11 o'clock at night, allegedly. Robin, Robin, Robin, you know how much I love you, right? But can we cut the crap? The stepdad's charged with rape. Rape.

This child is in Wisconsin, states and states and states away, as you were just saying before somebody, oh, it was me, so rudely interrupted, was in Lawrenceville. They moved to Madisonville, Tennessee, so she can have more land for all of her animals, much like my daughter Lucy. Next thing I know, she's missing. Nobody knows where she is. The desperate search, and now the stepfather is charged with rape.

Can you FF? Fast forward just a little bit. I'll rewind in a minute. Charged with rape, Robin? The stepfather? What happened? Is that in connection with her disappearance? It's beyond belief, yeah.

Apparently they say that the stepfather raped her, and he's living in the house, and here he is doing all these news conferences with TV shows, et cetera, saying that, you know, he was her heart and soul and the sunshine of the family speaking about her in the past tense along with the mother and then the next thing you know she shows up almost 600 miles away in the state of wisconsin i mean you're talking about almost a nine hour drive how does she get there well here's the other thing here's the other thing let me throw this to dr bethany marshall what hold on bethany i'll bring you in on the shrink aspect of this. Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute,

you and I sat at the very get-go when I asked the detective, was the screen cut from the inside or the outside? Because you can tell that looking under a microscope. He said the inside. I knew something was very, very wrong. And for her not to be on social media, that's not like her at all. She's very quiet, very shy. But she had a social media profile.

She had two cell phones with her, the Georgia phone and the Tennessee phone. They both peened in Kentucky. That's the last we heard of her. But taking the fitted sheet and not taking a charger, something was way wrong. And Robin was reporting about how there's this rape charge.

He's not, it doesn't say yet who he allegedly raped. It says he's charged with rape in connection to her disappearance. Okay, Cheryl, let it go. It's a staged scene. So being cut from the inside,

that's somebody wanting you to believe that a perpetrator was outside and kidnapped or some stranger. You know, the fitted sheet could very well have been removed because it would have had male DNA on it, which would have been a clue to who might have been sexually assaulted in the child. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me just let that soak in for a moment. You know, Daryl Cohen, Atlanta criminal defense lawyer,

I remember your glory days, Daryl, when you were a lead prosecutor in the Fulton DA's office. Yeah, you hear what Cheryl McCollum is saying? The sheets were removed because it very possibly had male DNA on it. You know what that means, right? Sperm. It obviously means that it might have been her father, stepfather, could have been anyone. anyone and then again we're talking about a 14 year old girl who doesn't think logically it appears that she went ahead and slipped the screen from the inside did she take her fitted sheet to fool everybody did she take it did someone else take it it's very hard to tell wait darryl see now you can get away with arguing that in front of a jury because nobody can really interrupt you but hold on did

somebody else come into the home and take the little girls fitted sheet sometime in the hours between 11 p.m. and 4 and 5 a.m. Okay, that absolutely makes no sense. Who? Why would anybody do that? Well, it makes no sense that she would take it with her either. So none of this makes sense, but the evidence will be what it is. And when they find her and they're able to speak to her, and maybe after she's settled down, they'll be able to get some logic out of this none of this is good none of this makes sense it only makes crime guys the bombshell right now is savannah lee pruitt the little 14 year old girl we've been trying to help find has been found but we now know her stepfather charged with rape at this hour detectives on the way to get her. My partner

in crime, Alan Duke, managed to get a hold of Detective Jason Filial just as he was getting on the plane to go get Savannah. This is what he said. Detective, I understand you're about to get on a plane now. We're on our way to Wisconsin to pick up Savannah and bring her home. She was found safe and she had been sheltered and she was in a house and she was fed and seemed well rested and seemed to be taking good care of her. What can you tell us about who Savannah has been with while she's been in wisconsin i can't release that information right now i know that the fbi has her uh in custody right now she was a very loving very bubbly a rare sunshine she stole that spotlight out of the room. I mean, she really, really did.

As beautiful as she looks, that's how her soul was. It's very beautiful. You guys aren't giving up hope, though? I'd just like to plea anybody that knows anything, please come forward, help with the investigation. No lead is too small. We cannot rest until we know something about our Savannah. You are hearing the voices of her mother, Savannah Lee Pruitt's mother, Christina, and that stepfather, Randall Pruitt, speaking to our friends at WATE Knoxville. Did you hear that to dr bethany marshall la psychoanalyst

that guy randall the stepfather has now been booked into the monroe county jail he's charged with rape and being held without bond still not clear or they're not saying how this may be connected to the little girl's disappearance the sheriff's office not providing any other details, including the circumstances of his arrest. But I know this. He's booked on rape, and she ran away, or she got out of that home one way or another. Dr. Bethany Marshall, weigh in.

