12-Year- Old Accused Of Killing Little Sister
BURNETT: Our second story, OUTFRONT, a kid, a child, charged with murder. Police have arrested a 12-year-old boy in the stabbing death of his little sister, 8-year-old Leila Fowler of Valley Springs, California. Police launched a massive manhunt for an intruder that the boy claimed killed his sister while they were home alone. He was babysitting two weeks ago and later proved to be a lie. Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT with the story.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So in my heart I thought it was him from the get go.</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This parent among those in the Central California town who had quietly suspected the unusually stoic brother of Leila Fowler had something to do with her killing. The 12-year-old, emotionless, appeared before his traumatized town in a candlelight vigil amid a massive manhunt that terrified the community. The boy told investigators he is 6 feet tall, muscular, long haired man had broken into his home while his parents were out and stabbed his 8-year-old sister to death. A story that authorities now say was fiction. The boy's biological mother shortly before his arrest told reporters he was protective of and loved his sister.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My son loved his sister so much. I know my son would never hurt his sister. They never even used to fight when they were little. He never pushed her around like big brothers and sisters do.</s>LAH: After the girth's death from multiple stab wounds, the town of 7,500 rallied around the family, covering the area with purple ribbons, Leila's favorite color. Now that the suspected child killer turns out to be a child himself, a sense of betrayal is beginning to take hold, says Jim Rebstock, who had to remove these flyers and cancel a fundraiser for the family.</s>JIM REBSTOCK, VALLEY SPRINGS RESIDENT: It was more shock than relief and sadness because it was actually the 12-year-old who had started all this stuff. And then people got angry with it, and then it just blew up.</s>LAH: Investigators would not discuss motive or evidence, but the middle school says the boy had been suspended for five days this school year after he brought a pocket knife to work. Penny Kilgore, whose daughter goes to school with the boy describes him as being distant, even glassy eyed at times. Very different from his bubbly 8- year-old sister.</s>PENNY KILGORE, DAUGHER KNEW VICTIM: I was devastated for the family and just for that little boy. My heart ached for him. Something inside him, he has to be so angry and mad to do something like that.</s>BURNETT: And Kyung, this is just an awful story to imagine. I know the family called a press conference for tomorrow. Do you have any sense about why they would call it now? what they're going to be saying?</s>LAH: We only know what we've been told. We know it's going to be a prepared statement, not just to the press but to the community as well. We know it's being coordinated through the sheriff's office. It's in fact going to be right here in this parking lot where I'm standing. We don't know who's going to be involved. It is going to be the biological mother, stepmother as well as the father? Independently though, Erin, we did hear from the stepmother through a social media website and she told us that the family simply needs time to process everything. You can certainly understand that. This is just horrific to imagine, what that family is going through.</s>BURNETT: Yes. Kyung Lah, thank you very much. OUTFRONT tonight, clinical psychologist Jeff Gardere. Jeff, good to have you with us again. This story is just impossible to imagine. You know, as you heard Kyung reporting about the boy's mother, he was so protective of her. He loved his sister. They didn't even fight like other kids would have done. Is that protectiveness a sign of something more sinister? I mean, how do you know?</s>JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: It's always possible. It could be some sort of an obsession. She could have been the only person that he was tied into as far as society. Perhaps his link to reality. We really don't know at this time. And, therefore, if something untoward happened between the two of them, he may have had a meltdown, couldn't control himself. But I think we need to look at a -</s>BURNETT: But this is a kid that brought knives to school.</s>GARDERE: That's what we need to look at. There is a prior history here. Brought a knife to school. If he did this, he stayed quiet. He lied about what happened as far as an intruder. And then we hear from this woman that you had in the package about he often seemed distant and glassy-eyed. And all those things, I'm thinking red flag, red flag, red flag. Perhaps a young boy melting down, emotional issues and perhaps not getting mental help, treatment. Mental health treatment which is what he needs.</s>BURNETT: If a 12-year-old child kills another human being, this is a question with all these horrible things that have been happening recently in this country we've all been covering. Trying to understand what makes people do these things. If you're 12 years old, does that mean you were born to do those things?</s>GARDERE: Well, what we know about people who may be psychopaths or sociopaths is that they may be born with a genetic predisposition. We call that the genotype. But the phenotype, actually acting it out, only comes after there have been traumas or all sorts of emotional issues that may have affected that individual, and then they went from fantasy, holding onto a lot of rage to acting out. You don't inherit it and act it out. You inherit it, but it takes several traumas to actually bring it out. That's what we'll be hearing about in the next couple of days, what happens to this child?</s>BURNETT: Thank you very much, Dr. Gardere.</s>GARDERE: My pleasure.</s>BURNETT: OUTFRONT next, the beating of a man caught on tape and why the men accused of doing it say they were absolutely justified. And the IRS. So, the IRS is accused of targeting conservative groups. You have Tea Party in your name or patriot, they're going to go look at you. President Obama weighed in today. He said what he'll do if those claims are true.