The activities help children learn the power of the word "No" and how not to be fooled by some common methods predators use to lure and abduct children. You
You can always have your child draw or complete an activity on a separate sheet of paper.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Free Download: Child safety coloring and activity book (pdf)
This is an excellent, free book from the Children's Institute International located in Los Angeles, California that is designed to teach children the difference between strangers, unsafe adults and safe adults.
The activities help children learn the power of the word "No" and how not to be fooled by some common methods predators use to lure and abduct children. You
can download and print the book, but if you don't have any printer ink available, you can still benefit from the free download. Simply read the book with your child and discuss the teachings.
You can always have your child draw or complete an activity on a separate sheet of paper.
The activities help children learn the power of the word "No" and how not to be fooled by some common methods predators use to lure and abduct children. You
You can always have your child draw or complete an activity on a separate sheet of paper.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Transcript: Baby Elaina case update from Nancy Grace
 |
| Baby Elaina missing since June 2, 2013 |
When T.J. Steinfurth arrived at King's mother's house in Toledo, Ohio, Angela Steinfurth refused to hand over the child. After arguing for nearly two hours, Steinfurth went inside to get Baby Elaina, then came out hysterically saying the child was missing.
Angela Steinfurth and Steven King have long been considered suspects in the case and both remain in jail charged with obstruction of justice. New developments say that Steven King told his mother that he gave information to authorities regarding the whereabouts of Baby Elaina's remains.
On Sept. 5, 2013, a search warrant was executed at King's mother's house and authorities retrieved a box from the garage with "immature human remains" located inside. An autopsy is currently underway and it is likely a positive identification will be made.
Here is the full transcript from Nancy Grace's Sept. 6, 2013, show that focused on the Baby Elaina case.
NANCY GRACE
The Disappearance of Baby Elaina
Aired September 6, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth is receiving national attention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This Toledo toddler remains missing, but we are learning more about the alleged injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just basically told me that the baby had a bruised eye, a little bit of dried blood around one of the nostrils and a bump on the head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video shows the room where Elaina was reportedly last seen, torn apart by authorities looking for evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve searched here I think a total of four -- four or five times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela Steinfurth sobbing in court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela appeared at the front door reporting that her child had vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door into the pool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ran into the house, directly into the bedroom where she said she was sleeping at. I didn`t see Elaina anywhere. I never got a straight answer. Her statement was she did not know where the child was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone in that house knows where that baby is at!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: When I first heard about the case of baby Elaina, I immediately thought somebody`s lying. That was at first blush. And the only people talking at that time were police and the mommy. I don`t think police are lying.
I then immediately felt a horrible ache for baby Elaina because the more I hear about the circumstances under which she was raised for her 18 short months -- were very, very disturbing, very disturbing, and now she`s gone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought you here today to discuss a major development that has occurred over the past 24 hours involving our continuing investigation on Elaina Steinfurth. As most of you know, yesterday about 3:00 o`clock, 3:16, Toledo Police Department detectives executed a search warrant at 701 Federal based on information obtained during our investigation.
As a result of that search warrant, we were able to recover immature human skeletal remains. That was turned over to the Lucas County coroner`s office. Presently, the Lucas County coroner is conducting an autopsy on those remains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video, obtained exclusively by WNWO, shows the room where Elaina was reportedly last seen, torn apart by authorities looking for evidence. And according to the home owner, it has remained untouched since the search.
A big question in the case is a gap in time when the ex-boyfriend of Angela Steinfurth, Steven King, is uncounted for. Witnesses report that Steven ran out the back door of this home immediately after Angela appeared at the front door reporting that her child had vanished.
Julie says she was with Steven that entire time and they were worried Elaina may have wandered into the back yard. That`s when he was said to have left for about 30 minutes. That is the missing time that many have questioned. But she says Steven with was another neighborhood boy searching for Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, we stopped talking about it and...
GRACE: Wait! Wa-wa-wa-wa-wait! Wa-Wait! The baby`s missing, the whole town is upside down, and you stopped talking about it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I...
GRACE: You didn`t say, Where is the baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was talking to the police officer...
GRACE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... who was getting the video surveillance off my cameras at the time.
GRACE: OK. All right. So did she ever indicate to you where`s the baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
GRACE: Did you ever ask her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Multiple times. She said she did not know. And I said, How can you not know? There`s too many people in that house, OK? The baby`s laying down. Why didn`t you check on the baby?
You know, I can understand once or twice, you know, you have a little faith in your spouse or your partner. But if that baby had injuries, why didn`t you check on your child? I never got a straight answer. She -- her statement was she did not know where the child was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela came out of the home. She told me that Elaina was missing. I darted into the home and checked the bedroom where she was supposed to be. She said, The baby`s gone, the baby is gone. And to me, she was showing no emotion. She wasn`t crying, nothing.
I wouldn`t call it a scream. I`d say a little bit louder than normal, but it wasn`t a scream or a yell.
I ran into the house, directly into the bedroom where she said she was sleeping at. I didn`t see Elaina anywhere. I turned around. I seen that the back door was wide open. So I asked where a couple of the other people who were in the home -- I`m not going to say names -- asked where they were at. She had told me they had ran out the back door, the boyfriend and a friend of his. And at that point, I jumped in my vehicle.
GRACE: There you see the mom holding the baby. Take a look. This is -- she`s kissing the baby. The baby appears well, well nourished. It looked clean. She`s on her cellphone. She`s holding the baby.
Maybe this doesn`t mean anything to you, but it means something to me. Look at her rocking the baby. She`s loving on the baby. She`s holding the baby. I don`t know if all of you can see what I`m seeing. She`s sitting alone on the front porch. She`s holding the baby.
And I am just telling you -- I`m telling you that this is a mother. I don`t care what anybody says, she loved this baby. Now, did she lose her temper and hurt the baby? I don`t know. Did somebody else in that home, her boyfriend, did they hurt the baby? Is she covering for somebody? I don`t know.
But look at that. Look at her lovingly putting the baby in the carriage. This is important. This matters. This is just before baby Elaina is abducted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The chances that baby Elaina is alive are slim to none. The mother`s story went from bad to worse. We learned a couple of days into our own investigation that the mother says that she woke up and looked over, and baby Elaina suddenly had a black eye, a bump on her head and bleeding around her nostrils.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole time that we were out here looking for Elaina, she had -- we`re asking if she knew anything, anything at all, any ideas of where she could be, and who hurt her and what happened. And she kept telling us, No, I don`t know anything. I wish I did. I don`t know anything. But really, this whole time, she knew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve contacted the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and they`ll be working over the weekend to also conduct additional examination on these remains in an attempt to determine the identity of these remains. This investigation that we have is still ongoing and it`s still active. It is an ongoing investigation and is still an active investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much that Elaina was hurt and she was taken out of the boyfriend`s house, but she don`t know where she`s at. I heard that she was dropped, but to have a broken nose and a black eye, you`re not just dropped.
I`m guessing that the way that it was bleeding that -- I mean, for it to be bleeding as much as it was, she thought it was broken. There`s no way that I would have waited. I would have opened my mouth the very first day, threatened or not. If this was my kid, oh, my mouth would have done been opened!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, how do you wake up -- it`s like those movies where you wake up and there`s a dead body beside you. That`s in the movies. That`s not real. So I find it very difficult to imagine -- and I think I can be very creative -- to imagine a scenario where a mother goes to sleep and her child is fine, and when she wakes up and the baby is lying there with a black eye, blood on its nose and a bump on its head.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told me about the baby having a black eye, a bump on the head and just a little bit of dried blood around the nostril. But I was, like, Well, what`s all that about, you know? And she said, well, when she woke up the baby was like that. I said, Well, what did you -- why didn`t you call -- you know, take her to the hospital or call the police or whatever?
She said that she told -- what she told me, that she asked Steven to check, the boyfriend to check on the baby to make sure the baby was OK medically, and the boyfriend overlooked (ph) the child and said that she`s going to be just fine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: She then says that she showed the baby to her boyfriend and said, Do you think she`s OK? And the boy said, yes, sure. What? Unless he is a pediatric ER doctor, then why would she ask him? It`s not even his baby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As Toledo police and the FBI continue following leads and Elaina`s mom remains in jail on a child endangering charge, folks in the baby girl`s East Toledo neighborhood are growing more frustrated and desperate, hoping and praying that they`ll find answers soon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up and down Federal Street, pink ribbons are now wrapped around trees, poles and cars, a solemn reminder of East Toledo`s missing baby girl, 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have it on my windshield wiper, my antenna. It`s on the van`s mirrors around the corner. It`s everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It actually came from the yellow ribbons from the support for the troops -- support for Elaina. Keep hope alive. She`s still somewhere. She`s not home yet. Bring her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: FBI divers packed up after a second day in a row of combing this portion of the Maumee River near the High Level Bridge. We`re told that the crew, with the help of a U.S. Coast Guard boat outfitted with sonar technology, found nothing.
For the past two days, this has been the spot on shore is where crews set up shop. They had a tent here and their equipment, kind of as home base as they searched the river. But after clearing out today, it appears the search of this specific location has ended. Yellow crime scene tape has been removed and TPD officers no longer stand on guard.
Carl Pagent (ph), who went to high school with Elaina`s dad, helped put together this donation jar, which he placed on the counter of the Facet (ph) mini-mart at the corner of Facet (ph) and Oak. He says money collected will go toward food and water for volunteer searchers. Plus...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we bring her home, we want to throw a welcome home party for her and help her out, getting her new clothes, new toys, stuff like that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now we are hearing stories attributed to you, all of these stories attributed to her. I didn`t hear her say any of this, but these are stories attributed to her -- that she felt threatened that if she called the police about the baby being missing or hurt, that she would be done in.
And you know, I think you can ask 80 out of 100 moms, they would take a bullet for their child. I would. But she was so afraid of taking the child to the doctor or calling 911 or contacting police -- I just don`t believe that. I do not believe it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-five-year-old Angela Steinfurth breaks down in court on Thursday, her daughter missing for more than a week. Steinfurth is charged with felony child endangering of 18-month-old Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need all of the support that I can get to bring her home.
GRACE: Where is baby Elaina?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The toddler disappeared two weeks ago when her mother says she put Elaina down for a nap. Her estranged husband says he came for a custody visit with his two daughters. At first, he says, Angela refused to hand over Elaina. When she did agree, Elaina was gone. Family members say the mother`s story just doesn`t add up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn`t know where the baby`s at or who took the baby. Personally, from what I have viewed of her, I don`t think she`s showing any emotion of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators believe the child may have been hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was known to us that the baby was injured at one point. She was aware of it and did not seek medical attention for the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Volunteers have scoured the neighborhood. The streets are lined with posters with one goal, to bring baby Elaina home. But so far, no clues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do hope the child turns up alive. Right now, it`s a mystery. We don`t know what happened to this little girl. So the mother cannot be charged, for example, with murder because no body, no case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bond for Steinfurth has been set at $250,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are just getting reports out of Toledo, a package with human remains -- I`m referring to the baby Elaina Steinfurth case -- out of Toledo, a package, a box containing human remains near the home of Steven King. Lucas County coroner just confirming as we go to air that the box does contain human remains. We are referring to baby Elaina Steinfurth.
Straight out to Matt Zarrell. Matt, what do we know at this hour? I`m just reading the wire right now.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, so WTOL is saying that police removed a box containing human remains near the home of Steven King. The coroner confirmed that the box did contain human remains. Police say they`ve executed a search at the King residence based on new information.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two things. Number one, we wanted to find a body. We wanted to find that baby, which we did. Number two, we want to bring justice for Elaina, which means that we`re going to continue to pursue our investigation and do the things we need to do to make sure the people that are responsible for this are held accountable. We`re not going to get into all this how many times we checked here, how many times we checked that.
We had a lot of deception taking place, being told to us by a variety of sources in this community. And because of that, we took the investigation where we felt we needed to take it.
The bottom line is, we found what we believe may be baby Elaina. We`re going to conduct our investigation and bring those responsible to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: I asked the captain of the police force, the Toledo PD, why they were looking at a body of water, the Maumee River. And I was told that because it was so close to the home. It has -- there have been divers in it. There have been FBI divers in it, local divers. It`s been dredged. Nothing. Nothing. Where is baby Elaina?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Captain Brad Weis, a Toledo Police Department captain. Captain, were you aware of everything Frank`s just told us?
CAPT. BRAD WEIS, TOLEDO POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Yes, everything came out during the initial investigation we were aware, and that`s why we continued to have interviews with Angela.
GRACE: Is she speaking to you from behind bars?
WEIS: We`ve had conversations, yes.
GRACE: Captain, how many people were in that home?
WEIS: Besides the adults there, I think there were two or three children. But I think three or four adults were in the house at the time.
GRACE: OK. So three or four adults, three or four children. So we`re getting around six to eight people in the home. And Captain, why did the Mommy, Angela Steinfurth, say she had to leave the home? Didn`t she say she had to leave the home to go to the store, comes back, the baby`s still napping, she doesn`t open the door, and she only goes back there when the husband comes to get the baby for visitation. And miraculously, the baby is gone.
Why does she leave to go to the store? What was it, a Family Dollar?
WEIS: Yes, according to what she says, she went to the Family Dollar to make a purchase. Anything else is part of the investigation and...
GRACE: A purchase of what? Why did she have to leave the baby to go to the Family Dollar? What did he need so badly she had to leave her baby?
WEIS: That would be part of her statement to us, and I can`t disclose that.
GRACE: Was it cigarettes? That`s what our sources are saying, cigarettes.
WEIS: Again, I can`t answer that.
GRACE: I`m going to take that as a yes.
Is that true, three inmates -- after she goes in general population apparently starts yakking, three inmates go downtown for interviews?
WEIS: Basically, we`re investigating the case and I`m not going to go into details on who we`re talking to.
GRACE: OK. Very wise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still kept hope, but at this point, you know, it`s hard to be optimistic right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you could say anything to Steven or Angela tonight, what would it be?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t even comment on that on camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is your family doing (INAUDIBLE) hold them together (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, just trying to hold it together. I mean, I don`t know how good you really can do right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If don`t mind me asking, how`s your other daughter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has no idea what`s going on. She`s been at the baby-sitter all day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be quiet. Let him open his mouth and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, let`s keep it down. Just keep it down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re being recorded (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep him away from me! I got a restraining order against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing after the other with him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s got -- he had his mouth going when we first come in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first time I said something to her, she just said, I don`t know, Mary. She`s, like, I know she was hurt. She`s, like, I don`t know where she`s at. And that was pretty much it.
And then the second time that I had asked her was when she told me that she didn`t have to answer to anybody anymore. I just don`t understand that she`s missing and she`s been hurt, and it took her 11 days to tell us that she knew that she was hurt. But where is Elaina? That`s what we want to know, is where is she at. Somebody has to know where she`s at.
GRACE: There is no evidence that has been brought to us that your daughter has abused either child in the past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s all hearsay. When I got over there, when P.J. called me, everybody is standing around and sitting on the front steps, all nonchalant like nothing happened. I ran up there and I was ready to kick Steven`s dad`s butt. I wanted to know where they were at.
