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NANCY GRACE

South Carolina Police Search for Missing 18-Month-Old Amir Jennings

Aired January 12, 2012 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, South Carolina. Police searching for an 18-month-old whose mother refuses to cooperate. Toddler Amir missing since Thanksgiving but nobody reports it. Bombshell tonight. Mommy only turns up when she crashes her car. Then when cops put two and two together, Mommy first says she doesn`t even have a child, then says the baby is in Atlanta. Then, uh-oh, it`s in South Carolina!

The FBI now on the case, combing through security footage and bank records. Tonight, where is 18-month-old toddler Amir?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This 18-month-old little baby boy, Amir Jennings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A frantic search.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m very concerned about Amir`s safety at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grandma`s the one who reported him missing.

GRACE: Grandmommy reports him missing, not Mommy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mommy was missing herself for a while.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) fluke. She got in a car accident. And that`s how she was discovered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said, Well, where`s your baby, and she said, I don`t have a baby. Oh, yes, I do have a baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dippin (ph) and dodging police questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big consistency is the inconsistency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a criminal investigation at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The last person that was seen with Amir is his mom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is Amir Jennings?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, a beautiful mom, pregnant again, leaves home and never returns, her van found at a local McDonald`s. When the police question the husband, he blurts out they`re swingers. So that`s why she`s missing? A pregnant mom swinging with other couples? That`s the story? OK. Well, I got a problem with that. Tonight, where is 25-year-old Jamie Adams?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were living a swinging lifestyle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She`s an amazing mom and an amazing wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Suddenly, she disappears.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tearful plea for his wife`s safe return.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our children need their mother!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body of missing pregnant mom of three Jamie Adams has been found. Police confirm trauma to the body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She deserves to be at home with her family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he admitted he lied about where his wife was going just before she vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To prostitute herself on Craigslist as a way to support her family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says his wife arranged meetings with strangers, and then she engaged in sexual acts for cash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators have seized two cars in the case, including the vehicle belonging to Jamie`s husband, Justin Adams.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Bombshell tonight. Police searching for an 18-month-old whose mom refuses to cooperate. Toddler Amir, missing since Thanksgiving, but nobody reports it? Mommy only turns up when she crashes a car, and first she says she doesn`t even have a child.

We are taking your calls. Straight out to Keven Cohen, host, WVOC, joining us out of Columbia. Keven, they happen to find Mommy when she crashes her car. What happened?

KEVEN COHEN, WVOC (via telephone): They find her. She ends up going to the hospital after crashing her car. They realize, Hey, you`re on a missing persons list. We`re trying to find you. We`re trying to find your baby. Where`s your baby? She says, I don`t even have a baby, Nancy. And then the nurse at the hospital says, Oh, I think you do because that`s a C- section scar.

GRACE: So when she gets to the hospital because of her crash, she insists she doesn`t have the baby. Dr. Hua joining, Dr. Zhongxue Hua from Union County. How obvious is a C-section scar?

DR. ZHONGXUE HUA, UNION COUNTY, NJ, CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: It`s usually in the lower abdomen -- I mean, the lower portion of the belly, horizontal, five or six inch long. It`s obvious for layperson.

GRACE: And you know, Doctor, there`s no mistaking it, OK? You know what a C-section scar is, and this mom`s trying to tell authorities she doesn`t have a baby with a big, fat, honking C-section scar on her tummy! Come on!

HUA: It`s just -- it`s just (INAUDIBLE) so obvious.

GRACE: I mean, Keven, back to you, Keven Cohen joining us. He`s a host on WVOC there in Columbia. How dumb does she think we are that we don`t know what a C-section scar looks like? I sure as heck know what it looks like!

So Keven, first she tells cops, I don`t have a baby. What baby? Where`s the baby? Then what does her story change to?

COHEN: Well, remember, this is a 22-year-old who`s obviously telling anybody that she talks to whatever they want to hear at the moment. First she says, The baby, yes, I do have a baby. That baby -- oh, the baby`s in Atlanta. And then we hear, no, the baby`s with friends in Charlotte. Then we hear, well, the baby might be with the father. But then we hear that the father`s not even involved with the baby.

So it`s just been a different story one day after the next after the next, and now she`s sitting in a jail cell because of unlawful conduct.

GRACE: Good! Good! I`m glad she`s in a jail cell!