I mean, did you hear him? The sunshine of my life. I can't sleep. She's a star of the room if anybody knows anything what that sounded sort of adoring and sexualized that sounds how you would talk about somebody towards whom you have a preoccupation or fixation. Nancy, when he says no lead is too small, in my field, we call that trite, rehearsed, stereotyped speech. What that means is the person is just playing a role. Fathers don't talk like police officers. They talk like fathers. Please call us. I'm panicked. We want to know where she is. Instead, he says, no lead is

too small. And you know, the other thing that gets me about all of this is the family had recently moved to this very remote area because, quote unquote, the daughter liked animals. To me, that sounds like a predator trying to sequester the family far away from civilization so he can have his way with everybody i know that sounds creepy but that's the big picture that comes to mind to me i am beside myself to vincent hill cop turned pi author of playbook to a murder on amazon vincent hill when the stepfather and the mom were behind and she was gone, no one really focused on them at the beginning, Vincent Hill. Yeah, and that's the problem, Nancy.

I mean, when you're talking about a child going missing from the home, you want to start that investigation inside the home. And the fact that the screen was cut from the inside and the fitted sheet was missing, to me, that was the biggest red flag in the world. Now, did Savannah take that sheet to preserve evidence? And maybe that's how we came to this rape charge? We don't know. Or did the dad take it because he knew his DNA was on that sheet. But everything pointed to inside this house Nancy from the beginning.

Even the fact that her cell phone was pinging 100 miles away and an abduction somebody is going to make sure that phone stays where it is and it doesn't leave the house. To Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute.

Weigh in Cheryl. The other thing that I wanted to point out that I think is critical. Januaryth was a Sunday so she had school the next day so if a stranger had come in and just snatched her she would not have had two cell phones in her hand when that happened yeah you're right very very clear to me that she left like like, ready with somebody, like somebody made her go. So the other thing that's interesting to me is when you're talking about three weeks, Nancy, somebody had to feed her, her captors, if they were captors,

had to watch her around the clock to make sure she did not escape. They, you know, missed work potentially. So around the clock clock somebody's been with this child nobody ransomed her so that wasn't their motive they didn't kill her so that wasn't their motive so a lot of you know evidence to me well Cheryl McCollum listen to this Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute. Cheryl, we contacted the parents to get them to come on. And usually parents, relatives, they cannot wait to broadcast their missing child to try to get all the help they can. The stepdad didn't want to do it.

Gee, I wonder why, Cheryl. Why didn't you want to come on and be Q&A'd with me answer a few questions absolutely i can't imagine anybody that didn't want to go wait alan dude what was it what was it that the the stepdad said something like he needed to rest yes he he said that they were tired they'd done a local interview and he said that they were tired from that and may yeah because nobody was asking him any hard questions well that's why he got tired there is a difference between being interviewed by a local Tennessee reporter no disregard to them and being grilled by prosecutor Nancy Grace Cheryl what were you saying amen the other thing that, you know, was key to me is the father, he says,

you can't sleep, you can't eat. But he said, we haven't been able to do that since she left. He didn't say she was kidnapped. He didn't say, you know, this is a crime. He says she left. As a matter of fact, speaking of the stepfather randall pruitt now charged with rape and again as jackie howard in the studio keeps pointing out to me waving her arms thrashing about wildly has not said the name of the victim it's just in connection with her disappearance but now take a listen to what uh rape suspect the stepdad, Randall Pruitt, says at the sheriff's conference. We just moved up from Lawrenceville, Georgia. Did you hear from your regional?

Yes. They said that she's the oldest of four. Can you just talk about the rest of your family and how they're doing in light of everything and how they're holding on? Well, they're very heartbroken. They miss her. They don't understand. Of course, none of us understand.

It's like having your soul ripped out of your body. You can't think, you can't eat, you can't sleep, you can't rest. Life has just ceased for us since the day she left. She was my sunshine. And we love her dearly and we want her home. And then someday she left. She was my sunshine. Can you say to her? That we love her dearly and we want her home. I'd be uncomfortable for sure. Outside of horse riding, is there anything else that she was interested in?

Music. Curbs. Anything fuzzy and cute. Pegs. She was a farm girl? Yes. At heart until she actually got in here. Lizards.

I mean, she never met a strange animal. She didn't get a raccoon she raised last year from a baby. She was all fun. All fun. See you in a second. It's all fine. The stepdad, now charged with rape, says it's like having your soul ripped out of your body. He can't think. Well, Darrell Cohen, you're the Atlanta criminal defense lawyer. You've represented murderers, rapists, drug lords.