That`s -- you know, you just don`t sit around and talk. Get your butt up and start looking. Everybody was just sitting on the steps. That`s a bunch of BS. That`s just BS. That`s the first time I heard that.
GRACE: I`m talking about...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they were in the house -- if you read the newspaper, I think it was the next day, stating that the boyfriend`s mother changed the diaper and gave her a bottle.
What the hell is wrong with these people? You sit around on the porch and lollygag around. Get out and look for the baby. Don`t be sitting around campfires, talking all smack and stuff. Look for the daggone baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was -- what time did you hear from police today, about 3:00 or 4:00 o`clock?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never heard from police. I heard from neighbors in the neighborhood that they were down here. I came down here and find out what`s going on, and everything ensued from there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you angry? I mean, this is so close. We were here yesterday (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irate. Angry don`t even begin to cover it. Don`t even begin to cover it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have they given you any information about whether whatever they found was there previously, was just put there or...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They ain`t said nothing. They just told me I had to come back down and meet with them in the morning. That`s pretty much all they told me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sleep tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds scoured an Ohio river bank over the weekend looking for a missing toddler. They looked through streets and even garbage cans, searching for clues to find missing 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Angela Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her mother, Angela, is in jail charged with child endangerment after her daughter disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby was injured at one point. She was aware of it and did not seek medical attention for the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not going to say she was directly responsible for anything, but my daughter was in her care at the time that this happened. And the police are handling it the way they feel they need to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The way the baby`s disappearance came to light is this. Her natural father, who was married to the mother -- they`re estranged now, why she`s with her boyfriend -- Terry Steinfurth, Jr., the bio dad, goes over to pick up Elaina Steinfurth, his 18-year-old (sic) daughter.
And he gets there and the mom won`t hand over the baby, won`t hand over, won`t hand over. They go round and round and round about it. So Steinfurth, Jr., leaves. He comes back with his own father, Steinfurth, Sr., the grandfather.
They all get into it with the mother and the group of people that were there in the home. They want the baby. So she goes in to get the baby, and then comes out and says, The baby`s gone! That doesn`t even make any sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve searched here I think a total of four -- four or five times.
He was gone for probably about a half an hour, I`d say. Steven and I, both of us went running out the back door. And I was just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door into the pool.
I told Steven to go down the alley to look to maybe she had gotten out the gate.
He didn`t go running out the back door by himself. He didn`t go running out the back door with the baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and the garage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I walked into the house and she showed me where the baby was supposed to be, I looked at her and I said, You had that baby sleeping in that pigsty? And I went out the door. That`s the way I would have worded it, too.
I walked in the front room. The front room didn`t look bad. I asked where the baby was. She said it was in the front bedroom. I looked in the bedroom door. There were clothes stacked on the floor all the way around the bed. You had to step over clothes to get -- well, you had to step on clothes to get to the bed.
And I just looked at her and I said, You had the baby sleeping in there? I said, That`s a pigsty. And that`s when we went out front and I wanted to call the police...
GRACE: What did she say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for finding my baby.
GRACE: I understand from reports that just a few days later, the mom reported to work at Taco Bell as if nothing had happened. We also are hearing reports her story is changing behind bars. Police are followed every single lead there is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought you here today to discuss a major development that occurred over the past 24 hours involving our continuing investigation of Elaina Steinfurth. As most of you know, yesterday about 3:00, 3:16, Toledo Police Department detectives executed a search warrant at 701 Federal based on information obtained during our investigation.
As a result of that search warrant, we were able to recover immature human skeletal remains. That was turned over to Lucas County coroner`s office. Presently, the Lucas County coroner is conducting an autopsy on those remains.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Right now, the mom is behind bars on child endangerment. The affidavit does not really set out specifics, but it tends to show that police believe at the least, she did not help her child when her child needed medical help.
I also find it very interesting that in face of your child being missing, gone, that her father, Mr. Schiewe, had to basically pry information out of her, as she says repeatedly, I`m not going to talk, I`m not talking, I`m done talking, I`m through talking.
Why? Why are you through talking? If you want to find your child, why are you through talking? What are you afraid of?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STEINFURTH, MOTHER OF MISSING CHILD: A nervous wreck. I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK. It`s very hard not having her around. My other daughter is going insane without her sister. They need to be together.
If I had the support, I wouldn`t feel the way I do, but not when people are pointing fingers at me when they even don`t know what`s going on. I need all the support that I can get to bring her home, anything to keep me comfortable and from losing my mind.
I don`t know how to explain them because there`s -- because they`re crazy. I have been shaking for the last three days and I just want my baby home.
She has problems, and the only way they`re going to get handled is if me and her father can do it for her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A sad ending to our search for baby Elaina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They went back to the garage that had been searched earlier at 704 (sic) Federal Street, where baby Elaina disappeared from three months ago. Police removed a box today. The Lucas County coroner, Dr. Patrick (ph), has confirmed that it did contain human remains. It`s been turned over for an autopsy.
The family received notification just as everybody else on the street did, which was kind of disgusting because they heard it on a TV station instead of from police themselves as they stood here waiting after the search warrant was executed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We searched initially, when we were looking for the missing child -- the original investigation was a missing child, so we were looking for where a child could go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three weeks in, Reese Smith (ph) with the (INAUDIBLE) said they brought their own dog in and they got some hit on the garage and called the police and told you guys, and you didn`t do anything about it. Do you recall hearing from them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don`t recall that at all. We did bring our own cadaver dogs in. However, due to the condition of the property, the dogs were not allowed to go in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I spoke in depth with a friend of Mommy`s named Frank. And we`re withholding his last name at his request. He showed me surveillance video taken from his front porch. His home, like many of our homes, has surveillance cameras all around it.
And I saw Mommy with the baby, cradling it, holding baby Elaina, kissing her, you know, making sure that he was appropriately buckled into her stroller. She seemed like any loving mother.
What, if anything, triggered? Anger? I don`t know. There was no black eye or goosebump or blood on the nostrils in that video, and that was just hours before baby Elaina goes missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be quiet. Let him open up his mouth, and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is wrong with these people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drama outside the courthouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, keep it down!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep him away from me! I got a retraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him.
It`s about the baby (INAUDIBLE) it`s not what this person said and what that person said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom Angela in court for a preliminary hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) he had his mouth going when we first come in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) everyone together in a courtroom. The emotions are running very high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole time that we were out here looking for Elaina, she had -- we`re asking if she knew anything, anything at all. She kept telling us, No, I don`t know anything. But really, this whole time, she knew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) bring the baby home. Then after the baby`s home, then you can start slamming people and talking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Angela Steinfurth has been moved from solitary to the general population at the county jail. What do I make of that?
I think she`s going to blab. I think she`ll either do it voluntarily, or people will come up and ask her questions and she will give one story after the next. She`s already changed her story, is my understanding.
I saw a YouTube video of Steinfurth, Jr, asking Angela to marry him. They seemed very much in love. I don`t know what could have gone wrong in so few short months, but it did go horribly wrong. They`re estranged. They both have new love interests, and the baby`s missing.
I know the family is devastated. While FBI dive teams were out searching the water, can you imagine your child missing and there are dive teams dredging a nearby river, sending out K9 dogs, including cadaver dogs to look for your child? I don`t think I could put one foot in front of the other.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be quiet. Let him open his mouth, and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, keep it down. You`re being recorded everything that you say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him away from me! I got a restraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him!
GRACE: There was a huge family drama. A physical fight actually broke out at the scheduled preliminary hearing...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing after the other with that one. He had his mouth going when we first come in.
GRACE: ... when the mom, Angela Steinfurth, was supposed to come into court. On either side, the emotions are running high. Schiewe, which is the mom`s father, says people are driving by his house, calling him a baby killer. He`s saying it`s not about that. We got to bring the baby home. Let`s all go look together. Everything is erupting.
And can I tell you something? That is not unusual at all. Very often, I would have to put witnesses in separate rooms, even on separate floors of the courthouse, worried about if they would break into a fight while I was trying the case. That`s what happens when a baby goes missing.
Family infighting can hurt or stymie a police investigation because the police have to spend so much time trying to interpret statements and read through all the animosity between the sides, it slows everything down. It becomes a grudge match instead of an effort with everyone coming together to find the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I want to alert you, we`re hearing out of Toledo right now -- we all joined in the search for baby Elaina. The little girl allegedly was taken a nap in a home with, like, 11 people in the home, and the bio dad comes to pick up the baby for visitation, the mom won`t hand her over, has a big fight with him. The dad goes back in -- she goes back in to get the baby and comes out and says, The baby`s gone.
Well, as we go to air tonight, we are hearing out of Toledo, from Toledo News Now, Toledo police remove a box containing human remains near the home of Steven King, which as I recall, was the boyfriend -- the boyfriend of the mom, that a box, according to the Lucas County coroner, was removed that does contain human remains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess what I`d like to say is it would really do no service to any of the participants, your readers and your viewers, the community at large, the family to speculate on any of the things that you`ve asked us because we don`t -- there are so many things that at this point in time, we don`t know.
So what we are telling you is what we do know, what we can tell you. And as it unfolds and as the investigation continues, you`ll learn more and more and more. But to speculate and to hypothesize about if, when, where, how and why, we just cannot do that. And that would just be silly and foolish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found what we believe may be baby Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A heart-wrenching ending to a wild three months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re (EXPLETIVE DELETED) before I get there because I`m coming for you today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immature human skeletal remains.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a box, in a garage behind the family`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s now sitting in a jail cell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a lot of deception taking place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the end of the day, I`m going to find my daughter, one way or the other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to bring justice for Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth.
GRACE: Now psychics have been brought into the case, and we have been told that both of them have had visions of baby Elaina crying in a field.
Now, as to psychics, you know, the reason I have always shied away from psychics in relation -- in connection to a case is because it`s inadmissible at trial. So whatever they may tell you, you can`t use it at trial. So in my mind, as a trial lawyer, if I can`t bring it into evidence, it doesn`t matter.
However, I will say that my mind is completely open and I wouldn`t rule anything out unless I could absolutely disprove it, and I cannot absolutely disprove psychics. So if I were the family, I would listen to them, too. I absolutely would.
I mean, I really think only a fool says no to any possibility of getting a lead in a case like this. So conventional wisdom be damned. If you could bring home baby Elaina with a psychic, do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that she is in jail. The mommy is in jail. She`s talking to the family. We still can`t find out what she`s telling to the family, if anything. And we know that she`s talking to police because they wanted to hold her through the weekend. They delayed letting her go until Monday. But again, we don`t know why the police are holding her over the weekend.
GRACE: Wait! Wa-wa-wa-wait! I don`t know that anybody delayed letting her -- are you referring to letting Mommy go? They`re not about to let her go. That`s not what the delay was about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
GRACE: The delay was about putting up evidence to send her to felony court to be prosecuted for felony endangering a child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would be the technical terminology that you would be familiar with. But yes, they`re not -- they`re -- they want to delay it, but no one is saying why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A preliminary hearing was scheduled, where the state puts forth at least enough evidence for a judge to bind over or send a case, direct the case to the appropriate court.
For instance, if it`s a shoplifting, the judge would hear the evidence and send that to misdemeanor court, typically, is the way it works. If it has anything to do with a juvenile, the case is going to be sent to juvenile court. If it has to do with a felony, the case will then be bound over to a superior or felony trial court. That`s what happens in a preliminary hearing.
Does it mean they are this close to getting a confession, this close to finding out the baby was sold or given away? Very rarely do you see police ask for a delay because what happens in a preliminary hearing is they basically explain why they made the arrest. What supported the arrest? Why is it a felony? Why should it go to superior court for trial?
Well, all that should be contained in the police report, but here something is brewing. Something is brewing that we don`t know about. Police wanted more. They wanted a few more days. They wanted one more weekend, 72 hours before they`re back in court before a judge. What do they hope to find? What do they hope to nail down? What piece of evidence are they looking for? We don`t know.
What disturbs me most is that a little girl, a tiny, little baby has probably been abused and murdered. But if she is dead, somebody`s going down!
END
NANCY GRACE
The Disappearance of Baby Elaina
Aired September 6, 2013 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case of missing toddler Elaina Steinfurth is receiving national attention.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This Toledo toddler remains missing, but we are learning more about the alleged injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just basically told me that the baby had a bruised eye, a little bit of dried blood around one of the nostrils and a bump on the head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video shows the room where Elaina was reportedly last seen, torn apart by authorities looking for evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve searched here I think a total of four -- four or five times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela Steinfurth sobbing in court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela appeared at the front door reporting that her child had vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door into the pool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ran into the house, directly into the bedroom where she said she was sleeping at. I didn`t see Elaina anywhere. I never got a straight answer. Her statement was she did not know where the child was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone in that house knows where that baby is at!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: When I first heard about the case of baby Elaina, I immediately thought somebody`s lying. That was at first blush. And the only people talking at that time were police and the mommy. I don`t think police are lying.
I then immediately felt a horrible ache for baby Elaina because the more I hear about the circumstances under which she was raised for her 18 short months -- were very, very disturbing, very disturbing, and now she`s gone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought you here today to discuss a major development that has occurred over the past 24 hours involving our continuing investigation on Elaina Steinfurth. As most of you know, yesterday about 3:00 o`clock, 3:16, Toledo Police Department detectives executed a search warrant at 701 Federal based on information obtained during our investigation.
As a result of that search warrant, we were able to recover immature human skeletal remains. That was turned over to the Lucas County coroner`s office. Presently, the Lucas County coroner is conducting an autopsy on those remains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video, obtained exclusively by WNWO, shows the room where Elaina was reportedly last seen, torn apart by authorities looking for evidence. And according to the home owner, it has remained untouched since the search.
A big question in the case is a gap in time when the ex-boyfriend of Angela Steinfurth, Steven King, is uncounted for. Witnesses report that Steven ran out the back door of this home immediately after Angela appeared at the front door reporting that her child had vanished.
Julie says she was with Steven that entire time and they were worried Elaina may have wandered into the back yard. That`s when he was said to have left for about 30 minutes. That is the missing time that many have questioned. But she says Steven with was another neighborhood boy searching for Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, we stopped talking about it and...
GRACE: Wait! Wa-wa-wa-wa-wait! Wa-Wait! The baby`s missing, the whole town is upside down, and you stopped talking about it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I...
GRACE: You didn`t say, Where is the baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was talking to the police officer...
GRACE: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... who was getting the video surveillance off my cameras at the time.
GRACE: OK. All right. So did she ever indicate to you where`s the baby?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
GRACE: Did you ever ask her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Multiple times. She said she did not know. And I said, How can you not know? There`s too many people in that house, OK? The baby`s laying down. Why didn`t you check on the baby?
You know, I can understand once or twice, you know, you have a little faith in your spouse or your partner. But if that baby had injuries, why didn`t you check on your child? I never got a straight answer. She -- her statement was she did not know where the child was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angela came out of the home. She told me that Elaina was missing. I darted into the home and checked the bedroom where she was supposed to be. She said, The baby`s gone, the baby is gone. And to me, she was showing no emotion. She wasn`t crying, nothing.