Joining me right now, a special guest, Chief Randy Scott, the chief of the Columbia, South Carolina, police. Chief, if it weren`t for your motor (ph) men and women, we`d never even have this mom. We wouldn`t even be onto baby Amir missing. This mom reported missing by her own mother. The grandmother reports her -- her with the purple hair, that`s Mommy. I know, scary, but true. That`s the mommy. The grandmommy reports her and the baby missing.

It wasn`t until Mommy rams her car and crashes it that police find out she`s not missing at all. But where`s the baby? Chief, as I told you before, I don`t care if it`s for spitting on the sidewalk, I want this mommy behind bars!

So what is she in for, Chief?

CHIEF RANDY SCOTT, COLUMBIA, SC, PD (via telephone): Yes, ma`am. She`s in right now for unlawful conduct towards a child until we can, you know, see what else is going on with this case. I mean, you`ve explained it very well. Just as confusing as it probably sounds to your listeners, it`s even more confusing to us at law enforcement.

GRACE: Well, I will tell you this much, I`m not confused, Chief Scott. It all boils down to this. She`s lying! It`s tot mom all over again! And remember in the tot mom case, Joe Gomez, senior investigative reporter, KTRH -- remember, at the beginning of tot mom, she would never even mention her little girl, Caylee, as if she didn`t even have a baby. She was out partying and hot body contests and shots and all that. She never mentioned, never talked about her little girl, as if she didn`t even have one. Then she`d say, Oh, the baby`s at the beach. Oh, the baby`s in Jacksonville, this, that. The baby was in none of those places. The baby was dead!

JOE GOMEZ, KTRH: Isn`t it interesting, Nancy. Why would she say these things? Why would Zinah say these things to police? And then after police, you know, come back to her and they say, Look, your stories don`t add up, Zinah says, Well, oh, gee (INAUDIBLE) what to say. Then police say, We`re going to arrest you. Then Zinah says, Well, maybe -- maybe that`s is where I belong. Why would she even say that (INAUDIBLE) her baby was. It sounds to me like Zinah may be feeling a little guilty, Nancy. Let`s hope, at least.

GRACE: Back to Chief Randy Scott, the elected -- the chief of police there in Columbia, South Carolina. Chief, first she said, I don`t have a baby. Then she says the baby`s in Atlanta. Then she said the baby`s what, in Carolina, and that the baby was with the father. What have you learned in your investigation?

SCOTT: Well, what she`s been doing is intentionally telling us stories to send us on paths that aren`t true. And as of today, Ms. Grace, we still do not know where little Amir is at.

GRACE: What can you tell me about Amir, Chief Scott? I mean, who normally took care of the baby?

SCOTT: Zinah was the mother. She is -- you know, Amir is only 18 months old. Zinah was the mother. And I know the grandmother had involvement. From what we understand now, the biological father had little involvement with Amir. But the unfortunate part is that the last time the baby was seen by sisters in Atlanta was November 17th, and here in Columbia, I believe right around Thanksgiving holiday. So you know, we`re talking in excess of almost 30 days now.

GRACE: Chief Scott, when the baby was seen well and alive around Thanksgiving, who was the baby with?

SCOTT: The baby was with Zinah and Zinah`s mother, which is Amir`s grandmother.

GRACE: OK, so the grandmother and the mother. And the grandmother, just like in tot mom, is the one to report the baby missing, not the mom.

To Keven Cohen joining us, WVOC. What can you tell me about recent search warrants being executed?

COHEN: My sources tell me that there have been three search warrants granted and executed, two of them on the grandmother`s house, one inside the grandmother`s house, one outside on the perimeter, and then one for the mother, Zinah`s, car. And they haven`t turned up anything to indicate where Amir might be, but they have been executed so far.

GRACE: Out to Marc Klaas, president and founder, Klaas Kids Foundation. Marc, you lost Polly, your little girl, many years ago and have been a tireless advocate for children ever since then. I want to hear your thinking.

MARC KLAAS, KLAAS KIDS FOUNDATION: Well, you know, you said -- a couple of times you`ve alluded to the tot mom case, and I think that very much like tot mom, it`s quite possible that this woman has murdered her child. Otherwise, she would take steps to lead the authorities to the child so that she could get out of jail.

This is very disturbing in this post-Casey Anthony era, when these -- these homicidal parents realize that if they just keep their mouths shut and spin enough lies, that the possibility exists that at the end of the day, they very well may walk.

GRACE: And as a matter of fact, we saw that tot mom did walk, Marc Klaas.

