February 1, 2019 • 38 mins
Savannah Leigh Pruitt returned home to Tennessee Friday, nearly three weeks after disappearing. The 14-year-old was found safe in Wisconsin Thursday, the same day her adoptive father was arrested on a rape charge. Nancy looks at the investigation with Cold Case Research Institute director Sheryl McCollum, private investigator Vincent Hil, Atlanta criminal lawyer Darryl Cohen, Los Angeles psycho analyst Dr. Bethany Marshall, and Crime Stories reporter Robyn Walensky.l
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(01:22):
com Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On January fourteenth, twenty nineteen,
Savannah Fleet Pruett, fourteen year old, email from our County,
was reported missing by her parents, Christina and Randall Pruett.
(01:47):
Our investigation has basically led us to this point. She
was last observed by cell phone GPS to be in
the Corbin, Kentucky area, possibly moving north to an unknown
destination from there, and in her bedroom shockingly, her sheets,
(02:11):
her bed sheets, the fitted sheet was gone, the window
screen slashed. No sign of fourteen year old Savannah Lee Pruett,
but Bobshell in the last hours a breakthrough listen. She
was found in a home in Wisconsin. The details of
how she got there, who she was with, or any
(02:33):
connections to that area, the sheriff says, are still under investigation.
US been the leading agency on the assistance of the
Tensee Bureau of Investigations, the FBI, and the Department Children's Services.
They have all done a great outstanding job on this
to locate her missing from here to Wisconsin. The timeframe
(02:55):
that they did all these agencies have just has been outstanding.
The job that they've done. You're hearing from our friends
at wat ETV Knoxville. That's Madison KIV speaking to law enforcement.
How did a fourteen year old little girl end up
so many states away from home? She was spotted around
(03:18):
eleven PM going to bed. At around five o'clock in
the morning, the little sister says she's gone, the window opened,
the screen slashed, her chargers still there. Why and even
more disturbing news we learn her stepfather arrested. Imancy Grace,
(03:38):
this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us,
with me an all star lineup. Director of the Cold
Case Research Institute CSI expert Cheryl McCollum PI, author of
Playbook to a Murder on Amazon. Vincent Hill, renowned Atlanta
criminal defense attorney, former felony prosecutor Daryl Cohen, joining us
(04:00):
US from La LA psychoanalyst doctor Bethany Marshall. Right now
to Crime online dot Com. Investigative reporter Robin will Lensky,
author of Beautiful Life, CSI Behind the Casey Anthony Trial.
Robin will Lensky. When I first heard there had been
(04:20):
an arrest and no Savannah, I had to get up
and leave the table with the twins. I just could
not take the thought of this another child dead, kidnapped
and dead. That's not the way it turned out. And
now the stepfather, I don't get it. Let's just start
(04:44):
at the beginning, Robin. What happened? You know, Nancy, it
is amazing that this has had the ending that has
had this little girl, Well, she's fourteen. She disappears from
her home. So she's the oldest of four children. There's
the mother and stepfather living there. They had lived in
that area. They had just moved from Georgia over to Madisonville, Tennessee,
(05:10):
and she's seen at eleven o'clock at night. Robin, Robin, Robin,
you know how much I love you, right, but can
we cut the crap. The stepdad's charged with rape. Rape.
This child is in Wisconsin, states and states and states away.
As you were just saying before somebody, Oh it was
(05:32):
me so rudely interrupted, was in Lawrenceville. They moved to Madisonville, Tennessee,
so she can have more land for all of her animals,
much like my daughter Lucy. Next thing, I know, she's missing.
Nobody knows where she is, the desperate search and now
the stepfather is charged with rape. Can you ff. Fast
(05:55):
forward just a little bit. I'll rewind in a minute.
Charged with rape, bobin the stepfather, What what happened? What
is that in connection with her disappearance? It's beyond belief. Yeah,
Apparently they say that the stepfather raised her and he's
living in the house, and here he is doing all
these news conferences with TV shows, etc. Saying that, you know,
(06:16):
he was her heart and soul and the sunshine of
the family, speaking about her in the past tense along
with the mother. And then the next thing, you know,
she shows up almost six hundred miles away in the
state of Wisconsin. I mean you're talking about almost the
nine hour drives. How does she get there? Well, here's
the other thing. There's the other thing. Let me throw
this to doctor Bethany Marshall. What hold on, Bethany. I'll
(06:39):
bring you in in this shrink aspect of this, Cheryl McCollum,
director of the Cole Case Research Institute. You and I
said at the very get go. When I asked the
detective was the screen cut from the inside or the outside,
because you can tell that looking under a microscope, he
said the inside. I knew something was very, very wrong
(07:00):
for her, not to be on social media. That's not
like her at all. She's very quiet, very shy, but
she had a social media profile. She had two cell
phones with her, the Georgia phone and the Tennessee phone.
They both pained in Kentucky. That's the last we heard
of her. But taking the fitted sheet and not taking
(07:21):
a charger something was way wrong. And Robin was reporting
about how there's this rape charge he's not. It doesn't
say yet who he allegedly rape. It says he's charged
with rape in connection to her disappearance. Okay, Cheryl, let
it go. It's a stage scene, so being cut from
(07:44):
the inside. That's somebody wanting you to believe that if
perpetrator was outside and kidnapped or some stranger this you know,
the fitted sheep could very well have been removed because
it would have had male DNA on it, which would
be the clue who might have been the child. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
(08:06):
let me just let that soak in for a moment.
You know. Daryl Cohen, Atlanta criminal defense lawyer. I remember
your glory days, Daryl, when you were a lead prosecutor
in the Fulton DA's office. Yeah, you hear what Cheryl
McCollum is saying the sheets were removed because it very
(08:27):
possibly had male DNA on it. You know what that means, right, sperm.
It obviously means that it might have been her father, stepfather,
could have been anyone. And then again, we're talking about
a fourteen year old girl who doesn't think logically. Appears
that she went ahead and slipped the screen from the inside.
(08:49):
Did she take her fitted sheet to fool everybody? Did
she take it? Did someone else take it? It's very
hard to tell. Wad Satan. Now, you can get away
with arguing that in front of the jury because nobody
can really interrupt you. But hold on, did somebody else
come into the home and take the little girl's fitted
(09:09):
sheet sometime in the hours between eleven PM and four
and five AM. Okay, that absolutely makes no sense. Who
why would anybody do that? Well, it makes no sense
that she would take it with her either. So none
of this makes sense. But the evidence will be what
(09:29):
it is, and when they find her and be and
they're able to speak to her, and maybe after she's
settled down, they'll be able to get some logic out
of this. None of this is good. None of this
makes sense and only makes crime. Guys, the bombshell right
now is seventally prue at the little fourteen year old
girl we've been trying to help. Fine has been found,
(09:52):
but we now know her stepfather charged with rape. At
this hour, detective on the way to get her. My
partner in crime, Alan Duke, managed to get a hold
of Detective Jason phel y'all just as he was getting
on the plane to go get Savannah. This is what
(10:13):
he said, Detective, I understand you're about to get on
a plane now. We're on our way to Wisconsin to
pick up Savannah and bring her home. She would sound safe,
and she had been sheltered, and she was in a house,
and she was fed and seemed well rested or seemed
(10:33):
to be taking good care of her. What can you
tell us about who Savannah has been with while she's
been in Wisconsin. I can't release that information right now.