I wouldn`t call it a scream. I`d say a little bit louder than normal, but it wasn`t a scream or a yell.
I ran into the house, directly into the bedroom where she said she was sleeping at. I didn`t see Elaina anywhere. I turned around. I seen that the back door was wide open. So I asked where a couple of the other people who were in the home -- I`m not going to say names -- asked where they were at. She had told me they had ran out the back door, the boyfriend and a friend of his. And at that point, I jumped in my vehicle.
GRACE: There you see the mom holding the baby. Take a look. This is -- she`s kissing the baby. The baby appears well, well nourished. It looked clean. She`s on her cellphone. She`s holding the baby.
Maybe this doesn`t mean anything to you, but it means something to me. Look at her rocking the baby. She`s loving on the baby. She`s holding the baby. I don`t know if all of you can see what I`m seeing. She`s sitting alone on the front porch. She`s holding the baby.
And I am just telling you -- I`m telling you that this is a mother. I don`t care what anybody says, she loved this baby. Now, did she lose her temper and hurt the baby? I don`t know. Did somebody else in that home, her boyfriend, did they hurt the baby? Is she covering for somebody? I don`t know.
But look at that. Look at her lovingly putting the baby in the carriage. This is important. This matters. This is just before baby Elaina is abducted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The chances that baby Elaina is alive are slim to none. The mother`s story went from bad to worse. We learned a couple of days into our own investigation that the mother says that she woke up and looked over, and baby Elaina suddenly had a black eye, a bump on her head and bleeding around her nostrils.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole time that we were out here looking for Elaina, she had -- we`re asking if she knew anything, anything at all, any ideas of where she could be, and who hurt her and what happened. And she kept telling us, No, I don`t know anything. I wish I did. I don`t know anything. But really, this whole time, she knew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve contacted the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and they`ll be working over the weekend to also conduct additional examination on these remains in an attempt to determine the identity of these remains. This investigation that we have is still ongoing and it`s still active. It is an ongoing investigation and is still an active investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty much that Elaina was hurt and she was taken out of the boyfriend`s house, but she don`t know where she`s at. I heard that she was dropped, but to have a broken nose and a black eye, you`re not just dropped.
I`m guessing that the way that it was bleeding that -- I mean, for it to be bleeding as much as it was, she thought it was broken. There`s no way that I would have waited. I would have opened my mouth the very first day, threatened or not. If this was my kid, oh, my mouth would have done been opened!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, how do you wake up -- it`s like those movies where you wake up and there`s a dead body beside you. That`s in the movies. That`s not real. So I find it very difficult to imagine -- and I think I can be very creative -- to imagine a scenario where a mother goes to sleep and her child is fine, and when she wakes up and the baby is lying there with a black eye, blood on its nose and a bump on its head.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told me about the baby having a black eye, a bump on the head and just a little bit of dried blood around the nostril. But I was, like, Well, what`s all that about, you know? And she said, well, when she woke up the baby was like that. I said, Well, what did you -- why didn`t you call -- you know, take her to the hospital or call the police or whatever?
She said that she told -- what she told me, that she asked Steven to check, the boyfriend to check on the baby to make sure the baby was OK medically, and the boyfriend overlooked (ph) the child and said that she`s going to be just fine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: She then says that she showed the baby to her boyfriend and said, Do you think she`s OK? And the boy said, yes, sure. What? Unless he is a pediatric ER doctor, then why would she ask him? It`s not even his baby.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As Toledo police and the FBI continue following leads and Elaina`s mom remains in jail on a child endangering charge, folks in the baby girl`s East Toledo neighborhood are growing more frustrated and desperate, hoping and praying that they`ll find answers soon.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up and down Federal Street, pink ribbons are now wrapped around trees, poles and cars, a solemn reminder of East Toledo`s missing baby girl, 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have it on my windshield wiper, my antenna. It`s on the van`s mirrors around the corner. It`s everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It actually came from the yellow ribbons from the support for the troops -- support for Elaina. Keep hope alive. She`s still somewhere. She`s not home yet. Bring her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: FBI divers packed up after a second day in a row of combing this portion of the Maumee River near the High Level Bridge. We`re told that the crew, with the help of a U.S. Coast Guard boat outfitted with sonar technology, found nothing.
For the past two days, this has been the spot on shore is where crews set up shop. They had a tent here and their equipment, kind of as home base as they searched the river. But after clearing out today, it appears the search of this specific location has ended. Yellow crime scene tape has been removed and TPD officers no longer stand on guard.
Carl Pagent (ph), who went to high school with Elaina`s dad, helped put together this donation jar, which he placed on the counter of the Facet (ph) mini-mart at the corner of Facet (ph) and Oak. He says money collected will go toward food and water for volunteer searchers. Plus...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we bring her home, we want to throw a welcome home party for her and help her out, getting her new clothes, new toys, stuff like that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now we are hearing stories attributed to you, all of these stories attributed to her. I didn`t hear her say any of this, but these are stories attributed to her -- that she felt threatened that if she called the police about the baby being missing or hurt, that she would be done in.
And you know, I think you can ask 80 out of 100 moms, they would take a bullet for their child. I would. But she was so afraid of taking the child to the doctor or calling 911 or contacting police -- I just don`t believe that. I do not believe it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-five-year-old Angela Steinfurth breaks down in court on Thursday, her daughter missing for more than a week. Steinfurth is charged with felony child endangering of 18-month-old Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need all of the support that I can get to bring her home.
GRACE: Where is baby Elaina?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The toddler disappeared two weeks ago when her mother says she put Elaina down for a nap. Her estranged husband says he came for a custody visit with his two daughters. At first, he says, Angela refused to hand over Elaina. When she did agree, Elaina was gone. Family members say the mother`s story just doesn`t add up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn`t know where the baby`s at or who took the baby. Personally, from what I have viewed of her, I don`t think she`s showing any emotion of it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators believe the child may have been hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was known to us that the baby was injured at one point. She was aware of it and did not seek medical attention for the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Volunteers have scoured the neighborhood. The streets are lined with posters with one goal, to bring baby Elaina home. But so far, no clues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We do hope the child turns up alive. Right now, it`s a mystery. We don`t know what happened to this little girl. So the mother cannot be charged, for example, with murder because no body, no case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bond for Steinfurth has been set at $250,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are just getting reports out of Toledo, a package with human remains -- I`m referring to the baby Elaina Steinfurth case -- out of Toledo, a package, a box containing human remains near the home of Steven King. Lucas County coroner just confirming as we go to air that the box does contain human remains. We are referring to baby Elaina Steinfurth.
Straight out to Matt Zarrell. Matt, what do we know at this hour? I`m just reading the wire right now.
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Yes, so WTOL is saying that police removed a box containing human remains near the home of Steven King. The coroner confirmed that the box did contain human remains. Police say they`ve executed a search at the King residence based on new information.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two things. Number one, we wanted to find a body. We wanted to find that baby, which we did. Number two, we want to bring justice for Elaina, which means that we`re going to continue to pursue our investigation and do the things we need to do to make sure the people that are responsible for this are held accountable. We`re not going to get into all this how many times we checked here, how many times we checked that.
We had a lot of deception taking place, being told to us by a variety of sources in this community. And because of that, we took the investigation where we felt we needed to take it.
The bottom line is, we found what we believe may be baby Elaina. We`re going to conduct our investigation and bring those responsible to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: I asked the captain of the police force, the Toledo PD, why they were looking at a body of water, the Maumee River. And I was told that because it was so close to the home. It has -- there have been divers in it. There have been FBI divers in it, local divers. It`s been dredged. Nothing. Nothing. Where is baby Elaina?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: To Captain Brad Weis, a Toledo Police Department captain. Captain, were you aware of everything Frank`s just told us?
CAPT. BRAD WEIS, TOLEDO POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Yes, everything came out during the initial investigation we were aware, and that`s why we continued to have interviews with Angela.
GRACE: Is she speaking to you from behind bars?
WEIS: We`ve had conversations, yes.
GRACE: Captain, how many people were in that home?
WEIS: Besides the adults there, I think there were two or three children. But I think three or four adults were in the house at the time.
GRACE: OK. So three or four adults, three or four children. So we`re getting around six to eight people in the home. And Captain, why did the Mommy, Angela Steinfurth, say she had to leave the home? Didn`t she say she had to leave the home to go to the store, comes back, the baby`s still napping, she doesn`t open the door, and she only goes back there when the husband comes to get the baby for visitation. And miraculously, the baby is gone.
Why does she leave to go to the store? What was it, a Family Dollar?
WEIS: Yes, according to what she says, she went to the Family Dollar to make a purchase. Anything else is part of the investigation and...
GRACE: A purchase of what? Why did she have to leave the baby to go to the Family Dollar? What did he need so badly she had to leave her baby?
WEIS: That would be part of her statement to us, and I can`t disclose that.
GRACE: Was it cigarettes? That`s what our sources are saying, cigarettes.
WEIS: Again, I can`t answer that.
GRACE: I`m going to take that as a yes.
Is that true, three inmates -- after she goes in general population apparently starts yakking, three inmates go downtown for interviews?
WEIS: Basically, we`re investigating the case and I`m not going to go into details on who we`re talking to.
GRACE: OK. Very wise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still kept hope, but at this point, you know, it`s hard to be optimistic right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you could say anything to Steven or Angela tonight, what would it be?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t even comment on that on camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is your family doing (INAUDIBLE) hold them together (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, just trying to hold it together. I mean, I don`t know how good you really can do right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If don`t mind me asking, how`s your other daughter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has no idea what`s going on. She`s been at the baby-sitter all day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be quiet. Let him open his mouth and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, let`s keep it down. Just keep it down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re being recorded (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep him away from me! I got a restraining order against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing after the other with him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s got -- he had his mouth going when we first come in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first time I said something to her, she just said, I don`t know, Mary. She`s, like, I know she was hurt. She`s, like, I don`t know where she`s at. And that was pretty much it.
And then the second time that I had asked her was when she told me that she didn`t have to answer to anybody anymore. I just don`t understand that she`s missing and she`s been hurt, and it took her 11 days to tell us that she knew that she was hurt. But where is Elaina? That`s what we want to know, is where is she at. Somebody has to know where she`s at.
GRACE: There is no evidence that has been brought to us that your daughter has abused either child in the past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s all hearsay. When I got over there, when P.J. called me, everybody is standing around and sitting on the front steps, all nonchalant like nothing happened. I ran up there and I was ready to kick Steven`s dad`s butt. I wanted to know where they were at.
That`s -- you know, you just don`t sit around and talk. Get your butt up and start looking. Everybody was just sitting on the steps. That`s a bunch of BS. That`s just BS. That`s the first time I heard that.
GRACE: I`m talking about...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they were in the house -- if you read the newspaper, I think it was the next day, stating that the boyfriend`s mother changed the diaper and gave her a bottle.
What the hell is wrong with these people? You sit around on the porch and lollygag around. Get out and look for the baby. Don`t be sitting around campfires, talking all smack and stuff. Look for the daggone baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was -- what time did you hear from police today, about 3:00 or 4:00 o`clock?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never heard from police. I heard from neighbors in the neighborhood that they were down here. I came down here and find out what`s going on, and everything ensued from there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you angry? I mean, this is so close. We were here yesterday (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Irate. Angry don`t even begin to cover it. Don`t even begin to cover it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have they given you any information about whether whatever they found was there previously, was just put there or...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They ain`t said nothing. They just told me I had to come back down and meet with them in the morning. That`s pretty much all they told me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sleep tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds scoured an Ohio river bank over the weekend looking for a missing toddler. They looked through streets and even garbage cans, searching for clues to find missing 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Angela Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her mother, Angela, is in jail charged with child endangerment after her daughter disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby was injured at one point. She was aware of it and did not seek medical attention for the baby.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not going to say she was directly responsible for anything, but my daughter was in her care at the time that this happened. And the police are handling it the way they feel they need to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The way the baby`s disappearance came to light is this. Her natural father, who was married to the mother -- they`re estranged now, why she`s with her boyfriend -- Terry Steinfurth, Jr., the bio dad, goes over to pick up Elaina Steinfurth, his 18-year-old (sic) daughter.
And he gets there and the mom won`t hand over the baby, won`t hand over, won`t hand over. They go round and round and round about it. So Steinfurth, Jr., leaves. He comes back with his own father, Steinfurth, Sr., the grandfather.
They all get into it with the mother and the group of people that were there in the home. They want the baby. So she goes in to get the baby, and then comes out and says, The baby`s gone! That doesn`t even make any sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ve searched here I think a total of four -- four or five times.
He was gone for probably about a half an hour, I`d say. Steven and I, both of us went running out the back door. And I was just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door into the pool.
I told Steven to go down the alley to look to maybe she had gotten out the gate.
He didn`t go running out the back door by himself. He didn`t go running out the back door with the baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and the garage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I walked into the house and she showed me where the baby was supposed to be, I looked at her and I said, You had that baby sleeping in that pigsty? And I went out the door. That`s the way I would have worded it, too.
I walked in the front room. The front room didn`t look bad. I asked where the baby was. She said it was in the front bedroom. I looked in the bedroom door. There were clothes stacked on the floor all the way around the bed. You had to step over clothes to get -- well, you had to step on clothes to get to the bed.
And I just looked at her and I said, You had the baby sleeping in there? I said, That`s a pigsty. And that`s when we went out front and I wanted to call the police...
GRACE: What did she say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... for finding my baby.
GRACE: I understand from reports that just a few days later, the mom reported to work at Taco Bell as if nothing had happened. We also are hearing reports her story is changing behind bars. Police are followed every single lead there is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought you here today to discuss a major development that occurred over the past 24 hours involving our continuing investigation of Elaina Steinfurth. As most of you know, yesterday about 3:00, 3:16, Toledo Police Department detectives executed a search warrant at 701 Federal based on information obtained during our investigation.
As a result of that search warrant, we were able to recover immature human skeletal remains. That was turned over to Lucas County coroner`s office. Presently, the Lucas County coroner is conducting an autopsy on those remains.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Right now, the mom is behind bars on child endangerment. The affidavit does not really set out specifics, but it tends to show that police believe at the least, she did not help her child when her child needed medical help.
I also find it very interesting that in face of your child being missing, gone, that her father, Mr. Schiewe, had to basically pry information out of her, as she says repeatedly, I`m not going to talk, I`m not talking, I`m done talking, I`m through talking.
Why? Why are you through talking? If you want to find your child, why are you through talking? What are you afraid of?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STEINFURTH, MOTHER OF MISSING CHILD: A nervous wreck. I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK. It`s very hard not having her around. My other daughter is going insane without her sister. They need to be together.
If I had the support, I wouldn`t feel the way I do, but not when people are pointing fingers at me when they even don`t know what`s going on. I need all the support that I can get to bring her home, anything to keep me comfortable and from losing my mind.
