right now. good evening. tonight the lost girls of nigeria in a chilling video a terrorist leader says he has plans for more than 200 girls kidnapped from their school at gunpoint. he plans to sell them. what we know tonight about this terrorist group, and why parents are too scared to even release their pictures of their missing daughters. also tonight, a high flying circus act goes horribly wrong, sending performers to the hospital after crashing to the ground in front of crowds. what investigators know so far. we begin with breaking news. two major veterans groups calling for the head of the veteran affairs department to resign over allegations that v.a. hospitals are making our vets wait months to get care, are keeping secret waiting lists and that vets are dying while they wait for care. the details revealed in a series of reports on this program. late this afternoon the national commander of the american legion called for the resignation of eric shinseki. the secretary of the department

of veterans affairs. it's a rare move. it's been more than 30 years since the american legion has called for the resignation of any public official. another group, concerned veterans for americans says they fully sport the american legion's demand for accountability. the accountability in question is over allegations that at a v.a. hospital in phoenix, up to 40 veterans died waiting to see a doctor, according to several sources. adding insult to injury or in some cases adding insult to death, the hospital also allegedly kept a secret list of wait times. a list they tried to keep hidden from the public and v.a. headquarters in washington. our reporting on this story has garnered quite a bit of attention from president obama and says the white house takes the allegations seriously from congress where three members of arizona's delegation want the v.a. director in phoenix fired and now from investigator rans groups who want action. drew griffin has been keeping them honest from the beginning of this investigation. today he's in washington where he has been trying yet again to

get any kind of comment from shinseki. there are other new developments. word that the issue of the alleged secret waiting lists might be even bigger than we thought. drew joins me live outside v.a. headquarters. drew, what is the latest on this? >> anderson, a huge backlog of veterans waiting for care have simply been cleared from the books, as you will, in just the last year. and really the question today is, how? it begs the question of whether or not these records for patient care were simply purged from the system. the v.a. has reported that 1.5 million orders for patient care or services from vets, they call them consults, have disappeared. cleared as you will. today we asked a government watchdog at the government's own accountability office if anything at -- that the v.a. is telling us can be proven or proven to be true and the answer is no.

>> which is a little disconcerting that 1.5 million records were closed. we can't determine whether they did a review, a clinical review and appropriately closed out the consult. >> if you don't now how the wait times and consults were cleaned up does anybody at v.a. headquarters know? >> well, you have to, you know, they did not require these local facilities to keep records of how they closed out the consult. so it would be really, as i mentioned, you would have to go back to each patient record -- >> so the v.a. itself, i would assume, does not know. >> not -- no. >> amazing. they didn't require any local facility to keep records on how they got rid of the backlog locally. how can anyone, including the v.a., confidently say these veterans are getting their doctor's appointments or the medical care they need?

>> they can't. the only thing we know is the patients who have died are no longer on the list. that's the best they can tell us. deborah draper says the data collection and record keeping and most specifically, the oversight leer at the veterans affairs office here is so bad that nobody knows what happened to those patient records, whether or not they were cleared for good reasons, bad reasons or simply just purged from the books. so right now they have no clue. >> the american legion called for aaron shinseki to resign. he's cabinet secretary. have you heard from the white house at all? >> we did reach out. we got a statement back saying the president, the white house is waiting for the inspector general's report.

that we are also anticipating, at least in the phoenix case, but we wanted to ask some broader questions. the president did apparently say this. the president remains confident in secretary shinseki's ability to lead the department and to take appropriate action based on the i.g.'s findings. and as you know tonight, anderson, the american legion thinks the appropriate action right now is to get rid of the veterans affairs secretary. >> and drew, i take it by the fact that you are standing in front of the v.a. outside the building, not inside, that our continuing requests to try to interview the secretary has gone unanswered or avoided or blown off. >> yeah. we are asking every day as we continue to pursue the story. asking where is the secretary? we're not even sure where that is. no response other than to say aaron shinseki is doing a great job here at the v.a. according to the v.a. but no response at all on our interview request, anderson. >> and i should point out, there are folks on capitol hill who say that the v.a. is not rsponsive at all in terms of getting them information in a timely way. i talked to a congressman who said exactly that. they are trying to keep records of how long it takes and they