I know that that BI has her in custody right now.
She was a very loving, very bubbly She stole the
(10:55):
spot line out of the room. I mean she really
really did beautiful as she looks, that's how her soul was.
It's very beautiful. You guys aren't giving up hope. I'd
just like to please anybody knows anything, please come forward,
help with the investigation. No lead is too small. We
(11:17):
cannot rest and until we know something about her Savannah.
You are hearing the voices of her mother, Savannah Lee
Pruett's mother, Christina, and that stepfather, Randall Pruett speaking to
our freendsy wat Knoxville. Did you hear that? To doctor
(11:39):
Bethany Marshall Ellie psychoanalyst. That guy, Randall stepfather has now
been booked into the Monroe County jail. He's charged with
rape and being held without bond. Still not clear or
they're not saying how this may be connected to the
little girl's disappearance. The Sheriff's office not providing any other details,
(12:00):
including the circumstances of his arrest. But I know this,
he's booked on rape and she ran away or she
got out of that home one way or another. Doctor
Bethany Marshall way in, I mean, did you hear him?
The sunshine of my lives? I can't sleep. She's a
(12:20):
star of the room. If anybody knows anything what that sounded,
it's sort of adoring and sexualized. That that sounds how
you would talk about somebody towards whom you have a
preoccupation or a fixation. Yancy, when he said no lead
is too small. In my field, we call that trite, rehearsed,
(12:45):
stereotyped speech. What that means is the person that's just
playing a role. Fathers don't talk like police officers. They
talk like fathers. Please call us, I'm panicked. We want
to know where she is. Instead he says, no lead
is too small. And you know the other thing that
gets me about all of this is the family had
(13:07):
recently moved to this very remote area because of quote unquote,
the daughter liked animals. To me, that sounds like a
predator trying to sequester the family far away from civilization
so he can have his way with everybody. I know
that sounds creepy, but that's a big picture that comes
to mind to me. I am beside myself to Vincent Hill,
(13:31):
cop turned PI author a playbook to a murder on
Amazon Vincent Hill. When the stepfather and the mom were
behind and she was gone, no one really focused on
them at the beginning. Vincent Hill. Yeah, and that's the problem, Nancy.
(13:51):
I mean when you're talking about a child going missing
from the home, you want to start that investigation inside
the home. And the fact that the screen was cut
from the inside and the fitted sheet was missing, to me,
that was the biggest red flag in the world. Now,
did Savannah take that sheet to preserve evidence and maybe
that's how we came to this rape charge. We don't know,
(14:13):
or did the dad take it because he knew his
DNA was on that sheet. But everything pointed to inside
this house and Nancy from the beginning, even the fact
that her cell phone was pinging one hundred miles away.
In an abduction, somebody's going to make sure that phone
stays where it is and it doesn't leave the house.
To Cheryl McCollum, director of the Coldcase Research Institute, weigh in, Cheryl,
(14:37):
the other thing that I wanted to point out that
I think is critical. January thirteenth was a Sunday, so
she had school the next day, So if a stranger
had come in and just snatched her, she would not
have had two cell phones in her hand when that happened. Yeah,
you're right, that's very clear to me that she left
(14:58):
like ready was something like somebody made her go. So
the other thing that's interesting to me is when you're
talking about three weeks Nancy, somebody had to feed her
her casters if they were casters, I had to watch
her around the plot to make sure she did not escape.
They you know, miss work potentially, so around the clot
(15:20):
somebody's been with this child. Nobody ran from to hers,
So that wasn't their motives. They didn't kill her, so
that wasn't their motives for a lot of you know
evidence to me. Well, Cheryl McCollum, listen to this, Cheryl McCollum,
Director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Cheryl. We contacted
(15:41):
the parents to get them to come on, and usually
parents relatives, they cannot wait to broadcast their missing child
to try to get all the help they can. The
DA and the stepdad didn't want to do it. Gee,
I wonder why, Cheryl, why didn't you want to come
on and Q and made with me answer a few questions.
(16:03):
M anybody that didn't want to go? Wait? Aland what
was it? What was it that the dad the stepdad
says something like he needed to rest. Yes, he said
that they were tired. They'd done a local interview and
he said that they were tired from that and made yeah,
because nobody was asking him any hard questions. Well, that's
why he got tired. There is a difference between being
(16:26):
interviewed by a local Tennessee reporter Nope, disregard to them,
and being grilled by prosecutor Nancy Grace, Cheryl, what were
you saying? Amen. The other thing that really just you know,
was key to me is the father. He says, you
can't sleep, you can't eat, but he said we haven't
(16:47):
been able to do that. Sich she left. He didn't
say she was kidnaps. He doesn't say, you know this
is a crime. He says she left. As a matter
of fact. Speaking of the stepfather, ran Prue it now
charged with rape. And again, as Jackie Howard in the
studio keeps pointing out to me, waving her arms thrashing
about wildly, has not said the name of the victim.
(17:09):
It's just in connection with her disappearance. But now take
a listen to what rape suspect. The stepdad, Randall Pruett
says at the sheriff's conference, he just moved up from
a large foot Georgia. If you hear from your original yes,
Fay said that she's the oldest of four. Can you
(17:30):
just talk about the rest of your family and how
they're doing in light of everything, and how they're holding on. Well,
they're very heartbroken, she miser. They don't understand person, None
of us understand. So it's like having your soul ripped
out of your body and said, you can't think, you
can't eat, you can't sleep, can't rest. Life has just
(17:54):
ceased for us in from way she left. She was
no suns, time, hours, he dearly, wonderful, uncome for sure
outside of force writing. Is there anything else that she
was interested in? Music? Hurts anything, fuzzy cute? She's a
(18:20):
fun girl. Yes, actually got here lizards. I mean she
never met a strange and hood she didn't do it correccoon.
She raised last year from her baby. Yes she was.
She was the step dad. Now George was rape says,
(18:43):
it's like having your soul ripped out of your body.
He can't think. Well, Daryl Cohen, you're the Atlanta criminal
defense lawyer. You've represented murderers, rapists, drug lords. He'll have
plenty of time to clear his head behind bars because
he's sitting there with new bond. Nancy the more answers
we get, the more questions I have. For instance, where
(19:08):
did she spend her summers? Did she go to camp?
Did she spend the time with someone that she's now
with when they moved? How did she hide herself and
become secretive after this took place? Now they ask you
what it matters where she went to camp two summers ago.
I mean, I know what you're doing, Daryl. You're playing
(19:30):
look at this, not that, Look here, not over there,
not at all, Nancy. No, what I'm saying to you
is I'm trying to figure out where she found the
people to stay with in Wisconsin. So how did she
know them? She didn't just get on a bus. You
what does that have to do with a stepfather being
charged with rape? If anything, it has a great deal
to do with her state of mind and how credible
(19:52):
she is with whatever statement she's going to give. Look,
her stepfather, in my view, has done absolutely everything wrong.