I don`t know how to explain them because there`s -- because they`re crazy. I have been shaking for the last three days and I just want my baby home.
She has problems, and the only way they`re going to get handled is if me and her father can do it for her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A sad ending to our search for baby Elaina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They went back to the garage that had been searched earlier at 704 (sic) Federal Street, where baby Elaina disappeared from three months ago. Police removed a box today. The Lucas County coroner, Dr. Patrick (ph), has confirmed that it did contain human remains. It`s been turned over for an autopsy.
The family received notification just as everybody else on the street did, which was kind of disgusting because they heard it on a TV station instead of from police themselves as they stood here waiting after the search warrant was executed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We searched initially, when we were looking for the missing child -- the original investigation was a missing child, so we were looking for where a child could go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three weeks in, Reese Smith (ph) with the (INAUDIBLE) said they brought their own dog in and they got some hit on the garage and called the police and told you guys, and you didn`t do anything about it. Do you recall hearing from them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don`t recall that at all. We did bring our own cadaver dogs in. However, due to the condition of the property, the dogs were not allowed to go in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I spoke in depth with a friend of Mommy`s named Frank. And we`re withholding his last name at his request. He showed me surveillance video taken from his front porch. His home, like many of our homes, has surveillance cameras all around it.
And I saw Mommy with the baby, cradling it, holding baby Elaina, kissing her, you know, making sure that he was appropriately buckled into her stroller. She seemed like any loving mother.
What, if anything, triggered? Anger? I don`t know. There was no black eye or goosebump or blood on the nostrils in that video, and that was just hours before baby Elaina goes missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be quiet. Let him open up his mouth, and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the hell is wrong with these people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drama outside the courthouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, keep it down!
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep him away from me! I got a retraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him.
It`s about the baby (INAUDIBLE) it`s not what this person said and what that person said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom Angela in court for a preliminary hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) he had his mouth going when we first come in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) everyone together in a courtroom. The emotions are running very high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole time that we were out here looking for Elaina, she had -- we`re asking if she knew anything, anything at all. She kept telling us, No, I don`t know anything. But really, this whole time, she knew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) bring the baby home. Then after the baby`s home, then you can start slamming people and talking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Angela Steinfurth has been moved from solitary to the general population at the county jail. What do I make of that?
I think she`s going to blab. I think she`ll either do it voluntarily, or people will come up and ask her questions and she will give one story after the next. She`s already changed her story, is my understanding.
I saw a YouTube video of Steinfurth, Jr, asking Angela to marry him. They seemed very much in love. I don`t know what could have gone wrong in so few short months, but it did go horribly wrong. They`re estranged. They both have new love interests, and the baby`s missing.
I know the family is devastated. While FBI dive teams were out searching the water, can you imagine your child missing and there are dive teams dredging a nearby river, sending out K9 dogs, including cadaver dogs to look for your child? I don`t think I could put one foot in front of the other.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be quiet. Let him open his mouth, and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, keep it down. You`re being recorded everything that you say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him away from me! I got a restraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him!
GRACE: There was a huge family drama. A physical fight actually broke out at the scheduled preliminary hearing...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing after the other with that one. He had his mouth going when we first come in.
GRACE: ... when the mom, Angela Steinfurth, was supposed to come into court. On either side, the emotions are running high. Schiewe, which is the mom`s father, says people are driving by his house, calling him a baby killer. He`s saying it`s not about that. We got to bring the baby home. Let`s all go look together. Everything is erupting.
And can I tell you something? That is not unusual at all. Very often, I would have to put witnesses in separate rooms, even on separate floors of the courthouse, worried about if they would break into a fight while I was trying the case. That`s what happens when a baby goes missing.
Family infighting can hurt or stymie a police investigation because the police have to spend so much time trying to interpret statements and read through all the animosity between the sides, it slows everything down. It becomes a grudge match instead of an effort with everyone coming together to find the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I want to alert you, we`re hearing out of Toledo right now -- we all joined in the search for baby Elaina. The little girl allegedly was taken a nap in a home with, like, 11 people in the home, and the bio dad comes to pick up the baby for visitation, the mom won`t hand her over, has a big fight with him. The dad goes back in -- she goes back in to get the baby and comes out and says, The baby`s gone.
Well, as we go to air tonight, we are hearing out of Toledo, from Toledo News Now, Toledo police remove a box containing human remains near the home of Steven King, which as I recall, was the boyfriend -- the boyfriend of the mom, that a box, according to the Lucas County coroner, was removed that does contain human remains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess what I`d like to say is it would really do no service to any of the participants, your readers and your viewers, the community at large, the family to speculate on any of the things that you`ve asked us because we don`t -- there are so many things that at this point in time, we don`t know.
So what we are telling you is what we do know, what we can tell you. And as it unfolds and as the investigation continues, you`ll learn more and more and more. But to speculate and to hypothesize about if, when, where, how and why, we just cannot do that. And that would just be silly and foolish.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found what we believe may be baby Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A heart-wrenching ending to a wild three months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re (EXPLETIVE DELETED) before I get there because I`m coming for you today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immature human skeletal remains.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a box, in a garage behind the family`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s now sitting in a jail cell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a lot of deception taking place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the end of the day, I`m going to find my daughter, one way or the other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to bring justice for Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth.
GRACE: Now psychics have been brought into the case, and we have been told that both of them have had visions of baby Elaina crying in a field.
Now, as to psychics, you know, the reason I have always shied away from psychics in relation -- in connection to a case is because it`s inadmissible at trial. So whatever they may tell you, you can`t use it at trial. So in my mind, as a trial lawyer, if I can`t bring it into evidence, it doesn`t matter.
However, I will say that my mind is completely open and I wouldn`t rule anything out unless I could absolutely disprove it, and I cannot absolutely disprove psychics. So if I were the family, I would listen to them, too. I absolutely would.
I mean, I really think only a fool says no to any possibility of getting a lead in a case like this. So conventional wisdom be damned. If you could bring home baby Elaina with a psychic, do it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that she is in jail. The mommy is in jail. She`s talking to the family. We still can`t find out what she`s telling to the family, if anything. And we know that she`s talking to police because they wanted to hold her through the weekend. They delayed letting her go until Monday. But again, we don`t know why the police are holding her over the weekend.
GRACE: Wait! Wa-wa-wa-wait! I don`t know that anybody delayed letting her -- are you referring to letting Mommy go? They`re not about to let her go. That`s not what the delay was about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
GRACE: The delay was about putting up evidence to send her to felony court to be prosecuted for felony endangering a child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would be the technical terminology that you would be familiar with. But yes, they`re not -- they`re -- they want to delay it, but no one is saying why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A preliminary hearing was scheduled, where the state puts forth at least enough evidence for a judge to bind over or send a case, direct the case to the appropriate court.
For instance, if it`s a shoplifting, the judge would hear the evidence and send that to misdemeanor court, typically, is the way it works. If it has anything to do with a juvenile, the case is going to be sent to juvenile court. If it has to do with a felony, the case will then be bound over to a superior or felony trial court. That`s what happens in a preliminary hearing.
Does it mean they are this close to getting a confession, this close to finding out the baby was sold or given away? Very rarely do you see police ask for a delay because what happens in a preliminary hearing is they basically explain why they made the arrest. What supported the arrest? Why is it a felony? Why should it go to superior court for trial?
Well, all that should be contained in the police report, but here something is brewing. Something is brewing that we don`t know about. Police wanted more. They wanted a few more days. They wanted one more weekend, 72 hours before they`re back in court before a judge. What do they hope to find? What do they hope to nail down? What piece of evidence are they looking for? We don`t know.
What disturbs me most is that a little girl, a tiny, little baby has probably been abused and murdered. But if she is dead, somebody`s going down!
END
Baby Elaina’s mother, Angela Steinfurth, and Angela’s ex-boyfriend Steven King are currently in jail held on obstruction of justice charges.
Charisse Van Horn is the owner of Amber Alerts and Missing Children Case Updates. You may follow her there or join the Facebook group here.
Baby Elaina Latest News and Updates on Twitter
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Transcript: Jane Velez-Mitchell talks Baby Elaina case, human remains found (Videos)
On Sept. 6, 2013, HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell discussed the gruesome discovery of human remains located on the property where 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth was last seen alive. "Baby Elaina" was reported missing on June 2, 2013, after her father, Terry "T.J." Steinfurth went to a Toledo, Ohio home to pick up the toddler
and her older sister from his estranged wife, Angela Steinfurth.
Steinfurth made several excuses as to why she could not hand over the child, then after several hours announced the baby had been kidnapped. While Baby Elaina's loved ones have continued to hold weekly prayer vigils, waiting for her return; those hopes came to a quick halt on Sept. 5, 2013, after a search warrant executed at the property resulted in authorities discovering a box with "immature human remains" located in the garage rafters.
The remains are currently undergoing an autopsy and forensic analysis in hopes of making a positive identification and to learn more of how Baby Elaina died.
Here is the full transcript from the Sept. 6, 2013, episode of "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell."
Baby Elaina`s Remains Found in Box?
Aired September 6, 2013 - 19:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, breaking news. What are believed to be the remains of missing Baby Elaina, have been found, stuffed into a computer box, of all things. Acting on new information, cops found the box behind bags of trash in the rafters of the garage of the very home where she was last seen alive.
Tonight, as the autopsy to confirm the child`s identity and determine cause of death gets underway, cops hint at a vast conspiracy to keep the death of this child a total secret.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found what we believe may be Baby Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A heart-wrenching ending to a wild three months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You (EXPLETIVE DELETED) him before I get you. Because I`m coming for you today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immature, human skeletal remains.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a box, in a garage, behind the family`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s now sitting in a jail cell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of deception taking place.
TERRY STEINFURTH JR., ELAINA`S FATHER: I got to find my daughter, one way or another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to bring justice to Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yank her, grab her around, smack her in the mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does a 1-year-old girl just vanish?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This innocent baby girl vanished three long months ago.
The mystery began when Baby Elaina`s biological dad came to pick her up in a custody exchange. Mommy gives him the older daughter but refuses to hand over little Elaina. She says she doesn`t want to wake the sleeping baby. Then she says she`s afraid if she gives him the child, she`ll never see her again.
After two hours of fighting between mom and dad and mom`s on again, off again boyfriend, who she`s living with, mom agrees to go get the child. A minute later, she comes out running out of the house, screaming the baby`s gone.
Mom, Angela, was arrested on child endangerment charges, then later accused of obstruction of justice. Her on again, off again boyfriend, Steven King, is also behind bars tonight.
Then finally today, cops announced a gruesome discovery inside the garage of the very home where this child went missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a result of that search warrant, we recovered immature human skeletal remains.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Who put the baby there? What happened to her? Will murder charges be forthcoming? And if so, against whom? The breakthrough has only intensified the mystery.
Now police are hinting at a conspiracy of silence and deception that could involve several people. Who are they referring to?
This investigation reaching a climax, as Baby Elaina`s heartbroken father tries to grapple with this new discovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: I still kept hope, but at this point, you know, it`s hard to be optimistic right now.
Just trying to hold it together. I don`t know how good you really can do right now. Irate. Angry don`t even begin to cover it. Don`t even begin to cover it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Of course he`s angry. Where is her -- his child? Found in a box. Of course he`s angry.
Tonight, we have an amazing panel in the Lion`s Den. But first straight out to Angie Gonzalez, reporter for WNWO. You are in Ohio where all this is going down. It seems like cops are implying that a lot of people could have known about this or be in some way involved.
ANGIE GONZALEZ, REPORTER, WNWO (via phone): The preliminary autopsy results that you spoke about earlier from the Lucas County coroner saying that the immature skeletal remains are so immature that at this time they are unable to determine the exact sex of the remains. They say that they are going to depend on DNA testing, and that should be available early next week.
They also say the matter of death is not going to be officially ruled on until all parts of the autopsy are in.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me just say this: Unless, and I pray this is the case, that there`s some massive mistake, and these are not human bones, that there`s bones of an animal -- and that kind of thing has happened in the past.
But in all probability, the cops themselves acknowledge it`s probably the bones of this precious angel. Look at that innocent face. What happened to her? Who did what, when and for what reason?
Earlier today, investigators flat out said there may be a whole bunch of people in this neighborhood who are somehow involved in Baby Elaina`s disappearance, even keeping secrets. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do the things we need to do to make sure the people that are responsible for this help out. We had a lot of deception taking place, being told to us by a variety of sources in this community. And because of that, we took the investigation where we felt we needed to take it. We`re going to bring those responsible to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to the Lion`s Den, where we have a very special guest tonight. An exclusive with Mary Schiewe, the aunt of the missing child, who is now believed to be confirmed dead. They believe it`s her remains found in this box, and it really hurts me and makes me sick to have to say that, the autopsy underway. We should know for sure, but unless it`s some kind of really massive mistake, like animal bones or something like that, the chances are very, very good that this poor child was left, her remains left in a box, a computer box.
First of all, Mary Schiewe, I want to offer you my heartfelt -- I don`t want to say condolences, because I guess that`s technically premature, but I`m really sorry you`re going through this hell. And I know it is hell for you and the family.
MARY SCHIEWE, AUNT OF MISSING CHILD (via phone): Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What has it been like to get this information about human remains found in a box, child`s remains, believed to be that of your niece?
SCHIEWE: It`s heartbreaking. I just don`t understand that almost 3 1/2 months go by, and my niece is in a box in the garage that the house was supposed to be searched.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Are you saying that you think they should have found this child before? Are you saying that somebody dropped the ball at not finding -- the remains are in the very house where the child disappeared from, in a detached garage next to the house, an area that was searched exhaustively by the police.
SCHIEWE: If the box wasn`t taken back to the house, I believe that they should have found it a while ago.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me say this: The whole story that your half-sister, Angela, gave to the police about the child being in the bed and then her -- the father comes in to take the child, and she says, "No, you can`t have the child. The child is napping."
Then after a big argument, she runs out and says the child`s missing. It doesn`t pass the smell test. I`m really sorry to say, Mary. It doesn`t make any sense. It`s a far-fetched story. Children don`t just disappear.
SCHIEWE: It doesn`t make any sense at all.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what do you think happened? Why are cops saying so many people might be involved? There were a lot of people in the house when this happened.
SCHIEWE: Because there are several people that are in the house on a daily basis, and all of a sudden, the day my niece came up missing, there was nobody there. It don`t make any sense. There -- I mean, there`s other people that know. I guarantee there`s other people that know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me ask you this. Do you think your half- sister, Angela, the mother of the child, was hiding information when she ran out and said my baby`s missing? Do you think something happened to the child many hours or maybe even a day earlier?
Let me give you a timeline and then I want to give you a chance to respond. OK. Here`s a timeline of the hours before Baby Elaina disappeared. June 1 -- that`s the day before -- Elaine and her mom are seen on surveillance video. The mother appears to be rocking the child. June 2, 12 hours before this child officially vanishes, a neighbor says he sees Baby Elaina`s mom, Angela, and her sometimes boyfriend, Steven King, leaving their house in the dead of night around 1 in the morning in a van, returning 15 minutes later. Hmm.