get blown off as well. we'll keep at it. appreciate it. now to a story causing outrage all over the world. maybe not enough outrage, quite frankly or maybe it didn't come quickly enough. but the lives of young girls hanging in the balance. girls who dared to do nothing more than to try to get an education. girls kidnapped from school on april 14th, taken at gunpoint, forced into trucks by an islamist terrorist group called boko haram. the video released by a man who says he's the leader of the group says the girls should get married instead of going to school. and he says what he plans to do with them. [ speaking foreign language ] >> the state department says the >> the state department says the video does appear to be

legitimate. for the parents of these girls, it's obviously the worst fears come true. parents already avoided talking to the media out of fear that their daughters could be singled out. vlad duthiers reports from nigeria tonight. >> reporter: hundreds of young girls fast asleep in their beds are awakened by the sound of gunfire. armed attackers have stormed their boarding school and set fire to dozens of buildings. nearly 300 of them are dragged from their dorm, loaded onto trucks, and carried away deep into the forest. amina is one of the lucky ones. she made a run for it and escaped. we thought they were soldiers, and they asked us to board a vehicle, she says, which was headed towards damboa, and my friends and i jumped from the vehicle and ran back home. authorities say this was another brazen attack by the jihadist terrorist group boko haram, whose name means "western education is forbidden." the group's aim, to establish islamic law. amnesty international says in just the first three months of

this year more than 1,500 people have died as a result of the insurgency in nigeria. 1,500. they've attached churches, mosques and markets. entire villages have been burned to the ground. residents killed in fire bomb attacks, shot or hacked to death. this time their targets were young girls. it's not the first time they kidnapped young girls. in november dozens were rescued during a raid by nigerian security services. some were pregnant. some had babies, and others were forced into marrying their kidnapers. and boko haram's campaign of terror is expanding. the same day the girls were kidnapped, the militants carried out an attack at a crowded bus station in nigeria's capital, killing 71 people and wounding more than 130. >> what i see all around me here in addition to the shards of glass and hunks of metal torn from the sides of these buses from the force of this blast are personal belongings and they're

mixed with human blood and tissue. attacks like this have become part of the reality of every day life here. the latest kidnapping has gripped the heart of the nation and exposed the inability of nigeria's government to protect its citizens. >> i'm a young mother. i can't imagine any mother going through this. it's disheartening. it's shocking. our government, it wouldn't make any official statement. all we keep hearing are lies. everybody is saying one thing or the other. they are not true. we need to hear the truth. >> reporter: close to three weeks later, nobody can say exactly how many girls are missing. authorities put the number at more than 220 but have said that could grow. officials have not released their names or photos, and the military has refused to share information about their search and rescue effort, which they say is ongoing. but fear for the girls' safety and anger at the government response is growing. protests and rallies have been staged in several cities. meanwhile in which i chibuk,

mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers wait helplessly, not knowing where these girls are and if they'll ever come home. >> vlad duthiers joins us now from nigeria as well as cnn national security analyst peter bergen. what more do we know about where the girls are? the u.s. state department are saying that many of them may have already been taken out of nigeria. >> anderson, we've been reporting the story from day one, and the parents that we've spoken to on the ground have always told us this was their biggest fear. not only were the girls taken away to the forest, bordering nigeria and cameroon, a boko haram stronghold, but as time went on that these girls might actually be ferried out of nigeria into neighboring cameroon or chad. in fact, residents on the ground have told us they've seen convoys filled with young girls and what they say are militants

on a road leading out of nigeria and into cameroon. so with the comments by the state department today and the despicable video by the supposed leader of boko haram, saying what he is planning to do with these girls is to sell them, it looks like their worst fears may have been realized, anderson. >> peter, this is interesting. it reminds me about what we saw in iraq with al qaeda linked to terror groups. when they got in control of territory they basically alienated people very rapidly. this is the kind of thing that turns people -- hopefully would turn people against a group like this. >> yeah, you would hope so. and certainly, you know, this group originated as a group called the nigerian taliban. and their aim is to impose taliban style rule on the population just as al qaeda did in iraq. that turned out to be a problem for al qaeda and iraq. the population rose up, and then in combination with the u.s. military, attacked al qaeda in iraq. but that isn't happening right now in nigeria. we did see something similar, anderson in mali in 2012 where