If he's innocent, you certainly don't say the things that
he's said. You don't do the things that he's done.
And you're never too tired to be interviewed. Hi, Nancy Grace, here,
(20:13):
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(20:34):
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(21:19):
truth crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What can you tell
us about who Savannah has been with while she's been
in Wisconsin. I can't release that information right now. I
know that FBI has her in custody right now. When
(21:39):
you get her back to Tennessee this afternoon. Will she
be reunited with her mother? At this point, we have
no reason to believe that she would not be really
united with her mom. And what can you tell us
now about her adopted father at this point? He has
been He was arrested yesterday after an early afternoon for
charge of rate and he's being held with no bond,
(22:04):
and that part of the investigation is still ongoing. At
the sheriff's news conference last night, it was unclear the
connection between the father's arrest and Savannah's disappearance. Can you
tell us anything more today about that. I can't release
the details on that yet just because of the criminal investigation,
but that information will come out. Yeah, well, we'll be
able to release quite a bit more information probably in
(22:27):
the near future, once we get everything kind of buttoned
up on the investigation. You are hearing Detective Phil y'all,
who's on his way on a jet plane right now
to bring savannahley Prue at home to Robin Lynskey, Crime
Online dot Com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life,
The CSI behind the Casey Anthony Trial on Amazon. Robin,
(22:48):
I'm really surprised that they are letting her go back
to her mother, because in many of these cases, and
I'll go to Daryl and Cheryl on this, in many
of these cases when there has been molestation of the
child in the home by a male living in the home,
they won't let the child go back because they deem
that the mom has allowed this environment to continue. Yeah,
(23:12):
you're dead on on that that you know, perhaps she
was the enabler and looked the other way. Who knows
what was going on in the house. But I will
say this to you, Nancy, Let's not this fact be lost.
This is a fourteen year old girl. She is not
a world traveler. She is not a worldly person. Look
at the miles the trauma of God knows what happened
(23:32):
to her on a physical and emotional level. But then
you take someone you move them from Georgia to Tennessee. Okay,
there's one hundred miles. Then she's possibly in Kentucky where
the phone is pinging. That's another one hundred and fifty miles.
And then oh what next, You're in Wisconsin almost six
hundred miles away. Look at all these places. How traumatic
(23:53):
that would be. I'm picturing myself at fourteen years old.
Picture yourself at fourteen years old, under normal condition and
being in all these states, and then with her what
her mental and physical state was. I can only imagine
the trauma that this well a fourteen year old has
been through. You know. Right now, doctor Bethany Marshall l
a psychoalence. I'm taking a look at Randall Pruett and
(24:14):
he looks like he's at a you know, the podium
and a church where the pastor gets behind it. That
he looks like he's there with like a photo of
the River Jordan behind him, with his eyes closed, like
he's about to start crying. I mean, really, everything he
says is going to be brought in at trial, and
we're assuming we know who he's accused of raping. But
(24:35):
doctor Bethany, I mean, my soul's ripped out of my body.
I can't think. I can't eat. I bet he couldn't. Well.
It all sounds so dramatic, like he's playing a role.
And even the mother veers back and forth between the
past tense and the present. We missed her, where is she?
We missed having her around as if she was once
there and is no longer on this earth. So there's
(24:58):
something very chaotic about the way the couple is communicating
and like I said, trite, rehearsed and stereotype, like they've
come up with like a movie script, rather than parents
connected to the reality that their child is missing. And
you know another thing about this, I keep going back
to the fact that the family moved recently, that they
were very cut off from society. I keep wondering about
(25:20):
what that meant. And you you were thinking to comment
about why did this? Why is fourteen year old Savannah
allowed to go back home to their mother? Because one
of the things we know about families where there's a
predator or a child molester in their midst, the family
always protects the child molester. I have a friend who
worked in Wrap around Services here in LA. They would
(25:41):
court mandated remove the molester from the family. When she
came to visit the family, they would pretend like the
molester had moved out. The minute she would leave, they
would move the molester right and through the back door.
So families protect the molester, they always do. So this
is a part of the story I'm really curious about
as it unfolds, like why is she back home with
her mom? Mom has not protected her, And what about
(26:05):
the other three children? What happened to them? Why are
they still in the home? Why haven't they've been removed? Guys,
I want to go to Cheryl McCallum, the wrector of
the Cold Case Research Institute. Cheryl, what about it? We
also know that the sheriff said quote is the possibility
of multiple charges with multiple people being involved. That's all
we can say at this time. What other potential charges
(26:27):
could there possibly be? For those of you just joining
us fourteen year olds of ENII Prue. It has been
found far far away from home, being hidden in Wisconsin,
not with family members. We are told Detective Phil y'all
on the way on a plane right now to bring
her home. Her stepfather now behind bars. No bond on rape.
(26:49):
What other possible people? What other possible charges? Charyl McCollum.
If the people in the nowity, like I said earlier,
you had to watch her twenty four hours a day
for three weeks, ain't sure she didn't escape, So you've
got kidnapping, They miss work, they drove her across for
safe somebody had that child over all that period of time.
(27:10):
What I would like for law of sportsman to do
it's halt to her teachers in Georgia, these are mandated reporters.
Those teachers know when a child changes their personality. If
she made an outcry of some sort, Nancy, you and
I both know perpetrators that molest children if they think
the facts is about to get involved. In Georgia, we
(27:31):
go to Kentucky. We go to Tennessee. If Tennessee is
closing in on us and she's gonna make another outcry,
perhaps she's pregnant, then we go to Wisconsin. We hide
her and let me say something else. Nancy, and you
and I both know this that it is not popular
when I say it. But if stepfather is not her father, period,
(27:52):
Watch the way he seeks when he says things like, well,
it's rough when somebody takes jers. She ain't jers, sir,
she's not your daughter. So when he changes any language,
that should be a clue. Guys want to pause very
quickly and thank our partner who's making our investigation into
the recovery of fourteen year old Savantay Prue. It possible.
(28:15):
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(29:23):
Blink Protect dot Com Slash Defense. That's Blink Protect dot
Com Slash Defense. Thank you, Blink. She has never misbehaved
a mad kid ever, in her life and this is
just really way on left field for her. These parents
aren't giving up, absolutely not. How we lost home and
will we lose hope? No, please come home. We do
(29:44):
miss you terribly. M that's w VLTCBS Knoxville, and you
were hearing porter of Robert Grant speaking with the mom
and the stepdad Little SAVANNAHY Pruett. That's stepdad Randall Pruitt
now behind bars on rape being held with no bond.
This is but we know the adoptive dad of Little
Savannah is behind bars. She's been found in Wisconsin. He
(30:07):
was arrested charged with rape. Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones
said the missing team was found, but that the rape
charge does not necessarily have anything to do not directly
correlated with the girl's disappearance. Now, I don't know what
that means. The sheriff says, quote, we don't believe at
this time he has connection to her being missing. How
(30:31):
do you decipher that? To Robie Willinski, I think that
the police are looking at the tentacles of the stepfather,
who does he know what one down in Georgia before
they suddenly left and moved to Madisonville, Tennessee. Nancy. I
think that they're still investigating him. Who he knows, what
the associates are, What is the mothers involved in it?