Back to Chief Randy Scott, joining us from Columbia. Chief, what can you tell me about the search warrants that Keven Cohen has reported?

SCOTT: Yes, ma`am. We`ve conducted three search warrants just in the last couple days. I`m really not at liberty right now to disclose what we found. But I can tell you that we will not stop executing search warrants and interviewing persons until we find some concrete evidence that Amir is safe, until we actually have Amir. You know, like I said yesterday or last night, I am concerned, and this case really bothers me.

GRACE: To Sheryl McCollum, crime analyst and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute. Sheryl, we`ve got a case that right now is going cold in the search for little Amir.

SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST: Right.

GRACE: The main roadmap you`d have in the search for a child is the mother.

MCCOLLUM: Correct. Again, the concerns are that she didn`t report him missing. She did say she didn`t have a child. I agree with Chief Scott. He`s got a very dangerous situation on his hands. I do not believe they`re going to recover this child alive. I believe he needs to get some cadaver dogs over to that car. And he`s going to be within five miles of a place that is familiar to this mother.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) you know, one -- at one hand, the baby was in Atlanta, and in another hand, the baby was in Charlotte. We`re researching both of those ideas, but you know, this is a child. So I didn`t want to take anything to chance. So I called in every resource that was possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was arrested and charged with unlawful conduct towards a child.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eighteen-month-old Amir Jennings`s whereabouts are still unknown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even now, behind bars, she`s still not giving us anything to find Amir.

GRACE: The conflicting stories from Mommy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don`t have a baby. I do have a baby. Baby`s with father. Baby`s in Atlanta with family. Baby`s is in Charlotte with someone else.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this child`s case, we`ve done just about everything possible. We have the FBI involved.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The inconsistent stories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not about Zinah, at this point. It`s about Amir, finding out that he is safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Tonight, where is baby Amir? The mother and the child reported missing, but then Mommy manages to crash her car, and a motor (ph) man says, Wait a minute. Aren`t you a missing person? Where`s your baby? At first, she says, I don`t have a baby. Then there at the hospital, they see a C-section scar. After putting two and two together, cops now have Mommy behind the bars for not reporting her child missing. Is it tot mom all over again?

We are taking your calls. Out to Kathy in Texas. Hi, Kathy. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, hi, Nancy. First, I just wanted to state that I completely agree with Marc Klaas and everything that he stated. This is just a repeat of the Casey Anthony case.

Secondly, I wanted to make a statement that she said that she needs to go to jail when they arrested her. I find that to be really troubling, considering that it was stated by her family that she was doing quite well in college. She was making great grades, and then had the baby at 18 and went downhill from there. And I`m wondering if this could possibly be related to post-traumatic -- I was going to say stress disorder, but I meant -- oh, gosh, you know what I`m talking about.

GRACE: Post-partum depression.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, thank you.

GRACE: OK. Good question. To Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst, author of "Dealbreakers." More post-partum depression?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, even if she does have post- partum depression, that`s not what`s primary. Depression does not make you kill your child. It`s a factor, but I wouldn`t really bother thinking about that. What we know about Casey Anthony, Susan Smith, these mothers who kill their child, is that they have a homicidal intent or urge that waxes and wanes over time. And when they finally get the courage to kill the child, it`s when a love interest enters their life.

So I would -- what I would be most curious about is who was this mother having sex with, dating, living with? Because that person is going to be a treasure trove of information. And also, this mom looks high in her mugshot to me. So you want to think about a drug picture and a homicidal picture, not a depression picture.

GRACE: When you say when a love interest enters the mother`s life, are you referring to, for instance, Susan Smith, who wanted the rich boyfriend and she ended up drowning her three children in order to get him when he didn`t want a ready-made family, or tot mom, when she hooks up with Anthony Lazzaro, who -- she immediately loses the child?

MARSHALL: Nancy, you`ve identified it accurately. These women find a man, fall in love, have a sense of an idealized life that they`re going to have with this guy. And then their primary attachment is to the man. They care about the man, they are not bonded with their own baby.

And what you see in forensic interviews afterwards is they speak about the child rather unempathetically because they`re not bonded. And when this mother says, Oh, well, maybe I should just be in jail, I don`t think that`s that deep. What she`s doing is she`s being a petulant child, and that`s why she says that, and she thinks she can get away with it, but she won`t.