Elaina`s mom claims later that day she wakes up in the morning to find her baby with a black eye and a bump on the nose. She says, "I don`t know how the child got the injuries," but she doesn`t take the child to the doctor.
And then later that afternoon, during a custody argument, the mom claims the child just disappeared from inside the house. Now, her on again, off again boyfriend`s mother, who was also there, says she and her son, Steven, run out of the house desperately looking for the child. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was gone probably about a half an hour, I`d say. Steven and I, both of us went running out the back door, and I was just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door into the pool. I had told Steven to go down the alley. Maybe she had gotten out the gate. He didn`t go running out the back door by himself. He didn`t go running out the back door with a baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and the garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. So that`s the mother of the on again boyfriend of the mother of the missing, now feared dead child, saying basically -- everybody was looking for the child.
But I have to go back to Mary Schiewe. You are the half-sister of the mother of this child, who is -- this half-sister of yours is now behind bars. It would occur to me that possibly something happened to the child in the course of the night, and that`s why maybe they got up in the middle of the night and got in their van and went away for 15 minutes and came back.
And then the next day, they say the child is napping, but in fact, something has already happened to the child.
SCHIEWE: I think that Steven`s mom is full of crap, and I believe that she was hurt Saturday night and she was taken out of that house Sunday morning and she, my sister, was holding in what she knew. She knew that my niece was hurt and that she didn`t seek medical attention for her. She knew that. That`s why she was charged with that child endangerment and obstruction of justice, because she was holding that in. She knew the whole time that my niece was hurt and she didn`t seek help for her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, if I can ask you to stand by for a second. Straight out to the Lion`s Den.
Wendy Walsh, it would appear this child is dead. They have not confirmed the remains, but it`s a child`s remains in the same house where this child vanished. You`re hearing all of this. I mean, it`s a big mess. What do you make of it?
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, you know, who knows? Because nobody seems to be telling the truth, and nobody is talking.
I`m most interested to know what`s going on with this mother. I mean, she was arrested from the beginning, and instead of saying, "Let`s be working hard to find my child," she was busy trying to defend herself.
I think that something clearly happened to this child, whether it happened the day before. Now that I hear there was a swimming pool on the premises, I`m wondering if even an accident might have happened and then they decided to disguise the remains because they were afraid.
Or it could have been the injuries. Remember, there were bruises. She didn`t get medical attention for these bruises. This kid could have had a concussion and died in her sleep. We really don`t know, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I don`t think you generally get black eyes from falling in the pool, but I could be wrong. You don`t know.
On the other side, we`re just getting started. Are the remains Baby Elaina? Cops think so. But who is responsible for her death? Will somebody be charged with murder? Why were the remains in a box? The police searched that area and didn`t find them.
So many questions, stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: I`m not going to say she was directly responsible for anything. But my daughter was in her care at the time that this happened, and the police are handling it the way they feel they need to. (END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GRAPHIC: Don`t talk to anybody in jail about the case.
ANGELA STEINFURTH, ELAINA`S MOTHER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GRAPHIC: OK. I just want to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GRAPHIC: You`re not going home tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s the mother, Angela, the mother of the missing child who is now feared found dead. The remains of the child bound in a box from the very house from which the child disappeared, in a detached garage adjacent to that house.
Straight out to Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky, forensic scientist, one of the nation`s best. How do they determine, in fact, if this is baby Elaina, given that the child disappeared three months ago? It`s the summertime, the remains were found in a box.
DR. LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST (via phone): Well, indeed. When a person dies, under dry conditions, they could mummify. But apparently, that`s not what happened here. There was complete decomposition down to skeletal remains.
And the way to identify the body with not very much question is through mitochondrial DNA analysis. Doing a sample of the long bones of the remains and compare the mitochondrial profile to that of the mother, because maternal relatives share the same exact genetics.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Dr. Kobi -- Dr. Kobi, I want to ask you about determining manner and cause of death if there`s skeletal remains. How do you do that?
KOBILINSKY: Yes, you beat me to the punch. That`s exactly what I was coming to. The skeletal remains may be very, very difficult to determine the cause of death. There may have been blunt trauma, for example. That would be revealed in injury to the bones. Something like a stabbing or a shooting can sometimes be determined. But something likes asphyxiation may or may not be revealed on an autopsy. This is not a simple case.
And the manner of death, obviously, it seems like a homicide, but the possibility is an accident and a cover-up. The circumstances that surround the finding of the body are certainly very, very suspicious and would lead one to think it`s a homicide. But I think that is in the hands of the medical examiner right now.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, doctor.
You`re saying it`s very little doubt it`s human remains. So that`s an important aspect of it, because sometimes they make a mistake and sometimes it is animal bones.
Straight out to the Lion`s Den. Holly Hughes, criminal defense attorney, but most importantly, former prosecutor, is this going to be a case of too little too late? That they found the remains of this child, let`s say they determined that yes, it is baby Elaina in a couple of hours or in days. But it`s too late to determine how she died.
HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: It is, Jane. And I`m having flashbacks. I hate to say it, but I`m having flashbacks to the Casey Anthony case. Because what did we see at trial? The same thing. You had skeletal remains, no way to determine cause of death and a pool in the backyard. Right? Are they taking a page out of that playbook? Is that why all of a sudden, we`re hearing this story, that he ran out back to search the pool.
And we`re all going to ask the same question: Then why not call the police immediately? Why not try to revive that baby? If it was a drowning, there`s no soft tissue. There`s no lungs or organ left to determine that`s what it was. So it`s going to be very hard. We`re looking at a circumstantial evidence case, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Vince Velazquez, homicide detective, the day the child vanished, we now have confirmed that the mother admits the child had a black eye and a bloody nose. She claims that she woke up and spotted her child that way, which doesn`t make very much sense.
VINCE VELAZQUEZ, HOMICIDE DETECTIVE> No, it doesn`t make sense at all. The fact that she even told somebody that is beyond me. I can`t understand why she would even allow, if that`s not even true, to make that up.
One point I want to make clear, when the boyfriend showed up -- I`m sorry, when the father of the baby showed up to pick up the baby and the mother said the baby was napping, and all of a sudden, the boyfriend got up to fight him, I think that was staged. It looks like it was something that they decided at the last minute, like he cannot come in the house and tried to stop with him by having a fight with him and get him angry so he would leave. This looks like, to me, a conspiracy between the mother and the boyfriend, and perhaps his mother, too.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s just say that nobody has been charged in connection with this child`s death. But there are obstruction of justice charges against the mother and the boyfriend.
Stay right there. We`ll have more on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK. It`s very hard not having her around. My other daughter is going insane without her sister. They need to be together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quiet. Let him open up his mouth, and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, just keep it down. You`re being recorded, everything you say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him away from me. I`ve got a restraining order against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing after the other. You already got a restraining order for terroristic threats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Drama and a feud between the two families. The family of the child`s father, the family of the missing and now feared dead child`s mother. So did this child become a pawn in that battle? There are numerous arts that mom Angela was rough and possibly abusive with her kid, Elaina, and her 4-year-old daughter, for that matter. Baby Elaina`s dad, T.J., says that`s one of the reasons he and Angela separated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: She yelled at them, cursed at them. She would snatch my oldest daughter by her arm and, like, yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth. Just things that I don`t agree with. That`s not how you correct children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: T.J. claims he`d seen bruises on Baby Elaina just days before she disappeared, and Child Protective Services visited the Steinfurth home last year when the couple was still together, but they were having problems.
Straight out to the Lion`s Den. Now that we have found remains that we believe are Baby Elaina, Areva Martin, was this a disaster waiting to happen? Should we have seen the red flags?
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: I think so, Jane. We see so many of these cases where there`s abuse in the home by parents, and social services come out, and they do what they call an investigation, but then months later there`s a dead child. So the ball was dropped somewhere with respect to this child.
We hear the dad talking about the mom being abusive, but the child goes back to being in the care of the mom.
And you know, no matter whether this was an accident at the swimming pool, or the child got away, some crime was committed here. A 1-year-old child doesn`t leave a bed without there being some adult activity involved in it. A 1-year-old child doesn`t end up dead and in a box unless some adults have sine responsibility. So I`m just hoping that the police can put together a case to get these people to start telling the truth, because justice needs to be done for this little girl. This is horrific.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mary -- Mary Schiewe, you are the aunt of the baby who is now feared dead. But you`re also the half-sister of her mom. What about these claims of abuse made by the child`s father?
SCHIEWE: I -- I never seen it. If it did happen, she should have known better to ever let that happen in front of me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you never saw bruises or bumps? Or anything...
SCHIEWE: I`ve seen bruises. I`ve seen bruises.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I mean, what were the explanations offered for those bruises?
SCHIEWE: She fell or it was always she`s clumsy. That was -- that was her way of telling me, you know, I don`t know where the bruises came from.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mary, was there an issue with this precious child? Was she in any way, shape or form disabled at all?
SCHIEWE: No, no way. She was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with her. She had problems with her feet when she was first born, and that was taken care of through therapy. She was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So even though we`re hearing these reports from the baby`s father, as well as there`s other published reports of other people saying that they heard your half-sister yelling and being crude and cursing at the kids, you`re saying she never acted that way in front of you?
SCHIEWE: She does -- she does have a smart mouth and I`m not saying I`ve never heard her. I`m not defending her in any way. But hitting-wise, she would know way better than to do that in front of me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I thank you for standing by. We`re going to take a short break. We`re just getting started. The question, was this child murdered? Are the remains that of this child? Who is going to be charged? Will justice happen for baby Elaina?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: Snatched my oldest daughter by her arm, yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t go running out the back door by himself or running out with a baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and in the garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her and her boyfriend were fighting because of the way he was treating my children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep him away from me. I have a restraining order against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They searched here I think a total of four or five times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I overheard her staying stuff to other people that Elaina had a black eye, a broken nose and a lump on her head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She would snatch my oldest daughter by her arm, yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t go running out the back door by himself. He didn`t go running out the back door with a baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and the garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news. The remains of a child believed to be Baby Elaina just found, feet from where many vigils were held over three months to pray for the child`s return. The cops searched this home several times, including the detached garage where the remains were found just yesterday. And that has a lot of people irritated and wondering how could cops have missed these remains?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn`t drop the ball, number one. Number two, this investigation is ongoing exactly (ph). We can`t get into all these various details right now.
The main thing you have to remember -- there are two things. Number one, we wanted to find the body -- we wanted to find that baby, which we did. Number two, we want to bring justice for Elaina which means that we`re going to continue through our investigation and do the things we need to do to make sure the people that are responsible for this are held accountable. We`re not going to get into all these -- how many times we checked here, how many times we checked that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Here are pictures from inside the home. The family claims the cops tore it apart. The cops say, hey it was a complete mess to begin with to the point that cops couldn`t let their own cadaver dogs inside because there was just too much junk.
So two possible scenarios: either those remains were there the entire time and the police really did drop the ball, or somebody deviously moved the body around after they searched.
Straight out to "The Lion`s Den" -- let`s ask our experts. Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, why did it take three months to find a body inside the very property where the child vanished?
HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well Jane, I think you just hit the nail on the head. This baby was in a computer box. You can move that around very easily, very simply. They`ve searched this residence four or five times. I would assume they searched the out-building, that detached garage where those remains were found yesterday.
So it`s likely that the baby wasn`t there and they figured hey after four or five searches, we`re in the clear, we can now stash those remains up there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: When Elaina first went missing, many people pointed the finger at her mom, Angela. Here is the mom right before her arrest. Listen and we`ll analyze.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STEINFURTH, MOTHER OF BABY ELAINA: I`ve been shaking for the last three days and I just want my baby home. She has problems and they`re going to get (inaudible) can do it for her. I need all the support I can get to bring her home -- anything to keep me comfortable and from losing my mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Psychologist, Wendy Walsh, here she is saying we need that baby home, what do you think -- lying?
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes. What she`s talking about is herself here. She needs the support, she needs anything to make herself feel comfortable, to keep from losing her mind. Did she say "I`m worried where my baby is tonight? She could be cold. She could be hungry. If she`s with you and you`ve stolen her, please know she needs this, or she needs that. Please take care of my baby."
No, no, no. This wasn`t even about the baby. It`s "Please help me stop losing my mind, please. I`m having a rough day."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very much crying for herself.
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: Jane, Jane --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead. Go ahead.
MARTIN: I just want to add to what Wendy said. And I don`t want to bash that aunt, but I`m sitting here listening to the aunt and again I`m not hearing the kind of empathy that you would expect to hear. She was so casual about the abuse that she says she did with this -- the cursing, the yelling at this one-year-old child. That`s not normal parenting behavior.
And if you`re watching someone parent like that, someone intervene. Someone step in. This mom probably needed to have supervised visits with this child. It doesn`t appear she was fit or capable of parenting these kids and now we have this one-year-old that`s dead.
WELSH: Jane --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead.
WALSH: Jane, this is Wendy. More than the mother, I`m concerned about this new boyfriend --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh yes, we`re going to get to that.
WALSH: -- because, you know, the statistics tell the truth. A child, one of the most dangerous places for a child to live in America is in a home with a non-biologically-related male -- 11 times the rate of sexual abuse --
M1: Absolutely.
WALSH: -- physical abuse and emotional abuse.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well I want to give --
WALSH: Plus if he uses drugs or alcohol.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very good points. And there he is, right there. That`s Steven King. All right -- and he and his attorney are invited on any time. He`s behind bars right now charged with obstruction of justice but he has attorneys so they`re invited on.
Mary Scheiwe, you`re the aunt of the missing child -- the half sister of her mother. I want to give you a chance to respond to what our experts just said.
MARY SCHWEIWE, AUNT OF BABY ELAINA: About what part?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, they said they felt that your response to the mother`s verbal -- apparent verbal abuse of the children was less than appropriate.
SCHEIWE: Less than appropriate, because if it happened in front of me I wouldn`t have let it happened because it`s never happened in front of me. Maybe I`ve seen her grab her arm a couple of times and yank her towards her, she`s doing something but her like beating the crap out of her has never, ever happened in front of me, ever.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. And you established that. And I`m not trying to put you on the spot. I appreciate you joining us. I want to give you - -
SCHEIWE: No, I understand. I would never let that happen to my niece, ever.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But you did acknowledge --
SCHEIWE: (inaudible) when she came over here.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me ask you another question. Why did she end up at this boyfriend`s house? We`re going to play a sound bite in a second where somebody criticizes the boyfriend and said it`s actually the biological father said that they were concerned about her being with this boyfriend with the kids. Why did she go to the boyfriend`s house? Apparently what she and the father agreed on is that she would go to her own father`s house, a real adult`s house.
SCHEIWE: She was supposed to stay at my house that night. She was texting me and my dad and she was supposed to stay at my house that night. We don`t know why she ended up over there. I mean we couldn`t force her to stay here. She`s grown. She does what she wants. But she was supposed to -- from my understanding, her last text message to me was that she was going to be at my house. Now, the last text message from my dad and her was that she went back over to that house.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you`re saying she`s an adult, she can do what she wants, but I had heard reports that she wanted to be able to go to the boyfriend`s house for a couple of reasons. She had had a fight with the boyfriend and she wanted to make up with him. She had fought with his mother, she wanted to make up with her and also that they allowed her to smoke which apparently your dad didn`t?
