Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Will $100,000 reward buy Tampa Serial killer's name? Mom killer complains about 10 year prison sentence; new charges in Penn State hazing

Episode Date: November 17, 2017

Tampa police hope a $100,000 reward will convince anyone who recognizes a suspect in that Florida city's series of street shooting to come forward with the serial killer's name. Nancy Grace looks at the latest with WFLA reporter Meredyth Censullo, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Bober, death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan, and co-host Alan Duke. Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who's serving 10 years in prison for murdering her mother, tells Dr. Phil she thinks the sentence is too heavy. Reporter John Lemley joins Nancy to talk about the bizarre story. Also, newly recovered video from inside a Penn State frat house show a pledge was given 18 drinks 82 minutes before his death. Grace and friends look at the latest. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. We will hunt this son of a bitch down until we find him. The three victims gunned down less than half a mile apart. Tampa's mayor doing what he can to reassure the public saying that they've added a thousand streetlights to the Seminole Heights neighborhood and that they won't stop until that killer is caught. Nobody comes into our house and does this. Not now, not ever. Authorities pouring over, raining surveillance video for clues, looking at this person of interest walking alone, wearing a hood on the night of the first killing. I need that Seminole Heights community to stand up and I need

them to point out who that man is. You guys go hunt him down and bring his head to me. $100,000 offered as reward for information on the Tampa serial killer. The Tampa community lulled into a sense of safety and complacency when the serial killer strikes again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories, and we want to put a stop to the Tampa serial killer. He has now claimed the lives of four innocent people. Why? Joining me from WFLA, Meredith Censulo on the scene. Dr. Daniel Bober, forensic psychiatrist joining us and also death investigator, forensics expert, professor of

forensics at Jacksonville State University, Joseph Scott Morgan. First straight out to Meredith Censulo with WFLA on the scene. Meredith, what's the latest? Well, Tampa police have now officially declared the person seen in that first surveillance video. They now say that he is a suspect and they also believe that he is the person involved in the fourth murder that occurred this week. That's the murder of Ron McFelton. So right now, Tampa police believe the person on the videotape is a suspect in the murder of Benjamin Mitchell and very likely a suspect, at the very least, a person of interest in the murder of Ronald Felton this week. They are not saying that that person is a suspect in murders two and three because they don't have actual suspect description in those cases. But again, they are treating all four of those cases as related. Meredith Censulo

with WFLA joining us on the scene. Meredith, let's talk about this new video that has been released. What do you see and what can we learn? The new video is more surveillance camera video, similar to what we saw after the first murder. So these are new images captured on surveillance video of a person walking down a street in the moments before Ronald Felton was killed. So that's what was released by the Tampa police most recently. And because of that, they believe that that person is the person of interest in the fourth murder. And they are also tying that person back to the first murder. The one thing that they really want people to pay attention to, the interesting gait that this person has. They believe that the way that this man walks, they describe it as a very specific walk, a stance, I guess you could say. And they think

that that is a distinguishing feature of the person that may stick out to someone. Also, you'll remember from the first surveillance video, they pointed out an interesting mannerism that the man had where he was fiddling and flipping his phone around. Those are just those personality traits that they feel like somebody would notice those things. They would notice the way that he handles the phone. They would notice the way that he carries himself, the way that he walks. And they are hoping that those two things help identify the person. Because as you know, the suspect description is incredibly vague. It's a tall, thin, light-skinned black man, last seen wearing all black clothing and a black baseball cap. That could describe a lot of people. So they are hoping that the additional description of those mannerisms will help trigger

someone's knowledge about this person. They're also pointing out that they want people to keep in mind the times of day that these murders were committed. The most recent one happened at 4.51 in the morning. And so they say, you know, is there somebody that was supposed to be home between 4.30 and 5 a.m. and they weren't. Little things like that, the mannerisms, the time of day could provide very important clues to solving this string of murders. With me there in Florida is Meredith Censulo with WFLA to Joseph Scott Morgan, death investigator. That sounds like, let me just be blunt, BS. Okay, my BSO meter is really off the chart right now. So if you think all four murders, random murders,

this guy's picking people off like a sniper in Tampa, are related and they're saying he's a suspect in one of the cases, but not two and three. That just doesn't make sense if they're saying that all four are connected. Why are they saying that, Joe Scott? Maybe on those other two cases, they don't have definitive connection to them as far as something like ballistics, which to this point, to my knowledge at least, they haven't given us definitive proof.