GRACE: To Pat Brown, criminal profiler, author of "The Profiler." Do you see the similarities between this mom and, for instance, Susan Smith and tot mom, Casey Anthony?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: Oh, yes, Nancy. And I agree with Bethany about the -- you know, now that the man has maybe entered the picture, something better has entered the picture. And I don`t agree that she cares more about the man than the baby. She just likes the attention she gets from the man better than the attention she got from that baby.

So in other words, the scale kind of went like this, and she said, OK, this is becoming a pain in the neck. This is actually ruining my chances with this, which is giving me more. So we toss out the one that`s holding me back. (INAUDIBLE) a psychopathic kind of thinking, which is about me, me, me.

GRACE: But another issue regarding Kathy in Texas`s question regarding the post-partum depression -- it`s 18 months into it. What about it, Bethany?

MARSHALL: Well, when you -- when you`re depressed, you have low levels of energy, disinterest. You don`t have the energy at your disposal to kill a child. That is a tremendously forceful act that requires planning, enthusiasm, being able to organize your thought process. Someone with post-partum depression is very lethargic and they cannot think -- they can`t think their way out of a paper bag, let alone how to hide a child.

GRACE: Back to Chief Randy Scott, joining us from South Carolina police. Chief, thanks again for being with us. You said that the mom is currently behind bars on other charges. Are those charges not reporting her child missing?

SCOTT: Well, those charges are -- right now has her in jail while we`re continuing to investigate this case. But one of your callers said it just right, Ms. Grace. We are -- have investigators right now on the ground in Atlanta (INAUDIBLE) Atlanta and the FBI (INAUDIBLE) everything possible to find out what happened (INAUDIBLE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still giving us inconsistent stories. And it`s unfortunate. Our main concern is the whereabouts and the safety of this child right now, and that we just don`t have any concrete idea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zinah Jennings was asked about her son, who was not in the car. She gave conflicting stories. Investigators say that her son has not been seen since Thanksgiving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) have not been cooperative and very inconsistent with law enforcement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Giving us inconsistent stories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zinah Jennings is being held on $150,000 bond, charged with child cruelty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have Amir, you need to call law enforcement immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Out to Deanna in Washington. Hi, dear. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I`m just wondering how is it that this mother of this 18-month-old baby is in prison or jail, excuse me, for child cruelty, when Skye Metalwala`s mother out here in Bellevue, Washington, leaves her child supposedly locked in a car while she goes to get gas, and the police won`t even take her in for questioning.

GRACE: You know what, Marc Klaas. Deanna is right. Why?

KLAAS: I have no idea. Different procedures. But that`s an incredibly good point, different techniques, different approaches to solving the crime. But I think you need to bring Skye`s mother in and really start asking her some hard questions. It truly looks like she`s getting away with murder.

GRACE: You know, in this case, we see this same technique employed, Marc Klaas, as in tot mom, bringing her in for other charges when the police really suspect her in a murder.

KLAAS: Well, absolutely. And they got a trove of information from tot mom, and it ultimately led to the recovery of her little girl. But leaving the mother on her own, hoping that she will lead them to something, I think is a flawed strategy. I think it`s flawed because she understands what they`re doing. And she`s going to stay away from anything that might lead them to her child.

I think you need to put the hammer on these moms. I`m sorry, I just don`t appreciate people being able to get away with these kinds of crimes. She`s in jail now. Something`s going to happen. She`s going to talk to somebody. She`s going to lead the investigators somewhere. The fact this is getting so much publicity is going to lead to something. Hopefully, their techniques will bring the little girl (SIC) home.

GRACE: To the lawyers, Odom and Furr. Penny Douglas Furr, there`s absolutely nothing wrong with cops putting her behind bars on another charge.

PENNY DOUGLAS FURR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, they can do that, Nancy, but the problem is if you put her in jail, she stops talking, she gets a lawyer. You don`t get any information from her. So the cops can either leave her out there, keep her talking, or put her in jail and stop talking immediately.

GRACE: Peter Odom, she wasn`t talking before, except to tell lies!

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They have to consider -- this is a woman with a documented psychological history. They need to start thinking about that to maybe get some cooperation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have Amir, you need to call law enforcement immediately. If you have seen Amir, you need to call us immediately. This is a criminal investigation at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Weeks have passed since Justin Adams made the tearful plea for his wife`s safe return.

JUSTIN ADAMS, HUSBAND OF MISSING MOM JAYMIE ADAMS: She deserves to be at home with her family.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The body of missing pregnant mom of three, Jaymie Adams, has been found on a dirt bike trail just miles from where her car was found.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The family has been in great financial need.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Justin Adams originally lied to investigators because he was trying to protect his wife.

