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, Bonita Springs, Florida. In the last hours, mystery surrounding the murder of a gorgeous young doctor, a mother of two little girls. Bombshell tonight. Dr. Teresa Sievers found murdered brutally in her upscale Florida home while Sievers`s husband and two little daughters out of town.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A neighborhood on edge after this doctor and mother of two was found dead inside her Bonita Springs home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very scared for my safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who believes she may have heard the murder as it happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thinking that someone`s going to come in and kill me.
DR. TERESA SIEVERS, PHYSICIAN: To understand it, we as doctors are treating this physical body that we can touch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That from Teresa Sievers`s YouTube channel.
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us.
Bombshell tonight. We go live to Bonita Springs, Florida. In the last hours, mystery surrounding the murder of a gorgeous young doctor, a mother of two little girls, Dr. Teresa Sievers found brutally murdered in her upscale Florida home while her husband and their two little girls were out of town.
I want to go straight to the scene. Bob Alexander, news director there at 92.5 Fox News in Fort Meyers -- Bob, what do we know?
BOB ALEXANDER, 92.5 FOX NEWS (via telephone): Well, Nancy, the first thing that we know is it`s been confirmed that this was, indeed, a homicide. The reports came in first early Monday morning, when Dr. Sievers was supposed to report to work. Apparently, she had a very full schedule...
GRACE: OK, wait a minute, wait a minute, Bob. I think I`m seeing -- let me see that in full. I believe I`m seeing a gurney carrying her out.
Bob Alexander with me. We`re seeing a gurney right now taking the doctor out of the home.
Everybody, this is what we know. Bob, she, her husband and their two daughters, I believe, were in Connecticut for a family get-together? What happened?
ALEXANDER: Yes. They were in Connecticut over this past weekend. She apparently flew home by herself to the Fort Meyers area Sunday and was scheduled to see patients at her office on Monday. When she did not show up, a call was placed to the Lee County sheriff`s office. The sheriff`s deputies arrived at the home in Bonita Springs. It was then that they found her dead. Major crimes was called in, and the investigation was launched from there.
GRACE: OK, let me understand this timeline. With me is Bob Alexander, and I`m about to bring in Rita Cosby with WABC.
Bob, so she and her family -- she`s got two little girls with the husband, who I think is also a doctor, but I know he works in the practice with her. They`re out of town with a big family gathering in Connecticut.
She flies home alone, leaving her children and husband behind, because she`s got patients the next morning, all right? So my understanding was her plan was -- she gets in late at night. She`s going to get up at 5:00 o`clock to go start seeing patients.
Let me understand this, Bob. Is it true the doctor called her husband and said, I got home OK?
ALEXANDER: Yes. Her sister Lisa (ph) confirmed to us that she, indeed, did make the call once she got back here to the Fort Meyers area, that she was here safe and that she had planned to go in to work the next morning...
GRACE: OK.
ALEXANDER: ... and that was the last communication that anybody apparently had with her.
GRACE: So that`s a yes, plain and simple.
ALEXANDER: Yes.
GRACE: She called. She said she get home safely. But did she get home safely, or did she touch down? Go with me here. I`m trying to figure this out. This is a very upscale home, all right? I know they had an alarm system. No surveillance video, but they had an alarm system, and I believe it was on.
[20:05:00]The back yard totally enclosed with that gate. It`s a tall gate. You have to go through a side entrance, which is locked, either the garage or the front door. Those are the only ways to get into the home.
This is what I`m trying to figure out, Bob Alexander. When she said, I`m here, does that mean, I touched down safely, or I`m in the home and everything`s good? Because if it means, I touched down, what did she do? Did she take an uber? Did she drive herself? Did she get a taxi. Did she have a limo waiting? Who drove her home? How did she get home? Do we know that, Bob?
ALEXANDER: We don`t know that yet, Nancy. Again, the investigation is ongoing. They`ve released very few details in the whole thing. All we know for sure is that she did arrive in Fort Meyers. How she got home and who brought her home, that sort of information, that has not been released.
GRACE: Because where I`m going with this, Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, WABC host -- Rita, I need to know who drove her home. Was it an uber driver? Was it a car you call as you touch down and they show up? Was it a cab driver she got at ground transport? Was her car parked there?
I need to know.
