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Speaker 1: The unthinkable tragedy two children dead after being locked in

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Speaker 1: the hot call. The children's mother said she'd been checking

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Speaker 1: on her children, who were playing in a back room,

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Speaker 1: but around four o'clock she couldn't find them. Whenever she

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Speaker 1: found him inside the car. She said that one of

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Speaker 1: the kids actually had gotten her cell phone in the

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Speaker 1: car keys and had them in her in their hands

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Speaker 1: and locked themselves in. It was ninety degrees outside when

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Speaker 1: their mother found them. Investigators say she had to break

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Speaker 1: a window to get to the children, but by the

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Speaker 1: time she did that, they were already unresponsive and they

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Speaker 1: were pronounced dead shortly after. This is Crime Stories with

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Of course, everybody's distraught. I mean, it's it's

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Speaker 1: this is horrible. It's still unclear how long the kids

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Speaker 1: were stuck inside the car. It's extremely heartbreaking. And what

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Speaker 1: they're trying to do is figure out how a sixteen

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Speaker 1: month old and a two year old managed to lock

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Speaker 1: themselves inside. Two children dead, having and locked in a

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Speaker 1: hot car as temperature sore to nearly one hundred degrees

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Speaker 1: outside had to be a hundred inside that car. A

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Speaker 1: sixteen month old baby boy a two year old little

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Speaker 1: girl dead say police, I mean, I see Grace, this

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Speaker 1: is crime stories. Thank you for being with us. You know, Alan,

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Speaker 1: after the justin Ross Harris hot car death where baby

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Speaker 1: Cooper died inside the hot car while daddy quote e

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Speaker 1: worked inside, I thought people would never leave their kid

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Speaker 1: in a hot car again. It just it never ends.

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Speaker 1: In this case, deputies in Parker County were called to

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Speaker 1: a home near late Weatherford shortly just after four pm,

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Speaker 1: and the mother says they quote took off. Now, let

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Speaker 1: me think this thing through. A two year old little

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Speaker 1: girl and a sixteen month old boy took off. After

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Speaker 1: police search the property, the mom found them inside the vehicle,

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Speaker 1: a four door vehicle, where she says they locked themselves inside.

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Speaker 1: The mother broke a window, found the children unresponsive, and

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Speaker 1: they were pronounced dad just thirty three minutes later. That

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Speaker 1: is how fragile life is now. The Parker County Sheriff

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Speaker 1: Larry Fowler says the case is especially heartbreaking and it's

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Speaker 1: still being investigated. Let me understand this, Alan, the duke

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Speaker 1: duke is with me. How did a two year old

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Speaker 1: take off in a car? How did that happen? They

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Speaker 1: don't understand that. That is something that strikes me as

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Speaker 1: the big question. You've got a two year old. Actually,

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Speaker 1: Juliette turned to in February, her little brother, Kavanaugh, turns

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Speaker 1: just sixteen months old, just barely one and just barely

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Speaker 1: walking for what three or four months? How do they

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Speaker 1: open the door of this Honda Accord? And you open it,

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Speaker 1: you get inside, and this is the trick, how do

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Speaker 1: they close the door? I have grandkids who are almost

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Speaker 1: that exact age, just a few months older in each case,

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Speaker 1: a boy and a girl, and I'll have them with

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Speaker 1: me today and I do think about that. They like

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Speaker 1: to take my keys, but I don't even think they,

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Speaker 1: being older, just a little older, could do it. But

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Speaker 1: that's the question that investigators have to figure out. In

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Speaker 1: Parker County, Texas, about forty miles west of Fort Worth,

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Speaker 1: could these little kids do it? That is the first

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Speaker 1: question that they have to figure out. And there are

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Speaker 1: many others after that. You know, after the Justin Ross

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Speaker 1: Harris case, I thought the whole world got it about

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Speaker 1: hot car deaths. I mean, I cover hot car deaths

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Speaker 1: so many times on our show on h l N,

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Speaker 1: you know, before I launched this podcast with you. And

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Speaker 1: here's the thing, not everybody is watching cable TV. Surprise,

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Speaker 1: not everybody has time to be glued to the news. Now,

