Body of Missing Actor Found
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST (voice-over): Tonight, infuriating new developments in the horrifying rape and murder of Shaniya Davis. Cops say this little girl was sold into prostitution by her mother, all to settle a drug debt. Tonight, the ultimate shocker. This woman has been freed from jail. And she`s pregnant again. Her 5-year-old daughter is dead. She`s accused of selling her into hell. Why on earth was she released from jail? And terror at Seaworld. A trainer killed by a killer whale, all in front of a live audience. What provoked this attack? Critics say these powerful animals are kept in the human equivalent of a bathtub. Could this tragic death have been avoided? Should all these whales now be set free? We`ll debate it. Plus, the mystery escalates. Where are the McStays? It`s now been three weeks since anyone laid eyes on this missing California family. Tonight, a stunning new clue. Reports claim the missing mom changed her name just days before she vanished, and cops say she could have as many as six aliases. Could this be connected to their disappearance? ISSUES starts now.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: First, we have some fast-breaking and very tragic news just coming into ISSUES. Police are investigating the discovery of a body found in Vancouver. It is believed to be that of former "Growing Pains" star Andrew Koenig. The actor vanished on February 14. Family members said he was suffering from depression, and they had feared for his safety. A police news conference is planned for less than an hour from now, 8 p.m. tonight. Andrew`s parents are reportedly going to be there. The body was reportedly found at Stanley Park, a park in Vancouver, that Andrew loved, and a spot he frequently visited. His parents and sister have been totally frantic, begging for the actor to return home. Listen to this.</s>JUDY LEVITT KOENIG, ANDREW`S MOTHER: With somebody who is depressed and not on medication, as parents, we always look for -- there`s things that -- a pattern that you look for. And we`re always concerned. As it is, the experiences that he -- things that he`d been going through that -- that didn`t form a whole picture, because people who had observed certain things did not know us. There was a certain pattern of, you know, closing out things, giving away things. That -- there is not the network that could have put all this together.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Early this week, cops had held out hope. They had gotten several reported sightings of the star and announced they were still looking for a living human being. Andrew`s friends hoped desperately that he just wanted a fresh start. He had cleaned out his apartment in Venice, California. He had talked about moving back to Vancouver, a place he called his place of solace. Just yesterday, search and rescue teams scoured this very same park and found no signs of Andrew. He was a very good friend of mine. I worked with him in the past on this program you see this right here, VegTV. He was a wonderful, caring, sensitive soul. And if this body is that of Andrew, as it appears, and I don`t believe law enforcement would announce that in a press release if they didn`t know for a fact that that was true, but we`ll hear in less than an hour, what a tragic loss. What a tragic, tragic loss. Joining me now, Marie Oser, a friend of mine, who worked with Andrew and me, and she is the host of VegTV. Marie, I find this almost surreal and incomprehensible, that vibrant young man that you and I worked with, who was such a great editor and photographer and sometimes appeared on camera, and was so caring and such a wonderful environmentalist and activist, dead. It -- I have no words, Marie.</s>MARIE OSER, VEGTV (via phone): I free. Incomprehensible. I am -- I am just so shocked and saddened. I hope that -- I hope it`s not him. I really do. And, you know, Andrew, yes, caring and compassionate. He was a wonderful human being. And, yes, a great editor and a photographer. And so kind to me. You know, Jane, in the early years of VegTV, I was an on- camera rookie, you know, and he never told me how badly I sucked. He was very kind to me, and he was good in the edit bay. He made me look good. So I`m really shocked and devastated, and I hope -- I hope that it`s not so.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, again, I`m reading from a press release issued by the Vancouver police. Vancouver police investigating the discovery of a body found in Stanley Park around noon today. The body is believed to be that of Andrew Koenig. So I really don`t think that cops would say that unless they -- and obviously, he hasn`t been missing that long that it would be impossible to identify. So it looks really, really grim. Stay there, Marie. I want to get back to you. But Dr. Dale Archer, clinical psychiatrist. His parents said that he suffered from depression all his life and that he had gone off his meds something like a year ago. That is always very dangerous.</s>DALE ARCHER, CLINICAL PSYCHIATRIST: Yes, it`s very dangerous. And clinical depression is caused by a chemical imbalance of the brain. We know now that in many cases it`s a lifetime illness. And what often happens is a person will take the meds. They`ll start feeling better. They`ll feel like they`re well, and then they`ll stop the meds. But it can take months for the relapse to occur. Our thinking now is that, if you relapse one time from a severe major depressive episode and have to go back on meds again, you probably need to be on meds for life. And so I think that when we hear the story here that he wanted to make a new start, and he was cleaning things out, and preparing to move, on the one hand, it could have been a new start. Unfortunately, on the other hand, it could have been that he was actually preparing for something worse.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, his life story is so fascinating, because I worked with him for more than two years. And Marie, I think you can back me up on this. He never told us his father was Walter Koenig, who played Chekov on the original "Star Trek."</s>OSER: Never.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Never. And apparently when people did reveal this, people who knew it, he got upset with them, and said, "Don`t -- don`t say that." And a friend of his actually -- there you have -- there`s our dear friend, Andrew, talking about saving living Christmas trees. Listen to this.