Elaina Steinfurth Twitter Updates
On Sept. 6, 2013, the Toledo Police Department held a press conference announcing the discovery of human remains located in a box, within a garage on the property where Elaina Steinfurth was reportedly last seen alive. Her mother and mother's ex-boyfriend are currently incarcerated, held on obstruction of justice charges; but it appears further charges may be forthcoming.
The investigation is active and the remains are currently undergoing forensic analysis to hopefully determine cause of death as well as being positively identified. Elaina Steinfurth's father, Terry Steinfurth Jr., never held out hope for his daughter and neighbors along with family members held weekly prayer vigils since Elaina's disappearance.
Tweets about "ELAINA STEINFURTH"
Baby Elaina Latest News and Updates on Twitter
Tweets about "baby elaina"Transcript: Baby Elaina case update from Nancy Grace
Transcript: Jane Velez-Mitchell talks Baby Elaina case, human remains found (Videos)
Watch Videos from the Baby Elaina case (press conference, Angela Steinfurth court, Steven King arrest, T.J. Steinfurth speaks) (Sept. 6, 2013)
Baby Elaina case: Nancy Grace updates as remains found in box (videos) (Sept. 6, 2013)
Updates from Northwest Ohio/Elaina
HLN covered the case of missing 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth on two programs that aired on June 17, 2013: Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell and Nancy Grace. More information was given about where Baby Elaina and her behind-bars-mother Angela Steinfurth were living at the time of Elaina's disappearance on June 2, 2013. Steinfurth was living with her ex-boyfriend's mother. Steven King (Angela Steinfurth's ex- and no relation to the author) is in hiding as he's received death threats since the case has gone public.
Reports say cadaver dogs have been brought in to the case; however, authorities have not officially declared the case a homicide.
Videos: Elaina Steinfurth
Here is the transcript from the Jane Velez-Mitchell program regarding Baby Elaina.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
Surveillance Video Shows Baby, Mom Before Disappearance; Where is Baby Elaina?; George Zimmerman Trial
Aired June 17, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Stunning new developments tonight in the hunt for a beautiful baby girl who vanishes right from her own bedroom in the middle of the day.
Good evening. I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live.
Tonight, new unbelievable surveillance video obtained by WNWO shows the child and her mom just hours before the child went missing. What does this video tell us, and where is baby Elaina? Tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANGELA STEINFURTH, BABY ELAINA`S MOTHER: I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can imagine, it`s rough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to bring that baby home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if you don`t want to give your name or anything like that, just drop her off to a church.
STEINFURTH: I have been shaking for the last three day, and I just want my baby home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mother who pleaded for her missing baby`s return, well, she`s now sitting in a jail cell.
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 love you, Angela.
STEINFURTH: I love you, too, Dad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As her family supports Angela, Elaina`s grandfather was asked if he believes the toddler is alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. You (EXPLETIVE DELETED) before I get you, because I`m coming for you today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something has to break. Somebody knows something and somebody has to talk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Eighteen-month-old Elaina Steinfurth has been missing for nearly two weeks now. Her mother claims she put the child down for a nap at her ex-boyfriend`s home and the child just vanished into thin air. Mom Angela claims she didn`t know Elaina was missing until the child`s father - - and we`ll show you his face in a second -- came to get her. There he is in a custody exchange.
Angela handed over their 4-year-old daughter, no problem, but refused to get Elaina. First thing, she didn`t want to wake her from a nap. Then saying she was afraid to give Elaina to the father because she would never see the child again. Finally, Angela goes to get Elaina, and that`s when she comes running out saying, the baby is gone!
Cops say the mother finally admitted little Elaina had serious injuries she wasn`t treated for. Tonight the mother that you`re looking at right there, behind bars charged with child endangerment. Yes, she`s sobbing in court while her attorney is whispering advice in her ear. Listen carefully.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t talk to anybody in jail about the case.
STEINFURTH: OK. I just want to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re not going home tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: You are not going home until you start talking, lady. Will this mother start spilling secrets now that she`s behind bars? What really happened to little Elaina? And could brand-new information we just uncovered about the ex-boyfriend be a crucial clue? We`ll tell you what we found in a second.
Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.
Tonight, I will talk exclusively with the child`s cousin as we try to solve this mystery.
But first, straight out to WNWO reporter Angie Gonzalez.
You have obtained this astonishing surveillance video from the day before little Elaina vanished. Tell us: where was it shot and what does it show?
ANGIE GONZALEZ, WNWO REPORTER (via phone): Well, Jane, this video was shot about 12 blocks away from the last place that Elaina was seen on June the 2nd of this year.
A viewer of our station, WNWO, the NBC station here in Toledo, Ohio, was contacted by a family member of Angela. That`s the mother, Angela Steinfurth. And contacted us on her father`s behalf, saying that he had video the day before little Elaina went missing. He contacted us, did not want to go on our airwaves, did not want to be identified but said that he had video of the little girl the day before she went missing.
And in the video you can see the mother kissing her as she walks into the house. You can see her sitting on the porch of the home, cradling her daughter. Allegedly before she`s seen, or last seen the next day by her own mother.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: And what is this report that the ex-boyfriend got his van or his mother`s van and put the two kids and the mom, Angela, in the van and was driving around late at night right before her disappearance the next day?
GONZALEZ: He picked her up the day before she went missing. He picked Angela up and her two kids the day before they went missing in this vehicle.
Now, this vehicle was found or was searched by a cadaver dog a few days ago. They took it, the vehicle, into custody. They searched the vehicle, but nothing was found in that vehicle.
They did bring a cadaver dog from an outside county to take a look at the vehicle, and we thought that the cadaver dog said a lot about this case. Unfortunately, police not releasing anything about what they may have found in the vehicle.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Before her arrest, Elaina`s mom spoke out to the people who are pointing fingers at her, saying she needs support. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEINFURTH: 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 with me and her father, will do it for her. I need all the support that I can get to bring her home. Anything to keep me comfortable and from losing my mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Again, here is new exclusive WNWO video showing little Elaina and her mom, Angela, whom you just heard from, just a day before the baby is reported missing.
And you know, some people look at this video and say it appears that the child is crying or that she`s not moving very much for an 18-month-old. I don`t know what you can really see from looking at this. But we could establish that the day before, she was there and possibly OK. Maybe lethargic. Maybe not.
I want to go to my exclusive guest tonight, Ginger Smith, the little child`s cousin. Ginger Smith, thank you for joining us exclusively tonight. We want to help. We want to understand the dynamic, first of all. I understand that you were at the police command post or the command post where volunteers and police are gathering and searching.
But tell us about the dynamic between the mother of your little missing cousin, and her ex-boyfriend. Why was she even living at the house of her ex-boyfriend`s mother with her ex-boyfriend and her two kids?
GINGER SMITH, COUSIN OF BABY ELAINA (via phone): I really don`t know. I do know that she was living with them, and I believe she has been living there from march until about a month before Elaina came up missing.
And the night before Elaina come up missing, she had called them and told them that she had no place to go, no place to -- you know, it was cold, it was rainy. They needed food; they needed a place to spend the night. So supposedly, Steven`s mother allowed her to come and spend the night there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, why would she not have any place to live? What -- I mean, what mother who has a 4-year-old child and an 18-month-old child has no place to live? Was her life in crisis before this little precious innocent child disappeared, Ginger?
SMITH: Well, all I can speculate on that is I do know that the father, her and she and Terry Junior had separated, about February, I understand. And she immediately started living with this gentleman.
She could have definitely taken the children to T.J., but she was holding the children from T.J. She was kind of letting him see them very sparingly. He`d come over a couple times, wanted to get her -- get the kids, you know, and she said excuses.