That's the only thing I can think. Unless they're kind of vesting their cards at this point in time and not wanting to release any more information relative to this. I do know this, the surveillance video that I've seen, which is from multiple points of view at different times, certainly appears that this person who they believe is connected has the same gait and is prowling through this particular same area. And the MO fits in all of these cases. He's selecting these people, apparently connected to the bus line. He's approaching them with stealth and gunning them down and then exfilling from the area as quickly as he possibly can, Nancy.

Joe Scott Morgan, death investigator, I hear what you're saying. But they said the same thing in the Missy Beavers case. They're in Midlothian, Texas. Oh, we got the person. They're this tall. They're this. They weigh this much. And they've got a peculiar gait. That and $4 will buy me a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Okay? So the gait, shmate. I'm happy they noticed it. I noticed it, too. But I don't know that's going to help me, Joseph Scott Morgan. I don't know that it's necessarily going to help in a specific identification, but it has the ability to narrow things down to the point where we can exclude all others. And this is a process that the investigators have to go through methodically.

So they're going to be turning over every piece of evidence. And when I say turning over, what I mean is look under every possible rock that they can. And this is merely a starting place in this case, Nancy. And there are multiple points of start here, if you will, where everything from ballistic evidence to the gate, time of day. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I'm just remembering something, Joe Scott Morgan. I prosecuted a guy believed to be a serial killer in the murder of a Jane Doe. It was very hard prosecuting him. He turned out to be a chef and he had a limp. And I later modeled a character in my book, 11th Victim, totally him i changed him a lot but he's a chef with a limp

okay and that limp was important now what you're saying i said gauge mate i retract that i ask that it be struck from the record because you can at trial let me go to dr daniel bober forensic psychiatrist at trial you can absolutely make somebody walk in front of a jury. And I'll tell you how I know that, Dr. Bober. One of my very first jury trials, not the very first, which was a shoplifting, which I desperately eked out an attempted shoplifting conviction, was a bank robbery. And I was so happy, Dr. Bober, because I thought, wow, the feds usually take bank robberies you know because of the fdic well i know why they didn't want it it was very

difficult to prove well in the end they didn't even have surveillance video they were steals dr bober and the guy was wearing a fake mustache fake beard fake wig fake outfit which he ripped off in the alley uh hat everything sunglasses you could see nothing and um this is what i had he walked like a duck he was slew footed his one foot was uh 9 30 and the other foot was three o'clock with every step well let me tell you something dr bober when he got up in front of that jury to walk out of the courtroom every there were 24 eyeballs hanging over the jury rail watching him walk and sure enough quack quack he walked like a duck so i don't know how i managed to forget that dr bober but uh gait can matter and it can be demonstrated in front of a jury all right The Constitution protects you from having to speak. But the law

can force you to give a blood sample, a DNA sample, a buccal swab, a voice test, a lineup, a handwriting analysis, and a gait analysis. So Dr. Daniel Bober, aside from my bank robber, who P.S. was convicted walking like a duck. What is going through this guy's mind right now, Dr. Bober? He's outsmarting me, all of us on the panel today here on SiriusXM 132. He's outsmarting the cops.