an al qaeda-linked group imposed the taliban style rule on the population and the french army greeted as an army of liberation. i don't see that happening in nigeria. i don't see the nigerian government really requesting any kind of serious assistance at this moment. >> vlad, we heard from reports saying they haven't heard anything from the government. the government hadn't come forward. i think now the president in nigeria has made a comment. has it really been all this time there was really no comment from the government there? >> we have reached out every day to the military, to the president's office for some kind of statement. there have been statements occasionally from time to time over the course of the last three weeks. but in fact, the military told us they would defer to the local state government. when we spoke to parents on the ground, they told us although the military was saying to the media and the press that they were launching an extensive search and rescue operation, the parents on the ground told us

they didn't see any sign of that. in fact, what they were doing, anderson, was risking their own lives with sticks and stones, machetes, trying themselves to go into the forest, risking their lives to bring their daughters out. because they say the military and police weren't doing that. and from what we can tell, there hasn't been any operational detail that's been released by the president's office or defense ministry, anderson. >> and vlad, this area where this has happened, this is not an area that reporters can freely go to. right? this is a -- is it true there is a state of emergency in this area, sort of tightly controlled? >> that's right. there are three states up in the northeast that have been put under a state of emergency since may of 2013. you need military escorts to go into the area. if you go with military escort, you're a target of opportunity. and that's with what they've been doing over the course of the last three or four years. attacking military convoys and military bases.

at its essence, anderson, this story -- people say we don't have the images, we can't see what is happening on the ground. this is about mothers and fathers who in one of the poorest regions of nigeria sent their children to school to get an education, woke up one morning and found out they were taken the middle of the night by armed attackers to god knows where. ultimately the pain and agony and suffering these people are going through, in addition to knowing their military is not able to protect them or rescue their daughters is something most people can't imagine. anderson. >> peter, in terms of options, i've been in jungles in cameroon. they're very dense. i've been in the forest there. you can disappear pretty easily there. it's very hard to travel through those regions. what are the options here? this group is not formally connected to al qaeda. what are the options that that the u.s. and nigeria has? >> one option is u.s. special forces have detachments in certain african countries. think about the army resistance in uganda where the u.s. is

playing a role in trying to hunt down the leader of that group. so far unsuccessfully. so you can imagine that the nigerian government may request additional help from u.s. forces which operate in these countries and can provide some help in trying to locate this. but i defer to vlad if that is politically feasible. >> vlad, what about that? is that feasible. i've seen the government now kind of blaming the parents, saying, well, the parents haven't given us all the information about their kids. >> yeah, that's sort of a head scratcher, anderson. the president yesterday saying that the rescue efforts were being hampered by the fact that the parents had not provided pictures or names of the children missing. parents that we have spoken to say they've been threatened by the militants if they release their names and pictures to the public, to the press, those children could be targeted. those children could be killed. we can certainly understand if there's one child that goes missing, gets kidnapped, you

need a description and name to track down the child. but you know, 200-plus, you know, up to 300 girls gone missing in the middle it have night. you're not going to necessarily need a picture to go and find a large group of girls in the forest. most people believe the military as well as the residents know exactly where the girls are. which is the forest, this dense forest area neighboring cameroon, anderson. >> it's an unbelievable story, vlad. peter bergen as well. quick reminder. make sure to set your dvr so you never miss 360. you can watch it whenever you like. up next, a new phase in the search for the missing malaysian airlines plane. why everything investigators thought they knew up to this point could be wrong. it's unbelievable that we realize how little is actually known for sure. later outrage after a texas judge sentences a man who admitted raping a 14-year-old girl to 45 days in jail and community service at a rape crisis center. should somebody accused of this be working at a rape crisis center?

you can decide for yourself coming up.