And then this particular day, well, actually what happened was, when she got thrown out of the house -- let me back up a little bit. When she did get thrown out, she actually turned the kids over to T.J. T.J. had had the girls for approximately a week. And you know, he really thought there was not going to be no big issues. Nothing to have to really jump into immediately as far as custody.
And he had to work. And his girlfriend had to work, so they allowed her to have the girls. But they were supposed to stay at her father`s home which the agreement was. They`d stay at her father`s home. He`d pick them up in the morning when they got off of work. So when he went to get the girls at her dad`s, he -- the dad said that she had never came there. So...
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ginger, hold on for a second, because there`s a lot of people you`re mentioning and our viewers, I want to bring our viewers up to date on the cast of characters here, so we can try to solve this terrible mystery.
The baby`s mother, Angela -- you`ve been seeing her crying, there she is -- was staying with her ex-boyfriend, Steven, in his mother`s home at the time of the baby`s disappearance. Now, that ex- is apparently in hiding, because he`s getting death threats. Cops have not charged him with anything. He is not considered a suspect, and I want to stress that.
But Angela`s father, the father of this woman, who`s in jail, believes he is responsible for whatever happened to baby Elaina. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s guilty of not taking care of that baby like she should have. She should have took the baby to the hospital. She should have been truthful. She shouldn`t have even been in that house from the get-go. She doesn`t know where the baby is at, but she knew what happened to the baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is a very complicated family tree. Let`s lay it out for you.
Angela was staying, again, with her ex-boyfriend Steven King, not the author, in his mother, Julie`s, home at the time the child disappeared. Angela`s 4-year-old daughter was also in the home. The father of two children is Terry Steinfurth Jr., T.J., I guess, is what you were calling him, who came to the house to pick up his kids in a custody exchange. Angela refuses to hand over little Elaina, so he gets his dad, Terry Steinfurth Sr., and they come over. And all of a sudden, that`s when this woman here said that baby you`re looking at there has disappeared.
Now, Ginger, I want to get back to you for a second, but I also want to go to Vinny Parco, a private investigator who is really good at honing in on what could be going on here.
Without pointing the finger at anybody, what do you think is happening, Vinny?
VINNY PARCO, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: I`m going to have to point my finger at somebody. I`m pointing my finger at the mother.
This sounds like the Casey Anthony case all over again. I mean, she -- for two weeks, she doesn`t know where the child is? The kid had a bruise? My gut feeling is that she might have hurt the baby and disposed of the body. That`s the only thing I can think of at this time.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, that`s another factor, Jon Leiberman, is that once she was arrested or in the process of being interrogated, she revealed that the child had serious injuries that were not treated by going to the hospital, which is why she`s charged with child endangerment.
JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, absolutely. Vinnie hit on it. I mean, the early hours of a missing child investigation are the most important. The first 24, 48 hours.
In this case, so much time went by. And more time went by until this mother ended up telling police the truth.
We know this baby had injuries. We know the little baby was not treated at a medical facility. And we know police are putting the screws to the mom and they`re also, I have heard, attempting to question this ex-boyfriend further, as well. Because somebody in this circle knows exactly what happened to this baby and where this poor little baby is. She can`t speak for herself.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side of the break, new information that our show has uncovered about the ex-boyfriend. Stay right there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know who in that house knows what and why somebody won`t just come up and say, "Give me immunity. I`ll tell you what`s going on." Somebody has got to know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a mom, I don`t even -- I can`t even believe how evil it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEINFURTH: I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK. It is very hard not having her around. My other daughter is going insane without her sister. They need to be together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That mother charged with child endangerment. Police think she is holding back information about what happened to her child.
Straight out to Selin Darkalstanian, my senior producer, out of Los Angeles.
You`ve been digging. You`ve got new information about debts Angela`s ex- boyfriend owes, and to set the stage, Angela and little Elaina were staying with him and his mother in his home at the time of the child`s disappearance. What do you know?
SELIN DARKALSTANIAN, HLN PRODUCER: Jane, we`ve just uncovered -- we looked at his background check. I just ran it. And there`s 22 pages here of judgments and liens. He owes a whole lot of money to many, many different people. Some are medical. Some are random people. Some are to civil judgments. So we do know he does owe a lot of money to various different people. Now you have to see, does this play into Elaina missing? What`s his background?
We have tried to reach him all day. We`ve not been able to get through to him or his mother. The phone keeps at the house, but nobody is answering. So we are trying to get -- get in touch with him to see if he would want to speak or if he`s laying low.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Marc Klaas, father of Polly Klaas, who was tragically abducted and murdered, founder of Klaas Kids Foundation, a leading voice on the subject of missing children, what do you make of this situation?
MARC KLAAS, FOUNDER, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, I would be hard-pressed to find logic in somebody taking an action against an ex-girlfriend`s baby as a reason for -- you know, as retribution for him not paying some kind of a debt.
But I think what the police have to do here, and we`re looking at this. We see that the baby was alive the day before at 6:35 p.m. And what the authorities have to do now is they have to be able to fix those time lines from that point until the point when the father showed up to get the baby and the mother came out of the house screaming, "The baby is gone; the baby has been kidnapped."
They need to talk to people in the neighborhood. They need to see if there`s other surveillance tape, perhaps, that exists with the baby on it. But those are the mystery hours right there.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Marc, let me jump in here and say that there was reports -- Angie Gonzalez, a reporter for WNWO, obtained that video, surveillance video exclusively, says that there were reports that the ex- boyfriend had this van that may belong to his mother, and he had the two kids that belong to Angela, the 4-year-old and the missing toddler -- the now-missing toddler, and Angie in the car the night before. So let`s put that piece to the puzzle.
KLAAS: Well, that needs to be confirmed. I mean, the authorities need to confirm the time line, Jane. That`s exactly what has to happen. Until that happens and unless the mother finally speaks up and says what she knows what went on with the little baby, until the police are able to confirm time lines, this will remain a mystery.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s go out to the phone lines. Diane, New York, your question or thought. Diane, New York.
CALLER: Yes, hi.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.
CALLER: I`d like to find out. This woman always gives her ex-husband the baby. Why wouldn`t she give it to him now all of a sudden?
And another thing, I`m getting upset. Just listening to this.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s very upsetting. I want to go to Stacey Honowitz.
CALLER: It is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Here`s what doesn`t make any sense at all. The father, the baby daddy, comes over to get the little -- the two kids, the 4-year- old and the 18-month-old. The mother has no problem handing over the 4- year-old. But she says, "No, I`m not going to hand over the 18-month-old, because I`ll never see the child again."
Now, if she`s so concerned -- there`s the young man, the father, who goes and gets his dad. And they both come over and say, "Give us these kids. We have a custody arrangement."
If she`s so concerned about the dad, why would she give him the 4-year-old? To me it almost sounds like, could the child have already been missing when they go to pick up the child? Could the mother have been aware that the child wasn`t there so she makes these excuses? "Oh, the child is asleep. I can`t give you the child. Oh, the child -- you`ll never see her again. I`ll never see her again."
Do you see what I`m saying, Stacey?
STACEY HONOWITZ, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: You make all the great arguments that probably all your viewers are thinking. When you look at this and you see the video and you hear the facts, it defies logic.
Was there any problem between the two of them prior to this? Was there ever an issue turning over the kids? Did they ever have to go to court because she refused to turn the child over? Did the father feel alienated? These are all questions that lead you to believe that this mother obviously has some information.