Everybody, what's going through his head, Dr. Bober? Well, Nancy, no one would consider you a quack for considering a gait as an identity. But it's probably not a science uh any more valid than say handwriting analysis which is probably weaker of the forensic sciences but i think in this particular case the police either don't have much more than that or they're just keeping their cards very close to their vest because besides the bus line uh there doesn't

seem to be much to connect these victims together and it doesn't seem like they have much where they're just trying to protect the integrity of the investigation okay number one that's not what i asked you but i'm used to men trying to dodge questions so i'm going to ask you again i do think they've got more they think the person lives or free lives in or frequents the area i think when it's all said and done we're going to have ballistic matches although i'm curious that they don't have a match on victims uh two and three so if they're saying yeah this is a suspect in four and it's the same suspect what is he using different ammo is that it does that mean he's got access to more than one gun but dr bober my question to you you're the shrink okay joe scott mor Morgan is a death investigator okay Meredith Cicillo is a reporter I'm a trial

lawyer you're the psychiatrist and let me remind everybody a psychiatrist is somebody that went and got their medical degree I mean he could perform surgery on me right now but then they go on and get an additional specialty in psychiatry so what I'm asking you again, Dr. Bober, Your Honor, please direct the witness to be responsive to the question. It's what's going through this guy's mind. It's hard to know why he's choosing these victims. Obviously, in a lot of these cases, the assailant gets some kind of sense of power and control. Maybe he feels marginalized. Maybe he has been wrong in some way and he's striking out at society. But it's very hard to know. You can only look at common,

more generic patterns. It's difficult to tell. Dr. Bober, are you telling me he hasn't claimed four lives and he's not sitting back getting a kick out of the fact we're trying to figure out who he is and planning his next victim and knowing inside all puffed up, I've got control over all these people I can kill whenever I want to and they're not going to catch me. Look at me outsmarting all of them. Do I have to Q&A with myself, Dr. Bober? Nancy, I actually agree with you. I think that he does receive a lot of sick power and gratification from it and he probably

is watching the news media and maybe even listening to your show, looking for some kind of, you know, pleasure from it. OK, if you are listening, you're going to get caught. And when you do, you're going to get the death penalty. And in Florida, they don't play. They don't play. I want to go back to our reporter joining us on the scene, Meredith Censulo with WFLA. Meredith, police in Tampa are begging for more help from the public. And they're asking for

simple things like turning on your lights from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Why? Why do they want that, Meredith Censulo? Yeah, that's right. That's something that they've been telling the community since day one. They're really reiterating that now since we have this fourth murder. And one thing that I think could be interesting is they are relying heavily on surveillance video. A lot of people in this neighborhood have home surveillance cameras. And I wonder if having the lights on outside, that's going to help with the quality of capturing these images could be very useful. Also, perhaps this person, we know that he likes to commit these crimes at night. Having as much light as possible could be a great deterrent to stop these.

Although I will point out that the fourth murder occurred in the middle of a street. It's a well-lit street. It's a major thoroughfare. It parallels one of our major interstates that cuts right through Tampa. So that fourth murder was in a location that was well-lit. However, to get to that location, this person had to walk down very dark streets. So lighting up the streets could play a major role in either deterring this person, or if he does strike again, maybe we get better quality images. Both of the surveillance videos that we have, unfortunately, are very low quality. Some of them were shot from quite a distance away. And as you know, if you are trying to zoom in to get a better image from those cameras,

you're still going to have a very poor quality. So any images that we can gather that are going to continue to hone in on that description are going to be helpful. With me on the scene, Meredith Censulo from WFLA. So Meredith, let me ask you another question. What other strategies are being taken by police and trying to catch this guy on surveillance, which you and I talked about immediately following the fourth shooting in the hours.

In fact, you were still on the scene, Meredith, because I am saying everyone should get their surveillance video, home, business, you name it, to see if they can catch where this guy is running to to try to get a directional on where he lives. But what other strategies are police taking Meredith and CeeLo? Well, they have increased the reward. It is now over $90,000. Previously, it stood around $40,000. So they've added on another $50,000, hoping that that will encourage anyone with information to come forward that may lead to an arrest in this case.