</s>ANDREW KOENIG, ACTOR: Grow and continue to be live trees.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: OK. That was just a taste of Andrew, so you could get to see what he looked and sounded like. He never told us that he was a son of this famous actor. He wanted to keep that a secret, apparently, and got upset with people when they mentioned it. And he also didn`t tell me for two long years that he was a star on "Growing Pains." And I know we have some video of "Growing Pains," where he played Boner. He apparently was not too happy about that experience. And we all know, Dr. Dale Archer, that child stars, when they grow up, often have a very traumatic time of it. They get this adulation at a very young age, and then Hollywood kind of discards them. And even though he was a very, very talented editor and photographer, and we worked with him, Marie and I did, he obviously wanted to be an actor. And it`s hard to go from being on "Growing Pains" and stuck with the name Boner to perhaps serious roles in film, and that had to be very depressing for him.</s>ARCHER: Well, I think that you have a combination. What you have is the fact that he was a child star and had that adulation, but from what it sounds like, with his level of depression and how long it was going on, I think that this was a separate episode, and this was biologic in nature. But the hallmark of depression, of course, is low self esteem. And oftentimes, these people feel like they`re a fraud. They feel like they`re really never good enough. And even when they make great accomplishments, they don`t believe that it was really them, that it was somehow luck. So this would explain, in many cases, why he would not want to talk about the things he had done, why he wouldn`t want to talk about who his father was. I mean, it just all really dovetails together. And I think at the ends of the day, it`s just a message, a wake-up call for America, that depression can be fatal. You have to -- have to understand that this is a serious and often life-long illness.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: And, again, up until we got this announcement just before air time, we were all hoping and praying that Andrew was alive. In fact, yesterday, his father, Walter, Koenig, who played Chekov on "Star Trek" issued a tearful plea and desperate to Andrew, "Hey, you don`t have to come home if you don`t want to." Listen to what he said.</s>WALTER KOENIG, ANDREW`S FATHER: We just want to know that you`re OK. And if that means want to stay here, you to -- you know, change your life and stay here, and -- fine.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Kim Serafin, you have been tracking this story. This is such a tragedy. I don`t know if I mentioned to you that I`m a personal friend of Andrew`s. One of the most compassionate, caring, kind, ethical human beings I have ever met. One of the most clean-cut. Never saw him pick up a drop of alcohol. Forget about drugs. Wouldn`t ever touch that. Was very careful about what he ate. And yet now we`re hearing that he may have done something to himself, because Vancouver police say that they discovered the body they believe to be him, and the obvious -- the obvious thing that you`re looking at here is suicide.</s>KIM SERAFIN, REPORTER (via phone): Yes. I mean, it`s really terrible. And, of course, you cover a lot of people in Hollywood, as do I. And Hollywood is a tough town. Because your career can be up one day and down the next, and you cannot work for five years and then work again. You could maybe not work ever again. It`s a really tough town. And as you mentioned, a lot of actors turn to drugs, turn to alcohol. We hear this numerous times. So to hear you say this about him, that he was so clean-cut, even though he did suffer from depression, obviously, maybe people wouldn`t have expected this from him. But it is a tough town.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I have to say, it`s very sad for me to say that the police have just confirmed that it is him. So Andrew Koenig is -- is dead. Forty-one years old. A wonderful guy. A caring guy. Marie...</s>OSER: Yes.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go back to you. You know, the world is really tough on people who are sensitive. This guy was sensitive. He cared about everything, even -- even Christmas trees. He didn`t want us to kill them. He said, just plant a living one so you don`t have to kill a tree. He cared about animals. He didn`t eat them. And he cared about the environment, was very careful. Just drank water. I never saw him drink anything but water. This guy was so pure. And yet it appears he took his own life. This just kills me, Marie.</s>OSER: It`s heartbreaking, Jane. It`s just heartbreaking. And I think about -- I think about Andrew. I remember him as being, you know, introspective, quiet. You know, there`s a fine line, maybe, between -- between when you try and recognize this in a person. It`s a tough business. It`s hard on all of us. We all get beat up a lot, you know? And if you`re sensitive, and you absorb -- I remember -- or I think of Andrew -- I should say, I think of Andrew as someone who actually took the injustices of the world to heart. He actually absorbed it. And, you know, many of us who fight animal, you know -- who fight for the rights of animals, who care compassionately about -- about what goes on in the world, what happens to people and animals and -- we try not to absorb it. And sometimes it just becomes too much. And I am so, so sad. I`m heartbroken. I really am.</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. He -- it`s like he didn`t have a denial mechanism. It wasn`t so much that he ever seemed sad for himself. He seemed sad for what was happening around him in the world: the destruction of the environment, the cruelty to animals. These were his passions, and this is what hurt him. And that`s why I say he was such a pure soul, because he didn`t really care for himself. He never took anything for himself. He lived simply. And yet I think that the cruelty of the world just overwhelmed him. I know that they say that depression is a chemical imbalance, but I really feel that philosophically he was tortured, because he really felt the world`s pain. Stand by. We have more on this breaking story. Once again, the body of "Growing Pains" star Andrew Koenig has been found in Vancouver. He was a child star who struggled in Hollywood, and it appears he has taken his own life. More in a moment.