IRVEN BOX, ATTORNEY FOR JUSTIN ADAMS, HUSBAND OF MISSING MOM: And they were living this swinging lifestyle.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Justin Adams` attorney Irvin Balk says that financial need motivated Jaymie Adams to prostitute herself on Craigslist as a way to support her family. Police have interrogated her husband.

BOX: My client is not going to be accused again unless there is actual factual information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, HLN HOST: We are live and taking your calls.

Where is Jaymie Adams, the 25-year-old young missing mom of three, pregnant with a fourth? When questioned, her husband`s immediate response was mommy is a swinger. As if all of us ladies really believe a pregnant mom of three -- repeat, pregnant mom of three -- is out swinging, having sex with unknown guys and couples. That`s all he has to say?

All right. This guy is missing a screw up here.

Out to April Hill, anchor with KRMG. OK. Fill me in, April.

APRIL HILL, ANCHOR/REPORTER, NEWSTALK KRMG: Well, Jaymie was last reported missing by her husband on December 10th. His story changed the night that she was missing into the next day. He says she was prostituting herself on Craigslist after the family became hard up for money, but he didn`t tell investigators that until the next day when he went into the police station and said that he hadn`t been completely honest.

GRACE: Well, April Hill, joining us, KRMG, is there any evidence she was advertising as a prostitute on Craigslist?

HILL: Absolutely not. Police won`t confirm they have any evidence. I have looked around to see if I can find any evidence, and I haven`t found any. Right now, it`s just her husband, Justin, his word.

GRACE: Well, speaking of husband, Justin, who is not a person of interest in this case, not a suspect in this case, with us now, exclusively, the husband`s lawyer, Irven Box, joining us from Oklahoma City.

Mr. Box, thank you for being with us.

BOX: Good day, Nancy.

GRACE: Mr. Box, what is your specialty?

BOX: I do criminal defense, Nancy. I`m a former police lieutenant here, and assistant DA, and I`ve been doing criminal defense about 35 years.

GRACE: Mr. Box, why has Jaymie`s husband hired a criminal defense lawyer?

BOX: Well, first of all, Nancy, he gave his plea, and told the police his story and then he went back --

GRACE: His plea? He entered a guilty plea to what?

BOX: No, his plea for her to be returned. And he told the police the story as the initial -- what we just heard. Initially said, you know, she`s just out, gone to store, and going to meet a friend, , you know, then after finding out she is gone for 12, 14 hours, he goes on to tell the police, you know, look, here is where she was at.

And so, right now, the reason he hired an attorney, he was called in by the police. He was questioned four or five hours. He was given a polygraph exam, and then me contacted me through his family members and said, you know, we think we need a lawyer if they`re going to talk to us like this, and I agreed and he`s retained me.

GRACE: Well, Irven Box, you`ve got an excellent reputation there in the Oklahoma City area, but when you say he issued a statement, he gave a statement pleading for her return, we`re showing him reading off a piece of paper. Is that the statement you`re talking about?

BOX: It is. I had nothing to do with that. That was before I was retained.

GRACE: I`m glad to hear it because he could really have used professional advice before he unloaded this in front of a TV camera.

You`re looking at shots of the husband of Jaymie Adams, a 25-year-old missing mom of three, pregnant at the time she goes missing.

What I don`t understand, Irven Box, is him blurting out to cops, you know, his wife is missing the mother of his child, and he blurts out, we`re swingers?

BOX: Nancy, he didn`t do that right away. He did that -- that comment about the swingers was in a interrogation, when he was brought in to the police department and questioned by on one of the homicide detectives. He didn`t blurt that out to start with. His initial statement when she was missing and when he reported her missing was, that she`s been missing, I don`t know her whereabouts, I had a conversation with her by phone and text, you know, around midnight, the night that she went missing.

The swinger comment came out later when he was brought into the police department a couple of days later and interrogated by the police.

GRACE: So he is claiming he had a text from the missing mom at midnight?

BOX: Got a text. I`m looking at the affidavit right now. The last conversation he had with her was close to midnight. He -- and in the affidavit from the police, his statement was that she had left around 11:00 on the night she went missing which was the 9th of December, to go to the grocery store. That was his initial statement, and that he had had a conversation with her.

Some time later he said around 11:40, he received a call from her that she`s meeting a different person for a date. And that she was there by the McDonald`s in Midwest City which is just east of Oklahoma City.