So they feel that let's try to incentivize this. They, by Tampa Police, FBI, ATF, they truly believe that this is someone who lives in this community. Somebody must know something. That's their belief. And I believe that too. This is a small neighborhood within the Tampa Bay area. They believe that this person is well-known and they're hoping, okay, maybe if we increase this reward, we're just over $90,000 now, maybe that will make a difference. We also have companies donating space on electronic message boards to keep sharing that information, sharing the tip line number, the anonymous tip number that people can reach out to them. And that's the other thing they're reiterating. You don't have to tell us who you are.

Call in with your tips. After the fourth murder of Ronald Felton, that day, 450 new tips came in. So these incentives, continuing to share the story, it is providing leads. But unfortunately, it has not solved this case just yet. Can you imagine the fear of knowing that when you walk outside in the Tampa area, you're taking your life in your own hands? I remember distinctly going to D.C. on a daily basis. I would get off work at Court TV and fly to D.C. every day to do the Larry King show. And I did that for months. Do the show, spend the night in DC, get up at 430 the next

morning and take a flight back to New York to do court TV. And it was in the middle of the DC sniper tragedy. And I remember getting off the plane and going out to Helicab and just standing there out in the open thinking, is it going to be me? And that's what, it wasn't just me. It was everybody in D.C. felt the same way. That's what's happening in Tampa right now. I want you to take a listen. Let's go straight to the police presser. Let's go, Jackie.

If you recall, this was the video. Notice the hoodie or rain jacket. Notice the gate and how they're walking. The phone flip and how they're nonchalantly just walking. Appears to be looking at his phone. It appears to be a light-colored jacket. I think that's very misleading. You see it here? It now looks a little bit of a a light color jacket. I think that's very misleading. You see it here.

It now looks a little bit of a darker color jacket. Same individual. We originally called him someone we wanted to talk to. It went to a person of interest. Today we're going to call the same individual a suspect, and you're going to see why in just a moment. Yesterday morning, November 14thth moments before the homicide same gate same walk maybe not the same jacket definitely a hoodie. I repeat we are now calling this person a

suspect and we need to know who this person is. We need someone who is thoughtful, cares, and has the heart and the fortitude and the bravery to step forward and tell us who this person is and give us the identity. I don't need speculation. We don't need profiles. We need names. It's pretty simple. All you have to do is call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS. That police presser out of Tampa, Florida, I've got to thank our partners who are making our program and our search for the Tampa serial killer possible today.

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On your cell, call pound 250 and say the keyword grace. Call pound 250, keyword grace. Remember, it's simple to get started. Call pound 250, keyword grace. That's pound 250 and say grace. A grown daughter, now 24 years old, murders her mother. But now she says, I don't deserve this much jail time. Yeah, I killed my mom, but I don't deserve this. What? You murder your mom and you claim you don't deserve so much jail time. Well, take a listen to what this daughter, Gypsy Blanchard, age 24, reveals in a prison interview. Should you be in this prison?

To be honest, I have complicated feelings about that. I believe firmly that no matter what, murder is not okay. But at the same time, I don't believe I deserve as many years as I got. But your mother is dead. She is, yes. And she was murdered. Yes, sir. And you were involved.

I was. What would be a just punishment? I'm not really certain on that. I do believe that I do deserve to spend some time in prison for that crime. But also, I understand why it happened. And I don't believe that I'm in the right place to get the help that I need. Are you glad your mother's dead? No, sir.

I'm glad that I'm out of that situation, but I'm not happy she's dead. That's right. You heard it yourself. There she is talking about how she doesn't deserve this. It's a Missouri woman who kills her mother. But that's not the entire story. Out to John Limley, Crime Stories and Crime Online investigative reporter. John Limley, what's the rest of the story? How'd this whole thing go down?

