Questions for CNN reporter Jim Spellman - Q & A Only **NO DISCUSSION HERE PLEASE**

[liltexans]

Hi Jim,

Is JB's high school friend's house in the same neighborhood as JB's house? Or not very far away? Or is it quite a distance from JB's house?

 

[iamnotagolem]

Jim - just want to say thanks so much for answering all these questions. Getting an unbiased opinion on the players in this case really helps put things into perspective. Thanks!

 

[Minette]

Respectfully snipped by me:

OK, so Shane Beagley.


-About a week or so before this, right around when he moved into his grandmothers house, he says a light colored older model sedan ...something like a taurus or a camry pulled up and a weird guy driving it was asking if Shane had seen another guy walking around. I have no idea if this is significant but he thought it was strange enough to tell me about it. He says his Grandmother thought it was weird too.

I am sure you passed this info along to LE; however, we haven't heard their usual 'we have moved on from that' response to the tip. Have you heard anything further about whether this was checked out? Thanks!

 

[GoodGurl]

Thanks...re: number 2, I just heard about this text rumor. I had not heard about that before tonight. I wasn't on the story for the first few days so I think that must have been before I got there.

re Number 3 there was a "new timeline emerges" story in the KC Star that some other news outlets also ran with maybe 4 weeks into the story IIRC that had some confusing language about Phil and noting the Deb was drunk and at that time that seemed to fuel a lot of speculation that somehow he was there that night. I think it was some clumsy language in the story or from the "source" that fueled that. And BTW that was a story planted by Bill Stanton but there was nothing to back up the stuff he was trying to get reporters to write about and he wouldn't go on the record as the source. I didn't go with it.
The point of the "new timeline" , best I could tell, was to insert several things into the mix
-That Samantha's 4 year old saw baby Lisa alive and well around 6:30
-To close the timeline down to about 4 hours.

the link is dead for some reason so I cant go back to to get the details.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/01/3243027/a-look-back-at-a-critical-night.html

As for the landfill rumor...the woman who saw it has been in touch with me directly. I don't doubt that that is what she saw to the best of her recollection but i couldn't find anything to back it up or see the relevance in it if it was the 2 of them indeed at a landfill a week before this happened.

BBM - just to clarify for me, are you saying that BS is the "source" who said that Samantha said her daughter told her she saw the baby around 6:30? Also, that you did not find it credible? TIA

 

[norest4thewicked]

BBM - just to clarify for me, are you saying that BS is the "source" who said that Samantha said her daughter told her she saw the baby around 6:30? Also, that you did not find it credible? TIA

I'd like to hear the answer to this as well.

 

[askfornina]

Another poster here. They said you quoted Shane as saying he sat on his front porch and Samantha sat on her front porch and they had a conversation while smoking and Shane went into his house around 11:00.

Did Shane give an approximate time as to when he heard a noise behind his house? I sort of suspect J. Brando was lurking around trying to hear their conversation since he texted Samantha at almost exactly 10:30.

Edited to add: Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - To those who think that Deborah Bradley is innocent, please share your theory

This is the post by askfornina - I may have misunderstood, but I used to smoke and it never took an hour to smoke one cigarette, and I smoked the 120's

Attempting to clear this up. About a week before Shane was named as the neighbor, this article from a "source" came out, with this info:

Brando says she stayed outside talking to another neighbor until 11:30 p.m. and noticed nothing amiss so that the abductor could not have taken baby Lisa before then.

http://www.kctv5.com/story/15940122/source-says-4-hour-window-for-abduction

Since the time that Shane was introduced, the information from Jim has been that Shane went inside after 1 cig per Jim's tweets. That quote from the article suggests that Shane and SB were both outside until 11:30. This is where the confusion is coming from, best I can tell. Looks like the source was wrong or something got lost in translation. Obviously Jim's info directly from Shane is more credible than the info from the source, as I'm sure everyone would agree.

whew, hope that clears it up.

 

[iamnotagolem]

Does Shane B know Jersey?

 

[Whisperer]

1. Anyone ever question DB as to the last time she used any of the three phones?

....one of which was her Grandpa's. There were THREE phones, only one was Deborah's.

 

[Whisperer]

Did Jersey have his own phone?

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

Thanks again, Jim. You have cleared up some huge misconceptions here and I, for one, appreciate it.