(30:52):
In this was they're enabling? Was she looking the other way?
That's why they're not connecting all the dust and telling
the public what they think is the connection. Doctor Bethanie Marshall,
LA psychoalenst way In. Well, you know, the investigator says
multiple people, multiple charges. Sure, it could be the person
who helped her escape. It could be, as one of
the guests said, the tentacles of the father's involvement in
(31:15):
the community and how he may have co opted other
people into his crimes, But it could also mean the
other children in the household. So intra familial molesters, men
who molest within their own families are the most prolific
of all molesters. It's multiple offenses, multiple times against the
same victim. It's not somebody who snatches a child off
(31:37):
a lawn, molests them, wants and kills them. This is
repeat offending. So when he says multiple people, multiple charges,
you don't have to have a vast conspiracy in the
community to bring these kinds of charges. You can have
one guy running loose in his own household and there
are a lot of charges. And I'm wondering if that's
also what the investigator was referring to pi Way in Nancy.
(32:02):
You could also have the figure to report on behalf
of the mother. If she knew what was going on
inside that home, which I suspect she did, and she
did not come forward, then she's liable as well. So
that could be the other charges of these multiple people too.
Daryl Cohen, this guy is sitting behind Mars, what's his
lawyer telling him? You're the defense attorney? As a lawyer,
I would tell him kyd BMS, which is keep your
(32:23):
damn big mouth shut. I have again so many questions.
How did they know that he raped her? Did she
leave on her own? Was she taken? Did she have
a series of people that she stayed with? Was she kidnapped?
These are all things that I need to know before
I can rush to judgment. But if I were here
before you can rush to judgment, absolutely rush to Johnny cockform,
(32:46):
he would be so proud of you right now throwing
that up, Cheryl McCollum, did you hear Daryl coh and
just say, let's not rush to judgment. Well, we'd had
three weeks. I don't think that's three weeks, because if
three weeks, you had three weeks three weeks. Know that
this was not ransom. She was not killed. She had
(33:11):
two cell phones of her at eleven o'clock at night
on a Sunday that stopped pinging one hundred and forty
miles away from where she left. She's been fed, she's
had shelter for three weeks. A fourteen year old girl
didn't pull that off by herself. Not possible. So what
where are you going with this? Yarl? That multiple people
were involved to get her that far? She didn't coordinate that,
(33:34):
she didn't get these people and say, hey, come to
my house at eleven o'clock at night and I'll stage
a crime scene and then drive me to Wisconsin and
feed me and shelter me and don't letbody see us
when we stopped for gasoline and we stopped for food
the seven hundred miles you're gonna take me? And then
only when my stepfather's arrested are you going to quote
find me? Fourteen year old girl didn't pull that off.
(33:55):
But if you listen to again to the stepfather when
he says things like I can't say, I can't sleep,
I can't risk you know where you do all those
things in the bed. So, Cheryl, you're saying this is
a conspiracy with a number of people that took her
after her stepfather raped her. I think you're dreaming, no
thought of conspiracy. That's my point. She did not pull
this off. She was taken, but she didn't do it.
(34:18):
Robert Willisky, it's my understanding that she was found because
of a tip, the one we've been broadcasting every day.
That is correct. Someone either saw her picture on TV,
on the crime online website, heard this on the news nationally,
knew it was her, and called the FBI hotline. You know,
I'm wondering to doctor Bethany Marshall, Psychoana's joining us about
(34:41):
her re entry into her home with her mother. Now
we're assuming a lot, Okay, We're assuming the rate charge
of the stepfather, Randall Pruett. We're assuming that she Savannah Leepruit,
the little girl, is the victim. Okay. Now they've said
very clearly that the charge is not correlated to her disappearance.
(35:04):
I don't know how else to interpret this, but I
know the dad, the step dad's behind bars on rape
and she's about to get on a plane with our
friend to take to phil Yaw who's going to bring
her home? Bethany, what will happen when she comes back
in the home. Well, Savannah needs a lot of support.
This idea that the rape charge is not connected to
her disappearance. How could what about this? What about this, Cheryl?
(35:28):
What about this? He's not charged with kidnapping her, but
the rape charge could have been the catalyst for her
leaving the home, Absolutely, Nancy. Investigators have interviewed her siblings,
They've interviewed neighbors, they've interviewed her friends. Clearly evidence about
(35:49):
the stepfather has come to the purpose. That's without discussion.
I mean that's a fact. Because he's been arrested. We
now know it's worth sexual assault Again, Was she spent
the West Thompson because she's pregnant? Did she you know,
make an out pride of somebody. I'm telling you, for
(36:09):
everything to be put into place, for her to get
seven hundred miles away and be kept for three weeks
virtually undetected is an extraordinary thing to happen. Instantly when
somebody inside the home was also staging the seat. Doctor Bethany,
what were you saying what I was saying. If the
(36:31):
rep charge is not connected to her disappearance, if the
father's a predator, or anything could have happened. She could
have watched witnessed him raping the mother in a domestic
violent situation. She could have witnessed him raping one of
her friends. We can't just assume it's sort of linear
in the way that we're thinking. You know, he's up
on rape charges. She was secreted away from the house
(36:52):
with a lot of help. She's a clever young woman. Obviously,
she got support from the community in extricating herself from
a very functional home. Something bad happened in that home,
and my clinical experience tells me that what we think
happened and what really happened may not be. There may
not be a one to one correspondence. It could be
worse than we think. She could have witnessed him raping
(37:14):
one of the siblings. But she definitely needed to get
away from a toxic environment, and I think she deserves
a lot of congratulations for getting the support and getting
away from this household. I mean, she obviously is quite resourceful.
We are just now getting breaking news out of the
Monroe County Sheriff's office. The authorities have confirmed that Randall
(37:37):
Lee Prue at forty one years old, yes, is charging
connection to the case of the missing girl, but the
charge was not directly correlated with the fourteen year old
daughter's disappearance. We are learning Prue was arrested after explicit
photos and videos were found on the team's cell phone.
(37:58):
Now what does that mean? Who is the victim? Why
is it on her cell phone? How did they get it?
Did they get her cell phone or did they get
it from their records request of all the cell phone
and media digital media data? Is that where they saw it?
Who is in it? What is it all about? We
(38:19):
don't know yet, but this is unfolding. We are learning, repeat,
we are learning, repeat that the circumstances of the arrest
of the adoptive father, the stepdad, regarded explicit photos videos
found on the teens cell phone. Nancy Grace Crime Stories
(38:44):
signing off goodbye,
Do you know another parent or expecting parent. Are you
wondering what can I give them as a gift. Don't
give them another onesie. Don't give them a plastic toy
or god forbid, a toy gun that's just going to
end up in the garage. Give them something that matters,
and what matters the most is protecting their child. What
(00:20):
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and what I learned is so important, powerful and information
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so critical. I want you to have it. I want
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for a five part series with action information that you
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(01:01):
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the week than a plastic toy or god forbid, a
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(01:22):
com Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. On January fourteenth, twenty nineteen,
Savannah Fleet Pruett, fourteen year old, email from our County,
was reported missing by her parents, Christina and Randall Pruett.