GRACE: You know what`s interesting this business of the McDonald`s -- was it a McDonald`s or a Denny`s?

BOX: Well, there`s two things. The Denny`s was where she supposedly had eaten around 2:53 on the morning of the 10th, but she told him, he said he received a call from her about 11:40 that she was meeting a different client at the McDonald`s in Midwest City, and that he received a text from her saying that she had arrived in Midwest City, and that the client hadn`t shown up, and then he went to that area, and he talked.

I know you probably know he talked -- he said to the manager of Denny`s who said she was seen on the video, but the police interviewed the manager and he said, we don`t see her on the video.

GRACE: And the manager also said that he didn`t recall as much. You know, it just -- it seems to me like your client is making up the whole Denny`s thing because your client is saying a manager of Denny`s claimed he saw her, police talked to the manage, he says that`s not true, police look at the surveillance video at Denny`s, they don`t see her.

Let me ask you this regarding these text messages and phone calls your client is claiming he got from her, have you seen the text messages yourself?

BOX: I have not seen -- I`ve talked to police --

GRACE: Why?

BOX: I have not -- we`ve not -- first of all, Nancy, the phone was confiscated to start with. There`s not a crime yet. Keep in mind, there is not a crime. There is not a homicide.

GRACE: Well, I mean if you -- if you don`t count prostitution as a crime, but that is your business, it`s not mine.

BOX: About my client I`m talking about. My client has not been charged with a crime. There`s not a charge filed in the state against him, so we don`t get into discovery. There`s nothing we`re getting right now as far as from the police as evidence that they`ve collected. And we won`t do that until essentially a charge is filed.

GRACE: We are taking your calls. Regarding the disappearance of 25- year-old pregnant mom of three. When questioned by cops, her husband says, oh, she`s a swinger. She is out with other men.

Is it true, Mr. Box, your client failed a polygraph?

BOX: It`s true that the police said that he showed deception when asked, did he know the whereabouts of his wife, and in the affidavit that was signed for the search warrant, it says that that`s one of the things they used -- that information in there.

GRACE: You know, another issue I have, Mr. Box -- with me is criminal defense attorney out of Oklahoma City, the lawyer for Jaymie Adams` husband, Irven Box is with us.

Mr. Box, what it boils down to is he lied to cops about where his wife was saying she was at the store or with a friend, then the next day, he then had the story that she is a hooker on Craigslist.

Mr. Box, have you been able to corroborate any such ads on Craigslist?

BOX: I can`t because of confidentiality and it`s attorney/client privilege to tell you exactly that --

GRACE: Mr. Box, Craigslist is not confidential. I can log on to Craigslist.

BOX: I know. I`m talking about conversations between my client and myself, I`m not talking about going to Craigslist. I believe that -- Craigslist absolutely -- I believe she had been doing it for about three months.

GRACE: Everyone, as we go to break, our "Family Album" is showing your photos. Tonight, Colorado friends, the Opstein family, Aaron and Rachelle with three children, Caleb, Noah, and Emma Grace.

What a beautiful family. Mom Rachelle mom says Caleb is a great athlete, Noah makes everybody laugh and Emma Grace is the little mommy in the family.

But I want to see your photos. You can go to our "iReport Family Album". You go to hlnTV.com/Nancygrace, click on "Nancy`s Family Album."

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ADAMS: She deserves to be at home with her family.

BOX: My client is not going to be accused again unless there is actual factual information.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: After the mother`s disappearance police have interrogated her husband.

BOX: My client is not going to be accused again unless there`s actual factual information.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Box says Justin Adams hired him after police became, quote, "accusatory" in the questioning of his client. Box says that financial need motivated Jaymie Adams to prostitute herself on Craigslist as a way to support her family.

Finding this pregnant mother of three, she left a post on her blog. She writes about how she was looking forward to celebrating Christmas with her three sons. Jaymie writes, "Christmas can get expensive and the gifts I envision giving have changed."

Justin Adams made his tearful plea for his wife`s safe return.

ADAMS: She deserves to be at home with her family.

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GRACE: We are taking your calls. Where is the pregnant mom of three, Jaymie Adams, just 25 years old? She is missing. When cops questioned her husband, he blurts out that they are swingers with other couples for sex. So far we have not been able to identify any of the alleged listings by Jaymie where she prostitutes herself on Craigslist, but we are looking.

We are taking your calls, to Mike in Florida. Hi, Mike, what`s your question?