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welcome back. nearly two months into the investigation into what happened to missing malaysian airlines flight 370 and a frustrating chorus in the mystery repeats again. everything investigators thought they knew could be wrong. after eight weeks of searching thousands of miles in the air, millions of miles of ocean, it looks like they're back at square one. there's been no wreckage, no sighting from the air, no debris, nothing. now it's back to the drawing board. in a news conference, the man leading the search said we're at a stage where it's sensible to go back and look at all the data to make sure it's been analyzed correctly. on wednesday, australian, malaysian an chinese officials are going to meet to do just that and to talk about the next stage of the search, one that will be broader and more difficult, according to china's defense minister. not to mention the pings may not be from a plane's black box after all.

joining me live david soucie, author of "why planes crash." and former transportation department official, mary schiavo. currently represents accident victims and their families. when people hear, wait a minute, the pings may not be from the plane's black box. i think -- i mean, when i heard that today, it just seems so contradictory to everything that officials and investigators had been saying, that this is not from a natural source. this is, you know, similar to the pings you're getting from a black box. do you think the pings are from a plane's black box, and if not, what are they from? >> well, i don't know what they would be from if they're not from the box. but the problem was the frequency. it was the megahertz frequency. and the pinger is supposed to be at 37.5. and so people guessed that maybe -- and these were at 33.5. so people guessed it had to do with the degradation and the battery giving out. but there are studies and

including from lisbon completed after air france 447 that shows the variation is only 2 megahertz. you could have 36.5 to 38.5 around the 37.5 megahertz, but you wouldn't with be likely to come up with a 33.5. as the battery dies, the signal gets weaker but the megahertz may not change. so that was what people don't know the answer to. and they really could set about finding that out. this accident could lead to answering that question. >> but, if it's not a natural source, like whales or something, and it's not from a black box, what would be making a pinging sound in the ocean. >> well, they've postulated everything from equipment on the boat. somebody said wristwatches. somebody said marine life. it's not marine life. this frequency was picked exactly not to be marine life. other vessels in the area. other signals. they've postulated a lot of things. it makes the most sense that it

is the pinger but what they need to do is test it out. there's no chance of hearing the ping from the airline now. so put some pingers underwater there and see what happens in 30 days. they're saying this is a yearlong search. test it out. find out if it goes to 33.5. >> dave, you say you think the pings that searchers that were detected were from that plane. why are you so sure? especially given that the frequency wasn't what it should be? today the researchers and sonic experts came to me and said we don't believe it is pings. i was in shock. at that point you're thinking, why didn't you say something before? we've been searching in the wrong area this entire time. so i reviewed my data again with other specialists and found out there were two accidents actually in which the pingers did put off different frequencies.

one was a helicopter that crashed. what they found was that the fracture -- the fracture around the top of the crystal inside the unit itself had cracked. so when that breaks across the unit, it changes the frequency. it changed this one to 100 megahertz. instead of 37.5. another case it went to 40. i haven't found one that went lower. but, yet, i do think there is one and i would like to do some experimenting and come back and as mary said. we need some tests and find out exactly if this can be replicated. and i think it can. >> dave, do you trust the data that's been used to kind of establish the search areas as of now? >> you know, i hadn't. i was a little bit skeptical about the data. i believe in the technology, but how it was applied and the assumptions made didn't make a lot of sense to me until the preliminary report came out and talked about a 40-degree azimuth, which is the degree of the an from the satellite to where the airplane was transmitting. now that we have that information, it makes a great deal of sense to me that it's -- not easy but it's mathematically capable of figuring out that arc.

and now that makes all the sense in the world to me. now you track that back to where it was seen last, it all fell together for me. i really believe it now. i'm confident the aircraft is right there where the pings are. they just have to keep looking. >> all right. david soucie, i appreciate it. mary schiavo as well. as always, you can find out more on this story on cnn.com. up next, the texas judge who went easy on an admitted rapist after factoring the victim's reported sexual history. was this judge blaming the victim? the law says she can't do that. but she did. also ahead, one year ago they stunned the world. three cleveland women who were missing for more than a decade breaking free from their captor. tonight one of them is speaking about the moment that changed her life forever. >> i really didn't think nothing of it until, you know, we got into the house fully. that's when it dawned on me that this was a mistake to get in his car.

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in crime and punishment tonight, a texas judge is under fire after issuing a sentence that sparked outrage and disbelief. in texas, a sexual history of a rape victim or survivor cannot be used as evidence. despite the law, the judge admitted in a newspaper interview that the victim's alleged sexual history was a factor in her decision. she told the paper, the girl who was 14 years old at the time wasn't the victim she claimed to be. despite the fact that the rapist admitted that he was guilty. wait until you learn how much time he got and where he was ordered to do community service. here's randi kaye. >> in a handwritten confession, then 18-year-old admitted to raping a 14-year-old girl.

the two were students at booker t. washington high school in texas. the confession reads in part, i took her pants off and mine as well. she kept saying no and stop, but i didn't stop. the girl came forward telling authorities young raped her. young, an admitted rapist, could have been sentenced to 20 years in prison. instead just recently state district judge janine howard ordered him to serve just 45 days in jail, five years probation, along with 250 hours of community service. and where is young set to serve that community service? out of all places, a rape crisis center. young will have to register as a sex offender. but the judge ruled he will not be held to the typical probation restrictions sex offenders face. no sex offender treatment, no staying away from children, and no refraining from watching pornography. young's attorney also agrees with the sentence.