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Speaker 1: you know, Alan, no offense, Alan, which is what everybody

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Speaker 1: says right before they say something extremely offensive. But no

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Speaker 1: offense Alan. But you know, TV and journalists always think

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Speaker 1: everybody's watching, that their stories are the center of the universe,

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Speaker 1: while they're not. No, because they're on Facebook, people, people

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Speaker 1: still don't know this whole hot car phenomena that if

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Speaker 1: you have a child sitting in a car that's eighty

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Speaker 1: degrees inside the car, it's a hundred degrees. In this

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Speaker 1: case it was ninety six degrees. But I want to

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Speaker 1: get back to the fact that she says that children

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Speaker 1: took off in the car. What she says they took

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Speaker 1: off from the room they were playing in, didn't take

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Speaker 1: off in the car. She says that they were still

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Speaker 1: in the car in the driveway. And in fact, I've

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Speaker 1: seen the pictures of where the car was sitting. It

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Speaker 1: was in the driveway of the house. The house is

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Speaker 1: about a two bedroom square foot family home sitting on

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Speaker 1: a couple of acres in sort of a rural area,

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Speaker 1: a little loop road there near a pond. This is

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Speaker 1: the other thing. If you look at the aerial view

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Speaker 1: of where this happened. There is a pond about fifty

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Speaker 1: yards away from where these kids died in the car.

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Speaker 1: If the car didn't get him, the pond might have

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Speaker 1: I would never leave little toddlers toddling around in a

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Speaker 1: yard near a pond. That's another no no, Alan. You

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Speaker 1: know how many stories have I covered Where the baby,

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Speaker 1: that are the dad, the mom? Somebody falls asleep, they

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Speaker 1: can't find the children, and of course they're drowned in

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Speaker 1: a pond. But you know what, I remember, when the

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Speaker 1: twins are a little and sometimes now, Alan, when they

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Speaker 1: were really little, one would wake up at twelve thirty one,

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Speaker 1: at one thirty one, at three and one at five,

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Speaker 1: and at five o'clock they'd both be up. I would

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Speaker 1: just be up from that point on. And I can

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Speaker 1: remember the moment I was under a two book deadline.

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Speaker 1: I was doing a swift Justice, which was a syndicated show,

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Speaker 1: the CNN h l N Show, and had the children.

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Speaker 1: I was literally seeing stars in my day walk, my daylight.

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Speaker 1: I was, I was seeing stars. I was so tired.

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Speaker 1: And when I remember though that period of time, you

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Speaker 1: know it lasted well over. You know, it was a

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Speaker 1: couple of years. I wanted to just lay down and

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Speaker 1: sleep so badly. I get it went up here, but

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't let myself because I was so afraid something

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Speaker 1: would happen. They were so delicate. Remember Lucy was just

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Speaker 1: two pounds John David was five pounds, and they both

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Speaker 1: had all these health issues from being so premature. I

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Speaker 1: was so afraid, you know, that anything could claim their lives.

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Speaker 1: But I remember all of these stories where parents are

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Speaker 1: just so tired, they take a nap, they wake up,

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Speaker 1: the child is gone. Now in this case, as you

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Speaker 1: just correctly said, investigators in the Parker County Sheriff's Office

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Speaker 1: come respond to the home in late Weatherford. The mother

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Speaker 1: says she had been checking on the children periodically, that

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Speaker 1: the Todds had been playing in a back room throughout

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Speaker 1: the day before they quote took off, and you're right,

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Speaker 1: she did not say take off in the car. She

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Speaker 1: said took off left the home. Last year, in Texas alone,

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Speaker 1: seven children died in hot cars. That's including two in

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Speaker 1: North Texas, not far from where this was. So that's

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Speaker 1: the context of this. What else do we know? It

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Speaker 1: was about four thirty in the afternoon. It was during

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Speaker 1: the first heat wave of this summer season that's coming

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Speaker 1: on us now. And it was ninety six degrees outside,

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Speaker 1: So it did not take long for these children to

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Speaker 1: be dead or at least near death. I wonder what

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Speaker 1: heat the car got up to. Probably, you know, had

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Speaker 1: to be over a hundred for sure if it was

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Speaker 1: ninety six outside. You know, the two little two year

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Speaker 1: old little girl, she just had her birthday in February.