He'll have plenty of time to clear his head behind bars because he's sitting there with no bond. Nancy, the more answers we get, the more questions I have. For instance, where did she spend her summers? Did she go to camp? Did she spend the time with someone that she's now with when they moved? How did she hide herself and become secretive after this took place? Now, did I ask you what it matters where she went to camp two summers ago? I mean, I know what you're doing, Daryl. You're playing.

Look at this. Not that. Look here. Not over there. No, not at all, Nancy. No. What I'm saying to you is I'm trying to figure out where she found the people to stay with in Wisconsin. So how did she know them?

She didn't just get on a bus. Can I ask you, what does that have to do with the stepfather being charged with rape, if anything? It has a great deal to do with her state of mind and how credible she is with whatever statement she's going to give. Look, her stepfather, in my view, has done absolutely everything wrong if he's innocent. You certainly don't say the things that he's said. You don't do the things that he's done. And you're never too tired to be interviewed. Hi, Nancy Grace here. Have you ever Googled yourself, your neighbors, somebody at work, a crush? 57% of Americans admit to keeping an eye on their own online reputation.

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Go to truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy right away to start searching. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Truthfinder.com forward slash Nancy. Find the truth. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What can you tell us about who Savannah has been with while she's been in Wisconsin? I can't release that information right now. I know that the FBI has her in custody right now.

When you get her back to Tennessee this afternoon, will she be reunited with her mother? can't release that information right now. I know that the FBI has her in custody right now. When you get her back to Tennessee this afternoon, will she be reunited with her mother? At this point, we have no reason to believe that she would not be reunited with her mom. And what can you tell us now about her adopted father? At this point, he was arrested yesterday after an early afternoon for charge of rape, and he's being held with no bond. And that part of the investigation is still ongoing. At the Sheriff's News Conference last night, it was unclear the connection between the father's arrest and Savannah's disappearance. Can you tell us anything more today about that?

I can't release the details on that yet just because of the criminal investigation. But that information will come out. Yeah, we'll be able to release quite a bit more information probably in the near future once we get everything kind of buttoned up on the investigation. You are hearing Detective Filia, who's on his way on a jet plane right now to bring Savannah Lee Pruitt home. To Robin Walensky, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life, the CSI behind the Casey Anthony trial on Amazon. Robin, I'm really surprised that they are letting her go back to her mother because in many of these cases, and I'll go to Daryl and Cheryl on this,

in many of these cases, when there has been an molestation of the child in the home by a male living in the home, they won't let the child go back because they deem that the mom has allowed this environment to continue. Yeah, you're dead on on that, that perhaps she was the enabler, looked the other way. Who knows what was going on in the house? But I will say this to you, Nancy. Let's not this fact be lost. This is a 14-year-old girl. She is not a world traveler. She is not a worldly person.

Look at the miles, the trauma of God knows what happened to her on a physical and emotional level. But then you take someone, you move them from Georgia to Tennessee. Okay, there's 100 miles. Then she's possibly in Kentucky where the phone is pinging. That's another 150 miles. And then, oh, what next? You're in Wisconsin, almost 600 miles away. Look at all these places, how traumatic that would be.

I'm picturing myself at 14 years old. Picture yourself at 14 years old under normal conditions, being in all these states, and then with what her mental and physical state was. I can only imagine the trauma that this 14-year-old has been through. You know, right now, Dr. Bethany Marshall, L.A. psychoanalyst, I'm taking a look at Randall Pruitt, and he looks like he's at a, you know, the podium in a church where the pastor gets behind it that he looks like he's there with like a photo of the river jordan behind him with his eyes closed like he's about to start crying i mean really everything he says is going to be brought in at trial and

we're assuming we know who he's accused of raping but dr bethany i mean my soul is ripped out of my body i can't think i can't eat i bet he couldn't well it all sounds so dramatic like he's playing a role and even the mother veers back and forth between the past tense and the present we missed her where is she we missed having her around as if she was once there and is no longer on this earth. So there's something very chaotic about the way the couple is communicating. And like I said, trite, rehearsed, and stereotyped, like they've come up with like a movie script rather than parents connected to the reality that their child is missing. And you know, another thing about this, I keep going back to the fact that the family

moved recently, that they were very cut off from society. I keep wondering about what that meant. And you were making the comment about why is 14-year-old Savannah allowed to go back home to their mother? Because one of the things we know about families where there's a predator or child molester in their midst, the family always protects the child molester. I had a friend who worked in wraparound services here in LA. They would, court mandated, remove child molester. I had a friend who worked in wraparound services here in LA. They would, court mandated, remove the molester from the family. When she came to visit the family, they would pretend like the molester had moved out. The minute she would leave, they would move the molester right in through the back door. So families protect the molester. They always do.