SCHEIWE: I don`t know make up. I never heard that she wanted to make up with him. And I don`t know why she would want to anyways. And no, my dad doesn`t allow smoking in the house. That`s why he has a hole in his neck from smoking.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So she did smoke.
SCHEIWE: She doesn`t like my dad`s rules -- that`s what it was. My daddy had rules because there`s kids are going to be in the house and obviously you respect it. You don`t run in all hours of the night. She didn`t like it and she never has when she lived here.
She didn`t like being here. That`s all there was to it. We don`t know, the girls will have a (inaudible). But she didn`t like my dad`s rules. That`s what it was.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Walsh, psychologist, what do you make of it?
WALSH: Well, this girl is a little rebellious and my concern with this mother is that her relationship with her boyfriend was more important to her than the safety of her children, than the relationship she was going to have to protect her children.
You know, little babies are given to us for a reason. It`s our job to protect them. Even if it was an accident, was she neglectful to these children to potentially participate in this accident in this way?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, on the other side, we`re going to take a look at the boyfriend -- on again, off again boyfriend -- Steven King. What is his role, if any?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn`t know where the baby`s at or who took the baby. Personally from what I viewed of her, I don`t think she`s shown any emotion of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby was injured at one point. She was aware of it, and did not seek medical attention for the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. This poor child is believed to have been found dead in a box. The autopsy to confirm that is occurring today. So we should know for sure. But it certainly looks that way tragically. The box was found in the very home, the very property where this child disappeared.
Now, we have an exclusive interview tonight with Mary Scheiwe, the aunt of this child, and the half sister of the child`s mother.
Some of our panelists have suggested that you didn`t respond enough to whatever you saw, and I know you`re very upset about that. I heard that from my producers. I want to give you a chance to set the record straight, Mary Scheiwe.
SCHEIWE: I was there. I`m just mad about what that lady said that my response to Kylie and Elaina`s abuse wasn`t right. She doesn`t live in that house.
He knew way more than what I did. He`s seen it everyday more than what I did. I only got to see my nieces when they weren`t being held over my head, when I wasn`t being a supposedly bad person, when it was on their time for me to see my nieces. I will do anything for them girls.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me give -- yes, I will say this, and I don`t know who exactly said it in our panel -- possibly Areva. I mean sometimes extended family members cannot control the situation. They`re powerless. Have you ever tried to get a relative to do what you want them to do? Ha. Good luck with that.
SCHEIWE: Yes, I mean she has (inaudible) her own. Obviously, us telling her not to go back over to the house because she still went over there when she had a perfectly good place that she was offered to stay with both of the girls.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And namely your house.
Ok, Areva I want to give you a chance --
SCHEIWE: It was my house -- it is my house.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, yes, exactly.
MARTIN: And I started my statement -- Jane, I started my statement by saying I wasn`t trying to bash the aunt and I`m still not trying to bash the aunt. I know how horrible this situation is for every one.
But all too often in these cases there are people in the family, friends, people who are close up on these situations that see things and they ignore them. This is just a wakeup call for everyone who is watch thing story, if they see parents who are in trouble like this family obviously was, that sometimes getting involved can make a difference and can save a life.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mary, you want to respond?
SCHEIWE: Well, in this case, getting involved in a hostile (ph) situation because she don`t listen to anything that anybody says because every since them girls were born, we tried telling her things and telling her things and she does not listen. Nothing mattered. It wasn`t about what we had to say. It didn`t matter at that point, never.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think it`s possible that something happened to this child -- a beating, some kind of abuse that left her with a black eye and bloody nose and then the child died and she lied.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHEIWE: -- it`s not an accident. There is no accident. That word needs to be taken out because that was not an accident. They knew what they did to my niece, whether it was over drugs, over a fight, it was not an accident.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re mentioning drugs now. Does your sister have a drug problem?
SCHEIWE: I`m not sure -- for sure about her, but I can guarantee 100 percent Steven had a drug problem. I can see -- I know people that sold drugs to him.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well again, I cannot -- I cannot confirm or deny that. I have no knowledge of that, and if Steven`s attorney wants to come -- there`s Steven, the on again, off again boyfriend of the mother of the child who disappeared and the child disappeared from his family home -- his mother`s home. I don`t know for sure whether or not he has a drug problem.
But you`re hearing it from the sister of the mother of the child who disappeared and is now feared dead. I heard somebody sort of howling with sadness -- Wendy Walsh.
WALSH: Yes, it`s just heartbreaking to think there could potentially have been a drug user in the house, who is a large full-grown man, who is not biologically-related to the kids and they have no biological interest. And on top of it all, could have been out of his mind high. It breaks my heart. A child should never be exposed to that kind of environment ever, ever, ever.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, what do cops do now?
HUGHES: Well, Jane, they`re going to continue to try and break somebody down. That`s why when you heard the police chief talking earlier he said a lot of deception, a lot of people leading us the wrong way, which tells me somebody, and more than one somebody, knows what went down there.
Now that the remains have been discovered, this isn`t just about child endangerment, this isn`t an obstruction charge. People are looking at facing murder one.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We are going to stay on top of this case. We want justice for Baby Elaina. And we will fight for it.
Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey Rico, here`s our Pet of the Day, send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane.
Let`s see who we got today. Binky -- your cousin Binky, look at him. He`s small but he`s biggy. All right. And then we have Cooper and Jackpot. I feel like I`ve hit the jackpot. What a fabulous pair. Oh, and Ashland, you are fash-land. Oh, my gosh, Jordan, you`re just classic, classic, classic dog -- perfection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey, guess what, little Rico? Great news for animals with eyes and hearts just like you -- tonight thousands of animals rescued from certain death and flown across the country to start a new life in freedom. A California group called The Animal Place rescued 3,000 egg- laying hens who were about to be killed at a commercial egg farm. Rescuers say these hens are what egg industry calls spent hens and they`re routinely killed even though they`re just two years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARJI BEACH, ANIMAL PLACE: In California there is no slaughterhouse that will take these hens. They`re considered spent when they`re only two years old. And egg farmers have to pay people to come to their property, gas the birds and then dump those birds into landfills.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And now you`re looking at file video of a typical factory farm. Critics say most hens spend their entire lives crammed into small cages unable to spread their wings. Many never see the outside world, never set foot on grass.
Critics say chickens routinely have their beaks cut off soon after birth -- a process called debeaking. They also suffer from osteoporosis. They can`t move. After about two years of this miserable life they`re gassed to death and dumped into landfills. Critics claim this is standard operating practice.
But these kind citizens decided to make a difference. 3,000 hens spared from death by gassing will now find new homes, humane homes at shelters in California and all over the country. Guess what -- more than a thousand hens were flown from the West Coast across the country to New York State where they were placed in shelters and sanctuaries.
Straight out to Bruce Friedrich of Farm Sanctuary -- Bruce, your wonderful organization took in about 700 of these hens. First of all, what do you know about what these hens have been through?
BRUCE FRIEDRICH, FARM SANCTUARY: Well, like 95 percent of hens, according to the industry, Jane -- 95 percent of hens are confined in the conditions that you just showed. They`re call battery cages. The cages are about 18 by 20 inches and they cram -- an industry averages more than five hens in each of these cages. A hen has a wing span of 30 to 32 inches so not one hen can spread even one wing for her entire life.
Just like you would if you were unable to move for two years, the animals` muscles and bones waste away from lack of use. By the time they`re depopulated, by the time they`re ripped out of these cages and gassed, a third of the animals will suffer new bone breaks during that process because their muscles and bones are so thoroughly deteriorated.
So psychologically they go insane in these conditions. Physiologically, the abuse is really beyond any of worst imaginings.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And this is just for eggs -- correct?
FRIEDRICH: This is for eggs and it takes about 34 hours in one of these cages to produce just one egg and then this is how 95 percent of egg- laying hens are treated according to the industry. It`s worth noting that chickens are individuals just like dogs and cats are individuals. In fact on tests of cognitive and behavioral sophistication, chickens outperform dogs and cats.
No more acceptable to do this to a chicken than it would be to do it to a dog or a cat. And yet because it`s standard agricultural practice, it`s legal. It would be cruelty to animals if these were dogs or cats -- if these were protected animals but because they`re egg-laying hens, really just anything goes, including the level of abuse that you just showed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side, what you can do, how you can get involved with Farm Sanctuary or other groups. Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEACH: In California there is no slaughterhouse that will take these hens. These are hens from the egg industry. We know what we`re doing is good work. We know we`re saving lives and that`s what matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll take about 100 from this barn; we took 500 from the other barn; about 200 from each of the other barns -- it`s really a coming together of compassion-minded people that are trying to do some good in this world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hundreds of people from a whole bunch of different animal groups getting together to save 3,000 hens that were set to be gassed. Now, before these hens were rescued, they were just unnamed statistics stuck in a factory farm. Last year in America, nearly 93 billion eggs were laid by hens including well five billion in California alone.
You know, the average American eats about 250 eggs a year. So what would you say Bruce to Americans who want to change things? I know that there`s a big battle right now over this King amendment that seeks to wipe out any small protections for factory farm animals.
FRIEDRICH: Yes, the King amendment is absolutely loathsome and it`s remarkable that it`s coming from Steve King, a guy who purports to be a state`s rights kind of guy. And here he`s going to vacate literally dozens of state laws in this race to the bottom if the King amendment passes. People who want to get involved and say "no" to the vacation of law to protect animals, to protect the environment, to protect workers -- it`s just, it`s absolutely a hideous amendment.
People can find out more about it at farmsanctuary.org. And for people whose hearts strings --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we`ve got to leave it right there but that`s a good place. Go to farmsanctuary.org.
Nancy is next.
FRIEDRICH: Thank you.
END
Steinfurth made several excuses as to why she could not hand over the child, then after several hours announced the baby had been kidnapped. While Baby Elaina's loved ones have continued to hold weekly prayer vigils, waiting for her return; those hopes came to a quick halt on Sept. 5, 2013, after a search warrant executed at the property resulted in authorities discovering a box with "immature human remains" located in the garage rafters.
The remains are currently undergoing an autopsy and forensic analysis in hopes of making a positive identification and to learn more of how Baby Elaina died.
Here is the full transcript from the Sept. 6, 2013, episode of "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell."
Baby Elaina`s Remains Found in Box?
Aired September 6, 2013 - 19:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, breaking news. What are believed to be the remains of missing Baby Elaina, have been found, stuffed into a computer box, of all things. Acting on new information, cops found the box behind bags of trash in the rafters of the garage of the very home where she was last seen alive.
Tonight, as the autopsy to confirm the child`s identity and determine cause of death gets underway, cops hint at a vast conspiracy to keep the death of this child a total secret.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We found what we believe may be Baby Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A heart-wrenching ending to a wild three months.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You (EXPLETIVE DELETED) him before I get you. Because I`m coming for you today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Immature, human skeletal remains.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a box, in a garage, behind the family`s home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s now sitting in a jail cell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of deception taking place.
TERRY STEINFURTH JR., ELAINA`S FATHER: I got to find my daughter, one way or another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to bring justice to Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yank her, grab her around, smack her in the mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does a 1-year-old girl just vanish?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This innocent baby girl vanished three long months ago.
The mystery began when Baby Elaina`s biological dad came to pick her up in a custody exchange. Mommy gives him the older daughter but refuses to hand over little Elaina. She says she doesn`t want to wake the sleeping baby. Then she says she`s afraid if she gives him the child, she`ll never see her again.
After two hours of fighting between mom and dad and mom`s on again, off again boyfriend, who she`s living with, mom agrees to go get the child. A minute later, she comes out running out of the house, screaming the baby`s gone.
Mom, Angela, was arrested on child endangerment charges, then later accused of obstruction of justice. Her on again, off again boyfriend, Steven King, is also behind bars tonight.
Then finally today, cops announced a gruesome discovery inside the garage of the very home where this child went missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a result of that search warrant, we recovered immature human skeletal remains.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Who put the baby there? What happened to her? Will murder charges be forthcoming? And if so, against whom? The breakthrough has only intensified the mystery.
Now police are hinting at a conspiracy of silence and deception that could involve several people. Who are they referring to?
This investigation reaching a climax, as Baby Elaina`s heartbroken father tries to grapple with this new discovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: I still kept hope, but at this point, you know, it`s hard to be optimistic right now.
Just trying to hold it together. I don`t know how good you really can do right now. Irate. Angry don`t even begin to cover it. Don`t even begin to cover it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Of course he`s angry. Where is her -- his child? Found in a box. Of course he`s angry.
Tonight, we have an amazing panel in the Lion`s Den. But first straight out to Angie Gonzalez, reporter for WNWO. You are in Ohio where all this is going down. It seems like cops are implying that a lot of people could have known about this or be in some way involved.
ANGIE GONZALEZ, REPORTER, WNWO (via phone): The preliminary autopsy results that you spoke about earlier from the Lucas County coroner saying that the immature skeletal remains are so immature that at this time they are unable to determine the exact sex of the remains. They say that they are going to depend on DNA testing, and that should be available early next week.
They also say the matter of death is not going to be officially ruled on until all parts of the autopsy are in.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me just say this: Unless, and I pray this is the case, that there`s some massive mistake, and these are not human bones, that there`s bones of an animal -- and that kind of thing has happened in the past.
But in all probability, the cops themselves acknowledge it`s probably the bones of this precious angel. Look at that innocent face. What happened to her? Who did what, when and for what reason?
Earlier today, investigators flat out said there may be a whole bunch of people in this neighborhood who are somehow involved in Baby Elaina`s disappearance, even keeping secrets. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do the things we need to do to make sure the people that are responsible for this help out. We had a lot of deception taking place, being told to us by a variety of sources in this community. And because of that, we took the investigation where we felt we needed to take it. We`re going to bring those responsible to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to the Lion`s Den, where we have a very special guest tonight. An exclusive with Mary Schiewe, the aunt of the missing child, who is now believed to be confirmed dead. They believe it`s her remains found in this box, and it really hurts me and makes me sick to have to say that, the autopsy underway. We should know for sure, but unless it`s some kind of really massive mistake, like animal bones or something like that, the chances are very, very good that this poor child was left, her remains left in a box, a computer box.
First of all, Mary Schiewe, I want to offer you my heartfelt -- I don`t want to say condolences, because I guess that`s technically premature, but I`m really sorry you`re going through this hell. And I know it is hell for you and the family.
MARY SCHIEWE, AUNT OF MISSING CHILD (via phone): Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: What has it been like to get this information about human remains found in a box, child`s remains, believed to be that of your niece?
SCHIEWE: It`s heartbreaking. I just don`t understand that almost 3 1/2 months go by, and my niece is in a box in the garage that the house was supposed to be searched.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Are you saying that you think they should have found this child before? Are you saying that somebody dropped the ball at not finding -- the remains are in the very house where the child disappeared from, in a detached garage next to the house, an area that was searched exhaustively by the police.