Nancy, the sheriff in Greene County, Wisconsin, where Gypsy Rose Blanchard was found after her mom's murder, probably summed this story up perfectly when he said, things are not always as they appear. Now, here's the picture of what was in most minds who knew of Gypsy and her mother, Claudine, or Dee Dee Blanchard, a loving middle-aged mom caring for her young daughter, a little girl that suffered from a number of ailments, including muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, sleep apnea, leukemia, and severe asthma. Over the years, Gypsy and Dee Dee had become really the poster child and mother for so many individuals and organizations, people that helped with fundraisers. The two benefited from the efforts

of Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, and even the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Those around them had only known Gypsy Rose as a sweet, smiling child in a wheelchair, Her mother, Dee Dee, as the most caring and devoted of mothers. So folks watching in the courtroom or on TV as Gypsy Rose walked into a courtroom to answer charges related to her mother's death could not have been any more shocked. Here, Gypsy Rose was not only accused in taking part in her mother's murder, but she could walk. Oh, and she was not a little girl, but a woman in her early 20s. Okay, you're messing with my mind, John Limley, investigative reporter.

Okay, wait. She's supposed to be a little girl sick with leukemia and muscular dystrophy and all sorts of ailments. What do you mean? I'm looking at her. She's actually beautiful with long brunette hair,

kind of in a shag cut. She's the perfect weight. She's got on makeup. What happened? Well, you just have to look at pictures posted, say, even a few years before this, where you see a girl with a completely bald head sitting in a wheelchair, usually her mother by her side at some fundraiser or some sort. Now, what has emerged is a long story of abuse at the hand of that mother who had, who is, people have surmised, had Munchausen by proxy syndrome, in which a parent or caregiver. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're so messing with my head because i'm looking in the picture of gypsy this is the little girl that i now know is a 24 year old woman and you're right she's bald she looks very ill she's very pale she she looks like she's missing some teeth possibly

she's hugging on her mom and they're holding a little chihuahua dog. The mom is smiling. She's smiling. It looks like they're putting on a brave front. She looks like she's about 12 years old in this picture. Absolutely. Well, that's a big fat lie. So what was really happening, John Limley? Well, Dee Dee not only told others and eventually convinced even Gypsy that she had all of these illnesses, she made them reality whenever possible by finding chemicals, medications that would cause the appropriate symptoms. She even fooled a majority of the girls' doctors over time. Another of Dee Dee's deceptions concerns her age, which we've been talking about.

Gypsy Rose's mother had even convinced the girl and confused her as to her real age, also making her out to be younger than she was. As Gypsy Rose got older, her mom would still contend that she had the brain of a seven-year-old. Doctors were so convinced of Gypsy's ailments that she underwent countless procedures, even having her saliva glands removed so she would stop drooling and installing a feeding tube, something that was in place for quite some time. Putting a feeding tube into your child's body,

having them operated on. I mean, this mother, Dee Dee, her hoax even fooled doctors who put the little child on all sorts of prescriptions. They performed surgeries on the little girl, Gypsy. The mother accepted financial donations, went on charity-funded trips to places like Disney World. She had Munchausen by proxy, and she went to such great extent to get attention to herself via her child. She even let the child undergo surgery, convincing this child she was truly ill, making the child all sorts of horrible symptoms like vomiting and pain.

To Dr. Daniel Bober, a forensic psychiatrist, you have studied this case very carefully. The girl finally kills her mother. Dr. Bober, explain to me Munchausen by proxy. Nancy, Munchausen by proxy, the more formal name is factitious disorder imposed on another. And it's a condition where, as the reporter said, the caregiver, usually the mother, will make the child sick, either inducing seizures, poisoning them, causing them to bleed, in order to get attention. These are people who are essentially addicted to the attention that they get from doctors. They very often have a history of their own trauma and some sort of personality disorder, usually narcissism or perhaps borderline personality

disorder. But in this particular case, you know, the victim, and I use the victim in quotes, was both of these people. I mean, the mother obviously should not have been murdered, but there's obviously mitigating circumstances in that this child was undergoing traumatic abuse for years by her mother inducing her to be ill. And looking at a picture of the little child, well, I guess she's a little child. And she is in the hospital bed. It looks like on a ventilator with like she's just had surgery. She's I'm just sick about it. And this child went through this for all these years. To Justice Scott Morgan, death investigator, what can you tell me about the murder of this evil mother?