So this is a part of the story I'm really curious about as it unfolds. Like, why is she back home with her mom? Mom has not protected her. And what about the other three children? What happened to them? Why are they still in the home? Why haven't they been removed? Guys, I want to go to Cheryl McCollum, director of the Cold Case Research Institute. Cheryl, what about it? We also know that the sheriff said, quote, there's the possibility of multiple charges with multiple people being involved. That's all we can say at this time. What other potential charges could there possibly be? For those of you just joining us, 14 year old Savannah Lee Pruitt has been found far, far away from home, being hidden in Wisconsin, not with family members. We are told Detective Phil, you're on the way on a plane

right now to bring her home. Her stepfather now behind bars, no bond on rape. What other possible people? What other possible charges? Sheryl McCollum is the people in the house and anything. Like I said earlier,

you had to watch her 24 hours a day for three weeks to make sure she didn't escape. So you've got kidnapping. They missed work. They drove her across four states. Somebody had that child over all that period of time. What I would like for law enforcement to do is talk to her teachers in Georgia. These are mandated reporters.

Those teachers know when a child changes their personality. If she made an outcry of some sort, Nancy, you and I both know perpetrators that molest children. If they think D-Fax is about to get involved in Georgia, we go to Kentucky. We go to Tennessee. If Tennessee is closing in on us and she's going to make another outcry, perhaps she's pregnant, then we go to Wisconsin. We hide her. And let me say something else, Nancy, and you and I both know this, and it is not popular when I say it, but a stepfather is not her father, period. Watch the way he speaks when he says things like, well, it's rough when somebody takes yours. She ain't yours, sir.

She's not your daughter. So when he changes any language, that should be a clue. Guys, I want to pause very quickly and thank our partner who is making our investigation into the recovery of 14-year-old Savannah Lee Pruitt possible. It's Blink. Blink cameras. You know, this weekend with super bowl coming up there's two very different kind of instant replays going on instant replays during the super bowl and that instant replay you just got on your smartphone of someone breaking in your home blink cameras the

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BlinkProtect.com slash defense. That's BlinkProtect.com slash defense. Thank you, Blink. She has never misbehaved with a mad kid ever in her life, and this is just really way out left field for her. These parents aren't giving up. Absolutely not have we lost hope, and will we lose hope? No. Please come home. We do miss you terribly. Mm-hmm.

That's WVLT, CBS Knoxville, and you were hearing reporter Robert Grant speaking with the mom and the stepdad, little Savannah Lee Pruitt, that stepdad Randall Pruitt, now behind bars on rape, being held with no bond. This is what we know. The adoptive dad of little Savannah is behind bars. She's been found in Wisconsin. He was arrested, charged with rape. Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said the missing teen was found, but that the rape charge does not necessarily have anything to do, not directly correlated,

with the girl's disappearance. Now, I don't know what that means. The sheriff says, quote, we don't believe at this time he has connection to her being missing. Hmm. How do you decipher that to Robin Walensky? I think that the police are looking at the tentacles of the stepfather. Who does he know? What went down in Georgia before they suddenly left and moved to Madisonville, Tennessee, Nancy? I think that they're still investigating him, who he knows, what the associates are, what is the mother's involvement in this? Was there enabling? Was she looking the other way? That's why they're not connecting all the dots and telling the public what they think is the connection.

Dr. Bethany Marshall, L.A. psychoanalyst, weigh in. Well, you know, the investigator says multiple people, multiple charges. Sure, it could be the person who helped her escape. It could be, as one of the guests said, the tentacles of the father's involvement in the community and how he may have co-opted other people into his crimes. But it could also mean the other children in the community and how he may have co-opted other people into his crimes, but it could also mean the other children in the household. So intrafamilial molesters, men who molest within their own families, are the most prolific of all molesters. It's multiple offenses, multiple times

against the same victim. It's not somebody who snatches a child off a lawn, molests them once, and kills them. This is repeat offending. So when he says multiple people, multiple charges, you don't have to have a vast conspiracy in the community to bring these kinds of charges. You can have one guy running loose in his own household, and there are a lot of charges. And I'm wondering if that's also what the investigator was referring to. Vincent Hill, PI PI weigh in Nancy. You could also have the failure to report on behalf of the mother if she knew what was going on inside

that home which I suspect she did and she did not come forward. Then she's liable as well, so that could be the other charges of these multiple people to Daryl Cohen. This guy is sitting behind bars. What's his lawyer telling him? You're the defense attorney. As a lawyer, I would tell him KYD BMS, which is keep your damn big mouth shut. I have, again, so many questions.

