Girl Never Reported Missing for Two Years
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: It got the public`s attention right from the start. A teenage girl missing for nearly two years but only now reported as missing. And not a lot of folks seem to know 15-year-old Erica Parsons. Adopted by Sandy and Casey Parsons when she was a baby. The girl was home- schooled and gone by the age of 13.</s>CASEY PARSONS, MISSING GIRL`S MOM: We had done nothing to this kid, our Erica. Nothing. And even though she -- read in the paper, we had nothing.</s>GRACE: The little girl was wearing a 3T in the first grade. For all of you moms out there, you know, a 3T is designed for a 3-year-old. My children didn`t wear a 3T since they were 2. This child in the first grade was still wearing a 3T. She couldn`t have weighed over 20 pounds, wearing a 3T, 21, 22, maybe, in the first grade. That should have set off red bells of alarm to everyone involved. But now this child has been missing. Missing. The most disturbing part is she`s been missing for two years and was never reported gone. Let`s take a look at what mommy and daddy said on Dr. Phil. In addition to flunking a polygraph test. Now the adoptive dad flunk the polygraph test with a negative 9, and then suddenly mom seeks out. She says she`s too ill to take her poly. Listen.</s>DR. PHIL MCGRAW, "DR. PHIL SHOW": Are you not worried about Erica?</s>C. PARSONS: I do not understand why Nan, like she cared enough about our whole family, just -- she doesn`t get on the phone and call and let us know where they`re at. So this stuff would stop and that makes me wonder about Nan. Why? Why would she let us go through all this stuff?</s>MCGRAW: Are you worried about her now? Are you worried that this Nan, this Strawberry, this Kelly, any of them know where she is and they`re not telling you?</s>SANDY PARSONS, MISSING GIRL`S DAD: I`m just worried that she won`t call. I`m worried that they`re scared or they`re going to get in trouble.</s>GRACE: That tear didn`t quite come out. That`s from Dr. Phil. And I guarantee, if you find Nan, I will take this handwritten note that I made and I will eat them on the air. If you really find Nan. First of all, out to Amy in Texas. Hi, Amy, what`s your question?</s>AMY, CALLER FROM TEXAS: Hi. How are you doing?</s>GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?</s>AMY: I just have -- right now, I`m just -- I don`t even know how to explain it. How do a mother and father not know that their child is missing for two years and they don`t care about it?</s>GRACE: Out to the lawyers. Unleash the lawyers. Mickey Sherman and Randy Kessler. How does that work, guys? What about it? To you, Kessler. You`ve got a beautiful family. How does your daughter goes missing for two years and you don`t -- you can`t quite put your finger on Nan?</s>RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s unexplainable. And you know what, there are a lot of bad facts and there`s a lot of bad circumstantial evidence, but that`s not evidence of murder, that`s not evidence of kidnapping, it`s not evidence of selling your child. Yes, they`ve done some bad stuff but they have not been prosecuted. Why haven`t --</s>GRACE: Put him up, please. Maybe because up until now they had no idea what was going on, Mickey Sherman. How about that? MICKEY SHERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, AUTHOR OF "HOW CAN YOU DEFEND THOSE PEOPLE?": Right now the police know what`s going on and there has been no arrest warrant, to our knowledge. You know, the only thing that`s convicted them is the public perception that was created by their appearance on Dr. Phil. That`s total pollution --</s>GRACE: Whoa. Let me dissect that.</s>SHERMAN: Yes.</s>GRACE: The public perception.</s>SHERMAN: Yes.</s>GRACE: That was created by their appearance on Dr. Phil. Somehow that seems like you`re blaming the Dr. Phil people. All he did was ask them questions and all the father did was lie. All right. I mean, he failed his polygraph.</s>SHERMAN: He did more than ask questions. He set them up. And I`m not blaming him. That`s what --</s>GRACE: Set them up?</s>SHERMAN: He set them up --</s>GRACE: Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean, he set them up?</s>SHERMAN: He looks like a promotion for a bad lifetime movie. The dark shadows and everything like that.</s>GRACE: No. No. I want to hear this. I want to hear why you`re saying Phil set them up. Because I think it was just honest questions, like, where`s Nan, where`s Strawberry and all these other people they alluded to? They can`t find any of them.</s>SHERMAN: I will --</s>GRACE: Why shouldn`t he ask them?</s>SHERMAN: I will bet you that when the booker or the -- the producer called these people or their lawyer and their lawyer, they said we`re going to do a balanced piece. And you`re going to get your side out there. But it doesn`t work that way. Dr. Phil is there to entertain the people. And he does a good job of it. I`ve been on the show. It`s a lot of fun. But you`re not going to be there for your trial.</s>GRACE: Let me tell you something, Mik, I`ve been on his show, too.</s>SHERMAN: Yes.</s>GRACE: And I didn`t feel blindsided at all. I feel like he asked me fair questions and I gave the best answers I could. I bet you didn`t feel like you had gotten the once-over, did you?</s>SHERMAN: No. Not at all.</s>GRACE: Because you weren`t lying. You weren`t lying, were you?</s>SHERMAN: No. No, but I also -- I wasn`t in a position where I was a suspect in a murder case.</s>GRACE: Kessler, what are you smiling about?</s>KESSLER: Because you guys are -- you know, there is no conviction. I think Mickey is exactly right. If there is so much evidence --</s>GRACE: Why don`t you just blurt out -- you know, it`s like frog that goes ribbit, ribbit, ribbit. It always says the same thing. You always say there is no conviction. I know there is no conviction because there hasn`t been an arrest yet.</s>KESSLER: There`s no arrest. Right. And why has there not been an arrest?</s>GRACE: Because the police are just now finding out the girl has been gone for two years. Because the parents didn`t report it.</s>KESSLER: This aired --</s>GRACE: And somehow Sherman is trying to blame Dr. Phil, of all people. Who are you going to blame next? His wife?</s>KESSLER: Dr. Phil wasn`t -- it`s been days.</s>GRACE: Because she walked out with him? All right, Bethany Marshall -- you know what, hold on, Bethany. Let me have Bethany and Marc Klaas. First to you, Klaas.</s>MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, KLAASKIDS FOUNDATION: Well, sure. I mean, Nan Gran, is as much a figment of the imagination as was Zany the nanny. And that`s what caught these people up. They can`t produce this woman because she doesn`t exist. Therefore their story completely and totally falls apart.</s>GRACE: Bethany, I know where my children are. At least I think I do. I think I know where they are right now. It`s amazing to me that two years pass, and even if you accept their story, that`s still child neglect. For your child to be gone two years and you never even check on them, never see them?</s>BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST, AUTHOR OF "DEALBREAKERS": But Nancy, you had babies because you love them and wanted them. The Parsons have babies because babies are marks. They use babies to make money. This is a baby mill. She agreed to be a surrogate so that she could con the money off Stephanie, your guest on the show tonight, and then she tried to con another -- a couple. She had Erica because she wanted to con the state. This little girl was probably underweight because she didn`t want to feed her. She probably didn`t even want to buy a gallon of milk at the grocery store because every -- all the money she spent at the grocery store was money that they wouldn`t have in the family coffers. They abused children financially and that is the offending pattern, and they told themselves their own lies for so long, they felt the public would believe them. And they believed them, too.