Joan Rivers Dead at 81; Young Girl`s Body Just Found
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, heart-breaking news. World famous comedienne Joan Rivers pronounced dead. After throat surgery goes wrong, Rivers goes into cardiac arrest, then survives days in a medically induced coma in the hope she could recover. Bombshell tonight. As we go to air, could the death of our friend, Joan Rivers, have been avoided? The Yorkville Endoscopy clinic that performed the surgery now under investigation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joan Rivers, the famous, famous comedienne, has passed away at the age of 81.</s>JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIAN: I don`t like certain audiences. I hate old people! I -- oh! If you are</s>GRACE: That video from "Stand-up Comedy" from IFC films. And tonight, the tragic death of 22-month-old toddler Cooper, seemingly left alone for hours in a baking hot car by Daddy. But was the tot murdered? Damning evidence Daddy sexting six different women, even sending photos of his erect penis as baby Cooper bakes dead, scratching his little face, abrasions on the back of his head as he bangs back and forth to escape, screaming out for Daddy. As we go to air, we confirm the father of tiny tot who bakes dead in a hot car just indicted by a secret grand jury. Charges are murder in the first.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The breaking news out of Cobb County, Georgia, the so- called hot car death.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She looks at him and she`s, like, Well, did you say too much?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A grand jury has just indicted Justin Ross Harris.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six different phone conversations with different women, sexting.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is the one who`s responsible for the murder of that child.</s>GRACE: And to Bullhead City, Arizona. An 8-year-old, a 2nd grader, little Bella, snatched from her own bedroom. In a late night press conference, we learn the search for little Bella comes to a heart-breaking end. Bella`s body has been found.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was last seen when she was tucked into bed a couple hours prior.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to the FBI forensics team, there has been a body located in that area.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A body feared to be of the missing girl, 8-year-old Isabella Grogan-Cannella.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She really will be missed!</s>GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Heart-breaking news tonight. World famous comedienne Joan Rivers, a personal friend, pronounced dead. After throat surgery goes horribly wrong, she goes into cardiac arrest. Then Rivers manages to survive for days in a medically induced coma in the hope that she could recover. As we go to air, could the death of our friend, Joan, Rivers have been avoided? The Yorkville Endoscopy clinic that performed the surgery on Joan now under investigation. Straight out to Kim Serafin, senior editor, "In Touch Weekly." You know, what is lost upon so many people, Kim, is that Joan Rivers is a pioneer. Joan Rivers made possible for women that which was impossible. I remember when I first started practicing law, there were practically no female trial lawyers ever. They were not seen in court. Joan Rivers, one of a kind, the first edition, the uncut version -- there will never be another one like her. She helped pave the way for other women.</s>KIM SERAFIN, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Exactly. I think that will definitely be what goes down in history, what people remember her for, that, you`re right, she was one of the first comedians, female comedians out there, the way that she paved the way for so many other females out there. I mean, if you think about how many female comedians there are now, nothing was like that when Joan Rivers started -- and of course, the "Tonight" show and getting her own show, and then, of course, even just paving the way for all of those red carpet interviews that she`s done. She really is a one of a kind.</s>GRACE: For those of us just joining us, in the last hours, world famous comedienne Joan Rivers dead. Here is Joan Rivers.</s>RIVERS: Can we talk? Do you know what it`s like to go in the morning to take off a facial mask and realize you`re not wearing one? Oh, you don`t know! You know what that means. You just fart like crazy. No big deal to have a woman in the White House. John F. Kennedy had a thousand of them. I am telling you right now... Get up and get out of here right -- right now!</s>GRACE: To Bonnie Fuller, editor-in-chief, Hollywoodlife.com. Bonnie, I`m still not understanding what went wrong. This was a simple procedure. It was an endoscopy. People have them all the time.</s>BONNIE FULLER, HOLLYWOODLIFE.COM: Well, that is clearly what is going to be investigated because it doesn`t seem like anything should have gone wrong. Joan appeared in really good health. Even the night before, she was out to dinner with a friend and telling him that this was going to be no big deal, she wasn`t worried about this surgery at all. And quite frankly, she had had a lot of surgeries. She was very open about her plastic surgeries. So it`s not like she had not been under the knife before and had anesthesia. And so I think, though, that what we have to keep in mind is, as young as she seemed, she was 81.