Transcript from JVM Show 12-6-11
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1112/06/ijvm.01.html
VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... special needs teen vanishes into thin air. Her parents say she`s extremely vulnerable and desperately needs medication. Shanna Peoples`s distraught father is my special guest tonight.
Shanna, look at her, beautiful girl, last seen September 8. She left her home in Geneva, Alabama, to go for a walk and has not been seen or heard from since. Shanna`s desperate parents suspect foul play. They say Shanna is very developmentally challenged, that she does not know her phone number and often mixes up her address. Was Shanna kidnapped?
I want to welcome her really distraught father, Elvis McKee.
And Elvis, we cannot imagine what these past three months have been like for you. I understand you are calling us from the hospital, because you have been suffering chest pains, because of your desperation over finding your daughter. What`s it been like, first of all, for you?
ELVIS MCKEE, SHANNA`S FATHER (via phone): It`s been really hard, Jane.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m so sorry. I`m so sorry.
MCKEE: Yes, me too. I just thought maybe someone can help find my daughter.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: We want to do everything we can. We want to do everything we can.
First of all, there`s one very promising thing, is that your daughter is very distinctive. She is almost 6 feet tall, or just about 6 feet tall. Now, she`s, what, 19, 20? She may have had a birthday? She was 19 when she vanished?
MCKEE: Yes.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: She just had a birthday, so she`s now 20. So you see this girl? Look at that face and imagine her 6 feet tall! She was last seen wearing pants, a green blouse, flip-flops. She has sandy blonde hair, green eyes.
Let me ask you about this, Elvis, what about this 50-year-old man who had befriended her and she was allegedly last seen at his house? Have cops vetted this guy? Have you talked to him? Have you talked to cops about this man?
MCKEE: Yes, ma`am. He`s been to the house several times after that. He was supposedly at work about 15 -- about 20 miles away, 30 miles away, when this happened. Her mom had just called her, maybe 30 minutes to an hour before she disappeared. And yes, we have talked to him, and he`s been cleared. They`ve done a polygraph test on him and all.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, Brad Dennis, you`re the director of search operations for Klass Kids Foundation. You are working with Elvis Peoples [SIC], trying to find his daughter. I hear this 50-year-old, according to the dad, has been cleared. But when I hear a 50-year-old making friends with a teenager who`s developmentally disabled, boy, do my alarm bells go off.
MCKEE: Jane, absolutely. I mean, the alarm bells are off. There was a number of friends and associates of his that hung around the area. We understand that at least one of those associates was in the area about the same time that she disappeared. So definitely, the alarm bells should be going off.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, what about the cops? Briefly, what are they doing?
MCKEE: Well, Jane, Alabama Bureau of Investigations, as well as Geneva police department, they are actively involved in the investigation. They have been following up numerous leads. And we really believe that it`s a lead from the community that`s going to break this case.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Got to leave it right there, but we`re staying on top of this. We`re not letting it go.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
End of segment on Shanna.