Nancy Grace, October 23, 2008
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0810/23/ng.01.html
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff says Kelly Morris was last seen by her husband and two children at her house. The next day, that house was burned. Morris` car and some personal belongings found a short distance away. Since then, hundreds have searched for Morris.
The sheriff`s office remains tight-lipped about much of the investigation. The fire at the house has been ruled an arson. Investigators are calling Kelly`s husband, Scott Morris, a person of office interest, but won`t release any further details.
Morris has not said anything publicly since his wife disappeared. Her family members say he has not helped with the search.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re committed and we`re not going to give up until we find Kelly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Where is 28-year-old Kelly Morris.
Straight out to Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks. Rory, take it from the beginning. What happened?
RORY O`NEILL, REPORTER, METRO NETWORKS: Well, Nancy, good evening. Back on September 3rd it seems that Kelly Morris just disappeared. One day she was there, the next gone.
The family had assumed or some friends had assumed she had gone off to work but only later did they find that her car was parked a block away and her home was actually on fire.
That`s when police and firefighters were first -- learned of this woman`s disappearance. They go to the house. She is not there and that`s when the search begins.
Since then her husband Scott has been labeled as a prime suspect. He has not been contributing to the search and he is the man police are looking at very closely. They want to know where he was the night before she disappeared.
GRACE: And Rory, where does he say he was?
O`NEILL: He says he went to bed early. How the two have had been an estranged relationship, sleeping in separate bedrooms so he says he went to bed but he actually -- cell phone records indicate he was up late talking to his father and actually had his father come over and baby sit the kids, and he did leave the house for about an hour.
GRACE: You know, I want to go out to our lawyers, Eleanor Dixon, Peter Odom and Mickey Sherman.
You know, Mickey, in arson cases that I have prosecuted I recall distinctly people will -- perpetrators will take their car and move it, move it away from the structure, away from the building. That`s a dead giveaway of arson.
SHERMAN: Yes, and you know, don`t forget. When people plan these things they don`t plan them well. We`re not talking about criminal geniuses here. So it`s those little things.
And I -- I`m bothered by the fact that the guy is not searching for her. That`s weird. That`s just very strange.
GRACE: Back to Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks. When was the last time she was seen?
O`NEILL: She was last seen at the home the night before. That is the only time -- that`s the last time the husband reports seeing her is before he went to bed and she said that -- he said that she had left to go out and look for a missing family dog, but it turns out the dogs were actually in their crates according to the kids the next day.
But the interesting thing is once firefighters got to the scene of the house and saw the house ablaze, the dogs were free and roaming around the backyard of that household.
GRACE: So typically, to Ron Shindel, former NYPD deputy inspector, if you are burning down the home, you`re burning down evidence. Evidence of what?
SHINDEL: Evidence of the crime you`ve committed. And in this case we have a missing person so the crime that could have been committed there could have been a homicide.
GRACE: With me right now is Kelly`s father Pat Currin.
Mr. Currin, thank you for being with us. What are police telling you?
PAT CURRIN, FATHER OF MISSING MOM OF 2 KELLY MORRIS: That we obviously -- you know they`ve told us that the house is ruled arson which you`ve already mentioned.
We know that, you know, we saw Kelly that night -- or we -- yes, we actually saw her the night before at 8 o`clock and I actually went to where Scott worked the next morning about 9:30 and he was there and everything seemed to be fine at that time and then about 12:20, that -- after lunch, one of the guys that he worked for called me and said that the - he said I`m not sure, but the right address is, I believe, Kelly`s house is on fire.
So at that time I tried to make a call to Kelly to at least let her know that the house was on fire and, you know, of course, I didn`t get her to answer the phone so I called Scott and he -- I asked him, I said, what was going on, and he said the house is on fire, so I`ll be down in a few minutes.
So I was in the next small town so I drove over as quick as I could get there.
GRACE: It`s interesting to me, Mr. Currin, about the house being set ablaze. Do you know where the fire started, what room?
CURRIN: You know, just from what the fire chief and everybody was telling me that the fire started in the back of the house.