And her being arrested and being in jail, now is the time for police to maybe go in and question her to see what she knows. Obviously, she knows something. She didn`t want to turn this one child over. There were allegations that there were injuries on this child. And so now we have to wait and see where this is going to lead to.
Was there evidence of a break-in? Who had access to the house? All of these questions are important.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Thank you. Yes. And they are, Stacey.
I want to go back to Ginger Smith, our exclusive interview. You are little Elaina, the missing baby`s cousin. What about this mom, Angela? Does she have also trouble? We know that her ex-boyfriend has this long history of owing people money. What -- what`s her story, Ginger?
SMITH: All I can really tell you as far as Angela goes, I do know that she had some problems, according to T.J., with depression. And she was always up and down moods.
And, you know -- and again, I`m not really sure, as far as I understand that, you know, she was known to, you know, punish the kids, put them in bedrooms, things like that, mishandle them, you know, yanking them by their arms, yelling at them. And this was why T.J. was starting to -- the process of going for custody. And then she calls one day and says, "Hey, you can have the girls." And that`s when she got thrown out of Julie`s home.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I want to pick that up with you on the other side of the break. You are dropping a lot of jaw-dropping information, Ginger. Maybe we can piece together this puzzle, this mystery. Stay right there.
More on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEINFURTH: I don`t know how to explain because there are people crazy. I have been going the last three days and I just want my baby home. She has problems. Nobody can handle it but me and her father 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)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via phone): She doesn`t know who has the baby. I don`t think she`s showing any emotion of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: As a sobbing Angela appeared for her arraignment, her lawyers seemed to whisper advice in her ear. Again, this is the mother of the missing child. There they are the day before that little girl right there, disappears. This is the mother in court.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don`t talk to anybody in jail about the case.
STEINFURTH: OK, I just want to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re not going home tonight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, she is sobbing. A lot of tears. Let`s go out to the phone lines. Virginia, California. Your question or thought -- Virginia.
CALLER: Hi, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hi.
CALLER: My father loves you. Anyway, I just wanted to say, in court she has a ton of tears for herself being locked up. Yet when she was interviewing about the baby being missing, there was not one drop of tears. And I think that Steven King`s mom knows where the baby is.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Well, I think your point about the tears is well taken.
Steven King`s mom, not the author, by the way, is invited on our show any time. We`d love to hear her side of the story.
Marc Klaas, of all the things that I`ve heard as this story unfolds today, my -- my skin, you know, just felt like goosebumps when Ginger Smith, the cousin of this little baby, said that this mother is known to push the children around, be rough with the kids.
KLAAS: Well, and she also seems to have some mood swings, some -- perhaps some mental problems. She doesn`t seem like a woman who`s terribly well equipment to be taking care of her own babies, let alone anybody else`s babies. It`s really disturbing.
She`s in a place she shouldn`t be staying. She`s got a child that`s injured, and she`s doing absolutely nothing about it. We don`t know the last time the child was really any place. She just seems to have disappeared sometime after 6:35 the evening before. It`s very troubling.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Ginger Smith -- and again, you`re our exclusive interview, the cousin of this precious, innocent child. I really don`t understand why the family at large allowed this woman to walk around when she has no real home with a 4-year-old and an 18-month-old.
OK, she ends up sort of crashing at this ex-boyfriend`s house. And maybe they were just being generous and now, you know, no good deed goes unpunished. But why on earth would family, Child and Family Services allow her to just walk around with these kids when she doesn`t have a stable home life?
SMITH: Yes, we totally agree with that, too. Like I said, they were -- T.J. and her were going to be going to actually be going through -- for custody of the children. And of course, he wanted the girls.
And then like I said, she had called that one day and said, you know, "Well, you can come get the girls. They can stay with you." She`d been kicked out of the home. So he immediately went and got the girls. And, you know, everything was pretty calm and cool. And so then he allowed the girls to spend the night on the terms that they would be at their father`s home.
And unfortunately, when he went to get girls the next morning, now dad never called T.J. and said, "Hey, the girls aren`t at my home." He waited until the next morning to tell T.J., hey, they were at Steven`s home.
So when he goes to the home to get the girls, then you know, he was handed over the 4-year-old, but they refused to give him the baby.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unbelievable. There is a missing child out there, 18 months old, and she didn`t just get up and climb out the window of her bedroom after her mother put her down for a nap. What did happen to her? And what does this mother know?
More on the other side. And we`re taking your calls. I want to hear your theories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 police are handling it the way they feel they need to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she is ok.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to bring that baby home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you don`t want to give your name or anything like that, just drop her off to a church.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been shaking for the last three days. I just want my baby home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mother who pleaded for her missing baby`s return -- well, she is now sitting in a jail cell.
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: As her family supports Angela, Elaina`s grandfather was asked if he believes the toddler is alive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) before I get you because I`m coming for you today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something has to break. Somebody knows something and somebody has to talk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Rage, fear, sadness, and searching -- 80 people including law enforcement, volunteers, family members, neighbors, combing the area of Toledo where this child disappeared -- little Elaina. And we have surveillance video just in that shows the child with her mother the day before. Actually, the early evening before she disappeared.
What happened between this and the next day when the baby`s dad comes to pick the child up and the mother says, "You can`t have the child." And after stalling for a considerable amount of time then runs out and says she`s gone, she`s gone. Is that a coincidence?
This missing child mystery has the entire community on edge and some think there is more to this story than the mother is saying. Others can`t imagine anyone in this family being involved in this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know who in that house knows what and why somebody won`t just come up and say, "Look, give me immunity. I`ll tell you what`s going on." Somebody has to know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a mom, I don`t even -- I can`t even begin to feel how Angela feels about losing her baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: The cops have searched the home where little Elaina vanished along with this purple GMC van -- actually it`s similar to this. The van reportedly belonged to the ex-boyfriend at whose house she was crashing, Steven King and it was his mother`s house, actually. But Steven allegedly drove this van to pick up Angela and the kids late at night the night before the little girl vanishes.
So what to make of it? Jon Leiberman, bring us up to date on the investigation.
JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Jane, I`ll tell you. Time is of the essence. This little 18-month-old has been missing since June 2nd and police cannot get any straight answers. Local, state and federal law enforcement are all working on this as we speak and the key is this. Police say that this toddler`s mother admitted that the little girl got seriously injured somehow -- they didn`t elaborate -- but did not receive the medical attention that she needed. That is a key in this case.
We don`t know what happened from the moment this little girl was injured up until now. All we know is that time is ticking away and everybody is concerned. And somebody in this inner circle of this family knows exactly what happened to this toddler and it is time that that person came forward and spoke to police.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Or the mother herself whom we are looking at right now, who is behind bars and cops are going to be putting the squeeze on her.
And I want to go to Stacey Honowitz, Florida prosecutor. How do cops put the squeeze on her? We overheard her lawyer saying to her don`t talk to anybody behind bars. How are they going to get her to sing?
STACEY HONOWITZ, FLORIDA PROSECUTOR: Well, listen. We`ve dealt with many of these cases before. We know that lots of times when people are taken into custody, the cops do have a difficult time in trying to break them.
There`s other ways to talk to them. They can talk about forensics. They can tell her that they found certain think. But I think the most troubling matter in this, Jane, we`ve spoken so many times about family members that come forward after the fact to say that this person was not a good mother and they saw signs and they should have done something.
And it is always the problem that if people see that there`s a problem with a parent and a child why don`t they report it so social services can get in there and try to do something? Somebody in this family knows what went on. Somebody knows that the mother had no place to live and now the parents are coming forward, supporting her. Well, why didn`t they let her live at the house with them? There are so many avenues for these police to go down. There really are.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: As they say, on whatever, Facebook, is it? It`s complicated? It is complicated. I want to bring in Ginger Smith -- our exclusive interview with the little child`s cousin.