>> we don't think that he qualifies as your typical sex offender. this is not somebody who has preyed on some young kids or unsuspecting people. >> exactly why the judge chose the sentence is what's enraged so many. in an interview with the dallas morning news, judge howard, citing the girl's medical records, said the victim had three sexual partners and had given birth to a baby. under the texas rape shield law, a victim's sexual history isn't even admissible in court. still the judge concluded she wasn't the victim she claimed to be. the victim, now 17, says she's disgusted by the judge's actions. >> i was shocked that a judge, someone that i trusted with this case would go behind my back and make these allegations that she knows nothing about. >> reporter: the girl's mother says she's livid over the judge's comments, and there was

no baby. facing heavy backlash, judge howard has now recused herself from the case while prosecutors fight the terms of young's probation. still the judge told the dallas morning news she stands by her decision. randi kaye, cnn, new york. i'm joined now by the director of the dallas rape crisis center where this person was told to do some work and cnn legal analyst sunny hostin. bobby, you told the court that you did not want this young man, this convicted rapist doing community service at the crisis center. does the judge understand what your crisis center does? >> i don't believe she understands what we do. if she would have called us prior to issuing the conditions of probation, we would have told her and explained what we do at the center and how that's not possible. >> tell people what you do and why it's so inappropriate to have a convicted rapist at your center. >> well, we run a crisis hot

line 24 hours a day, seven days a week for women and men who are in crisis. so we are providing direct victim services. we also operate a hospital advocacy component where we go and accompany survivors of sexual assault through their forensic exam. we provide advocacy to the police departments, to the court and throughout the criminal justice program. we offer counseling at our center all the time. if our doors are open we are providing survivor-centered services. >> so the idea of having a convicted rapist hanging around your offices, doing whatever

clerical work just seems to have insane to have survivors of rape coming there and seeing this person. >> absolutely. and i believe judge howard also said she thought they would cook or do yard work. she doesn't know what our center offers, and i wish she would have contacted our center so we could have told her what we do. i'm embarrassed a member of the judiciary doesn't know what the only rape crisis center in dallas county does so she didn't even know what she was talking about. >> sunny, do you think it's an appropriate sentence? i actually do think it's appropriate sentence. i spent most of the day looking, of course, at the conditions of probation. let's be clear, i'm coming at this as the perspective of someone who spent a large amount of time during my career prosecuting child sex crimes. i know how these things work. five years of probation, 45 days in jail, yes, that doesn't seem to be enough, but he does also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. that is an onerous thing. it's extremely difficult to comply with. and on the anniversary of the rape -- >> but he doesn't have to -- >> just a minute, anderson. >> but he doesn't have to take any classes or anything like that. >> well, we don't know that yet.

my understanding is while she asked that he not do some things, like, undergo an offender evaluation and refrain from watching porn there are still some things that he has to do. the other thing that we need to mention this is someone that accepted responsibility on the day of the rape. then pled guilty, accepted responsibility immediately, and also in terms of the community service, and i understand her feeling, but when you look at mothers against drunk drivers and dui defendants that spend a lot of time with people affected by their crimes, affected by drunk drivers, we know the stats are those types of programs are extremely, extremely effective. while this program may not be appropriate, having a rapist, an admitted rapist perhaps going and meeting with survivors who are agreeable to meeting with him or speaking at high schools and saying that they want --

>> i got it. >> and explaining -- >> let me just jump in here. there's a big difference between, you know, somebody being confronted by a survivor of rape who has come through the other side and wants to give that person and somebody who has just been raped coming to a -- coming to your rape crisis center in the midst of their trauma and running to a convicted rapist there. >> well, it's against our policies, first of all. we are not now, or in the future changing our focus. our focus is on the survivor, is on the victim. that's what we're here for. we are not here to rehabilitate a defendant. we are here to provide survivor-centered services. i think if the judge knew that, she may not have given him those conditions of his probation. and we keep turning the lens on the defendant and saying it wasn't fair to him.