She's evil. She is evil. Yeah, the murder itself is rather gruesome. Very up close and personal case. Nancy, this woman was stabbed to death, found, as the police described it, in a pool of her own blood. Many times, as you well know, the cases we've discussed, stabbing events, turn out to be very, very horrific. And they are up close and personal. The individual has to be face-to-face with them or immediately adjacent to their back when this

is occurring. But if I could add one thing here, Nancy, talking, you know, Dr. Bober was given this description of Munchausen. I've worked Munchausen cases, and what makes this case so particularly bizarre for me is that most of the time when you're talking about Munchausens, the victims tend to be the children, which makes this, in my case at least, where I've worked mothers that are attempting to get sympathy from others, they'll kill their own children, bring them to the point of illness and kill them. I don't recall in my memory of all of my years of working a case that is so polar opposite of that. And I could see how this young girl would have generated quite a bit of anger. We're talking about feeding tubes being inserted. This is horribly uncomfortable, traumatic, and Lord only knows what else this

woman was doing to this child to keep her in this asymmetrical relationship that she had with her, beating her down all the time, even metaphorically convincing her that she is unhealthy, when all the while, you know, this child has got a mind, and she's saying, I'm not these things, or something inside her, I'm not these things, but I have to convince, she's always putting on an act. And so this makes this case, for me, I think that this is actually a case that people, particularly in Dr. Bogersfield, will study for years and years to come because it is certainly atypical. And when the girl, Gypsy, is asked, is she glad her mother's dead? The girl says,

no, sir. I'm glad I'm out of that situation, but I'm not happy she's dead. Now, she enlisted the help of her boyfriend, Nicholas Godijan, two days after Claudine's body was found, walked into her first court appearance on her own two feet, much to the shock of everyone who thought this was a wheelchair-bound little girl suffering from leukemia and muscular dystrophy. Now, here's the deal. They lived in a home built by Habitat Humanity. Dee Dee Claudine, full-time caretaker for Gypsy, claiming all these chromosomal defects, epilepsy, sleep apnea, leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, even filling doctors. But according to the little girl's attorney, he says the mom even barred Gypsy from attending school after kindergarten. Her mother would not allow her to spend any time

with any other human being. And when they went to the doctor, the mom did all the talking. You know, when I take the children to the doctor, they ask me a few things, but then they speak to the children and ask the children questions as they should. And I just sit there and listen. I want you to hear one more time this statement from what I call the little girl. She's now a grown woman. Should you be in this prison? To be honest, I have complicated feelings about that. I believe firmly that no matter what, murder is not okay. But at the same time, I don't believe I deserve as many years as I got. But your mother is dead.

She is, yes. And she was murdered. Yes, sir. And you were involved. I was. What would be a just punishment? I'm not really certain on that. I do believe that I do deserve to spend some time in prison for that crime, but also I understand why

it happened, and I don't believe that I'm in the right place to get the help that I need. Are you glad your mother's dead? No, sir. I'm glad that I'm out of that situation, but I'm not happy she's dead. There you were hearing this little girl. I keep calling her that, but she's now 24 years old. You know what?

I've got to say, Dr. Daniel Bober, right or wrong, I understand what the girl felt. I mean, she meets this guy on Christian Dating website. They start talking. He discovers she's well. She starts outlining what has been done to her over so many years. I mean, I don't, to me, it's merely justifiable homicide. It's almost an act of self-defense, Dr. Bober.