SCHIEWE: If the box wasn`t taken back to the house, I believe that they should have found it a while ago.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me say this: The whole story that your half-sister, Angela, gave to the police about the child being in the bed and then her -- the father comes in to take the child, and she says, "No, you can`t have the child. The child is napping."
Then after a big argument, she runs out and says the child`s missing. It doesn`t pass the smell test. I`m really sorry to say, Mary. It doesn`t make any sense. It`s a far-fetched story. Children don`t just disappear.
SCHIEWE: It doesn`t make any sense at all.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what do you think happened? Why are cops saying so many people might be involved? There were a lot of people in the house when this happened.
SCHIEWE: Because there are several people that are in the house on a daily basis, and all of a sudden, the day my niece came up missing, there was nobody there. It don`t make any sense. There -- I mean, there`s other people that know. I guarantee there`s other people that know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me ask you this. Do you think your half- sister, Angela, the mother of the child, was hiding information when she ran out and said my baby`s missing? Do you think something happened to the child many hours or maybe even a day earlier?
Let me give you a timeline and then I want to give you a chance to respond. OK. Here`s a timeline of the hours before Baby Elaina disappeared. June 1 -- that`s the day before -- Elaine and her mom are seen on surveillance video. The mother appears to be rocking the child. June 2, 12 hours before this child officially vanishes, a neighbor says he sees Baby Elaina`s mom, Angela, and her sometimes boyfriend, Steven King, leaving their house in the dead of night around 1 in the morning in a van, returning 15 minutes later. Hmm.
Elaina`s mom claims later that day she wakes up in the morning to find her baby with a black eye and a bump on the nose. She says, "I don`t know how the child got the injuries," but she doesn`t take the child to the doctor.
And then later that afternoon, during a custody argument, the mom claims the child just disappeared from inside the house. Now, her on again, off again boyfriend`s mother, who was also there, says she and her son, Steven, run out of the house desperately looking for the child. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was gone probably about a half an hour, I`d say. Steven and I, both of us went running out the back door, and I was just afraid by some chance that maybe she had gotten out the back door into the pool. I had told Steven to go down the alley. Maybe she had gotten out the gate. He didn`t go running out the back door by himself. He didn`t go running out the back door with a baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and the garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. So that`s the mother of the on again boyfriend of the mother of the missing, now feared dead child, saying basically -- everybody was looking for the child.
But I have to go back to Mary Schiewe. You are the half-sister of the mother of this child, who is -- this half-sister of yours is now behind bars. It would occur to me that possibly something happened to the child in the course of the night, and that`s why maybe they got up in the middle of the night and got in their van and went away for 15 minutes and came back.
And then the next day, they say the child is napping, but in fact, something has already happened to the child.
SCHIEWE: I think that Steven`s mom is full of crap, and I believe that she was hurt Saturday night and she was taken out of that house Sunday morning and she, my sister, was holding in what she knew. She knew that my niece was hurt and that she didn`t seek medical attention for her. She knew that. That`s why she was charged with that child endangerment and obstruction of justice, because she was holding that in. She knew the whole time that my niece was hurt and she didn`t seek help for her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, if I can ask you to stand by for a second. Straight out to the Lion`s Den.
Wendy Walsh, it would appear this child is dead. They have not confirmed the remains, but it`s a child`s remains in the same house where this child vanished. You`re hearing all of this. I mean, it`s a big mess. What do you make of it?
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, you know, who knows? Because nobody seems to be telling the truth, and nobody is talking.
I`m most interested to know what`s going on with this mother. I mean, she was arrested from the beginning, and instead of saying, "Let`s be working hard to find my child," she was busy trying to defend herself.
I think that something clearly happened to this child, whether it happened the day before. Now that I hear there was a swimming pool on the premises, I`m wondering if even an accident might have happened and then they decided to disguise the remains because they were afraid.
Or it could have been the injuries. Remember, there were bruises. She didn`t get medical attention for these bruises. This kid could have had a concussion and died in her sleep. We really don`t know, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And I don`t think you generally get black eyes from falling in the pool, but I could be wrong. You don`t know.
On the other side, we`re just getting started. Are the remains Baby Elaina? Cops think so. But who is responsible for her death? Will somebody be charged with murder? Why were the remains in a box? The police searched that area and didn`t find them.
So many questions, stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: I`m not going to say she was directly responsible for anything. But my daughter was in her care at the time that this happened, and the police are handling it the way they feel they need to. (END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GRAPHIC: Don`t talk to anybody in jail about the case.
ANGELA STEINFURTH, ELAINA`S MOTHER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GRAPHIC: OK. I just want to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
GRAPHIC: You`re not going home tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s the mother, Angela, the mother of the missing child who is now feared found dead. The remains of the child bound in a box from the very house from which the child disappeared, in a detached garage adjacent to that house.
Straight out to Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky, forensic scientist, one of the nation`s best. How do they determine, in fact, if this is baby Elaina, given that the child disappeared three months ago? It`s the summertime, the remains were found in a box.
DR. LAWRENCE KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST (via phone): Well, indeed. When a person dies, under dry conditions, they could mummify. But apparently, that`s not what happened here. There was complete decomposition down to skeletal remains.
And the way to identify the body with not very much question is through mitochondrial DNA analysis. Doing a sample of the long bones of the remains and compare the mitochondrial profile to that of the mother, because maternal relatives share the same exact genetics.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And Dr. Kobi -- Dr. Kobi, I want to ask you about determining manner and cause of death if there`s skeletal remains. How do you do that?
KOBILINSKY: Yes, you beat me to the punch. That`s exactly what I was coming to. The skeletal remains may be very, very difficult to determine the cause of death. There may have been blunt trauma, for example. That would be revealed in injury to the bones. Something like a stabbing or a shooting can sometimes be determined. But something likes asphyxiation may or may not be revealed on an autopsy. This is not a simple case.
And the manner of death, obviously, it seems like a homicide, but the possibility is an accident and a cover-up. The circumstances that surround the finding of the body are certainly very, very suspicious and would lead one to think it`s a homicide. But I think that is in the hands of the medical examiner right now.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thank you, doctor.
You`re saying it`s very little doubt it`s human remains. So that`s an important aspect of it, because sometimes they make a mistake and sometimes it is animal bones.
Straight out to the Lion`s Den. Holly Hughes, criminal defense attorney, but most importantly, former prosecutor, is this going to be a case of too little too late? That they found the remains of this child, let`s say they determined that yes, it is baby Elaina in a couple of hours or in days. But it`s too late to determine how she died.
HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: It is, Jane. And I`m having flashbacks. I hate to say it, but I`m having flashbacks to the Casey Anthony case. Because what did we see at trial? The same thing. You had skeletal remains, no way to determine cause of death and a pool in the backyard. Right? Are they taking a page out of that playbook? Is that why all of a sudden, we`re hearing this story, that he ran out back to search the pool.
And we`re all going to ask the same question: Then why not call the police immediately? Why not try to revive that baby? If it was a drowning, there`s no soft tissue. There`s no lungs or organ left to determine that`s what it was. So it`s going to be very hard. We`re looking at a circumstantial evidence case, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Vince Velazquez, homicide detective, the day the child vanished, we now have confirmed that the mother admits the child had a black eye and a bloody nose. She claims that she woke up and spotted her child that way, which doesn`t make very much sense.
VINCE VELAZQUEZ, HOMICIDE DETECTIVE> No, it doesn`t make sense at all. The fact that she even told somebody that is beyond me. I can`t understand why she would even allow, if that`s not even true, to make that up.
One point I want to make clear, when the boyfriend showed up -- I`m sorry, when the father of the baby showed up to pick up the baby and the mother said the baby was napping, and all of a sudden, the boyfriend got up to fight him, I think that was staged. It looks like it was something that they decided at the last minute, like he cannot come in the house and tried to stop with him by having a fight with him and get him angry so he would leave. This looks like, to me, a conspiracy between the mother and the boyfriend, and perhaps his mother, too.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let`s just say that nobody has been charged in connection with this child`s death. But there are obstruction of justice charges against the mother and the boyfriend.
Stay right there. We`ll have more on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK. It`s very hard not having her around. My other daughter is going insane without her sister. They need to be together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quiet. Let him open up his mouth, and he`ll go to jail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, just keep it down. You`re being recorded, everything you say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get him away from me. I`ve got a restraining order against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing after the other. You already got a restraining order for terroristic threats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Drama and a feud between the two families. The family of the child`s father, the family of the missing and now feared dead child`s mother. So did this child become a pawn in that battle? There are numerous arts that mom Angela was rough and possibly abusive with her kid, Elaina, and her 4-year-old daughter, for that matter. Baby Elaina`s dad, T.J., says that`s one of the reasons he and Angela separated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: She yelled at them, cursed at them. She would snatch my oldest daughter by her arm and, like, yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth. Just things that I don`t agree with. That`s not how you correct children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: T.J. claims he`d seen bruises on Baby Elaina just days before she disappeared, and Child Protective Services visited the Steinfurth home last year when the couple was still together, but they were having problems.
Straight out to the Lion`s Den. Now that we have found remains that we believe are Baby Elaina, Areva Martin, was this a disaster waiting to happen? Should we have seen the red flags?
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: I think so, Jane. We see so many of these cases where there`s abuse in the home by parents, and social services come out, and they do what they call an investigation, but then months later there`s a dead child. So the ball was dropped somewhere with respect to this child.
We hear the dad talking about the mom being abusive, but the child goes back to being in the care of the mom.
And you know, no matter whether this was an accident at the swimming pool, or the child got away, some crime was committed here. A 1-year-old child doesn`t leave a bed without there being some adult activity involved in it. A 1-year-old child doesn`t end up dead and in a box unless some adults have sine responsibility. So I`m just hoping that the police can put together a case to get these people to start telling the truth, because justice needs to be done for this little girl. This is horrific.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mary -- Mary Schiewe, you are the aunt of the baby who is now feared dead. But you`re also the half-sister of her mom. What about these claims of abuse made by the child`s father?
SCHIEWE: I -- I never seen it. If it did happen, she should have known better to ever let that happen in front of me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you never saw bruises or bumps? Or anything...
SCHIEWE: I`ve seen bruises. I`ve seen bruises.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I mean, what were the explanations offered for those bruises?
SCHIEWE: She fell or it was always she`s clumsy. That was -- that was her way of telling me, you know, I don`t know where the bruises came from.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Mary, was there an issue with this precious child? Was she in any way, shape or form disabled at all?
SCHIEWE: No, no way. She was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with her. She had problems with her feet when she was first born, and that was taken care of through therapy. She was perfectly fine. There was nothing wrong with her.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So even though we`re hearing these reports from the baby`s father, as well as there`s other published reports of other people saying that they heard your half-sister yelling and being crude and cursing at the kids, you`re saying she never acted that way in front of you?
SCHIEWE: She does -- she does have a smart mouth and I`m not saying I`ve never heard her. I`m not defending her in any way. But hitting-wise, she would know way better than to do that in front of me.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I thank you for standing by. We`re going to take a short break. We`re just getting started. The question, was this child murdered? Are the remains that of this child? Who is going to be charged? Will justice happen for baby Elaina?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. STEINFURTH: Snatched my oldest daughter by her arm, yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t go running out the back door by himself or running out with a baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and in the garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her and her boyfriend were fighting because of the way he was treating my children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep him away from me. I have a restraining order against him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a restraining order on him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They searched here I think a total of four or five times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I overheard her staying stuff to other people that Elaina had a black eye, a broken nose and a lump on her head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She would snatch my oldest daughter by her arm, yank her, drag her around, smack her in the mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn`t go running out the back door by himself. He didn`t go running out the back door with a baby. It was him and I looking in the pool and the garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Breaking news. The remains of a child believed to be Baby Elaina just found, feet from where many vigils were held over three months to pray for the child`s return. The cops searched this home several times, including the detached garage where the remains were found just yesterday. And that has a lot of people irritated and wondering how could cops have missed these remains?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn`t drop the ball, number one. Number two, this investigation is ongoing exactly (ph). We can`t get into all these various details right now.
The main thing you have to remember -- there are two things. Number one, we wanted to find the body -- we wanted to find that baby, which we did. Number two, we want to bring justice for Elaina which means that we`re going to continue through our investigation and do the things we need to do to make sure the people that are responsible for this are held accountable. We`re not going to get into all these -- how many times we checked here, how many times we checked that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Here are pictures from inside the home. The family claims the cops tore it apart. The cops say, hey it was a complete mess to begin with to the point that cops couldn`t let their own cadaver dogs inside because there was just too much junk.
So two possible scenarios: either those remains were there the entire time and the police really did drop the ball, or somebody deviously moved the body around after they searched.
Straight out to "The Lion`s Den" -- let`s ask our experts. Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, why did it take three months to find a body inside the very property where the child vanished?
HOLLY HUGHES, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Well Jane, I think you just hit the nail on the head. This baby was in a computer box. You can move that around very easily, very simply. They`ve searched this residence four or five times. I would assume they searched the out-building, that detached garage where those remains were found yesterday.
So it`s likely that the baby wasn`t there and they figured hey after four or five searches, we`re in the clear, we can now stash those remains up there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: When Elaina first went missing, many people pointed the finger at her mom, Angela. Here is the mom right before her arrest. Listen and we`ll analyze.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STEINFURTH, MOTHER OF BABY ELAINA: I`ve been shaking for the last three days and I just want my baby home. She has problems and they`re going to get (inaudible) can do it for her. I need all the support I can get to bring her home -- anything to keep me comfortable and from losing my mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Psychologist, Wendy Walsh, here she is saying we need that baby home, what do you think -- lying?
WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: Yes. What she`s talking about is herself here. She needs the support, she needs anything to make herself feel comfortable, to keep from losing her mind. Did she say "I`m worried where my baby is tonight? She could be cold. She could be hungry. If she`s with you and you`ve stolen her, please know she needs this, or she needs that. Please take care of my baby."
No, no, no. This wasn`t even about the baby. It`s "Please help me stop losing my mind, please. I`m having a rough day."
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very much crying for herself.
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY: Jane, Jane --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead. Go ahead.
MARTIN: I just want to add to what Wendy said. And I don`t want to bash that aunt, but I`m sitting here listening to the aunt and again I`m not hearing the kind of empathy that you would expect to hear. She was so casual about the abuse that she says she did with this -- the cursing, the yelling at this one-year-old child. That`s not normal parenting behavior.
And if you`re watching someone parent like that, someone intervene. Someone step in. This mom probably needed to have supervised visits with this child. It doesn`t appear she was fit or capable of parenting these kids and now we have this one-year-old that`s dead.
WELSH: Jane --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead.
WALSH: Jane, this is Wendy. More than the mother, I`m concerned about this new boyfriend --
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh yes, we`re going to get to that.
WALSH: -- because, you know, the statistics tell the truth. A child, one of the most dangerous places for a child to live in America is in a home with a non-biologically-related male -- 11 times the rate of sexual abuse --
M1: Absolutely.