GRACE: The back -- what room would that have been?
CURRIN: Well, they had a screened-in back porch in the back, I believe it started there from the fire chief said. It appeared to have started on the back porch.
GRACE: Do they being an accelerant was used like gasoline?
CURRIN: They`ve not told me what they thought was used. They just ruled it as arson is all they know.
GRACE: And -- so all they know is it`s arson. They don`t know how it was set.
CURRIN: If they do, they`ve not told me.
GRACE: Mr. Currin, have you learned anything about whether items were taken out of the home before it was set on fire?
CURRIN: I do not know.
GRACE: Did the husband have any items there?
CURRIN: Sure. I mean, you know, both of them were still living there. They had a rolled -- had a four-wheeler and lawn mower and stuff in the garage. They had -- you know, the firefighters have tried to save as much of their personal items as they could.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Gina in Pennsylvania. Hi, Gina.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Love your show.
GRACE: Thank you. What`s your question, dear?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do we know about this guy? This husband? Does he have any type of a criminal past? A violent history? Did they have a volatile relationship? What do we know about him other than he`s a person of interest?
GRACE: Back to Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks, what do we know?
O`NEILL: State Bureau of Investigation did conduct its probe and they did find he did have a history of having a temper such as punching holes in the wall. One time he actually threw a computer out of the window so neighbors and friends into say Scott did have a bit of a temper.
GRACE: Is that true, Mr. Currin?
CURRIN: Yes, ma`am. Kelly had said that -- you know I had asked her when she said they were having problems and she had actually came to live in our house in June for about three weeks, and -- you know, said he had a bad temper.
But I asked her did he have -- you know, put his hands on her, she said he had not.
GRACE: What about the episode of throwing a computer out of the window? What was that about?
CURRIN: I don`t - I don`t know about that.
GRACE: Don`t know about that.
CURRIN: No, ma`am.
GRACE: Has she every been gone for a period of days without being in touch with you guys?
CURRIN: No, ma`am. Never.
GRACE: And how are her children?
CURRIN: Excuse me?
GRACE: How are her children tonight?
CURRIN: Well, the older child is, obviously, with her dad and the younger child is still with Scott.
GRACE: Mr. Currin, what have the children been told about their mom?
CURRIN: Well, that she`s missing and we`re looking for her.
GRACE: Everyone, the tip line, 919-963-3213. There is a $36,000 reward. Take a look at Kelly Morris, 28, Stem, North Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURRIN: We are hoping for the best, but we obviously are preparing for the worst at this time. We`ve offered $30,000 and the governor of North Carolina has offered $5,000 and the CrimeStoppers has offered $1,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Morris` house was burned the day after she was last seen. Authorities ruled the fire an arson. They`ve named her husband, Scott Morris, a person of interest in her disappearance.
Newly released search warrants indicate investigators are looking at Scott and Kelly Morris` bank records. The warrants also showed the couple had arguments where Scott punched holes in the wall and once threw a computer out the window.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRACE: Everybody, earlier on the show, one of the reporters said ABC paid for right to Anthony family photos. I want to clarify. It was NBC that paid for those rights.
Very quickly, back to this story, Rory O`Neill with Metro Networks, is it true police have asked for bank records of the Morris?
O`NEILL: That was part of the -- part of the warrant that they had received.
GRACE: OK.
O`NEILL: . was to get information with those bank warrants as well as searching his vehicle.
GRACE: To Eleanor Dixon, what significance the bank records?
DIXON: It`s very significant because you could see where the husband`s interests lie, what he spends his money on and those can give you some very important clues.
GRACE: To Mary in Illinois, hi, Mary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
GRACE: Hi, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, about the cadaver dogs how they can tell the difference between human flesh and.
GRACE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: . and OK. Can a cadaver dog go in and tell the difference between regular ashes and human ashes, and is that why that guy set the house on fire to maybe explain away his wife`s disappearance?
GRACE: OK. A cadaver dog can hit on human remains. To my knowledge, cadaver dogs have not been brought into the home. There are no remains found in the home that we know of.