How did they know that he raped her? Did she leave on her own? Was she taken? Did she have a series of people that she stayed with? Was she kidnapped? These are all things that I need to know before i can rush to judgment but if i were his lawyer you can rush to judgment absolutely rushed johnny cochran would be so proud of you right now throwing that up cheryl mccollum uh did you hear daryl cohen just

say let's not rush to judgment well we've had three weeks I don't think that's three weeks if you live oh come on you've had three weeks you've had three with three weeks of evidence was not ransom she was not killed she had two cell phones of her at 11 o'clock at night on a Sunday it stopped pinging 140 miles away from where she left she She's been fed. She's had shelter for three weeks. A 14-year-old girl didn't pull that off by herself. Not possible.

So where are you going with this, Cheryl? That multiple people were involved to get her that far. She didn't coordinate that. She didn't get these people to say, hey, come to my house at 11 o'clock at night and I'll stage a crime scene and then drive me to Wisconsin and feed me and shelter me and don't let anybody see us when we stop for gasoline and we stop for food the 700 miles you're going to take me. And then only when my stepfather's arrested are you going to quote find me. 14-year-old girl didn't pull that off. But if you listen again to the stepfather, when he says things like, I can't think, I can't sleep, I can't rest.

You know where you do all those things? In the bed. So, Cheryl, you're saying this is a conspiracy with a number of people that took her after her stepfather raped her? I think you're dreaming. No, it's not a conspiracy. That's my point. She did not pull this off. She was taken, but she didn't do it. Robin Walensky, it's my understanding that she was found because of a tip, the one we've been broadcasting every day. That is correct. Someone either saw her picture on TV, on the Crime Online website, heard this on the news nationally,

knew it was her, and called the FBI hotline. You know, I'm wondering to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst joining us, about her reentry into her home with her mother. Now, we're assuming a lot, okay? We're assuming the rape charge of the stepfather, Randall Pruitt. We're assuming that she, Savannah Lee Pruitt, the little girl, is the victim, okay? Now, they've said very clearly that the rape charge is not correlated to her disappearance i don't know how else to interpret this but i know the dad the stepdad's behind bars on rape and she's about to get on a plane with our friend detective

philia who's going to bring her home bethany what will happen when she comes back in the home well savannah needs a lot of support. This idea that the rape charge is not connected to her disappearance, how could it not be connected to her? Wait a minute. What about this? What about this? Cheryl, what about this? He's not charged with kidnapping her, but the rape charge could have been the catalyst for her leaving the home absolutely Nancy investigators have interviewed her siblings they've interviewed neighbors they've interviewed her friends clearly evidence about the stepfather has come

to the surface there's that without discussion I mean that's a fact because he's been arrested we now know it's for a sexual assault. So again, was she sent to Wisconsin because she's pregnant? Did she, you know, make an outcry to somebody? I'm telling you, for everything to be put into place, for her to get 700 miles away and be kept for three weeks virtually undetected is an extraordinary thing to happen instantly when somebody inside this home was also staging the scene. Dr. Bethany, what were you saying? What I was saying, if the rape charge is not connected to her disappearance, if the father's

a predator, anything could have happened. She could have witnessed him raping the mother in a domestic violence situation. She could have witnessed him raping one of her friends. We can't just assume it's sort of linear in the way that we're thinking. You know, he's up on rape charges. She was secreted away from the house with a lot of help. She's a clever young woman. Obviously, she got support from the community in extricating herself from a very dysfunctional home. Something bad happened in that home. And my clinical experience tells me that what we think happened and what really happened may not be, there may not be a one-to-one correspondence. It could be worse than we think. She could have witnessed him raping one of the siblings, but she definitely needed to get away from a toxic environment, and I think

she deserves a lot of congratulations for getting the support and getting away from this household. I mean, she obviously is quite resourceful. We are just now getting breaking news out of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. The authorities have confirmed that Randall Lee Pruitt, 41 years old, yes, is charged in connection to the case of the missing girl, but the charge was not directly correlated with the 14-year-old daughter's disappearance. We're learning Pruitt was arrested after explicit photos and videos were found on the teen's cell phone. Now, what does that mean who is the victim why is it on her cell phone how did they get it did they get her cell phone or did they get it

from their records request of all the cell phone and media digital media data is that where they saw it who is in it what is it all about we don't know yet but this is unfolding we are learning repeat we are learning repeat that the circumstances of the arrest of the adoptive father the stepdad regarded explicit photos videos found on the teen's cell phone. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.