Now, you have established that TJ, who is the father of the child, was going through a separation, divorce, whatever. I don`t know if they`re married. There was a custody battle essentially. And he was taking care of the kids.
He let her have the kids for just one day is what you`re saying when all of this went down. And that she was supposed to keep the children at her dad`s house -- didn`t. Instead went to an ex-boyfriend`s house -- crashed there. And then the kid just disappears as the dad comes to that house and says, "Give me my child back." Is that correct? Or clarify if it is not.
GINGER SMITH, ELAINA STEINFURTH`S COUSIN: No, that is correct. TJ had possession of the children. For approximately a week prior to this, and TJ allowed her to have them overnight on the condition that she stayed at her father`s home and he drop them off at her father`s home. And going back to get them the next morning is when this all came about -- or around noon, whenever it was when she actually went to the home and they allowed him to have the four-year-old but refused to give over the baby and said that Elaina was napping.
Then when he went back with his father, then it was "I`m not going to give her to you because I`ll never see her again. I`ll never see her again." This went on for about 45 minutes. Finally she decided she was going to allow him to take the baby, so she said, went in the house -- was in the house approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Everybody was wondering why it was taking so long to get a sleeping baby. And at that point she comes out screaming and yelling that the baby is missing, the baby is missing.
(CROSSTALK)
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let me ask you a question, Ginger. Do you believe that the child just went missing at that moment? Or do you believe that the child was missing for some period of time before and that she was lying when she initially said, you can`t have the kid because she is sleeping. Because I don`t want you to have them because I don`t think you`ll give them back.
SMITH: I believe -- I mean I really hate to speculate on it -- but the way that it is coming about as sounding, I`m not sure that Elaina was in the home when TJ went to get her. Of course, I cannot prove that but again, everybody in that home is saying nobody has seen her. So was Elaina there or was Elaina not there? We don`t know.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Vinny Parco, give us your conclusion here. But we don`t want to indict anybody. We just want to get a sense.
VINNY PARCO, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Ok. Well, my feeling is she did something wrong and she is hiding it. You know, nobody ever talked about interviewing the four-year-old. You know a 4-year-old kid is not going to lie. She might have seen or heard something that would give a clue to what happened to her little sister. Nobody even thought of that.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think that`s an excellent idea especially considering that the reports are that she went on the ride with her mother and the ex- boyfriend and her kid sister -- the now missing child. Yes. Absolutely somebody should interview the four-year-old.
Ginger, I want to thank you very much for joining us. And we`re going to stay on top of this story. I hope you come back soon. And thank you to my fantastic panel.
On the other side of the break, extraordinary developments in the George Zimmerman case. You will not believe the fireworks in court. We`re going to bring them to you next.
Elaina Steinfurth update: June 14, 2013
The whereabouts of 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth remain unknown while her mother Angela sits in jail held on child endangerment charges. The Toledo Police confirmed through Twitter that the investigation continues as a missing child case.
The investigation into the disappearance of Elaina Steinfurth continues. Call 1-800-CALL-FBI with any information. pic.twitter.com/OhLT1EmCkT
— Toledo Police (@Toledo_Police) June 14, 2013
Also, newly released surveillance video shows Angela Steinfurth with Elaina on June 1, 2013. The video shows Angela cradling her daughter in her arms and behaving lovingly towards her. However; it does appear that Angela is crying in the video. This was taken one day before Elaina was reported missing. The video brings up many questions and some have suggested that Elaina doesn't appear to move her arms and legs normally. A medical expert would have to view the video to determine for certain whether Elaina appears injured
You may see that video below. The Toledo Blade has an in-depth look at Angela Steinfurth here: Who is Angela Steinfurth?
Additionally, on June 14, 2013, reports surfaced showing that Facebook users have posted harassing messages to Angela Steinfurth's boyfriend. Many believe that he is withholding information regarding what happened to baby Elaina and may know where she is.
Elaina Steinfurth Playlist
Elaina Steinfurths' father speaks to media on June 13, 2013.
Following the arrest of his estranged wife Angela Steinfurth, the father of missing 18-month-old Elaina Steinfurth spoke to media. Terry Steinfurth discovered his daughter was missing when he arrived to pick her up for a prescheduled visit and her mother said the child could not be found.
ToledoNewsNow.com: News, Weather
Elaina Steinfurth's Mother Arrested
On June 2, 2013, 1 1/2 year old Elaina Steinfurth was reported missing after her father arrived to pick her and her 4-year-old sister up for a visit, but the toddler couldn't be found. On June 12, 2013, Elaina's mother Angela Steinfurth aka
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| Angela Steinfurth arrested for child endangerment |
13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports
Elaina Steinfurth Latest News Updates and Links
Toledo News Now Elaina Steinfurth Case
Elaina Steinfurth Photos
Nancy Grace Transcript
On June 12, 2013, HLN host Nancy Grace featured Elaina's case on her show. You may read the transcript below.
NANCY GRACE
Toledo Toddler Vanishes From Home
Aired June 12, 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: Toledo police continue their search for Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One-year-old, Elaina Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the baby girl reportedly last seen by her mom around noon, after she puts her down for a nap.
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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her father comes to pick her daughter up a few hours later, she`s gone!
ANGELA STEINFURTH: People are pointing fingers at me, when they don`t even know what`s going on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: FBI agents and Toledo police searching for the missing 1-year-old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators combed through the wooded area along the river, while dive crews are (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No signs of Elaina.
ANGELA STEINFURTH: I just want my baby home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know who in that house knows what and why somebody won`t just come up to say, Look, give me immunity, I`ll tell you what`s going on. Somebody`s got to know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: You bet. You bet your bottom dollar somebody`s got to know. Where is a missing 18-month-old baby girl?
Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight, live, Toledo. It`s a parent`s worst nightmare, an 18-month-old baby girl last seen taking a nap, minutes later, she`s reported gone, Baby Elaina vanishing in broad daylight, this story developing minute by minute.
But bottom line, just how does an 18-month-old baby girl disappear from the family`s own bedroom in the middle of the day and nobody sees a thing?
I don`t believe it. I don`t believe that that`s possible. I do not believe that in the middle of the day, with people walking around in the home, a baby disappears in the middle of the day taking a nap.
I want to go straight out to Fred LeFebrve joining me, morning host, WSPD. Fred, something stinks. What happened?
FRED LEFEBRVE, WSPD RADIO, TOLEDO (via telephone): Well, and I think the police agree with you that something stinks. In our talks with the local TPD, they believe as you do...
GRACE: Whoa! Whoa!
LEFEBRVE: ... that somebody has to know something.
GRACE: The local what? The what? Oh, Toledo Police Department. Don`t confuse me, all right?
LEFEBRVE: Toledo Police Department. Yes, I`m sorry, TPD.
GRACE: I`ve been with the twins all day. TPD, all right, Toledo Police Department. Go ahead.
LEFEBRVE: Right. They believe that somebody knows something. And He echoed pretty much exactly what you said when the officer was on with me the other day. Nobody just walks into a house in the middle the day and walks out with a child without somebody seeing something.
There were adults on the front porch. There were adults on the sidewalk. There were adults in the house. Voices were heard in the house. There`s no way that a baby, and a baby that age, just disappears. Someone knows something.
GRACE: Well, I`m telling you what. Fred LeFebrve, morning talk show host, WSPD (ph), I`m not letting go of this. Take a look at this little baby. I can`t remember anymore exactly when my little girl, Lucy, started walking. Do we know, Fred LeFebrve, could Elaina even walk yet?