Another question - What do you know about the phones? Some people here thought that the phones were pinging near the house until the batteries would have gone dead. Have you heard anything about whether or not LE ever found the phones?

Thanks in advance.

I've commented on the phones several times, probably in this thread if you want to go back. Bottom line is I don't think we really know what went on woth the phones, but i think they are very important to the case.

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

I find DB taking in a stray cat that night strange. Is the cat ever mentioned? When did she pick the cat up and who saw her do it? My thinking is it came in through an open door and she told Jeremy she had just taken it in to avoid telling him how it may have gotten in. What do you know about the cat?

Ah yes, the cat. So, I don't really know anything about the stray cat BUT there were several stray cats in the neighborhood when I was spending time there and they were all very nice. One white one would come and hang out with us when we were doing live shots. We sort of joked that the cat was the only one who knew what happened and he wasn't talking.

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

Another poster here. They said you quoted Shane as saying he sat on his front porch and Samantha sat on her front porch and they had a conversation while smoking and Shane went into his house around 11:00.

Did Shane give an approximate time as to when he heard a noise behind his house? I sort of suspect J. Brando was lurking around trying to hear their conversation since he texted Samantha at almost exactly 10:30.

Edited to add: Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - To those who think that Deborah Bradley is innocent, please share your theory

This is the post by askfornina - I may have misunderstood, but I used to smoke and it never took an hour to smoke one cigarette, and I smoked the 120's

I've mentioned this before but we cant get too caught up in exact times as far as what Shane told me since he wasn't really sure and when he tried to come up with exact times I could tell he was guessing more than anything.

He didn't have a time on when he heard noises. Middle of the night. I don't believe he checked the time.

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

Hi Jim,

Is JB's high school friend's house in the same neighborhood as JB's house? Or not very far away? Or is it quite a distance from JB's house?

It's a few miles away. Not the same neighborhood. Maybe a 10-15 minute drive.

 

[norest4thewicked]

Jim, do you happen to know if there was a running vehicle at the house that night other then Jeremy's work van after he came home?

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

Respectfully snipped by me:



I am sure you passed this info along to LE; however, we haven't heard their usual 'we have moved on from that' response to the tip. Have you heard anything further about whether this was checked out? Thanks!

Everyone I've spoken to has been interviewed by LE long before I got to them. I don't know if they specifically investigated the person in the car.

If I came across something the cops didn't know about I certainly would go to them first and before I reported anything about any of these people I checked it out with LE.

I will pass on an anecdote...at some point we knew that someone named Megan Wright was involved with the phones, but just had a name and didn't know where to find here so we were running down all the Megan Wrights in the KC area. My producer and i would just drive around to these addresses we had and knock on doors. Arduous to say the least.

Anyway, we go to a small apartment building , find M. Wright on the mail box and go knock. No one answer but i can hear rustling around inside and I'm pretty sure someone is there but no one comes to the door, so i leave my business card with a little note and we go to a few other place before deciding to go back to the apartment.

This time a woman in her early 20s comes to the door but just opens it a crack.Its the middle of the day but all the lights are off and the curtains are drawn in the apartment and she is a little weird. Then out of nowhere a baby starts crying and i have to admit it really freaked me out. Was that Lisa crying? My spidey sense was definitely tingling. She explains how she has been staying in the apartment with the kid because when she goes out everyone thinks its Baby Lisa so she is just avoiding seeing people.

We leave and call the KCPD and tell them about the visit...we felt kind of silly calling them but we knew we had to. Obviously it wasn't the right Megan Wright and the police checked her out and everything was cool, but it was definitely a weird moment.

 

[vlpate]

That poor woman.....I'll bet you were freaking out.

Was this before the FBI called the Craigslist ad, or after?

Everyone I've spoken to has been interviewed by LE long before I got to them. I don't know if they specifically investigated the person in the car.

If I came across something the cops didn't know about I certainly would go to them first and before I reported anything about any of these people I checked it out with LE.

I will pass on an anecdote...at some point we knew that someone named Megan Wright was involved with the phones, but just had a name and didn't know where to find here so we were running down all the Megan Wrights in the KC area. My producer and i would just drive around to these addresses we had and knock on doors. Arduous to say the least.

Anyway, we go to a small apartment building , find M. Wright on the mail box and go knock. No one answer but i can hear rustling around inside and I'm pretty sure someone is there but no one comes to the door, so i leave my business card with a little note and we go to a few other place before deciding to go back to the apartment.

