GRACE: And now live to Bonita Springs, Florida. We are getting the latest in the mystery surrounding the murder of a gorgeous young doctor, a
mother of two little girls, Dr. Teresa Sievers, Sievers found murdered in her upscale Florida home while Sievers`s husband and two little daughters
were out of town.
We identified the murder weapon. Will that lead to her killer? Tonight, as the gorgeous young mother and doctor laid to rest, the
investigation into her brutal murder ignites.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sources close to the investigation tell (INAUDIBLE) news Sievers was killed by a hammer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators can be seen focusing on a door with what appears to be a broken handle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Crime scene techs pay special attention to the family`s van, dusted for prints and then towed away from the scene.
Fingerprint dust can also be seen on the fence surrounding the home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This is the latest. This is what we know. Joining me, Bob Alexander, news director there at 92.5.
[20:20:04]Bob, thank you for being with us. We understand that police have now taken a special interest in the family van. It was heavily
fingerprinted at the scene. It was taken away, and it is still being processed, now days on end. They`re not returning it.
Interesting. Did she bring that van home from the airport? Why is it of special interest now? What have they learned? Why are they keeping it,
if she drove that van home from the airport? Question -- was someone in the van? Was someone in the van when she got into it at the airport? Was
someone following her?
Also, we know that special interest has been paid to a specific portion of a door and a side gate. Did the perpetrator get out of the van,
go in the front door and out the side gate? And if so, how did he avoid setting off the home alarm?
As Teresa Sievers`s body just cremated, her little girl speaks at her memorial, Bob Alexander, what can you tell us about the family van?
BOB ALEXANDER, 92.5 (via telephone): Well, the one thing we know for sure, Nancy, crime scene technicians were seen taking fingerprints off that
van, using the fingerprint dust on Friday before they took that van away. So they were paying significant attention to that van.
Where that goes from here, we`re not quite sure, but we do know they certainly are paying a lot of attention to it at this point.
GRACE: And that van still not returned. That means to me -- to Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics -- there`s a special interest
in that van that suggests to me that there are fingerprints in there that they can not readily match up to anyone. What do you think, Joseph?
JOSEPH SCOTT MORGAN, FORENSICS PROFESSOR (via telephone): Well, I think that they want to get that van into a controlled environment where
it`s not going to be cross-contaminated in any way, Nancy, so that if there are latent prints there, they`re not going to be compromised in any way.
I think there`s one more issue we need to be completely aware of in this particular case, that the driver behind that -- behind this. And this
is touch DNA, where in this controlled environment, if someone even now -- we have the technology, if somebody just lightly touches an area, they can
transfer DNA in that particular area, we can actually code that DNA with a very small sample.
So all of this is coming into play. And given the nature of this case -- this is a very violent and very intimate case, so we have to think that
there was contact between the perpetrator and the victim, and maybe inside this van, maybe on the door, as well, where they`ll be looking for tool
marks, as well.
GRACE: Tool marks, fingerprints -- all of this we are just learning. You`re seeing Teresa Sievers herself on a YouTube channel.
To Dr. William Morrone joining us, forensic pathologist and renowned medical examiner and toxicologist. She was cremated. Now, that means
there is never any possibility of going back and getting any additional evidence from they are body whatsoever. Dr. Morrone, you know that this
was a violent crime. We know that the murder weapon was a hammer. Analyze.
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST, MEDICAL EXAMINER: Here`s what I would say. The chances of violence from a stranger are dominant
(ph). The chances of violence from somebody she knew, possibly a family member, are secondary. But once you cremate a body, you lose those
resources.
It always makes me suspicious when somebody is murdered and cremated. If you inter them, you can always cremate them at a later date,
consecrated, sacred, however, the church will follow it.
But the violence which also may be part of the van -- when you have a hammer, the source of the violence and the target of the violence is
usually the head. This will always retain imprints, bruises and damage to be seen at a later date. Once you cremate it, that`s all off the table.
I`m very suspicious, and that`s very disturbing.
GRACE: Well -- with me, Dr. William Morrone, forensic pathologist. I`m concerned about the cremation. Typically, who in the family makes that
decision?
MORRONE: The next of kin, the husband. Now, he should clear it with parents, but it always makes me suspicious that if there was something
going on and he was gone, it`s -- you lose everything. You lose everything in cremation.