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Speaker 1: She was just barely two years old. Now, see, you

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Speaker 1: were telling me about a hot car death in Chickamauga.

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Speaker 1: Where is the mom or the grandmother? What was not charged?

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Speaker 1: She was charged. What happened Chickamauga, Georgia, Lovely area, northwest Georgia.

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Speaker 1: This is a grandmother forty eight years old, Barbara Pemberton,

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Speaker 1: and this just happened in the last year. She was

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Speaker 1: baby sitting her granddaughter and one year old Shade out

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Speaker 1: Braxton Pate had her in the car seat and it

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Speaker 1: was in January, so you wouldn't think hot car death, right. Well,

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Speaker 1: she had the heat on and she went to visit

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Speaker 1: a friend and she left her car while she went

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Speaker 1: inside to visit her friend. Now this grandmother, who by

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Speaker 1: the way, it's just forty eight years old, and that's

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Speaker 1: way early for a grandmother. If you asked me, she

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Speaker 1: went inside and I remember this, forgot about the kid.

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Speaker 1: How long was she in there? About five hours? What

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Speaker 1: I mean if you had said, if you had said

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Speaker 1: thirty minutes to me, that would be stretching it. This

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Speaker 1: is horrible. So she pleaded guilty to second degree murder.

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Speaker 1: This is in Walker County Superior Court in northwest Georgia.

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Speaker 1: What did she get? Ten years probation? Okay, well I

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Speaker 1: disagree with that five hours. I kind of thought where

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Speaker 1: she said she went in and she was doing her

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Speaker 1: friend's hair or the friend was doing her hair. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's all coming back to me to hey, with the hair.

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Speaker 1: You don't leave the baby in the car for five

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Speaker 1: hours and then get straight robation. What were they thinking?

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Speaker 1: According to investigators, one of the friends at one point said,

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Speaker 1: don't you need to go out and check on the kid,

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Speaker 1: and she apparently ignored it. Allegedly, well not allegedly. She's

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Speaker 1: entered a guilty plea. She's on her way to probation.

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Speaker 1: To probation office. Well, hey, i'd take straight probation. I

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Speaker 1: haven't even done anything. Of course, she took it. I'll

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Speaker 1: take that right now. Well, I feel like sometimes I'm

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Speaker 1: on probation with you, but that's a different issue. No, No,

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Speaker 1: I'm putting you a lockdown friend. Now, what about this one?

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Speaker 1: I remember this one and it really bugged me. A

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Speaker 1: mother of a two year old Ohio girl died in

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Speaker 1: these family suv while she went to work. Now, she

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Speaker 1: was an assistant principle. Okay, her name was Nethel Road Slaby,

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Speaker 1: and she was an assistant principal at an Ohio middle school.

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Speaker 1: She's on her way to work. She realized it was

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Speaker 1: too early to drop her taught, so she's topt to

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Speaker 1: buy donuts for her friends at school and says she

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Speaker 1: was distracted by the change in her routine and completely

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Speaker 1: forgot her taught was asleep in the back of the

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Speaker 1: car and that was it. Cecilia was in the back

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Speaker 1: of the car when her mom backed up to the

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Speaker 1: school interested. It's all recorded on school surveillance camera. She

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Speaker 1: unloads the donuts, walks right by the baby in the

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Speaker 1: back seat a half a dozen times, parks of car,

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Speaker 1: goes into school seven am. Eight hours later, somebody else

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Speaker 1: discovers Cecilia the taught dead. They call nine one. The

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Speaker 1: temperature was around a hundred degrees and it probably reached

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Speaker 1: a hundred forty degrees in the car. Okay, no charges

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Speaker 1: were filed at all. Why Why? Because she's like well

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Speaker 1: educated white lady. I don't know. Why is she different

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Speaker 1: than everybody else? I don't understand that. And not only that,

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Speaker 1: she was on paid leave from her position as an

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Speaker 1: assistant principle. Where are the child neglect laws? I thought

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Speaker 1: we had those in Ohio that was at least felony neglect.