i think there is a place that's appropriate for him. and by the judge lifting all the sex offender conditions, we're not giving him a chance to be rehabilitated. those are tried and true methods of rehabilitation, and by lifting the conditions of probation, she's not honoring the system. >> we don't know she lifted them. >> we can question whether they are affected -- she did lift them all. she lifted every single one, and then she recused herself, and now the district attorney's office is petitioning the new judge to put him back on those terms and conditions of probation. >> that's not my understanding. >> we're going to continue to follow this. i appreciate you both being on. we'll see what the new judge does. we asked the judge to come on the program. we did not hear back. obviously our invitation stands. we would love to talk with her. bobby thank you so much for what you do and sunny as well. just ahead, cleveland

kidnapping survivor michelle knight is going public with her story. i sat down with her several days ago. her strength is extraordinary. she describes what the men who kidnapped her, raped her, beat her for more than ten years. she describes how she survived that, how she managed to hang on so i can stay on top of my to-do list, which has been absolutely absurd since the big game. with skype, it's just really easy to stay in touch with the kids i work with. alright, russell you are good to go! alright, fellas. alright, russ. back to work!

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comcast business built for business. tomorrow will mark one year since three cleveland women who had been missing for more than a decade escaped from a house on the city's west side. michelle knight -- were alive despite all they had been through. their kidnaper raped and tortured them repeatedly. he was indicted on 977 counts under a plea deal he was sentenced to life plus 1,000 years. a month later he was found hanged in his cell, his death ruled a suicide. today amanda berry and gina dejesus released statements thanking everyone who has supported them over the past year. michelle knight has written a book "finding me" is out this week. she sat down with me.

why did you want to write a book? why did you want to have your story out there? >> to help other women, children, men, know that they can survive any type of problem in their life. >> that's your message? that you can survive anything? >> yeah. >> that's the feeling i got just reading your book. i don't know how you survived. >> tremendous strength. >> did you always know that you could survive? obviously there were moments you thought you weren't going to. >> there were moments. but, overall, i always thought i could make it through because i made it through so much in my life. so much pain, so much tortured. i was already prepared for it. >> prepared for it, she said, because growing up in cleveland all michelle knight knew was pain. starting at a young age, she said she suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse. at 17 years old she found

herself pregnant. >> you write in the book that giving birth was the greatest experience, the happiest moment in your life. >> yeah, it was the happiest moment of my life because i had somebody that finally loved me back as much as i loved that baby. >> when her son joey was two years old, her mother's boyfriend abused him and the state took joey away from 21-year-old michelle. she hoped to get her son back. on a sunny day in 2002, michelle had an appointment with social services to do just that. ch her ride backed out and she started to walk and ask people for directions. >> and then the dude walks in. he overheard me and the lady talking. so he's like i know where the place is at. >> you call him "the dude." why "the dude"? >> because he don't deserve a name. >> that dude was ariel castro, the father of one of michelle's friends. he offered her a ride, but first said he had to pick something up at his home on seymore avenue.

and then what did he tell you to get you inside the house? >> in the car he said he had puppies. so when we got like a quarter down the road, he's like, that's my van right there. and it says puppies for free. so we get in the backyard. and i really didn't think nothing of it until, you know, we got into the house fully. that's when it dawned on me that this was a mistake to get in his car. >> you knew by then that this is wrong. >> yeah. and then i end up being trapped in a small room, small pink room. that's where he proceeded to tie me up like a fish and put me on the wall. >> you said tie you up like a fish. what do you mean? >> my legs and hands were bound

like this. and i was that far from the floor. >> gagged, bound, and hanging from a pole, he left her in that dark room for at least a day. >> i was numb, cold, and i felt needles poking me all over the place. >> that's what it felt like? >> it felt like a thousand knives. >> did he give you food? >> no. >> what about going to the bathroom or -- >> no. if i did, it was not in a bathroom. >> did you think you were going to die, or did you think you might be able to get out? >> thinking i was going to die is more likely along the lines of what i was thinking. i didn't think i was going to get out alive. >> when he finally did come back and take her down off the pole, she says it was only to rape her repeatedly. >> did you ever think about screaming or yelling?