</s>GRACE: Well, the thing is, she was extremely healthy. And in a lot of people`s book, 81 is not the kiss of death. In fact, it`s still very young for a lot of people. Joan Rivers did more in one day than most people do in a month. You know her call time for her "Fashion Police" show was, like, 3:00 or 4:00 o`clock AM. She was never once late. Now, say that about some of the younger stars that we know of. For those of you just joining us, I want to get to the bottom of why Joan Rivers had to die because I don`t buy it.</s>RIVERS: Like I don`t notice! Your poor wife. Wait a second. Wait. OK. OK. OK. Riddle. Guess who this is? A 11-year-old boy at Neverland ranch! Oh, grow up! Each one of those little</s>GRACE: That video of Joan Rivers "Don`t Start With Me" from LOL Comedy TV and from IFC Films. For those of you just joining us, I know it`s hard to keep a smile off your face when you listen to Joan Rivers. But I want answers tonight. Amidst the mourning and the grief and the prayers being sent up for her daughter, Melissa, I want answers because I do not believe that someone as vibrant and energetic and healthy as Joan Rivers was up until the time she died -- she was doing stand-up the night before. No! This is not right! I want to go straight out to Dr. Bill Manion, medical examiner, forensic pathologist. We understand that propofol was used to perform the endoscopy. It`s a very routine procedure where a hose of some sort is put down your throat so doctors can look at your throat. And it can even go down on into your stomach so doctors can look around. An oximeter is used to look at oxygen saturations, to pick up issues with the airway. Oxygen saturation does not drop fast enough when you are breathing adequately. So Dr. Manion, I don`t understand why Joan Rivers, an icon and a personal friend, is dead!</s>DR. BILL MANION, MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST (via telephone): Well, I`ve had a few case where deaths followed routine procedures -- colonoscopies, gastroscopies similar to this. And I think they`d better look at the electrolytes, particularly potassium. Sometimes, the preoperative testing can reveal a low potassium, and unless that`s corrected as an operative procedure goes on, the potassium levels can vary and cause an arrythmia. I would imagine she`s had propofol before, so I don`t believe it was some unusual allergic reaction to propofol. But we`ll have to see what the autopsy shows...</s>GRACE: Well, I know they`re actually...</s>MANION: ... and I`m sure they`ll be looking very closely.</s>GRACE: ... investigating -- they`re investigating right now, Dr. Manion, the medical examiner investigating the cause of Joan Rivers`s death. And as much as I do not want her body to undergo autopsy, I want to know what happened. As we go to air tonight, we learn that the endoscopy clinic, the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic is now under formal investigation. For those of you joining us, the heart-breaking news tonight that Joan Rivers has passed away -- Joan Rivers.</s>RIVERS: Who invited Fran Drescher? It`s so cheesy, wheezy and stunning and -- and she`s so young. And I asked her why this slutty, crappy outfit. She said it`s based on a nursery rhyme. Catch a tiger by the camel toe, if it hollers, let it go. She wore this here specifically because she wanted to be noticed. This is as subtle as a tabasco enema. And people are screaming how you can`t wear dead animals -- and that I want to stand by, Charlie. I`m sorry. Yes, you have to wear dead animals because I tried and live ones bite. You must wear...</s>GRACE: That`s from E`s "Fashion Police." Mike Brooks, I want to know cause of death because not only is there the oximeter that I was just talking about to measure your oxygen -- here oxygen did not go -- she quit (ph) having oxygen. But there`s also the capnography (ph), which measures the carbon dioxide in your system. And of course, when you have too much carbon dioxide, you`re in trouble. And that`s why you have an anesthesiologist sitting there, looking at all of the machines and measuring your levels. I mean, to measure your oxygen, that`s when they put that little clamp on your finger. That`s all it is. I mean, how could this have gone horribly wrong?</s>MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, that`s why cause and manner of death is so important in this case. And that`s why investigators from the medical examiner`s office need to go back to that Yorkville clinic, Nancy, and interview everyone who was involved in all the pre-op procedures and the procedure itself to find out when she went into cardiac arrest.</s>GRACE: For those of you just joining us, Joan Rivers, icon to so many, a personal friend. I`m wearing this, that she gave me from her Joan Rivers collection. She would send me so many necklaces to wear on the air after we became friends. Just out of the blue, I would get boxes at home. And she would have a note written in them saying, you know, This is for you, I thought of you when I saw this. And every time I ever saw her, which was many, many times, she was always friendly, open. And this is a hard thing to find in this business, let me tell you -- sincere, genuine. Tonight, I know her daughter is just in shock. So please join me in prayers for her family. Joan Rivers dead at 81.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So is that part of your life that you enjoy doing, that kind of meeting and greeting the celebrities on the red carpet?</s>RIVERS: When they`re nice.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.</s>RIVERS: And we know what we`re saying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.</s>RIVERS: You get someone like Russell Crowe, and you want to say to the camera, He is a piece of -- get ready to bleep this --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry about that. We do apologize for that. Joan wasn`t aware that we were absolutely live, and we do apologize.