Was somebody waiting in her car? Because if they were, how did they know she was about to come out? Did they wait there all weekend? I don`t think so. Or was the person in the home? They`ve got an alarm system. The alarm didn`t go off, all right? It did not go off. We know the alarm did not go off.
What do you know, Rita?
RITA COSBY, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Well, and there`s a lot of other unanswered questions, too, Nancy. They have two dogs that always bark when people come inside. We don`t know if the cogs barked.
What we do know is two interesting things coming from neighbors, neighbors in the pre-dawn hours. Remember, they found her body at 9:45.
She typically wakes up at 5:00. One neighbor heard a sound like a shrill. It sounded like a child screaming in the pre-dawn hours. Another neighbor heard a man shouting at someone inside the home.
GRACE: OK. Look at this home. It`s extremely protected. There`s only three ways in to the home, the front door, which you see, the garage, which you`ve got to be able to get that garage door up -- it`s an extended garage, it can actually hold three cars -- or you can get in through the back.
Now, the problem with the back -- there`s a gate. You`d have to get over the gate and then in somehow through the back. These are the only ways into the home.
Now, another thing I question, Bob Alexander, is whether the carport, the garage, has an attic because very often, if there`s an attic or crawlspace in the garage, that connects to the house. Somebody can get up through there, go through it, and then land right in your bedroom.
Very easy to do if you can get into that garage, but notice the garage does not have any windows. You`d have to be able to get that door up, unless you got in when she came in with the car.
That would suggest, Bob, that somebody knew she was on her way home and was lying in wait. Who would know that?
Let me go to you, Matt Zarrell. The police are not releasing cause or manner of death right now. Well, we do know it`s a homicide. We know it`s not involuntary, so it`s going to have to be either voluntary or murder.
We also know that it`s been leaked out it was one of the most brutal and chilling crime scenes police have ever seen. Now, that means blood.
That does not mean asphyxiation, that means blood, either shooting or stabbing. What do you know, Matt Zarrell?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER (via telephone): Well, we know that the police were waiting for the autopsy report right now. We`ve got calls into the coroner`s office. We know that the scene, as you mentioned, was very, very gruesome. Another factor that we`re looking into here is, was a weapon used? Was there a weapon at the scene, and where her body was found. That could also tell us exactly how the murder played out.
GRACE: You know what? I want to backtrack to Rita Cosby. With me, Rita Cosby, WABC, Bob Alexander, Fox News.
Rita, let`s talk about those neighbors. They`re not living in the same home together. These are two separate entities, correct?
CROSBY: Yes, two separate and different times.
GRACE: Which means you can expect maybe one person to be wrong, possibly, about what they heard at 3:00 o`clock, 4:00 o`clock in the morning, but not two people living in two homes. Now, the one person heard, as she describes it, a "shrill," which is a shriek, all right? She hears it in the pre-dawn hours.
The other person I believe is a male, and he hears an argument or words between a man and a woman, or did he just hear the man?
CROSBY: He just heard the man, but he said he heard the man shouting loudly and screaming. So it sounds like there was some sort of argument heard, both again, at the same time frame, which is very significant.
GRACE: Interesting that that alarm was not triggered. Who turned the alarm off? Because, you know, when you`re coming home at night by yourself
from out of town, you would think you`d turn that alarm back on.
[20:10:08]Did she forget to turn the alarm on? Also, with most alarms, the alarm company can tell you, was the house was armed at that time or not. Why wasn`t it?
Let`s take a listen to what the neighbors are saying. Who killed this gorgeous young doctor, this mother of two? Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you scared for your own safety?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very scared for my safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re the one who actually heard a scream.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did. I did. It was early in the morning. I got up, and I heard what was like a shrill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did it sound like whoever it was was in pain or scared?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like they got hurt. I have children, and I know when a child gets hurt, how they`ll have that shrill. And that`s -- to me, that`s what it sounded like.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have an idea who did this? Put a footrest (ph). Don`t let us sit and think that, you know, there`s a murderer out there that`s going to attack everybody in the neighborhood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:15:14]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard what was like a shrill, like they got hurt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor and mother of two found dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Murder of Dr. Teresa Sievers...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inside her home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the safest place is in your own home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neighborhood on edge.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m very scared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) thinking that someone`s going to come in and kill me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Who would murder this gorgeous young mother of two, a doctor who spent her whole life trying to heal others? Let`s take a listen to what Dr. Teresa Sievers is saying. This is her on Teresa Sievers`s YouTube channel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. TERESA SIEVERS, PHYSICIAN: The amount of disease that it`s covering, it`s more than just your typical arthritis and it has more products (ph)...