>> i screamed, but nobody would hear it. there was a day i screamed until i had no voice. still nobody heard it. and when he hears you scream, he just shoves a sock or a cloth down your throat. until you choke on it. >> did you think this would at some point end? that it wouldn't with go on? that he would let you go? did he promise to let you go? >> no. he told me he would never let me go. >> he said that from the beginning? >> yes. he said you don't have a family that cares about you. if i kill you right now, nobody would even care. >> for the first several months she was kept in what she called the dungeon. the basement on seymore avenue.

sitting on the ground, she was chained to a pole, gagged with a sock and a motorcycle helmet placed over her head. all the while the abuse continued. >> i talked to other people who have been taken. they all say that very quickly you start to kind of adapt to the new reality, that you start to -- you know, people who haven't been through this situation think i'd try to escape, i would do this. i would do that. in reality very quickly your mind starts to adapt to your new environment. >> yeah. >> can you explain that? >> what happens is hard at first. you don't really want to adapt to it. you don't want to comply. you don't want to do anything at first. but then you find yourself saying, why not? i'm here. just let him get it over with. >> it feels like you have no power over it. >> yeah, that you're powerless. >> what would you think about each day, i mean just to get through? >> i would basically think about my son.

and how i would like to see his loving smile again. >> eventually he moved her upstairs where she was kept naked and often chained to a wall in a boarded-up bedroom. she only had a foot and a half of chain, just enough for her to stand up and use a bucket for a toilet. her only connection with the outside world, an old radio. sometimes a small tv. it was nearly eight months into her hell when she saw on the tv that a girl named amanda berry had gone missing. >> if anybody knows anything about my daughter, i wish somebody would come forward. >> and when you heard that, what did you think? >> the first thought in any head is he did it. >> you knew right away? >> yeah. >> and he did take amanda berry, of course, and also a year later gina dejesus. we'll have that part of the story tomorrow night on 360.

we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ gigantic, gigantic, gigantic ♪ a big, big love ♪ gigantic, gigantic, gigantic ♪ a big, big love ♪ ♪

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new details about the shocking circus accident in rhode island. a ringling brothers performance that nearly turned tragic. some of you may find these images disturbing. gary tuchman reports. >> reporter: when the curtain dropped, revealed eight members of the hair hang act.

this was not supposed to happen. audience members of the ringling brothers barnum and bailey circus were horrified as eight women fell about 30 feet to the ground right before their eyes. >> as first i thought it was the act. we see them doing acrobat with their hair. and all the sudden it was like eight girls, and all the sudden it was just, boom, it just falls. >> reporter: a performer on the ground and two other people were hurt. parents tried to shield their children's eyes. >> at one point there was just complete silence. you could physically hear the girls down there just crying and screaming. and that's when it finally hit me. >> reporter: the injured were put on stretchers at the scene and taken immediately to rhode island hospital. many suffered broken bones. >> they weren't saying too much. basically just crying and kind of like shock. they probably didn't know what

happened to them either. >> reporter: rhode island officials are blaming the accident on a clamp, something called a d-ring that apparently broke. it was attached to a cable, and when it gave way, the whole apparatus came apart. on the circus' website the act is billed as one of a kind. it's the brain child of a husband and wife team, andres and tori medeiros. the website goes on the say that andre paid attention to every detail even welding the three rigs that the girls hang from to keep his troop safe. >> all of them received medical attention in providence, rhode island, promptly after the incident and have been resting comfortably. >> an aerialist who does the trick says there's a reason it's death defying. >> the hair act, the concept is one of your strands of hair will break very easily but when you combine them all together it's a very strong rope and it's spread out over your head so it can withstand the weight. obviously, it wasn't anything to do with that part of the act, the entire rigging came down. >> as for the audience, a

nightmare in front of their eyes. so too for the first responders. >> we're looking down at a bunch of girls. one is the same age as my daughter who is a dancer. and this -- i'm thinking this could be her. when one of the girls looked up at me and very calmly but sadly said, i can't feel my legs. >> reporter: no idea yet how long the official investigation will take. gary tuchman, cnn, atlanta. >> certainly wish them well. we'll be right back. ♪

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