MIKE, CALLER FROM FLORIDA: Hi, there, Nancy. Thanks for taking my question. It is said that there was a text message from her, and hopefully the police did confiscate his phone, and shouldn`t that prove an awful lot of things maybe beyond that simple text message as far as calls prior and whatever else came after?

Isn`t there some possibility that something good in the terms of evidence will turn up on that phone?

GRACE: Absolutely, Mike in Florida. For instance, to you, Sheryl McCollum, you can determine who sent the text. Was it someone pretending to be her at a different telephone? You can ping the text, where was the phone when the text was sent.

What do you think, Sheryl?

SHERYL MCCOLLUM, CRIME ANALYST, DIR. OF COLD CASE SQUAD AT PINE LAKE P.D.: Her telephone and her computer are going to blow this story out of the water. The problem I`m having with him is he claims she sent a text message saying I`m going to meet a client at an all-night McDonald`s. Then she sent him another text saying hey, dude didn`t show up.

Is her husband her pimp? Because that`s what it sounds like to me. He knows she`s meeting people for money. He knows she`s on Craigslist as a -- as a prostitute of three months while she`s pregnant? Yes, I don`t know why this guy is not a person of interest.

GRACE: You know, unleash the lawyers, Peter Odom, Penny Douglass Furr, defense attorneys out of the Atlanta jurisdiction.

Penny Douglass Furr, what do you make of it?

PENNY DOUGLASS FURR, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Nancy, I don`t see that he should be a suspect right now, at this point. Now other questioning may lead to that, but if she`s meeting people on Craigslist, that is very dangerous. Remember the --

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GRACE: There`s no evidence of that other than what he said.

FURR: OK. But remember the Craigslist killer, the thing is, once it comes off Craigslist, it`s gone. There`s no way to really go back and get it. I`ve tried to go back and get things off Craigslist, but once they take it off, you have to have a subpoena and then the company can go back and try and get it, but I don`t know a way to go back and put it back on Craigslist if she advertised in the past.

GRACE: To Peter Odom, he`s the last one to see her.

PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right.

GRACE: He is the one that gets the mysterious text. He`s changing his stories.

ODOM: Well --

GRACE: And of course, there are statistics as to the number one cause of death amongst pregnant women in this country, in the U.S., is homicide at the hands of the partner. What about it, Peter?

ODOM: Well, Nancy, Sheryl McCollum suggests that the forensic evidence, the computer and the phone, might contradict the husband`s story, but they also might corroborate it. So let`s take a look at that first.

You know you talked so vehemently about the husband changing his story. He initially told the police that she was going to meet at a McDonald`s, but he then went back in and told the police, OK, I lied to you, she was actually going to meet a client.

His first story was obviously designed to protect her. There`s a reason that he might have lied to the police initially, not necessarily having anything to do with guilt. Let`s wait to see if there is actually evidence of the crime first.

GRACE: You know what, that`s true, Peter. That`s true. Very often you`ll see a lie to police at the outset for some other reason or you`ll see somebody fail a polygraph because they are lying about something tangential to the crime in chief.

For instance, you know, somebody smokes pot. They may lie about it, but the questioning is about a missing person, so you fail a polygraph. The kicker here however is, Peter Odom, that he failed on the question in the case in chief about the disappearance. And, you know, his own lawyer cannot produce the text message, cannot produce Craigslist postings, no evidence whatsoever that his story, the husband`s story is anything but fabricated.

ODOM: But all that forensic evidence is in the hands of the police, so only the police can produce that now and they haven`t done anything to corroborate or contradict the husband`s story yet.

GRACE: Pat Brown?

PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER, AUTHOR OF "THE PROFILER": OK. Here is the problem I have. He could just be adult, but let`s look at a few other things. She happened to start prostituting just at this particular time with three kinds, you know, and a little baby on the way. She would have been doing it before. There should be evidence she`s done it before. Secondly, there should be evidence of them swinging. People that know them, people who`ve done that with them. Thirdly, there should be evidence of prostitution now.

But here is what I think is most likely to have happened. He is adding suspects to the list. First of all, he is the only suspect, now he says, oh, we`re swingers and that adds a possible other few people. That`s -- maybe not good enough, let`s add in some prostitution, we`ll have some unknown serial killer.

And Craigslist has been in the news, Long Island serial killer off of Craigslist, Michigan, again, people, women going online, I mean, on this -- online, prostituting themselves and disappearing, ending up in people`s car trunks.