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Speaker 1: Now I mean, then there is the mother of all

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Speaker 1: hot card desks, Justin Ross Harris, and in his case,

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Speaker 1: he absolutely should have been charged. Remember Justin Ross Harris

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Speaker 1: left baby Cooper in the back of his car. He

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Speaker 1: had the baby that morning, he drove to Chick fil A.

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Speaker 1: They went inside. The baby was alert, smiling, eating. I

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Speaker 1: drove the route myself, Alan and it was less than

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Speaker 1: two minutes from the Chick fil A've driven the same route,

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Speaker 1: have eaten the same Chick fil A, went to the

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Speaker 1: same parking lot he's been to as well. It's very

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Speaker 1: very close and he had to take multiple turns, and

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Speaker 1: he had the kind of car seat a rear facing

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Speaker 1: where like, if you turn to your right, you see

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Speaker 1: the baby. You see the baby's head in the rear

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Speaker 1: view window, and you see it when you turn to

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Speaker 1: make it turn when you physically turn. He leaves the

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Speaker 1: baby in the car seat, goes back to the car

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Speaker 1: at lunchtime, under the pretext of buying a light bulb. Finally,

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Speaker 1: at five o'clock he takes off driving and several minutes

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Speaker 1: later jumps out and puts on the big drama that

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Speaker 1: the baby has passed away in the car. It was

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Speaker 1: all a lie. He was sexting all these underage girls,

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Speaker 1: and oh he had a whole double life going on.

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Speaker 1: He let the baby die. And if it wasn't malice

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Speaker 1: murder intentional, it was felony murder, which is a felony

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Speaker 1: when a death occurs, and that would be felony child abuse,

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Speaker 1: child neglect and a death occurred. Bam. I thought he

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Speaker 1: should have got the death penalty, and by the way,

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Speaker 1: he did get life in prison plus I think thirty

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Speaker 1: two years, so he'll be there forever. Let's hope the

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Speaker 1: sex charges against him, by the way, have more recently

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Speaker 1: been dropped. They decided not no reason to prosecute those,

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Speaker 1: but justin Ross Harris is a different case than most

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Speaker 1: of these hot card deaths that we see. Yeah, you're right,

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Speaker 1: it is different. It was a little bit more clear cut,

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Speaker 1: and they really have the goods on this guy, and

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Speaker 1: he was convicted. But in this case of this this

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Speaker 1: grandma and Chickamauga, Georgia, or let's say these parents in Texas,

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Speaker 1: the initial reaction when you're you hear about your neighbor's

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Speaker 1: kids dying in the car there are several One is

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Speaker 1: oh my god, what a tragedy for the family in

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Speaker 1: the community and those children. But number two is, Okay,

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Speaker 1: did the parents do it intentionally? In this case, I've

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Speaker 1: not heard any indication of that that it was anything intentional.

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Speaker 1: I've been researching as best I could the family. They've

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Speaker 1: been in that community a while, for whatever that's worth.

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Speaker 1: They've lived in that house for decades and the grandma

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Speaker 1: apparently lived in the house of the paternal grandma. Did

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Speaker 1: the dad no criminal record except for oh my god,

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Speaker 1: he drove without a secret No o MG on crime stories,

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Speaker 1: don't get don't get him that us to top it

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Speaker 1: all off, go ahead, that's true. So there's nothing, there's

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Speaker 1: there are no none of those red flags here. The

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Speaker 1: investigation is early in Parker County, Texas. The autopsy, the

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Speaker 1: cause of death pending. We know how they died. I

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Speaker 1: guess manner of death. Is that what you would say?