I mean, if I were sitting on a jury and I knew what this mother had done to this child, I'd have a hard time convicting her, Dr. Bober. Nancy, I agree with you. And it's interesting that only about 50% of these cases actually present to psychiatrists. Most of the people that see them are the pediatrician. And there's a lot of telltale signs. For example, the parent not wanting to leave the child alone with the doctor. And there are cases where the pediatrician will actually work with police or hospital security to covertly film the interactions

between the parent and the child to try to get some clues as to what's going on. But it does require a very astute clinician to figure it out. And very often these cases slip through the cracks. So let me go back to you, John Limley stories and crime online.com investigative reporter she got 10 years right and what was this was it on murder was it on uh was it on second degree second degree murder i should probably be up for parole and probably seven years. I'll tell you what, this whole story is a tragedy. And when you put it to a judge, it reminds me of Solomon who said, I'll just split the baby, and each one of you can have half the baby. So nobody would be happy.

That's the story of King Solomon, and just sometimes there is no good answer. That's what I had to learn in the courtroom. There's never a real winner at the end of the day, even if you win your case and you send the bad guy to jail. Everybody leaves with a broken heart. We're on the case of Gypsy. You know what? We are heading straight into the holidays, and that makes me realize how much I have to be thankful for. But you know what? I'm not leaving Fat Boy, my little mutt, and Cinema Girl, my cat, out of the fun. I have the Link AKC Smartc smart collar and it's called this year's must have gift it's backed by the american kennel club the link akc collar is a gps locator a fitness

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an athlete straight a student his parents finally get him to college he goes to this fraternity party and he ends up comatose I believe he had a shredded spleen and so many other injuries. And he lay there in the floor for about 12 to 18 hours while everybody actually walked around him and stepped over him. They slapped him. They beat him. They moved him around. He was vomiting. He tried to get to the door. They wouldn't let him leave. He died.

And then they had a cover-up. Alan Duke, what could possibly be worse? It's a parent's worst nightmare. You send your kid to college, you raise them, you spend money to put them in there and get them to that point. And of course, they're going to join a fraternity. I mean, you did it. I didn't do it. I was in the military, so that was different. But you put them into this situation where they're out on their own. He was 19 years old. He was a football player. He was big, strapping young man, and you would think that he could handle himself. But the peer pressure, the new information that we are now learning in this case is that over an 82-minute period, that's less than an hour and a half, they coerced this young man, I'm talking about the frat members, allegedly

coerced him to take 18 alcoholic drinks in an hour and a half. And that is what they say led to his death. You know, new charges have just been filed in the horrific death of a Penn State University student. Video from a basement security camera has just been recovered by law enforcement. Now, this is what we know. The fraternity brothers led police to believe the basement cameras were not working that night on the bid acceptance night. I mean, Ellen's right. When I first went away to school, I was 17. My parents dropped me off and left. And I did not know a single soul. I ran into another girl from my hometown, Macon, Georgia. She was in a sorority. She said,

come over to our party. I'm like, okay. And I went and I joined Alpha Delta Pi. And I made friends there. And let me tell you something. They gave me a bouquet of violets. I mean, a potted plant of violets and cupcakes and little presents and would sing to you. And that's what that was like. And I made friends. Then I transferred to Mercer University. My fiance was murdered.

And I fell out of everything, including sorority and school and everything. At the very end, when I went back to school, my senior year, I was working alone in the back of the library all by myself, processing books. And a girl came in. She came back to drop some books off. She also worked there. She said, hey, aren't you an 80 pie okay now almost three years had passed since i had anything to do with a sorority and i was getting over well not getting over i was living through keith's murder i went yeah she said me too come tonight and come out and be with us and And at first I said no, because I just

couldn't even stand to be around people. But she kept asking me. Her name was Carol. And you know what? I went and they were the nicest group of girls. So I had life both ways in college. And I'm thinking about this kid, this teen boy who who hooks up with some guys, and they seem to be nice guys, and he goes to the bed party, and he ends up dead. And his so-called brothers lie to police to say that basement camera wasn't working. But guess what? It was. It had been manually deleted on purpose just as the cops were about to seize the recording equipment. To Alan Deak, what more do we know? Well, we know this because the prosecutor, Stacey Parks Miller, announced this week that they're leveling charges against 10 more students that had not been charged, bringing the number to about two dozen who face various charges, including manslaughter, because this video was recovered by the FBI.