This time a woman in her early 20s comes to the door but just opens it a crack.Its the middle of the day but all the lights are off and the curtains are drawn in the apartment and she is a little weird. Then out of nowhere a baby starts crying and i have to admit it really freaked me out. Was that Lisa crying? My spidey sense was definitely tingling. She explains how she has been staying in the apartment with the kid because when she goes out everyone thinks its Baby Lisa so she is just avoiding seeing people.

We leave and call the KCPD and tell them about the visit...we felt kind of silly calling them but we knew we had to. Obviously it wasn't the right Megan Wright and the police checked her out and everything was cool, but it was definitely a weird moment.

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

BBM - just to clarify for me, are you saying that BS is the "source" who said that Samantha said her daughter told her she saw the baby around 6:30? Also, that you did not find it credible? TIA

Yes. Bill Stanton went to all the different media outlets offering this up with the condition that he not be named as the source. I don't work like that. If he wanted to present this information on the record as a family representative then maybe I would report it.

You ask if it is credible. I would use the word accurate.

Is it accurate? I have no way of knowing because i'm getting it second hand or possibly third hand so I cant ask follow up questions or figure out what if the source has some other interest going on.

For instance, in that article it says that Samantha's kid saw Lisa at 6:30 or 6:40. So my question is how did she know it it was 6:30? 4 year olds cant generally tell time. I've met that kid and spent a little time with her. She's just a little younger than my own daughter so i'm pretty clued into kids that age and I just don't how well a little girl that age could asses a situation. Did she know it was 6:30 because she saw a clock she could read like a digital clock radio? Did she know it was 6:30 because Dora or some TV show just ended? Did someone tell her it was 6:30? Did they tell her at the time or later, maybe the next day? Did she know Lisa was of because Lisa was walking or crawling or crying or did she just assume the bundle was Lisa?

This is all theoretical...but I hope you get my meaning and see why I don't easily report material with this kind of sourcing. IF it was Bill Stanton on the record then he would be accountable for what was said. Same with all these people like James and Shane...I knew the gist of their info long before i reported it because until i speak to them I don't know for sure what the story is AND they are then accountable for what they say.

If any of you followed my reporting in that first month or so you'll know I vary rarely report anything off the record. Occasionally we choose not to name someone for various reasons...for instance for a while we referred to the Brandos as just the next door neighbors, and we didn't name Dane's last name. Mostly this is if, in the context of the news, we are implying someone did something wrong.

Also there was a whole thing about who Mike Thompon named in a photo line up, but the whole process was so flawed that we didnt feel like it was solid..BUT it was part of the story and part of the investigation so we reported on it and even after i tracked down the guy he named and that guy denied it we didn't name him.

Also occasionally I describe someone as " a family member". This is a compromise where I feel the person is given the protection they want to be able to have, yet the viewer understands their motives and maybe their prejudices about the case.

You may have heard me use this language when describing a division in the family over the Tacopina strategy if not doing media.

I may also sometimes just say LE or KCPD as shorthand for one or more cops. Usually it;s KCPD spokesman Steve Young...no secret, just that more people understand that way.

ALso, various people have told me things off the record and they all know that I have maintained that still. If any of them read this I hope they know how much it has helped.

Sometimes the way off the record info helps is that it can set us in the right direction then we can confirm it through other sources.

So, anyway 99% of the time I don't deal with off the record information...i instead try to work hard to get it on the record...so that Bill Stanton time line just isn't going to work for me.

But let me say that many very good journalists come to different conclusions on these sorts of questions all the time. I always suggest getting info from as many sources as possible

 

[Jim Spellman CNN]

Does Shane B know Jersey?

According to Shane he doesn't know Jersey or Megan and according to MEgan she doesn't know Shane.

 

[katydid23]

Mr Spellman, THANK YOU for this informative post. That really helps a lot.

I agree about the sighting by Samantha's 4 yr old. How credible can the timing really be?

My pressing question is when did Samantha herself last see baby Lisa? I find it odd that the only sighting I have seen mentioned is the one where she said she saw her in the crib at 4:30ish.

If she had dinner there at 5:30 and was with DB until 10:30, wouldn't she have seen or at least heard the baby at a later time?

 

[norest4thewicked]

Jim, do you happen to know if there was a running vehicle at the house that night other then Jeremy's work van after he came home?

I'm quoting my own question in case you missed it. If you can't answer it, that's fine.