So he`s seen this in the news. I don`t know, maybe she really was prostituting or maybe he`s just thinking this is a good thing to bring up now.

GRACE: We are taking your calls, to Nicole Partin, investigative reporter.

Nicole, what more can you tell me tonight?

NICOLE PARTIN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Good evening, Nancy. Also an interesting point to the story, the officer that responded to the call at around 5:00 a.m. meeting of the husband at the McDonald`s said, you know, I began to ask Justin ordinary questions about the disappearance of his wife, and the officer said he began to be very agitated with me.

At one point Justin even tells the officer leave, just leave, I`ll call someone else to file the report. And then he asks the officer for a Slim Jim tool saying that he wanted to break into his wife`s car that had been left at McDonald`s.

GRACE: Straight out to Bethany Marshall. What about it, Bethany?

BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": Well, I think a lot can be gained by finding out if whether or not he was happy that his wife was pregnant. You mentioned homicide is the leading cause of death amongst pregnant women.

Ask the husband`s intimate, was he happy she was pregnant? Was this an anticipated child? Was there a nursery in the home? Had he bought baby clothes or was he acting like she wasn`t going to have a baby?

GRACE: What do you think, Marc Klaas?

MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: I believe she was only two months pregnant, so it might be a little premature to start buying nursery items. I think that this is a very toxic mix. Everything that`s been put up, prostitution, the Internet, the anonymity, meeting men at late hours of the evening, allowing your wife to do this, pimping your wife, but I think that Sheryl was right. The evidence off of the computer and off of the cell phones is going to shed a lot of light on this. I understand that both of their cell phones were pinging off of the same tower in the night that she disappeared and then the day that after she disappeared. So I think that there`s a loft of evidence that`s going to shed an awful lot of light on exactly what was going on here.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: She writes about how she was looking forward to celebrating Christmas with her three sons, but admits buying gifts this year would be difficult. Justin Adams made his tearful plea for his wife`s safe return.

ADAMS: Our children need their mother.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The body of missing pregnant mom of three Jaymie Adams has been found. Police confirm trauma to the body.

ADAMS: She deserves to be at home with her family.

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ADAMS: I want you to know that I love you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Justin Adams gave an emotional plea for his wife`s return a few days after her disappearance.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Oklahoma Police have found the body of missing pregnant mom of three Jaymie Adams.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: The missing persons case turns into a homicide investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Two days before Justin Adams made a desperate plea to the public to help find his missing wife, police interviewed him. And he admitted he lied about where his wife was going just before she vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Authorities say the body was found on a dirt bike trail just miles from where Jaymie`s car was found abandoned at a McDonald`s parking lot.

BOX: They had things going on, and they were living a swinging lifestyle, and suddenly she disappears.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Those things included a life of prostitution. Justin Adams told police Jaymie advertised herself as a massage therapist on Craigslist. He says his wife arranged meetings with strangers and then she engaged in sexual acts for cash.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: While police will not reveal cause of death, they confirmed trauma to the body is consistent with homicide.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A search warrant reveals Justin agreed to a lie detector test. He was found to be deceptive in reference to the question, do you know your wife`s whereabouts.

BOX: I think early on in this questioning by the police, he was very protective of her and himself in regards to what their lifestyle was. If she went down in Craigslist which I believe she was, and she were indeed meeting men at night especially at 11:00, 11:30 at night.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There could be an endless number of suspects.

BOX: There`s no telling what she encountered during that time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Meanwhile authorities are keeping a close eye on Jaymie`s husband and mother-in-law.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Investigators confirmed they have seized two cars in the case, including the vehicle belonging to Jaymie`s husband, Justin Adams.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: As well as his mother`s car. Police have asked her to come in and talk.

BOX: She is not going to do that. By innuendoes, when they questioned him, the time they were grilling him like he was a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Oklahoma City Police have not named any suspects.

BOX: But he would -- you know, would have to be not very intelligent if he didn`t believe that they were trying to make him a suspect the first time they interrogated him.

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GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Robinson, 36, Brandon, Mississippi, killed Afghanistan. Awarded Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Mississippi Medal of Valor. Honored as an Eagle Scout.

Loved parachuting, James Bond, Clint Eastwood, the outdoors. Guitar. Leaves behind mother Mary, sister Denise, wife Emma, daughter Savannah, son Patrick.

Christopher Robinson. American hero.

Thanks to our guests but especially to you. And good night from the New York control room. Good night, everybody. There he is, Charles, Liz, Rosie, Dana.

Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.

END