I have a lot of gratitude that I`m able to give some time back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You are seeing -- part of that is from a syndicated national TV show, "Know the Cause."
I want to see a little bit more of Dr. Sievers. Let me know when you get it cued up, Liz.
Who would kill her? Her husband and two children had been with her in Connecticut at a family gathering. Her sister was there. She came back home to see patients. Not an enemy known, but somebody went in her home while she was there alone and brutally, brutally murdered her.
Now, her patients were all coming to her practice the next morning. Everybody was lined up to see the doctor. They all loved her. She had a real healing touch, a real personal touch with her patients. And they`re greeted by a note on the door that says, We regret to inform you that Dr. Sievers is dead. She has passed away. She was murdered.
To Rita Cosby, investigative journalist, WABC. When police say -- when a police source leaks out, This is one of the most brutal crime scenes I`ve ever seen, that means she`s not found just lying there in her bed like she fell asleep and died peacefully, OK? There was a struggle. There is blood. And it`s a scene that even police say is one of the most brutal they`ve ever seen.
And did you hear the neighbor? She heard what she calls a "shrill," which is basically a cry of pain, in the early dawn hours. And that`s in another home. This lady screamed her head off!
CROSBY: Yes, it`s heartbreaking to hear. And Nancy, they say that they knew right away it was a homicide. So clearly, the scene was bloody.
It was gruesome. They`re providing few details.
What they are saying is interesting to neighbors, though. They`re saying that they don`t believe there`s a threat to the neighborhood, but lock your doors. They`re sending mixed messages, signaling that it looks like it was someone who knew her.
GRACE: OK, interesting. Someone that knew her. Now, typically, when you`ve got a spouse murdered in this manner, you immediately look to the husband or the wife. The husband was not there, the husband in Connecticut with the children. The husband has not been named a person of interest, not a suspect.
Right now, no suspects, no persons of interest. In fact, the police are asking for your help to figure out who murdered this beloved mom of two, this doctor to the community. The tip line, 1-800-780-TIPS -- 1-800- 780-8477.
Let`s take a listen to Dr. Sievers in her own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIEVERS: I didn`t come from the perfect family when I was a kid, although I never had a life anything like these girls go through. I do like them to know you don`t just wake up one day, become a doctor, have a business and have a perfect life. It requires work. And so, hopefully, I instill in them hope and a belief that they can be anything they want to be.
I have a lot of gratitude that I`m able to give some time back. It`s a place of healing for girls. It`s a chance of a new life. And it really makes you realize what is important in life that you have and what so many other people don`t have and how important it is to give back to them, to help them get the things that they didn`t have in life from the traditional family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Part of what you were just hearing when she was speaking -- this woman, this Dr. Teresa Sievers, a mother of two, a married mom of two, also worked at a home for teen girls that were pregnant. And she`s devoted hours and hours and hours trying to help these girls start their life over, to inspire them that they can do more in this world.
She herself, as you heard her say, didn`t come from a perfect family, but look what she has made of herself and is trying to raise two girls to do the same thing.
[20:20:08]I want to go back out to Bob Alexander. When we hear the police say that this was a brutal crime scene, what do we know? Do we know if a weapon was involved? And what I`m getting at, was the weapon brought into the home, or was this a murder of the moment, where she woke up and there was an intruder in the home, and he whacked her with a fire iron? Somehow, I`m not getting that feeling.
ALEXANDER: The thought that it`s a very brutal murder means that, of course, there had to be some kind of a weapon involved. But again, the sheriff`s office here in this area being very tight-lipped about all the details, only saying that it`s a homicide.
They brought in dozens of training academy recruits to comb the scene. They`re helping the detectives look for evidence. They also brought in the members of that Statewide Security Company that was hired to provide security for the home. They are working with the detectives, as well. But they`re just not giving out very many details about what happened.
GRACE: OK, wait. What did you say about the security company? What did you say?