LEFEBRVE: I haven`t heard that she could yet. I know that she had a problem with walking with one of her feet and it may have been something that kept her from walking as quickly as some kids do. I mean, you know, you`ve had children, I`ve had children. They all walk at a different age. But...
GRACE: Well, mine didn`t have a problem. They just wanted me to carry them.
LEFEBRVE: Yes, and they just want to be with you...
GRACE: So they saw no reason to walk.
LEFEBRVE: At that age, they`re so trusting. Look at her face. She`ll do whatever you tell her to do.
GRACE: Look at this. Look at this baby! Look at that face. Look! To all of you mothers out there, do you remember when your baby was 18 months? Look at her. Is there anything more precious, more angelic and more defenseless, more trusting than an 18-month-old baby girl or boy? Look.
Joining me right now is a very special guest, in addition to Terry Steinfurth, Senior, the grandfather of the baby, Captain Brad Weis is with us. He`s extremely busy. He`s the Toledo police department captain. Captain, thank you for being with us. Captain Weis, what do you think -- let me take it at the beginning, Captain. When your people got there, Captain Weis, what did they observe?
CAPT. BRAD WEIS, TOLEDO POLICE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Well, the original crews arrived -- and at that point, the story they were getting, it sounded like it was a custody dispute. But they immediately began to search.
GRACE: What do you mean by that?
WEIS: They searched the house and...
GRACE: What do you mean by that, Captain, when they got there, it sounded like a custody dispute? Yes, I had to actually do a diagram, Captain, a diagram so I could understand all the players in this thing.
Let`s show it, Liz. You`ve got Terry Steinfurth, who is with us, the paternal grandfather of baby Elaina. He`s out searching. He`s doing everything he can to find his granddaughter. You`ve got the mom, Angela. You`ve got her former husband, Terry. He`s the natural father of baby Elaina and a 4-year-old child. They have two children together. Now, they`re split up. The baby, of course, is Elaina Steinfurth.
Then you`ve got Steven King. He`s the person you`re seeing on the right. He`s mom`s ex-boyfriend. She was flopping there that night with her baby. His mom, July (ph) King. So you`ve got the Steinfurth bunch -- that`s the grandfather, the bio dad and the baby, Elaina Steinfurth, who`s missing. Then you have the mom, Angela Steinfurth, who`s staying over with her ex-boyfriend, Steven King, and his mom, July. So that`s the scenario.
So Captain Weis is with us. Captain, when you got there, the people - - your people say it sounded like a custody dispute? Explain.
WEIS: Well, they had (ph) original 911 call, where the father, Mr. Steinfurth, came over to pick up both children, and he was given the 4- year-old and told he wasn`t going to have -- allowed to take the baby, Elaina, home with him.
So he went home and retrieved his father, and they both went back and -- because his father was going to have surgery the next day. He wanted to see his granddaughter before that surgery. And at that time, the discussions were further about who was going to get the child, and the child was sleeping, she didn`t want to wake him (sic), and things of that nature.
GRACE: The child was sleeping and she didn`t want to wake him (sic) up for a scheduled visitation? All right, where did it go from there? Everyone, with me and taking your calls, Captain Brad Weis. He`s the captain of the Toledo Police Department.
Then what happened?
WEIS: At that point, through the discussions, the mother went in the house. And a certain time passed, and then her mom went in to check on her, and at that point, it was noticed that Elaina was no longer in the house.
GRACE: Now, let me get this straight, Captain. Wasn`t the baby sleeping in the bedroom where the mother was, the natural mother?
WEIS: They were originally in there, yes, but most of the discussions were taking place out on the front porch.
GRACE: Well, I don`t understand how the mom can go in, and she stays in there a long time open, and then later, 15 minutes later, it`s discovered the baby`s gone. I mean, when I walk in my children`s room -- they share a bedroom -- I can see that they`re there. It won`t take me 20 minutes to find out that they`re not in their beds, all right?
WEIS: I think the mother discussed that she was in the living room with some of the other children in the residence. She never entered the bedroom.
GRACE: OK. That make sense to me. Captain Weis -- Liz, let me see the front of the home, please. Was the baby`s bedroom where the baby was sleeping with the mom -- is it the front bedroom to the front? Is that the room?
WEIS: Unfortunately, I wasn`t at the scene and I haven`t been to the residence, so I can`t tell you the diagram of the residence.
GRACE: I`ve got to figure out which bedroom it is. There`s the bedroom. Keep it right there. Let me see the front door.
Let me go out to the grandfather. This is Terry Steinfurth, Sr. They called him in. Like most of us would get hold of our father to come straighten everything out. So they bring in Terry Steinfurth, Sr. Let me see the floor plan again, please, Liz.
Mr. Steinfurth, first question. Where is the bedroom where baby Elaina is supposed to be? Is it near the front door?
TERRY STEINFURTH, MISSING CHILD`S GRANDFATHER (via telephone): If you go in the front door of the house, you make a sharp left, and the door to the bedroom is right there.
GRACE: OK, let me see the picture one more time, Liz. Everybody, Liz is working 15 machines at once. She`s trying to get the picture up so I can look at it.
So what I`m getting at -- no, I want to see the actual picture of the home, Liz. What I`m getting at, Mr. Steinfurth -- and thank you for being with us.
STEINFURTH: You`re welcome.
GRACE: What I`m getting at is, how could -- again, I want to see the picture of the home, not the floor plan. How could somebody get into that window and get the baby out with no one noticing it? And when we see the home, I think the viewers will understand what I`m saying. I mean, it`s about -- leave it on the picture, Liz!
It`s about, I would say, 10 or 12 feet up off the ground, that window. And there`s a front porch. People are sitting on the front porch. So how could somebody get in that window, Mr. Steinfurth, and take the baby?
STEINFURTH: They couldn`t. There`s no way anybody walked past me to go through that window.
GRACE: Terry, if I may call you that, sir -- with me is Elaina`s paternal grandfather. He wanted to see the grandchild before he had surgery the next day. The son, the bio dad -- they were married when they had the baby. This is the child`s legitimate father. Later, they separated. The baby`s dad goes over to get the baby. Mom won`t give her up. He brings in the grandfather.
All right, Grandfather, Terry Steinfurth, tell me what happened when you got there.
STEINFURTH: When I first arrived to the house, the boyfriend`s mom and dad were sitting on the porch. I asked them if I could see Angela. I wanted to see my granddaughter. The boyfriend comes down the porch, not off of it. We had a slight confrontation. The mother sent him into the house. I talked with the mother and father. They yelled in...
GRACE: What did they say.
STEINFURTH: ... for Angela to come out. She wouldn`t come out. The boyfriend`s mother went into the house. Angela and her did come out, back out. The mother and I -- Angela and I argued that she wasn`t going to give me the baby because my son wouldn`t let her have her back if she did.
After a short period of time, she agreed to give her to me. She went back into the house. I was seated on the porch with the boyfriend`s mother and father. My son`s wife never came back out.
The boyfriend`s mother went in to get her, to find out what was taking her so long, as they said, to pick up a sleeping baby and carry her out to me. She went in the house. The father and I are out on the porch. I hear what I thought was the baby crying at first. I figured she had woke her up. And then I realized it was Angela crying and screaming that she was not going to give me the baby because if she did, she`d never see it again.