[20:25:00]You hope that the pathological samples that are retained -- you hope that the forensic evidence from autopsy is enough. But you can
always -- now, they do take samples. There are samples. There are radiographs. There are CTs. There are imaging, but sometimes, that`s not
enough.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(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: You are seeing Dr. Sievers herself of YouTube and DoctorSievers.com.
Bob Alexander, news director, 92.5, I understand the sheriff has made his own observations?
ALEXANDER: Yes, Nancy. This afternoon, Lee County sheriff Mike Scott made his first official statement on the investigation since it began. He
said, Within reason, based on the evidence we have to this point and working it exhaustively, I`m fairly comfortable saying it`s not a random
arbitrary situation, which is a word that I think the entire community has been waiting to hear.
Did Lee County law enforcement believe this was a random act, or could it be something with connectivity? Sheriff Scott seemed to indicate that,
indeed, it was not a random act, according to the information they have to this point.
[20:30:00]
GRACE: Unleash the lawyers. Alex Sanchez, veteran defense lawyer, New York. Troy Slaten, defense attorney out of L.A. And also with me,
renowned pathologist Dr. William Morrone. Okay, first to you, Sanchez, the husband in this case, who was her office manager, is not a suspect. He has
not been named a person of interest. He was out of town in Connecticut at the time she was murdered, with their two young little girls, one of whom
spoke at a four-hour memorial. Alex Sanchez, what does the sheriff mean by it`s not random?
SANCHEZ: I think what he means that the victim in this crime knew who the perpetrator was. And I think he believes this was a targeted attack,
as opposed to some random person walking down the street breaking into the house and committing murder. And the fact that one of the neighbors heard
an argument in the house or heard a man yelling at a woman, and the fact that they`re taking the car away, that`s very suggestive that the police
believe she knew who the person was, and that person came into the house and committed murder.
GRACE: And Dr. William Morrone with us, along with Troy Slaten and Alex Sanchez, to Dr. William Morrone, the sheriff has actually come out and
said this isn`t random. OK? Now, the way I took it, Dr. Morrone, and you and I have seen so many of these cases, when it`s random, you`re not
getting in an argument with the person, they`re coming in to steal your stuff or rape you, and they take all your electronics or your money, boom,
you`re dead, they`re gone. But here, whoever it was actually engaged in an argument, yelling at her.
MORRONE: Here`s what I get from that. Two things, for love or money. Those are the two things that drive people to commit heinous crimes -- love
or money. Which one was it? It could have been a business deal gone bad. It could have been --
GRACE: A business deal? What business deal? She worked at a shelter for unwed mothers. I guess they still call it that. What business deal?
(CROSSTALK)
MORRONE: She may have had nefarious partners. She might be completely innocent, but somebody might have come to her for love or money.
Those are the two things that drive crime.
GRACE: Troy Slaten?
SLATEN: You know, it`s all speculation at this point. The sheriff saying that it`s not a random act could just be an attempt to lure the real
perpetrator of the crime out of the woodwork or lull them into a sense of security.
GRACE: So you`re saying the sheriff coming out point blank and saying this is not random, the killer knew her --
SLATEN: It could be a trick.
GRACE: You`re saying it`s a trick? That he`s pretending?
SLATEN: It could be.
GRACE: The sheriff is making that up?
SLATEN: Police are allowed to lie.
GRACE: All right, Troy Slaten, interesting theory. Back to Bob Alexander, news director, 92.5. Special focus on the family vehicle. It`s
been taken away, has not been returned. They`re getting something from it. They`re not just keeping it for the fun of it. The back door has been
looked at, also the front door. Many speculating the front door was used as an entry and the back door as an exit. We also know that the husband,
according to neighbors, broke down in tears in the middle of the street and all the neighbors observed this. What, if anything, do we know about the
state of the marriage?
ALEXANDER: Well, from everything that we know, Nancy, this was apparently a very stable situation, because they worked together at the
clinic that she established several years ago here in the Southwest Florida area. They were partners. They were seen together socially on a constant
basis together, and with the two daughters out and about, so there has been nothing made to suggest at this point that there were any issues going on
as far as the public word is concerned.
GRACE: In fact, she took a flight home early on a Sunday night and left her family, her husband and two children in Connecticut at a family
get-together with her family. Here is Dr. Siever in her own words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIEVER: 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 and have a business and have a perfect life. It requires work. So hopefully I
instill in them hope and a belief they can be anything they want to be.
[20:35:00]
(END VIDEO CLIP)
This is yesterday's transcript