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Speaker 1: We know the manner of death. That was a hot

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Speaker 1: card death, two of them, but the exact details it's

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Speaker 1: gonna take a little while. I think what you're saying

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Speaker 1: or trying to say in your Hollywood style of many

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Speaker 1: many words, and Carolton Georgia, is that is that you

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Speaker 1: think it was unintentional. I'm hoping it was unintentional, because

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Speaker 1: it's just hard for me. If you look at the

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Speaker 1: video and the pictures of this house, these kids did

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Speaker 1: not lack for toys. The garage is filled with the

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Speaker 1: big will and the swing sets in the yard and

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Speaker 1: everything they went. One or both of these parents and

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Speaker 1: the grandparents were all out for these little toddlers. My

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Speaker 1: belief as a granddad is that these kids were the

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Speaker 1: center of that family's world. Okay, I can I tell

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Speaker 1: you something. I agree with you. I know you're shocked.

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Speaker 1: I agree with you. I've studied and studied it as well.

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Speaker 1: I do not think this was intentional, but and that's

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Speaker 1: a big butt. The law is the law, and there

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Speaker 1: are two dead bodies. And if it was, and I

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Speaker 1: don't know that it was, but if it wasn't neglect,

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Speaker 1: then somebody has to go to jail. I hate to

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Speaker 1: put it to you like that because I do believe

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Speaker 1: it was unintentional. But if, repeat, if it was neglect, like,

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Speaker 1: for instance, if the children had been gone for four hours,

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Speaker 1: that in my mind is neglect. If they had been gone,

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Speaker 1: she didn't she realized they were going for thirty minutes.

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Speaker 1: You know, you go back and check on your children.

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Speaker 1: Then you come up, you might start supper, you might

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Speaker 1: do some chores, you might do some work on your computer.

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Speaker 1: You go back and thirty minutes later they're gone. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't sound like neglect to me. All right, they're playing

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Speaker 1: in the back room. Why should you be suspicious? Four hours? Yeah, neglect,

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Speaker 1: three hours neglect. Under that, it starts getting very great

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Speaker 1: to me. So I don't know all the facts. But

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Speaker 1: here's the thing, there's no good outcome, Alan, and I've

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Speaker 1: argued this to mania jury. I don't want people to

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Speaker 1: go to jail. I certainly do not want this mom.

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Speaker 1: If this was unintentional and it was not neglect, I

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Speaker 1: don't want her behind bars because she's suffering the worst

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Speaker 1: pain I can imagine, losing your children. But if she

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Speaker 1: neglected them for an extended period of time, that is

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Speaker 1: child neglect and there's no way around it. Alan. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I think we're in agreement on this one today. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And I think we're probably that is a bitter pill

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Speaker 1: to swallow. You know, I'm so afraid. Sometimes when I'm

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Speaker 1: tired from working, I will actually go lay down at

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Speaker 1: the twins are reading their books or they're on their iPads. Um,

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Speaker 1: I will go lay down between them and I'll say

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Speaker 1: to one, Okay, put your foot on me so I

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Speaker 1: can feel you. And they're nine. But I'm just I'm

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Speaker 1: just afraid, you know. I'm so afraid that it's just

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Speaker 1: so fragile. They're so fragile. Alan, So what where does

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Speaker 1: it stand right now? Alan? The investigation is just starting up.

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Speaker 1: The autopsy report is incomplete. At this point. The sheriff

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Speaker 1: says it's going They're not gonna say much about it

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Speaker 1: while they're doing the investigation. This is another one of

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Speaker 1: these Parker County small rural areas, just like down the

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Speaker 1: sixty miles in Midlothian where Missy Beavers was murdered. See

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Speaker 1: that investigation is taking a long time. I don't think

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Speaker 1: we're gonna hear anything really quick on this one. What

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Speaker 1: do you do as far as forensics? Where do you

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Speaker 1: go as a prosecutor? You walked to this crime scene. Well,

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Speaker 1: what I would do if I were investigating it, I

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Speaker 1: would try to establish when was the last time the

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Speaker 1: mom checked on the children? If it had been you know,

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes, and then she started looking for them, and

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Speaker 1: it took her an hour or so to find them,

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Speaker 1: and then it was too late if it had been

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Speaker 1: one hour since she checked on them, I steal. That

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Speaker 1: doesn't shriek to me that it is neglect. I've got

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Speaker 1: an idea, But I don't know how you established that.