Fifteen, twenty minutes later, she come out of the house saying the baby was gone. And I don`t see how the baby could go out without somebody seeing them carry it out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s around 2:00 PM when the dad of 1-year-old Elaina comes to pick up his two daughters from their mother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her father came to this Federal Street home to pick her up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Mom allegedly refuses to allow Dad to see Elaina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bring her home safely to us. Just want to return her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she allegedly goes back into the home for about 20 minutes, comes back out and says Elaina is missing.
ANGELA STEINFURTH, MOTHER: It`s very hard not having her around. My other daughter`s going insane without her sister. They need to be together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the East Toledo avenue where the toddler vanished, the search for clues into Elaina Steinfurth`s disappearance continued.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This baby is just 18 months old. I just heard her grandfather telling me as we went to break that she is walking. But there is no way she could have gotten out that bedroom window. It`s too high up off the ground. There`s no way an 18-month-old child could have done that.
Where is baby Elaina? And I`m telling you, right now, these facts don`t add up to me. They do not add up. For those of you just joining us -- Michael Board, WOAI, what happened?
MICHAEL BOARD, WOAI (VIA telephone): Well, this was a child who was sleeping in a home. His (sic) father came over for a custody exchange. This happened about 2:00 o`clock in the afternoon. When that father came over to pick up a child from his ex-wife for a custody exchange, there was some sort of an argument, and that child, according to the mother just disappeared.
And you can imagine how frightening that must be for this 1-and-a- half-year-old child. One minute you`re put down for a nap, the next minute your whole world has been turned upside down. This 1-and-a-half-year-old - - I keep thinking about her and how terrified she must be because her entire world has completely been turned upside down.
GRACE: Clark Goldband, what more do we know?
CLARK GOLDBAND, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: ... been extensive searches for this little girl, law enforcement searching nearby. About two thirds of a mile away, there`s a body of water. And the mom says she found a used diaper that takes (ph) on the same make and model as the one this 18-month- old girl...
GRACE: Wa-wa-wait! Stop! Stop! Clark, we don`t refer to babies` diapers as the same make and model, OK? Just FYI. Go ahead.
GOLDBAND: OK. Well, it was a diaper that was very similar to the one that this 18-month-old girl used. And law enforcement...
GRACE: Who found it, the mother?
GOLDBAND: The mom says she found it, according to reports. Law enforcement then responded down to scene, Nancy, and according to some of the local press in the area, two bags of possible evidence was taken away. We don`t know what was in the bags.
GRACE: Whoa! Wait! Wa-wa-wa-wait! Two bags of evidence taken out of this home?
GOLDBAND: No, of the area where the diaper was found, down by the woods and the water.
GRACE: OK. Hold on. Let me interrupt you one second, Clark. I`m going to come right back to you.
Dr. Vincent DiMaio, former chief medical examiner, Behar County, forensic pathologist, if you have a baby`s diaper, without the presence of blood, can you get DNA from poop or urine?
DR. VINCENT DIMAIO, FMR. CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER (via telephone): No problem at all. The child`s lying in a diaper. There would be not only something like poop you could do, but also just the cells wiping off the child`s butt. You can do it without a problem.
GRACE: Got it. Got it. Thanks, Dr. DiMaio. Be right back with you. Back to special guest Captain Brad Weis. He`s the captain of the Toledo Police Department. Also with us, baby Elaina`s grandfather. He wants her home.
We are taking your calls. Diane in Florida. Hi, Diane. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?
GRACE: I think I`ve got Diane. What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who was inside the home at the time when the baby vanished?
GRACE: Excellent question. To the paternal grandfather, who is here answering your questions tonight, Terry Steinfurth, Sr. Who all was in the home?
STEINFURTH: The adults that I know that were at the house were Steven, my son`s wife, Steven`s father and Steven`s mother, and there was a baby in a carrier on the porch with them, and there was a young infant child sleeping on the couch when I went into the house.
GRACE: So you`ve got the mom, Angela Steinfurth. You`ve got her boyfriend, Steven King, his mom, who owns the home, July King, a couple of other adults and another younger child and a baby in a carrier, is that right?
STEINFURTH: Correct.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STEINFURTH: A nervous wreck. I just want her home in one piece. I want to know that she`s OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just want to make sure that nothing is overlooked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police are using a grid pattern search to locate the toddler.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... going through every vacant house, every garage, every container.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: FBI agents and Toledo police have been going around the neighborhood, searching for the missing 1-year-old and trying to gather as much information as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. Bombshell tonight. We are live in Toledo, looking for 18-month-old baby Elaina. With us tonight, her grandfather.
And I`d like to point out that we have called and called and called the mother to ask her to come on and tell you what she knows about baby Elaina`s disappearance. She has not returned calls at all. We`ve left messages and tried and tried and tried to get the baby`s mother to give some statement.
Let`s take a look at Elaina`s mother, what she has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA STEINFURTH: Well, if I had your support. I wouldn`t feel the way I do, but not when people are pointing fingers at me, when they don`t even know what`s going on. I need all the support that I can get to bring her home,
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. And they need to be together.
I don`t know how to explain them because there`s -- it`s 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: Does she have on makeup?
Unleash the lawyers. Randy Kessler, past chair, family section -- family law section of the American Bar Association, Mickey Sherman, renowned defense attorney.
Mickey, I remember when my fiance was murdered, I don`t think I put on a lick of makeup for maybe, what, a year-and-a-half. I couldn`t think straight. Let me see her picture again. I don`t want to hear the sound, but I want to see her again. I think this mom has had the wherewithal to get her hair fixed, put on earrings and eyeliner. Shouldn`t she be out looking for her baby, Mickey?
MICKEY SHERMAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She doesn`t exactly look like one of the Kardashians, Nancy. I think you`re overstating her appearance a bit. And you know, nobody knows how they would have reacted in a situation like this. You know, I think she feels, obviously, the loss of the child. That doesn`t necessarily mean she`s responsible.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Bring Elaina home" is the cry being heard around East Toledo.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the baby girl reportedly last seen by her mom around noon, after she puts her down for a nap.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The father comes to pick his daughter up a few hours later, she`s gone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family and friends say they`ve handed out over a thousand flyers with vital information about little Elaina Steinfurth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve been everywhere in East Toledo. We`ve been all over Toledo. We`ve been -- we`ve had somebody as far as Monroe (ph) dropping off flyers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does a 1-year-old girl just vanish? Police and FBI on the case tonight.
ANGELA STEINFURTH: I need all the support that I can get to bring her home, anything to keep me comfortable and from losing my mind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back. For those of you just joining us, 18-month-old baby Elaina goes missing from her own home. But the story surrounding Elaina doesn`t make sense to me. Back to you, Fred Lefebvre joining us from WSPD. Fred, explain to me how it went down one more time.
FRED LEFEBVRE, WSPD: The way that we understand it is that the father went to pick both of his children up, Kylie, the 4-year-old and Elaina. He was given Kylie but was refused Elaina. He went to get his father, who lives less than a mile away. They both came back to the house, where they requested that they have baby Elaina. The mom went in the house, and after about 20 minutes, they heard some noise in there, some crying and yelling, she came back out and told both Terrys, the Sr. and the Jr. that the baby was gone, just missing out of thin blue air.
GRACE: It doesn`t make sense to me. Terry Steinfurth Sr., the girl`s grandfather, went to the house immediately to try to get his granddaughter, baby Elaina, out of the home. Terry, if you don`t mind, could you go through with me exactly what happened when you got there and where did the mom say the baby had been? I thought the baby was napping in the front bedroom.