ALEXANDER: Statewide Security is the local company in this area that was hired by the Sievers family to provide security at the home. They arrived at the home this morning to help the investigation, but that`s all that the company would tell us.
GRACE: Everyone, you are seeing the scene where this young doctor murdered at home. We know she made it back safely. She had no idea anything was wrong, didn`t feel she was being followed, nothing like that. She called back to her husband and girls when she landed, said she had made it all right.
To Dr. Bill Manion, forensic pathologist. Dr. Manion, when you hear the words "brutal crime scene," as a forensic pathologist -- and basically a criminologist, as well -- that means a treasure trove of evidence.
DR. BILL MANION, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): That`s correct, plenty of blood, and they`ll be analyzing that blood to see if it`s from stab wounds. Is it from blunt force injury, being hit by a bat or a pipe? People sometimes leave footprints in the blood, so they`ll be looking for any shoe footprints that are left in the blood. So yes, there`s plenty of evidence there.
And if the person was using a knife, they may have cut themselves, and they`ll be looking for all kinds of blood evidence that may have been on walls or railings or on the floor as she struggled with her assailant.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[20:26:33]UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shrill, and that`s -- to me, that`s what it sounded like.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Teresa Sievers, who was found dead inside this home...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who could do something like that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators were still scouring over every inch of property.
SIEVERS: You don`t just wake up one day, become a doctor, have a business and have a perfect life.
I got (INAUDIBLE) home because had started to learn about human trafficking, and I was already donating to the home, and I did not realize that they actually took human trafficking victims. And literally, I just received a message one day, I felt like, thinking about the home, and it was just divine intervention. You know, you need to just go to the home and just see what it`s about. And I came and I never left, and that was almost six years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That is from the murder victim, Dr. Teresa Sievers, at TeresaSievers.com.
She leaves behind a husband and two little girls -- two little girls. And as we are so intent on focusing on forensics and blood spatter and mode of death, cause of death, what happened, was there a murder weapon, what about those two little girls? What are they going to grow up remembering about Mommy`s death?
I want to go back out to Bob Alexander. We know, or we think we know, that this was not around the pool because all of the photos we`ve seen, the police are going into the home. At first, I thought maybe something had happened outside at the pool because the neighbors heard this scream and these voices, but those were clearly coming from inside the home. That must have been some scream and very loud voices.
Now, look at that. Look. She is testing fingerprints on the gate. That tech was testing the gate. Does that mean they don`t know how the person got in? Does that mean there`s no forced entry? In other words, the entry is not readily discernible? There`s no broken glass. It hasn`t been pried open at the front door or back door. So she`s printing the gate door.
Rita Cosby, what do you -- what`s your takeaway from that?
CROSBY: Well, it sounds me like they don`t know how the person got inside. They are also trying to find out if she had any enemies. And at this point, cops are saying, Nancy, that they don`t know of any history here.
This is a woman who in the community -- just to give you a sense -- she was so well loved, helping at-risk teens, but also those in the transgender community, so many different charitable causes. And she was known as "Mother Teresa" in the neighborhood. They can`t imagine who would do this to her.
GRACE: Look at this woman. We need your help. Police need your help. Who murdered this beautiful young doctor and mother of two little girls? 1-800-780-TIPS, 1-800-780-8477. There is a reward, and it is climbing.
For those of you just joining us, Dr. Teresa Sievers`s body has just been removed from her Bonita Springs, Florida, home. She was murdered in her home, a brutal murder, after leaving her husband and children at a family get-together in Connecticut to come back to see her patients. Here she is from TeresaSievers.com. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIEVERS: Just before I introduce her, I`m going to tell you that to understand it, we as doctors are treating this physical body that we can touch. But there`s a whole other part of our body, if you break us down to that smallest level, even beyond the cell, we are atoms and molecules. And guess what?
[20:30:00]
That has energy, and it vibrates and it moves. And sometimes when you have an imbalance in that energy, just like if you have a clogged artery and you can`t get the blood flow to go through, you can have problems in your physical body because of that energy flow, and this is not new age. This is actually ancient years of wisdom of healing from eastern medicine.
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1507/01/ng.01.html
Welcome to the new world. But they are wealthier then most, imo. at least monetarily it would seem.