WALSH: -- physical abuse and emotional abuse.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well I want to give --
WALSH: Plus if he uses drugs or alcohol.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Very good points. And there he is, right there. That`s Steven King. All right -- and he and his attorney are invited on any time. He`s behind bars right now charged with obstruction of justice but he has attorneys so they`re invited on.
Mary Scheiwe, you`re the aunt of the missing child -- the half sister of her mother. I want to give you a chance to respond to what our experts just said.
MARY SCHWEIWE, AUNT OF BABY ELAINA: About what part?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, they said they felt that your response to the mother`s verbal -- apparent verbal abuse of the children was less than appropriate.
SCHEIWE: Less than appropriate, because if it happened in front of me I wouldn`t have let it happened because it`s never happened in front of me. Maybe I`ve seen her grab her arm a couple of times and yank her towards her, she`s doing something but her like beating the crap out of her has never, ever happened in front of me, ever.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Right. And you established that. And I`m not trying to put you on the spot. I appreciate you joining us. I want to give you - -
SCHEIWE: No, I understand. I would never let that happen to my niece, ever.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But you did acknowledge --
SCHEIWE: (inaudible) when she came over here.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, let me ask you another question. Why did she end up at this boyfriend`s house? We`re going to play a sound bite in a second where somebody criticizes the boyfriend and said it`s actually the biological father said that they were concerned about her being with this boyfriend with the kids. Why did she go to the boyfriend`s house? Apparently what she and the father agreed on is that she would go to her own father`s house, a real adult`s house.
SCHEIWE: She was supposed to stay at my house that night. She was texting me and my dad and she was supposed to stay at my house that night. We don`t know why she ended up over there. I mean we couldn`t force her to stay here. She`s grown. She does what she wants. But she was supposed to -- from my understanding, her last text message to me was that she was going to be at my house. Now, the last text message from my dad and her was that she went back over to that house.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So you`re saying she`s an adult, she can do what she wants, but I had heard reports that she wanted to be able to go to the boyfriend`s house for a couple of reasons. She had had a fight with the boyfriend and she wanted to make up with him. She had fought with his mother, she wanted to make up with her and also that they allowed her to smoke which apparently your dad didn`t?
SCHEIWE: I don`t know make up. I never heard that she wanted to make up with him. And I don`t know why she would want to anyways. And no, my dad doesn`t allow smoking in the house. That`s why he has a hole in his neck from smoking.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: So she did smoke.
SCHEIWE: She doesn`t like my dad`s rules -- that`s what it was. My daddy had rules because there`s kids are going to be in the house and obviously you respect it. You don`t run in all hours of the night. She didn`t like it and she never has when she lived here.
She didn`t like being here. That`s all there was to it. We don`t know, the girls will have a (inaudible). But she didn`t like my dad`s rules. That`s what it was.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wendy Walsh, psychologist, what do you make of it?
WALSH: Well, this girl is a little rebellious and my concern with this mother is that her relationship with her boyfriend was more important to her than the safety of her children, than the relationship she was going to have to protect her children.
You know, little babies are given to us for a reason. It`s our job to protect them. Even if it was an accident, was she neglectful to these children to potentially participate in this accident in this way?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, on the other side, we`re going to take a look at the boyfriend -- on again, off again boyfriend -- Steven King. What is his role, if any?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn`t know where the baby`s at or who took the baby. Personally from what I viewed of her, I don`t think she`s shown any emotion of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The baby was injured at one point. She was aware of it, and did not seek medical attention for the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. This poor child is believed to have been found dead in a box. The autopsy to confirm that is occurring today. So we should know for sure. But it certainly looks that way tragically. The box was found in the very home, the very property where this child disappeared.
Now, we have an exclusive interview tonight with Mary Scheiwe, the aunt of this child, and the half sister of the child`s mother.
Some of our panelists have suggested that you didn`t respond enough to whatever you saw, and I know you`re very upset about that. I heard that from my producers. I want to give you a chance to set the record straight, Mary Scheiwe.
SCHEIWE: I was there. I`m just mad about what that lady said that my response to Kylie and Elaina`s abuse wasn`t right. She doesn`t live in that house.
He knew way more than what I did. He`s seen it everyday more than what I did. I only got to see my nieces when they weren`t being held over my head, when I wasn`t being a supposedly bad person, when it was on their time for me to see my nieces. I will do anything for them girls.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me give -- yes, I will say this, and I don`t know who exactly said it in our panel -- possibly Areva. I mean sometimes extended family members cannot control the situation. They`re powerless. Have you ever tried to get a relative to do what you want them to do? Ha. Good luck with that.
SCHEIWE: Yes, I mean she has (inaudible) her own. Obviously, us telling her not to go back over to the house because she still went over there when she had a perfectly good place that she was offered to stay with both of the girls.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And namely your house.
Ok, Areva I want to give you a chance --
SCHEIWE: It was my house -- it is my house.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, yes, exactly.
MARTIN: And I started my statement -- Jane, I started my statement by saying I wasn`t trying to bash the aunt and I`m still not trying to bash the aunt. I know how horrible this situation is for every one.
But all too often in these cases there are people in the family, friends, people who are close up on these situations that see things and they ignore them. This is just a wakeup call for everyone who is watch thing story, if they see parents who are in trouble like this family obviously was, that sometimes getting involved can make a difference and can save a life.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Mary, you want to respond?
SCHEIWE: Well, in this case, getting involved in a hostile (ph) situation because she don`t listen to anything that anybody says because every since them girls were born, we tried telling her things and telling her things and she does not listen. Nothing mattered. It wasn`t about what we had to say. It didn`t matter at that point, never.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Do you think it`s possible that something happened to this child -- a beating, some kind of abuse that left her with a black eye and bloody nose and then the child died and she lied.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHEIWE: -- it`s not an accident. There is no accident. That word needs to be taken out because that was not an accident. They knew what they did to my niece, whether it was over drugs, over a fight, it was not an accident.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you`re mentioning drugs now. Does your sister have a drug problem?
SCHEIWE: I`m not sure -- for sure about her, but I can guarantee 100 percent Steven had a drug problem. I can see -- I know people that sold drugs to him.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well again, I cannot -- I cannot confirm or deny that. I have no knowledge of that, and if Steven`s attorney wants to come -- there`s Steven, the on again, off again boyfriend of the mother of the child who disappeared and the child disappeared from his family home -- his mother`s home. I don`t know for sure whether or not he has a drug problem.
But you`re hearing it from the sister of the mother of the child who disappeared and is now feared dead. I heard somebody sort of howling with sadness -- Wendy Walsh.
WALSH: Yes, it`s just heartbreaking to think there could potentially have been a drug user in the house, who is a large full-grown man, who is not biologically-related to the kids and they have no biological interest. And on top of it all, could have been out of his mind high. It breaks my heart. A child should never be exposed to that kind of environment ever, ever, ever.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Holly Hughes, former prosecutor, what do cops do now?
HUGHES: Well, Jane, they`re going to continue to try and break somebody down. That`s why when you heard the police chief talking earlier he said a lot of deception, a lot of people leading us the wrong way, which tells me somebody, and more than one somebody, knows what went down there.
Now that the remains have been discovered, this isn`t just about child endangerment, this isn`t an obstruction charge. People are looking at facing murder one.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. We are going to stay on top of this case. We want justice for Baby Elaina. And we will fight for it.
Stay right there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey Rico, here`s our Pet of the Day, send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane.
Let`s see who we got today. Binky -- your cousin Binky, look at him. He`s small but he`s biggy. All right. And then we have Cooper and Jackpot. I feel like I`ve hit the jackpot. What a fabulous pair. Oh, and Ashland, you are fash-land. Oh, my gosh, Jordan, you`re just classic, classic, classic dog -- perfection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hey, guess what, little Rico? Great news for animals with eyes and hearts just like you -- tonight thousands of animals rescued from certain death and flown across the country to start a new life in freedom. A California group called The Animal Place rescued 3,000 egg- laying hens who were about to be killed at a commercial egg farm. Rescuers say these hens are what egg industry calls spent hens and they`re routinely killed even though they`re just two years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARJI BEACH, ANIMAL PLACE: In California there is no slaughterhouse that will take these hens. They`re considered spent when they`re only two years old. And egg farmers have to pay people to come to their property, gas the birds and then dump those birds into landfills.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And now you`re looking at file video of a typical factory farm. Critics say most hens spend their entire lives crammed into small cages unable to spread their wings. Many never see the outside world, never set foot on grass.
Critics say chickens routinely have their beaks cut off soon after birth -- a process called debeaking. They also suffer from osteoporosis. They can`t move. After about two years of this miserable life they`re gassed to death and dumped into landfills. Critics claim this is standard operating practice.
But these kind citizens decided to make a difference. 3,000 hens spared from death by gassing will now find new homes, humane homes at shelters in California and all over the country. Guess what -- more than a thousand hens were flown from the West Coast across the country to New York State where they were placed in shelters and sanctuaries.
Straight out to Bruce Friedrich of Farm Sanctuary -- Bruce, your wonderful organization took in about 700 of these hens. First of all, what do you know about what these hens have been through?
BRUCE FRIEDRICH, FARM SANCTUARY: Well, like 95 percent of hens, according to the industry, Jane -- 95 percent of hens are confined in the conditions that you just showed. They`re call battery cages. The cages are about 18 by 20 inches and they cram -- an industry averages more than five hens in each of these cages. A hen has a wing span of 30 to 32 inches so not one hen can spread even one wing for her entire life.
Just like you would if you were unable to move for two years, the animals` muscles and bones waste away from lack of use. By the time they`re depopulated, by the time they`re ripped out of these cages and gassed, a third of the animals will suffer new bone breaks during that process because their muscles and bones are so thoroughly deteriorated.
So psychologically they go insane in these conditions. Physiologically, the abuse is really beyond any of worst imaginings.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And this is just for eggs -- correct?
FRIEDRICH: This is for eggs and it takes about 34 hours in one of these cages to produce just one egg and then this is how 95 percent of egg- laying hens are treated according to the industry. It`s worth noting that chickens are individuals just like dogs and cats are individuals. In fact on tests of cognitive and behavioral sophistication, chickens outperform dogs and cats.
No more acceptable to do this to a chicken than it would be to do it to a dog or a cat. And yet because it`s standard agricultural practice, it`s legal. It would be cruelty to animals if these were dogs or cats -- if these were protected animals but because they`re egg-laying hens, really just anything goes, including the level of abuse that you just showed.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side, what you can do, how you can get involved with Farm Sanctuary or other groups. Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEACH: In California there is no slaughterhouse that will take these hens. These are hens from the egg industry. We know what we`re doing is good work. We know we`re saving lives and that`s what matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ll take about 100 from this barn; we took 500 from the other barn; about 200 from each of the other barns -- it`s really a coming together of compassion-minded people that are trying to do some good in this world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hundreds of people from a whole bunch of different animal groups getting together to save 3,000 hens that were set to be gassed. Now, before these hens were rescued, they were just unnamed statistics stuck in a factory farm. Last year in America, nearly 93 billion eggs were laid by hens including well five billion in California alone.
You know, the average American eats about 250 eggs a year. So what would you say Bruce to Americans who want to change things? I know that there`s a big battle right now over this King amendment that seeks to wipe out any small protections for factory farm animals.
FRIEDRICH: Yes, the King amendment is absolutely loathsome and it`s remarkable that it`s coming from Steve King, a guy who purports to be a state`s rights kind of guy. And here he`s going to vacate literally dozens of state laws in this race to the bottom if the King amendment passes. People who want to get involved and say "no" to the vacation of law to protect animals, to protect the environment, to protect workers -- it`s just, it`s absolutely a hideous amendment.
People can find out more about it at farmsanctuary.org. And for people whose hearts strings --
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we`ve got to leave it right there but that`s a good place. Go to farmsanctuary.org.
Nancy is next.
FRIEDRICH: Thank you.
END
Baby Elaina Latest News Updates from Twitter
Tweets about "baby elaina"Friday, September 6, 2013
Watch Videos from the Baby Elaina case (press conference, Angela Steinfurth court, Steven King arrest, T.J. Steinfurth speaks)
The latest news update regarding the case of missing 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth took a tragic twist on Sept. 5, 2013, when authorities with the Toledo Police Department announced they discovered human remains at the home located at 704 Federal St., where Elaina was last seen.
Toledo Police Chief Derrick Diggs spoke during a live press conference on Sept. 6, 2013, at approximately 10:30 a.m., and confirmed that a box was retrieved from
the garage of the home that contained human remains.
Elaina Steinfurth lived with her mother Angela, 25, who was living off and on with a boyfriend named Steven King at his mother's Julie King's house. Elaina was 18-months-old when she was reported missing on June 2, 2013. Her father, Terry Steinfurth was estranged from Angela, but arrived at the King residence on June 2, 2013, to pick up Elaina and her older sister.
Reports state that Angela refused to hand Elaina over, then after a period of approximately 20 minutes spent arguing with Terry (T.J.) Steinfurth, she went into the home to get Elaina. It was after returning into the home that Angela reportedly started screaming that someone had taken the baby.
Angela Steinfurth was arrested on June 12, 2013, for child endangerment. She faces obstruction of justice charges. On July 22, 2013, Steven King was arrested and also charged with obstruction of justice.
You may see videos from the press conference regarding the discovery of human remains (it will take weeks for DNA confirmation that they are Elaina Steinfurth's, interview with Terry "T.J." Steinfurth (who never lost hope that Elaina would be found) and watch interviews as well as court appearances with Angela Steinfurth and Steven King in the video player below.
Get more latest news updates on the Baby Elaina case as they occur from the Twitter feed below.
Toledo Police Chief Derrick Diggs spoke during a live press conference on Sept. 6, 2013, at approximately 10:30 a.m., and confirmed that a box was retrieved from
Elaina Steinfurth lived with her mother Angela, 25, who was living off and on with a boyfriend named Steven King at his mother's Julie King's house. Elaina was 18-months-old when she was reported missing on June 2, 2013. Her father, Terry Steinfurth was estranged from Angela, but arrived at the King residence on June 2, 2013, to pick up Elaina and her older sister.
Reports state that Angela refused to hand Elaina over, then after a period of approximately 20 minutes spent arguing with Terry (T.J.) Steinfurth, she went into the home to get Elaina. It was after returning into the home that Angela reportedly started screaming that someone had taken the baby.
Angela Steinfurth was arrested on June 12, 2013, for child endangerment. She faces obstruction of justice charges. On July 22, 2013, Steven King was arrested and also charged with obstruction of justice.
You may see videos from the press conference regarding the discovery of human remains (it will take weeks for DNA confirmation that they are Elaina Steinfurth's, interview with Terry "T.J." Steinfurth (who never lost hope that Elaina would be found) and watch interviews as well as court appearances with Angela Steinfurth and Steven King in the video player below.
Get more latest news updates on the Baby Elaina case as they occur from the Twitter feed below.
Baby Elaina Latest News Updates from Twitter
Tweets about "baby elaina"
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