STEINFURTH, SR.: The mother was in the house when I fist got there. After we got the mother to come out, she argued with me, she wasn`t going to let me have the baby. She claimed the baby was in the house sleeping. After the argument, she decided to let me have her. She went back into the house to supposedly bring her out, and she never brought her back out. And 20 minutes later she came out saying the baby was gone. And I don`t see how the baby could just -- the baby couldn`t just walk out of the house. Somebody had to see the baby --
GRACE: When you confronted her with that, Terry, what did she say?
STEINFURTH SR.: While he was outside with me she was saying she wouldn`t let me have the child because my son would not let her have her back if he took her.
GRACE: Hasn`t your son had visitation with the baby before?
STEINFURTH SR.: The two - his two children were living with him. She had had them for that weekend because both my son and his girlfriend work third shift.
GRACE: OK.
STEINFURTH SR.: So she had them while they were working third shift.
GRACE: Well, I`m less concerned -- I`m speaking to Elaina`s grandfather. I`m less concerned about their custody problems as I am about what she said about where did the baby go.
STEINFURTH SR.: She told me she has no idea. She said somebody came in the house and took her baby.
GRACE: OK. And this happened at what time of the day, Terry?
STEINFURTH SR.: I arrived at their house shortly before 2:30. She came out and told me the baby was missing just shortly before 3:30. So my calculations, it`s supposedly happened, according to her, between 2:30 and 3:30.
GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Colleen in Virginia. Hi, dear. What`s your question?
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. My question is surrounding the diaper that was found. I know it was dirty. Was it found rolled up as if somebody had actually changed a diaper? Or was it found ripped? Was there anything surrounding that?
GRACE: Actually, that`s a very good question. Did it fall off by accident, did the baby tear it off, or was it taken off as if you`d change a baby then wrap it up to throw it away. To Captain Brad Weis is with us. The captain of the Toledo police department. Captain, what was the condition of the diaper, and where exactly was it found?
CAPT. BRAD WEIS: I can tell you the diaper was found along the river bank, but as to the condition or how it was found, that`s part of the investigation, so I won`t go any further with that.
GRACE: Is it being tested for DNA?
WEIS: Certainly.
GRACE: Captain, explain to me the water searches. I`m showing the viewers photos of them now.
WEIS: Well, the Monty (ph) river runs basically along the east side where the baby was missing, so we picked out some ideal locations going through our scenarios, and the one location seemed to pop out, so we brought the Toledo fire department dive team down, and they were just -- did an excellent job on a two-day search, but we still didn`t locate anything.
GRACE: Let me ask you this, to Tracy Sargent, k9 handler, search, rescue and recovery specialist. Tracy, can dogs smell or pick up a human scent in the water?
TRACY SARGENT, K9 HANDLER: Yes, they can, Nancy, and they do a very good job of that, and help investigators and searchers at least get to a general area where they can concentrate their search efforts.
GRACE: Captain, were dogs brought out?
WEIS: Yes, we utilized two dogs. And in fact, we`re having a third dog come in tomorrow to do the same search.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Frank in Indiana, hi, what`s your question?
CALLER: Yes, Nancy. This reminds me a lot of Kayly Cummings (ph) and Casey Anthony. I guess I`m just wondering, have the parents taken a polygraph, because something doesn`t add up. Now you`re saying the mom isn`t even returning your guy`s calls. You would think she would want to be out there getting all the help she can. It`s her daughter.
GRACE: Frank, you`re so right. We had no intention whatsoever of giving the mom a hard time. We wanted her to come on, explain to the viewers what happened, and make a public appeal for help. Instead we`re getting nothing, which I find very, very disturbing.
You know, to Captain Brad Weis with the Toledo Police Department. Captain, both the mother and apparently others say they`ve all taken polygraphs, police polygraphs and passed them. Is that true?
WEIS: No, that is not true.
GRACE: Have they taken polygraphs?
WEIS: One individual has taken a polygraph, and I can`t disclose what the results are, but I do have to say both the parents are cooperating, and they will come in anytime we ask them.
GRACE: Can I ask, did the mom take a polygraph?
WEIS: You can ask, but I won`t tell you.
GRACE: OK. Well, who -- Clark, who is saying they`ve taken polygraphs?
GOLDBAND: Yes. Nancy, according to the local press reports, we`ve seen both the mom and the ex-boyfriend have allegedly said they`ve both taken polygraphs and have both passed polygraphs.
GRACE: Well, that`s contrary to what the Toledo Police Department captain is saying. He`s saying one person has taken a polygraph and will not reveal who that person was or if they passed. So somebody is not telling the truth, and I doubt it`s the Toledo police captain.
Unleash the lawyers. Randy Kessler and Mickey Sherman, Randy Kessler, what do you make of it?
KESSLER: You know, strange parents do strange things. I`ve seen horribly strange things. When somebody is mad at their ex, they`ll withhold a child for visitation. They will say things have happened to the child which aren`t true. This may be something like that. You hate to accuse the mom, but it`s starting to smell pretty darn bad, and all eyes and all hands seem to be pointing at mom and her boyfriend and the boyfriend`s friend that was at the house. There`s something that`s there. But you`ve got to do a thorough investigation before you can accuse anybody.
GRACE: Randy, I know you have to do a thorough investigation, we all know that. We`re all trying to find the baby. The first part, though, I find very intriguing, and it is true. Very often in custody cases, Mickey Sherman, it`s like people lose their mind. They`ll do anything to keep the child away from the other parent, anything. They go crazy.
SHERMAN: And naturally everyone looks to the mother. And that`s why I don`t blame her for not coming on TV, because you will vilify her. I mean, you just can`t help but do that, because she`s the last person to see the child. So everyone is going to assume she`s the bad guy. And I think this thing adds up not to a murder. I think it`s a custodial interference of some sorts. So I think -- I don`t think this is going to have such a horrible ending, but it`s just a pain in the neck to get there when you`ve got people who are in different modes here.
GRACE: And I want to point out, nobody has been named a suspect in this case. All we want to do is bring home baby Elaina alive. Tip number 1-800-call-fbi or 419-936-8995. There`s a $10,000 reward.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does a one-year-old girl just vanish?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter how small of a lead we hear about, we`ve been following up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to know who in that house knows what and why somebody won`t just come up and say what, give me immunity, I`ll tell you what`s going on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not when people are pointing fingers at me when they don`t even know what`s going on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to make sure that nothing is overlooked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody has got to know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who would want to harm a one-year-old girl?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bring her home, just bring her back to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Bombshell tonight, an 18-month-old baby girl goes missing from her own bed, sleeping there in a home with everyone home, she goes missing in the middle of the day. We are taking your calls. To Ramani Durvasula, clinical psychologist. Dr. Ramani, why do people -- why would they rather hide the baby as opposed to hand it over for a visitation?
DURVASULA: Because, as you said, Nancy, custody is one of the most impassioned places that two divorced parents can find themselves. And I honestly think that it`s almost like you`re not getting this child. There is just no way. It just becomes an ego thing. Parents become crazy, and they don`t want to share that child.
I am guessing and I am hoping this child may be OK and this mother may have taken her away just so the dad can`t have him. It`s ego, it`s madness, and it`s custody.
GRACE: Out to the lines. Janeen in Connecticut, hi, Janeen, what is your question?
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. First of all, I would just like to say I watch your twins` pictures every now and then. They`re getting so big and they are beautiful. God bless them.
GRACE: Thank you.
CALLER: And second of all, I would just like to say, I don`t understand how a baby would get out of a house. My daughter, my youngest is seven, and I know where she is even at night. I mean, I`m just neurotic when you hear about all of these stories and stuff, so I`m even more cautious. I check in on her. You know, just something doesn`t add up to me and it`s just awful.