(01:47):
Our investigation has basically led us to this point. She
was last observed by cell phone GPS to be in
the Corbin, Kentucky area, possibly moving north to an unknown
destination from there, and in her bedroom shockingly, her sheets,
(02:11):
her bed sheets, the fitted sheet was gone, the window
screen slashed. No sign of fourteen year old Savannah Lee Pruett,
but Bobshell in the last hours a breakthrough listen. She
was found in a home in Wisconsin. The details of
how she got there, who she was with, or any
(02:33):
connections to that area, the sheriff says, are still under investigation.
US been the leading agency on the assistance of the
Tensee Bureau of Investigations, the FBI, and the Department Children's Services.
They have all done a great outstanding job on this
to locate her missing from here to Wisconsin. The timeframe
(02:55):
that they did all these agencies have just has been outstanding.
The job that they've done. You're hearing from our friends
at wat ETV Knoxville. That's Madison KIV speaking to law enforcement.
How did a fourteen year old little girl end up
so many states away from home? She was spotted around
(03:18):
eleven PM going to bed. At around five o'clock in
the morning, the little sister says she's gone, the window opened,
the screen slashed, her chargers still there. Why and even
more disturbing news we learn her stepfather arrested. Imancy Grace,
(03:38):
this is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us,
with me an all star lineup. Director of the Cold
Case Research Institute CSI expert Cheryl McCollum PI, author of
Playbook to a Murder on Amazon. Vincent Hill, renowned Atlanta
criminal defense attorney, former felony prosecutor Daryl Cohen, joining us
(04:00):
US from La LA psychoanalyst doctor Bethany Marshall. Right now
to Crime online dot Com. Investigative reporter Robin will Lensky,
author of Beautiful Life, CSI Behind the Casey Anthony Trial.
Robin will Lensky. When I first heard there had been
(04:20):
an arrest and no Savannah, I had to get up
and leave the table with the twins. I just could
not take the thought of this another child dead, kidnapped
and dead. That's not the way it turned out. And
now the stepfather, I don't get it. Let's just start
(04:44):
at the beginning, Robin. What happened? You know, Nancy, it
is amazing that this has had the ending that has
had this little girl, Well, she's fourteen. She disappears from
her home. So she's the oldest of four children. There's
the mother and stepfather living there. They had lived in
that area. They had just moved from Georgia over to Madisonville, Tennessee,
(05:10):
and she's seen at eleven o'clock at night. Robin, Robin, Robin,
you know how much I love you, right, but can
we cut the crap. The stepdad's charged with rape. Rape.
This child is in Wisconsin, states and states and states away.
As you were just saying before somebody, Oh it was
(05:32):
me so rudely interrupted, was in Lawrenceville. They moved to Madisonville, Tennessee,
so she can have more land for all of her animals,
much like my daughter Lucy. Next thing, I know, she's missing.
Nobody knows where she is, the desperate search and now
the stepfather is charged with rape. Can you ff. Fast
(05:55):
forward just a little bit. I'll rewind in a minute.
Charged with rape, bobin the stepfather, What what happened? What
is that in connection with her disappearance? It's beyond belief. Yeah,
Apparently they say that the stepfather raised her and he's
living in the house, and here he is doing all
these news conferences with TV shows, etc. Saying that, you know,
(06:16):
he was her heart and soul and the sunshine of
the family, speaking about her in the past tense along
with the mother. And then the next thing, you know,
she shows up almost six hundred miles away in the
state of Wisconsin. I mean you're talking about almost the
nine hour drives. How does she get there? Well, here's
the other thing. There's the other thing. Let me throw
this to doctor Bethany Marshall. What hold on, Bethany. I'll
(06:39):
bring you in in this shrink aspect of this, Cheryl McCollum,
director of the Cole Case Research Institute. You and I
said at the very get go. When I asked the
detective was the screen cut from the inside or the outside,
because you can tell that looking under a microscope, he
said the inside. I knew something was very, very wrong
(07:00):
for her, not to be on social media. That's not
like her at all. She's very quiet, very shy, but
she had a social media profile. She had two cell
phones with her, the Georgia phone and the Tennessee phone.
They both pained in Kentucky. That's the last we heard
of her. But taking the fitted sheet and not taking
(07:21):
a charger something was way wrong. And Robin was reporting
about how there's this rape charge he's not. It doesn't
say yet who he allegedly rape. It says he's charged
with rape in connection to her disappearance. Okay, Cheryl, let
it go. It's a stage scene, so being cut from
(07:44):
the inside. That's somebody wanting you to believe that if
perpetrator was outside and kidnapped or some stranger this you know,
the fitted sheep could very well have been removed because
it would have had male DNA on it, which would
be the clue who might have been the child. Oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
(08:06):
let me just let that soak in for a moment.
You know. Daryl Cohen, Atlanta criminal defense lawyer. I remember
your glory days, Daryl, when you were a lead prosecutor
in the Fulton DA's office. Yeah, you hear what Cheryl
McCollum is saying the sheets were removed because it very
(08:27):
possibly had male DNA on it. You know what that means, right, sperm.
It obviously means that it might have been her father, stepfather,
could have been anyone. And then again, we're talking about
a fourteen year old girl who doesn't think logically. Appears
that she went ahead and slipped the screen from the inside.
(08:49):
Did she take her fitted sheet to fool everybody? Did
she take it? Did someone else take it? It's very
hard to tell. Wad Satan. Now, you can get away
with arguing that in front of the jury because nobody
can really interrupt you. But hold on, did somebody else
come into the home and take the little girl's fitted
(09:09):
sheet sometime in the hours between eleven PM and four
and five AM. Okay, that absolutely makes no sense. Who
why would anybody do that? Well, it makes no sense
that she would take it with her either. So none
of this makes sense. But the evidence will be what
(09:29):
it is, and when they find her and be and
they're able to speak to her, and maybe after she's
settled down, they'll be able to get some logic out
of this. None of this is good. None of this
makes sense and only makes crime. Guys, the bombshell right
now is seventally prue at the little fourteen year old
girl we've been trying to help. Fine has been found,
(09:52):
but we now know her stepfather charged with rape. At
this hour, detective on the way to get her. My
partner in crime, Alan Duke, managed to get a hold
of Detective Jason phel y'all just as he was getting
on the plane to go get Savannah. This is what
(10:13):
he said, Detective, I understand you're about to get on
a plane now. We're on our way to Wisconsin to
pick up Savannah and bring her home. She would sound safe,
and she had been sheltered, and she was in a house,
and she was fed and seemed well rested or seemed
(10:33):
to be taking good care of her. What can you
tell us about who Savannah has been with while she's
been in Wisconsin. I can't release that information right now.