You delete it, but it's still on the hard drive, and these technicians with the FBI can find it. And in this case, they were able to restore it. The investigators were able to see exactly what happened. And now the new indictments announced by the prosecutor. You know, it's just overwhelming, overwhelming to me what happened and the level of deceit and deception to Dr. Daniel Bober, a forensic psychiatrist, that these guys went through as part of the cover-up to cover up what they did. Nancy, it seems like you had a pretty positive experience when you were in

a sorority, but a lot of what happens in these types of cases where there's either a sexual assault or a death is a mob mentality takes over and people are afraid to speak up because they're going to be, you know, criticized by their peers. But I completely agree with you that this is just an egregious chain of events and someone really should have stepped in and essentially stopped this kid from being poisoned in front of everyone. Joe Scott, death investigator, weigh in about what this boy, Timothy Piazza, went through. Yeah, let me kind of run this down to you, this laundry list of these things that this poor kid went through. He's got a ruptured spleen. He's got a collapsed lung. So more than likely, he's also got fractured ribs. And Nancy, these

are the types of injuries that we see. These are blunt force trauma. This is what we commonly see in motor vehicle accidents that occur at a very high speed where these types of things happen. So with ruptured spleen, what happens is you begin to bleed out into your abdominal area. It's kind of a slow death. It has to be taken care of by a surgeon. This kid wasn't getting any help. And then to make matters worse, he's suffering from what's referred to as acute alcohol toxicity, or what is commonly referred to as alcohol poisoning. When his alcohol level gets to this point, and we're thinking probably about 0.40 at that point, you're at a lethal level

where it's non-compatible with life. He's unable to even form words. It goes to a very primal thing where you're just trying to survive. And plus you've got these people beating on you to keep him away from the door so he can't escape. Dr. made a good point it's almost like he's in amongst a pack of wolves at this point in time and they're just kind of circling him they're probably laughing at him periodically you know i heard one person mentioned that they would either walk by and kick him or slap him and that's what's going on here he's probably repeated repeatedly kicked multiple times in the abdomen and the ribs. And this is a horrible, horrible way to die. I'm a parent.

I know, Nancy, you are too. And it's one of these things where your heart just absolutely breaks. Take a listen to what the prosecutor says. The Commonwealth is prepared today to announce new charges. And these charges are a direct result of new evidence in this case. For those of you that are familiar with this situation and the death of Tim Piazza we have new evidence and that evidence is if you have been following it the State College Police Department was indeed able to recover the basement video in

this case and as a result of the conduct on that video we are today announcing the filing of new charges from brothers from this fraternity these charges range range from manslaughter to hazing and also charges for the actual affirmative deliberate deletion of that video which obviously pertained to capturing criminal conduct we'd like to thank the district attorney in the State College police for their continued commitment and efforts in finding justice for our sentence on Tim's death Tim was a happy and caring human being and a wonderful son who just wanted to

join an organization to find friendships and camaraderie instead he was killed at the hands of those he was seeking friendship from. We have spent the past eight months wondering how can this happen on the campus of Penn State. The visions of him lying in the hospital bed battered and bruised and on life support looking as if he got hit by a tractor trailer make no sense. He was just trying to join an organization over the last several months we listened to defense arguments centered around victim blaming or how could the defendants have known they were putting someone

seriously seriously at risk since no one died before as if they were entitled to one free death or the catch-all argument of we don't know. They claimed we don't know what else happened other than what was seen in the upstairs video, and we don't know what happened in the basement. Guess what, guys? Now we know. We're making holiday plans without our son Tim because of your actions. If you did not commit the acts you did, we would not be here today. And we would be anxiously awaiting Tim's return home for Thanksgiving break on Friday.

The Penn State hazing death of this young guy, Timothy Piazza. It's not over yet. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.