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Speaker 1: Maybe the grandma's in the home. I don't know. I

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Speaker 1: got an idea. What one thing we have been told

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Speaker 1: is that the cell phone, the mom's cell phone was

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Speaker 1: inside the car with the keys. That she's saying the

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Speaker 1: daughter took the cell phone in. Let's see if any

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Speaker 1: in the cation from that, when's the last time the

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Speaker 1: mom used the cell phone? I got another problem though.

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Speaker 1: That's brilliant, actually, Alan, and you may be able to

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Speaker 1: actually paying the movement or track the movement of the car.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure about that, but you may be able to.

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Speaker 1: But here's another thing. When you said car keys, where

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Speaker 1: were the car keys? Where did the baby get the

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Speaker 1: car keys? And am I supposed to believe the baby

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Speaker 1: snuck the car keys, went and got in the car

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Speaker 1: and drove the car. And I mean, that's a lot

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Speaker 1: to take in. And you know what, I want to

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Speaker 1: believe that. Let's clarify this. They didn't drive the car.

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Speaker 1: They had the keys and the cell phone, and they

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Speaker 1: locked the doors and it was ninety degrees and that's

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Speaker 1: what I see. Okay, See, I thought the car the

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Speaker 1: reasons she couldn't find them is because the car was

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Speaker 1: in a different location. What you what you see is

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Speaker 1: if you look at the video that the local reporters

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Speaker 1: shot from the roadway, is you see glass from the

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Speaker 1: broken passenger side front window in the driveway right where

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Speaker 1: the car was part, which was only a few feet

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Speaker 1: away from the house. And I looked carefully at the area.

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Speaker 1: What it took so long to find them? What was

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Speaker 1: she doing? That's the question. That's maybe he thought they

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Speaker 1: were out playing and was not saying she didn't say

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Speaker 1: out playing, she said in the back room, because like

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Speaker 1: I say, I would never let my grandkids of this

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Speaker 1: age go out and play right near a pond. We've

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Speaker 1: been through that already. So they see the pictures. I

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Speaker 1: was saying, it looks like the car. There's trees over it,

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Speaker 1: so I thought it had gone down a hill. No,

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Speaker 1: this is the this is the yard. It's a two

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Speaker 1: acre lot. I've done all the real estate checking. I

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Speaker 1: know all about this property. Its right beside the very close.

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Speaker 1: Before I move on, I just want to talk to

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Speaker 1: you about this Texas mom who left her children in

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Speaker 1: a hot car says she could get a manicure and

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Speaker 1: allegedly shot left. You know about that one that's in

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Speaker 1: a Walmart and South Austin. Two children twenty one months

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Speaker 1: and three years old left alone in a hot vehicle

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Speaker 1: and the mom, Raquel Pettas, on surveillance video leaving the

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Speaker 1: car and going inside. She walked out of the car

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Speaker 1: and returned and went to the nail salon. Then she

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Speaker 1: proceeded to shoplift from Walmart. According to police, over an

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Speaker 1: hour later, the children in the vehicle is about a

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Speaker 1: hundred degrees inside. I mean, it just that's how it happens.

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Speaker 1: Right there, that's how it happens. A hundred degrees and

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Speaker 1: people in the parking lot heard crying and call nine

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Speaker 1: one one. So this is how it happens. She'sn't getting

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Speaker 1: her nails done and allegedly shoplifting. Now that's a different

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Speaker 1: story out of Austin, and today we're talking about this

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Speaker 1: who had been checking on the children who were in

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Speaker 1: a back room. They apparently got out, got into the

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Speaker 1: car and locked themselves in. But I gotta figure out logistically, Alan,

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Speaker 1: how long it took them to actually pass away, and

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Speaker 1: that will add to the time factor as to how

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Speaker 1: long it was that she didn't check on them. Well,

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Speaker 1: you'll never get me googling how long does it take

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Speaker 1: a child to die in a hot car? I will

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Speaker 1: never google that, Not after Mr Harris did that and

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Speaker 1: it showed up in his trial. Okay, there was a

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Speaker 1: lot more than that against Justin Ross Harris. Yeah, there was.

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Speaker 1: All I can say is a little Cooper rest in peace, Okay.

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Nancy Grace signing off, goodbye friend,