I know that that BI has her in custody right now.
She was a very loving, very bubbly She stole the
(10:55):
spot line out of the room. I mean she really
really did beautiful as she looks, that's how her soul was.
It's very beautiful. You guys aren't giving up hope. I'd
just like to please anybody knows anything, please come forward,
help with the investigation. No lead is too small. We
(11:17):
cannot rest and until we know something about her Savannah.
You are hearing the voices of her mother, Savannah Lee
Pruett's mother, Christina, and that stepfather, Randall Pruett speaking to
our freendsy wat Knoxville. Did you hear that? To doctor
(11:39):
Bethany Marshall Ellie psychoanalyst. That guy, Randall stepfather has now
been booked into the Monroe County jail. He's charged with
rape and being held without bond. Still not clear or
they're not saying how this may be connected to the
little girl's disappearance. The Sheriff's office not providing any other details,
(12:00):
including the circumstances of his arrest. But I know this,
he's booked on rape and she ran away or she
got out of that home one way or another. Doctor
Bethany Marshall way in, I mean, did you hear him?
The sunshine of my lives? I can't sleep. She's a
(12:20):
star of the room. If anybody knows anything what that sounded,
it's sort of adoring and sexualized. That that sounds how
you would talk about somebody towards whom you have a
preoccupation or a fixation. Yancy, when he said no lead
is too small. In my field, we call that trite, rehearsed,
(12:45):
stereotyped speech. What that means is the person that's just
playing a role. Fathers don't talk like police officers. They
talk like fathers. Please call us, I'm panicked. We want
to know where she is. Instead he says, no lead
is too small. And you know the other thing that
gets me about all of this is the family had
(13:07):
recently moved to this very remote area because of quote unquote,
the daughter liked animals. To me, that sounds like a
predator trying to sequester the family far away from civilization
so he can have his way with everybody. I know
that sounds creepy, but that's a big picture that comes
to mind to me. I am beside myself to Vincent Hill,
(13:31):
cop turned PI author a playbook to a murder on
Amazon Vincent Hill. When the stepfather and the mom were
behind and she was gone, no one really focused on
them at the beginning. Vincent Hill. Yeah, and that's the problem, Nancy.
(13:51):
I mean when you're talking about a child going missing
from the home, you want to start that investigation inside
the home. And the fact that the screen was cut
from the inside and the fitted sheet was missing, to me,
that was the biggest red flag in the world. Now,
did Savannah take that sheet to preserve evidence and maybe
that's how we came to this rape charge. We don't know,
(14:13):
or did the dad take it because he knew his
DNA was on that sheet. But everything pointed to inside
this house and Nancy from the beginning, even the fact
that her cell phone was pinging one hundred miles away.
In an abduction, somebody's going to make sure that phone
stays where it is and it doesn't leave the house.
To Cheryl McCollum, director of the Coldcase Research Institute, weigh in, Cheryl,
(14:37):
the other thing that I wanted to point out that
I think is critical. January thirteenth was a Sunday, so
she had school the next day, So if a stranger
had come in and just snatched her, she would not
have had two cell phones in her hand when that happened. Yeah,
you're right, that's very clear to me that she left
(14:58):
like ready was something like somebody made her go. So
the other thing that's interesting to me is when you're
talking about three weeks Nancy, somebody had to feed her
her casters if they were casters, I had to watch
her around the plot to make sure she did not escape.
They you know, miss work potentially, so around the clot
(15:20):
somebody's been with this child. Nobody ran from to hers,
So that wasn't their motives. They didn't kill her, so
that wasn't their motives for a lot of you know
evidence to me. Well, Cheryl McCollum, listen to this, Cheryl McCollum,
Director of the Cold Case Research Institute, Cheryl. We contacted
(15:41):
the parents to get them to come on, and usually
parents relatives, they cannot wait to broadcast their missing child
to try to get all the help they can. The
DA and the stepdad didn't want to do it. Gee,
I wonder why, Cheryl, why didn't you want to come
on and Q and made with me answer a few questions.
(16:03):
M anybody that didn't want to go? Wait? Aland what
was it? What was it that the dad the stepdad
says something like he needed to rest. Yes, he said
that they were tired. They'd done a local interview and
he said that they were tired from that and made yeah,
because nobody was asking him any hard questions. Well, that's
why he got tired. There is a difference between being
(16:26):
interviewed by a local Tennessee reporter Nope, disregard to them,
and being grilled by prosecutor Nancy Grace, Cheryl, what were
you saying? Amen. The other thing that really just you know,
was key to me is the father. He says, you
can't sleep, you can't eat, but he said we haven't
(16:47):
been able to do that. Sich she left. He didn't
say she was kidnaps. He doesn't say, you know this
is a crime. He says she left. As a matter
of fact. Speaking of the stepfather, ran Prue it now
charged with rape. And again, as Jackie Howard in the
studio keeps pointing out to me, waving her arms thrashing
about wildly, has not said the name of the victim.
(17:09):
It's just in connection with her disappearance. But now take
a listen to what rape suspect. The stepdad, Randall Pruett
says at the sheriff's conference, he just moved up from
a large foot Georgia. If you hear from your original yes,
Fay said that she's the oldest of four. Can you
(17:30):
just talk about the rest of your family and how
they're doing in light of everything, and how they're holding on. Well,
they're very heartbroken, she miser. They don't understand person, None
of us understand. So it's like having your soul ripped
out of your body and said, you can't think, you
can't eat, you can't sleep, can't rest. Life has just
(17:54):
ceased for us in from way she left. She was
no suns, time, hours, he dearly, wonderful, uncome for sure
outside of force writing. Is there anything else that she
was interested in? Music? Hurts anything, fuzzy cute? She's a
(18:20):
fun girl. Yes, actually got here lizards. I mean she
never met a strange and hood she didn't do it correccoon.
She raised last year from her baby. Yes she was.
She was the step dad. Now George was rape says,
(18:43):
it's like having your soul ripped out of your body.
He can't think. Well, Daryl Cohen, you're the Atlanta criminal
defense lawyer. You've represented murderers, rapists, drug lords. He'll have
plenty of time to clear his head behind bars because
he's sitting there with new bond. Nancy the more answers
we get, the more questions I have. For instance, where
(19:08):
did she spend her summers? Did she go to camp?
Did she spend the time with someone that she's now
with when they moved? How did she hide herself and
become secretive after this took place? Now they ask you
what it matters where she went to camp two summers ago.
I mean, I know what you're doing, Daryl. You're playing
(19:30):
look at this, not that, Look here, not over there,
not at all, Nancy. No, what I'm saying to you
is I'm trying to figure out where she found the
people to stay with in Wisconsin. So how did she
know them? She didn't just get on a bus. You
what does that have to do with a stepfather being
charged with rape? If anything, it has a great deal
to do with her state of mind and how credible
(19:52):
she is with whatever statement she's going to give. Look,
her stepfather, in my view, has done absolutely everything wrong.
If he's innocent, you certainly don't say the things that
he's said. You don't do the things that he's done.