GRACE: Janeen, you think you`ve got it bad? After all the stories that I report on, I`m up all during the night, sometimes four and five times a night and go check on the twins just to make sure they`re there. Sometimes I get so tired of walking back and forth, I just go get in bed with them, because I`m too tired to go back and forth anymore.
CALLER: Exactly.
GRACE: And stories like this make you even more paranoid. I feel like I`m missing something. Fred Lefebvre, what are the parents saying now? And again, nobody has been named a suspect. What is the mother saying now? The father, the father, Steinfurth Jr., was not there. He went to go pick the baby up for visitation. That`s when all of this exploded.
But what -- I don`t understand what the mother is saying. What is she saying happened?
LEFEBVRE: The last thing that we`ve heard from the mom, from Angela is what you played a few minutes ago. The father has been silent and his dad has been doing the speaking for him. Because as you can imagine, he`s pretty torn up. But the last thing the mom said, as you heard in the cut you played, was mostly I statements and me statements. It was less about the baby and more about how I felt, and I need to be comfortable so we need to hurry up and find her, which I found pretty disturbing.
GRACE: Take a look at Angela Steinfurth. She claims she was home with her baby and other adults. The baby was put down for a nap at 12:30. And then at after approximately 2:00 when the dad came to pick the baby up, the baby mysteriously goes missing.
Clark Goldband, I want to get to the point in time, take me from 12:30 to 2:00.
GOLDBAND: Sure, Nancy. So when the dad arrives at 12:30, the four- year-old girl is there. He`s the dad of these two girls. The 4-year-old girl comes out no problem. Mom, according to the dad, refuses to let him see the one-year-old girl. At that point in time, dad leaves with the four-year-old and goes to get the grandpa, who is on our show this evening. They both come back to the house and they have this negotiation, if you will, with the people that are there. And then after that he finally is allowed to see the baby, but then that`s when the baby goes missing.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Pete in Florida. Hi, Pete. What`s your question? Do I have Pete in Florida?
CALLER: I watch your show every day. I just think something is wrong if a mom has to publicly deny any involvement. I mean, that isn`t right. A parent would scream from the rooftop if their child was missing. I mean, didn`t even Marc Klaas get flack and he still talked to the press?
GRACE: Pete in Florida, yes, Marc Klaas did not -- he did speak to the press. He didn`t get any flack. I don`t know what you`re saying by Mark Klaas getting flack. Police asked him to cooperate, and he did. He did everything they asked him to do. According to the captain, Captain Weis, the mom is cooperating. And I don`t know what you mean, Pete. Does she have to scream from the treetops, is that what you said? What do you mean by that?
CALLER: Why is she denying any involvement? She`s saying I didn`t do anything, but why would you have to do it unless you did do something?
GRACE: That is an interesting point. I didn`t know that she had denied involvement. Out to you, Michael Board (ph), WOAI. I haven`t heard the mom deny involvement. Did I miss that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I haven`t heard that either. But Nancy, we are missing one thing here in this picture. There is one person in this home who we may be forgetting about. What does the four-year-old big sister know? Kids at four years old, they`re pretty perceptive. They know what`s going on. They can tell if something is rotten in Denmark. Why aren`t police talking to the four-year-old? She may hold the missing clue in this. Ask that four-year-old was mommy talking about --
GRACE: Hold on. I don`t know that she hasn`t been interviewed. Captain Weis, I know it`s a difficult thing to do, but my children could recount what they had just seen at age 4. Has anybody spoken to the four- year-old child?
WEIS: Yes, all the children in the house were interviewed through trained forensic investigator that are trained to do the interview with the children.
GRACE: So, Michael Board, you`re right. The four-year-old may know something, has been spoken to.
Clark Goldband, what about the boyfriend? It`s his home. It`s his and his mother`s home. Where does he fit into all this?
GOLDBAND: Well, Nancy, he went out to go search for the girl. I just want to say, really quickly here, that the mom has denied involvement, and she says now when she finds her girl, she`s going to keep her on a leash.
GRACE: Wait, wait, did you say the mom has come out and denied involvement?
GOLDBAND: She has in some local reports. And she says she wants to keep her daughter on a leash.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: What did she say? No, I want to hear this. Because if somebody suggested that I hurt my twins, they would get a knuckle sandwich, no mayo. So what is she out doing denying involvement? I want to hear what she said. Tell me exactly.
GOLDBAND: OK, Nancy, I`m going to have to get you verbatim what she says, but she has been out searching, she has denied involvement, and says she wants her baby girl home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Where is baby Elaina? Let`s go to her grandfather, Terry Steinfurth Sr. Is the mother denying involvement?
STEINFURTH SR.: As far as I`ve heard, I haven`t heard myself. I just --
GRACE: Have you confronted her and said where`s the baby?
STEINFURTH SR.: In front of the house, she told me that day she doesn`t know where the baby`s at or who took the baby. She just said somebody in that house, somebody took my baby. Not somebody in my house, somebody in -- just somebody took the baby. And I said, who? She said I don`t know.
GRACE: What was her demeanor?
STEINFURTH SR.: Myself, personally, from what I have viewed of her, I don`t think she`s showing any emotion over it.
GRACE: Out to Matt Zarrell. Matt, what do you know?
ZARRELL: -- said quote, "where`s my baby? I want her to come home to her mom and dad. I miss her. Give us back our daughter." And denied any involvement in her disappearance.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We remember American hero, Army Specialist Gerald Jenkins, just 19 years old. Circleville, Ohio. Bronze Star, Purple Heart. Afghanistan Service Medal. Parents Karla and Roger, brother Shane, sisters Miranda and Kyra. Gerald Jenkins, American hero.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need all the support that I can get to bring her home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over 1,000 flyers with vital information about little Elaina Steinfurth. Toledo fire crews take boats on the Maami (ph) river. There were no signs of her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still plenty of time, plenty of chances for that little girl to still be alive and well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everyone. The search is on for 18-month-old baby Elaina, taken from her own home. We are live and taking your calls. But to special guest, Captain Brad Weis with the Toledo Police Department and the paternal grandfather of baby Elaina, Terry Steinfurth Sr.
Captain, are the mother and father, the bio dad -- that would be Terry Steinfurth Jr., who was not in the home when the baby went missing -- are they actively looking for the baby? What is the mom`s involvement trying to find her baby?
WEIS: I believe everything I`ve seen on the news media that they are actively involved in doing the search and passing out the pamphlets.
GRACE: Is it true that there was no search for the baby over the weekend?
WEIS: No, that`s false.
GRACE: I`m glad to hear that.
WEIS: (inaudible).
GRACE: One of our callers just called in with that, and I was so disturbed. I know that the FBI has a big presence, and I know they`re helping. Tell me about the search this past weekend.
WEIS: Not only with the FBI and the Toledo police, but we also, all our regular police crews, and we have the bicycle unit assigned over to that area. And when they`re not responding to calls, they`re putting all the time they can into searching for little Elaina.
GRACE: And to Terry Steinfurth Sr., what are your words, what is your message tonight, grandfather?
STEINFURTH SR.: Our word is we are greatly appreciative to everyone that is out looking. We are passing out flyers. We just need tips. We need to find my granddaughter.
GRACE: Let`s get that number out there. 800-call-fbi or 419-936- 8995. Tonight, a big congratulations to HLN anchor Robin Meade on her brand-new sophomore album "Count on Me." It`s just hitting the racks now.
And happy birthday to a friend of the show, world-class coach Joan Hudgins (ph). Isn`t she beautiful?
Everyone, the search for baby Elaina goes on. Dr. Drew up next. I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
END
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