And you're never too tired to be interviewed. Hi, Nancy Grace, here,
(20:13):
have you ever googled yourself? Your neighbors, somebody at work,
a crush. Fifty seven percent of Americans and meant to
keeping an eye on their own online reputation. Forty six
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(20:34):
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Truth Finder members can literally begin searching in seconds for
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(20:55):
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may astound you. Get a Truthfinder dot com forward slash
Nancy right away to start searching Truthfinder dot com forward
slash Nancy, Truthfinder dot com forward slash Nancy. Find the
(21:19):
truth crime Stories with Nancy Grace. What can you tell
us about who Savannah has been with while she's been
in Wisconsin. I can't release that information right now. I
know that FBI has her in custody right now. When
(21:39):
you get her back to Tennessee this afternoon. Will she
be reunited with her mother? At this point, we have
no reason to believe that she would not be really
united with her mom. And what can you tell us
now about her adopted father at this point? He has
been He was arrested yesterday after an early afternoon for
charge of rate and he's being held with no bond,
(22:04):
and that part of the investigation is still ongoing. At
the sheriff's news conference last night, it was unclear the
connection between the father's arrest and Savannah's disappearance. Can you
tell us anything more today about that. I can't release
the details on that yet just because of the criminal investigation,
but that information will come out. Yeah, well, we'll be
able to release quite a bit more information probably in
(22:27):
the near future, once we get everything kind of buttoned
up on the investigation. You are hearing Detective Phil y'all,
who's on his way on a jet plane right now
to bring savannahley Prue at home to Robin Lynskey, Crime
Online dot Com investigative reporter and author of Beautiful Life,
The CSI behind the Casey Anthony Trial on Amazon. Robin,
(22:48):
I'm really surprised that they are letting her go back
to her mother, because in many of these cases, and
I'll go to Daryl and Cheryl on this, in many
of these cases when there has been molestation of the
child in the home by a male living in the home,
they won't let the child go back because they deem
that the mom has allowed this environment to continue. Yeah,
(23:12):
you're dead on on that that you know, perhaps she
was the enabler and looked the other way. Who knows
what was going on in the house. But I will
say this to you, Nancy, Let's not this fact be lost.
This is a fourteen year old girl. She is not
a world traveler. She is not a worldly person. Look
at the miles the trauma of God knows what happened
(23:32):
to her on a physical and emotional level. But then
you take someone you move them from Georgia to Tennessee. Okay,
there's one hundred miles. Then she's possibly in Kentucky where
the phone is pinging. That's another one hundred and fifty miles.
And then oh what next, You're in Wisconsin almost six
hundred miles away. Look at all these places. How traumatic
(23:53):
that would be. I'm picturing myself at fourteen years old.
Picture yourself at fourteen years old, under normal condition and
being in all these states, and then with her what
her mental and physical state was. I can only imagine
the trauma that this well a fourteen year old has
been through. You know. Right now, doctor Bethany Marshall l
a psychoalence. I'm taking a look at Randall Pruett and
(24:14):
he looks like he's at a you know, the podium
and a church where the pastor gets behind it. That
he looks like he's there with like a photo of
the River Jordan behind him, with his eyes closed, like
he's about to start crying. I mean, really, everything he
says is going to be brought in at trial, and
we're assuming we know who he's accused of raping. But
(24:35):
doctor Bethany, I mean, my soul's ripped out of my body.
I can't think. I can't eat. I bet he couldn't. Well.
It all sounds so dramatic, like he's playing a role.
And even the mother veers back and forth between the
past tense and the present. We missed her, where is she?
We missed having her around as if she was once
there and is no longer on this earth. So there's
(24:58):
something very chaotic about the way the couple is communicating
and like I said, trite, rehearsed and stereotype, like they've
come up with like a movie script, rather than parents
connected to the reality that their child is missing. And
you know another thing about this, I keep going back
to the fact that the family moved recently, that they
were very cut off from society. I keep wondering about
(25:20):
what that meant. And you you were thinking to comment
about why did this? Why is fourteen year old Savannah
allowed to go back home to their mother? Because one
of the things we know about families where there's a
predator or a child molester in their midst, the family
always protects the child molester. I have a friend who
worked in Wrap around Services here in LA. They would
(25:41):
court mandated remove the molester from the family. When she
came to visit the family, they would pretend like the
molester had moved out. The minute she would leave, they
would move the molester right and through the back door.
So families protect the molester, they always do. So this
is a part of the story I'm really curious about
as it unfolds, like why is she back home with
her mom? Mom has not protected her, And what about
(26:05):
the other three children? What happened to them? Why are
they still in the home? Why haven't they've been removed? Guys,
I want to go to Cheryl McCallum, the wrector of
the Cold Case Research Institute. Cheryl, what about it? We
also know that the sheriff said quote is the possibility
of multiple charges with multiple people being involved. That's all
we can say at this time. What other potential charges
(26:27):
could there possibly be? For those of you just joining
us fourteen year olds of ENII Prue. It has been
found far far away from home, being hidden in Wisconsin,
not with family members. We are told Detective Phil y'all
on the way on a plane right now to bring
her home. Her stepfather now behind bars. No bond on rape.
(26:49):
What other possible people? What other possible charges? Charyl McCollum.
If the people in the nowity, like I said earlier,
you had to watch her twenty four hours a day
for three weeks, ain't sure she didn't escape, So you've
got kidnapping, They miss work, they drove her across for
safe somebody had that child over all that period of time.
(27:10):
What I would like for law of sportsman to do
it's halt to her teachers in Georgia, these are mandated reporters.
Those teachers know when a child changes their personality. If
she made an outcry of some sort, Nancy, you and
I both know perpetrators that molest children if they think
the facts is about to get involved. In Georgia, we
(27:31):
go to Kentucky. We go to Tennessee. If Tennessee is
closing in on us and she's gonna make another outcry,
perhaps she's pregnant, then we go to Wisconsin. We hide
her and let me say something else. Nancy, and you
and I both know this that it is not popular
when I say it. But if stepfather is not her father, period,
(27:52):
Watch the way he seeks when he says things like, well,
it's rough when somebody takes jers. She ain't jers, sir,
she's not your daughter. So when he changes any language,
that should be a clue. Guys want to pause very
quickly and thank our partner who's making our investigation into
the recovery of fourteen year old Savantay Prue. It possible.
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(28:36):
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(29:23):
Blink Protect dot Com Slash Defense. That's Blink Protect dot
Com Slash Defense. Thank you, Blink. She has never misbehaved
a mad kid ever, in her life and this is
just really way on left field for her. These parents
aren't giving up, absolutely not. How we lost home and
will we lose hope? No, please come home. We do
(29:44):
miss you terribly. M that's w VLTCBS Knoxville, and you
were hearing porter of Robert Grant speaking with the mom
and the stepdad Little SAVANNAHY Pruett. That's stepdad Randall Pruitt
now behind bars on rape being held with no bond.
This is but we know the adoptive dad of Little
Savannah is behind bars. She's been found in Wisconsin. He
(30:07):
was arrested charged with rape. Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones
said the missing team was found, but that the rape
charge does not necessarily have anything to do not directly
correlated with the girl's disappearance. Now, I don't know what
that means. The sheriff says, quote, we don't believe at
this time he has connection to her being missing. How
(30:31):
do you decipher that? To Robie Willinski, I think that
the police are looking at the tentacles of the stepfather,
who does he know what one down in Georgia before
they suddenly left and moved to Madisonville, Tennessee. Nancy. I
think that they're still investigating him. Who he knows, what
the associates are, What is the mothers involved in it?
(30:52):
In this was they're enabling? Was she looking the other way?
That's why they're not connecting all the dust and telling
the public what they think is the connection. Doctor Bethanie Marshall,
LA psychoalenst way In. Well, you know, the investigator says
multiple people, multiple charges. Sure, it could be the person
who helped her escape. It could be, as one of
the guests said, the tentacles of the father's involvement in
(31:15):
the community and how he may have co opted other
people into his crimes, But it could also mean the
other children in the household. So intra familial molesters, men
who molest within their own families are the most prolific
of all molesters. It's multiple offenses, multiple times against the
same victim. It's not somebody who snatches a child off
(31:37):
a lawn, molests them, wants and kills them. This is
repeat offending. So when he says multiple people, multiple charges,
you don't have to have a vast conspiracy in the
community to bring these kinds of charges. You can have
one guy running loose in his own household and there
are a lot of charges. And I'm wondering if that's
also what the investigator was referring to pi Way in Nancy.
(32:02):
You could also have the figure to report on behalf
of the mother. If she knew what was going on
inside that home, which I suspect she did, and she
did not come forward, then she's liable as well. So
that could be the other charges of these multiple people too.
Daryl Cohen, this guy is sitting behind Mars, what's his
lawyer telling him? You're the defense attorney? As a lawyer,
I would tell him kyd BMS, which is keep your
(32:23):
damn big mouth shut. I have again so many questions.
How did they know that he raped her? Did she
leave on her own? Was she taken? Did she have
a series of people that she stayed with? Was she kidnapped?
These are all things that I need to know before
I can rush to judgment. But if I were here
before you can rush to judgment, absolutely rush to Johnny cockform,
(32:46):
he would be so proud of you right now throwing
that up, Cheryl McCollum, did you hear Daryl coh and
just say, let's not rush to judgment. Well, we'd had
three weeks. I don't think that's three weeks, because if
three weeks, you had three weeks three weeks. Know that
this was not ransom. She was not killed. She had
(33:11):
two cell phones of her at eleven o'clock at night
on a Sunday that stopped pinging one hundred and forty
miles away from where she left. She's been fed, she's
had shelter for three weeks. A fourteen year old girl
didn't pull that off by herself. Not possible. So what
where are you going with this? Yarl? That multiple people
were involved to get her that far? She didn't coordinate that,
(33:34):
she didn't get these people and say, hey, come to
my house at eleven o'clock at night and I'll stage
a crime scene and then drive me to Wisconsin and
feed me and shelter me and don't letbody see us
when we stopped for gasoline and we stopped for food
the seven hundred miles you're gonna take me? And then
only when my stepfather's arrested are you going to quote
find me? Fourteen year old girl didn't pull that off.
(33:55):
But if you listen to again to the stepfather when
he says things like I can't say, I can't sleep,
I can't risk you know where you do all those
things in the bed. So, Cheryl, you're saying this is
a conspiracy with a number of people that took her
after her stepfather raped her. I think you're dreaming, no
thought of conspiracy. That's my point. She did not pull
this off. She was taken, but she didn't do it.
(34:18):
Robert Willisky, it's my understanding that she was found because
of a tip, the one we've been broadcasting every day.
That is correct. Someone either saw her picture on TV,
on the crime online website, heard this on the news nationally,
knew it was her, and called the FBI hotline. You know,
I'm wondering to doctor Bethany Marshall, Psychoana's joining us about
(34:41):
her re entry into her home with her mother. Now
we're assuming a lot, Okay, We're assuming the rate charge
of the stepfather, Randall Pruett. We're assuming that she Savannah Leepruit,
the little girl, is the victim. Okay. Now they've said
very clearly that the charge is not correlated to her disappearance.
(35:04):
I don't know how else to interpret this, but I
know the dad, the step dad's behind bars on rape
and she's about to get on a plane with our
friend to take to phil Yaw who's going to bring
her home? Bethany, what will happen when she comes back
in the home. Well, Savannah needs a lot of support.
This idea that the rape charge is not connected to
her disappearance. How could what about this? What about this, Cheryl?
(35:28):
What about this? He's not charged with kidnapping her, but
the rape charge could have been the catalyst for her
leaving the home, Absolutely, Nancy. Investigators have interviewed her siblings,
They've interviewed neighbors, they've interviewed her friends. Clearly evidence about
(35:49):
the stepfather has come to the purpose. That's without discussion.
I mean that's a fact. Because he's been arrested. We
now know it's worth sexual assault Again, Was she spent
the West Thompson because she's pregnant? Did she you know,
make an out pride of somebody. I'm telling you, for
(36:09):
everything to be put into place, for her to get
seven hundred miles away and be kept for three weeks
virtually undetected is an extraordinary thing to happen. Instantly when
somebody inside the home was also staging the seat. Doctor Bethany,
what were you saying what I was saying. If the
(36:31):
rep charge is not connected to her disappearance, if the
father's a predator, or anything could have happened. She could
have watched witnessed him raping the mother in a domestic
violent situation. She could have witnessed him raping one of
her friends. We can't just assume it's sort of linear
in the way that we're thinking. You know, he's up
on rape charges. She was secreted away from the house
(36:52):
with a lot of help. She's a clever young woman. Obviously,
she got support from the community in extricating herself from
a very functional home. Something bad happened in that home,
and my clinical experience tells me that what we think
happened and what really happened may not be. There may
not be a one to one correspondence. It could be
worse than we think. She could have witnessed him raping
(37:14):
one of the siblings. But she definitely needed to get
away from a toxic environment, and I think she deserves
a lot of congratulations for getting the support and getting
away from this household. I mean, she obviously is quite resourceful.
We are just now getting breaking news out of the
Monroe County Sheriff's office. The authorities have confirmed that Randall
(37:37):
Lee Prue at forty one years old, yes, is charging
connection to the case of the missing girl, but the
charge was not directly correlated with the fourteen year old
daughter's disappearance. We are learning Prue was arrested after explicit
photos and videos were found on the team's cell phone.
(37:58):
Now what does that mean? Who is the victim? Why
is it on her cell phone? How did they get it?
Did they get her cell phone or did they get
it from their records request of all the cell phone
and media digital media data? Is that where they saw it?
Who is in it? What is it all about? We
(38:19):
don't know yet, but this is unfolding. We are learning, repeat,
we are learning, repeat that the circumstances of the arrest
of the adoptive father, the stepdad, regarded explicit photos videos
found on the teens cell phone. Nancy Grace Crime Stories
(38:44):
signing off goodbye,
Host
Nancy Grace
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