condemned to repeat it. signs long gone, part of the dust of history. but its lesson should not be forgotten. i'm soledad o'brien reporting from what was once jonestown in guyana, south america. her parents called her their angel. elizabeth smart was just 14 when she vanished. snatched in the dead of the night. >> you're in your home, you're safe and everything and somebody comes in and takes your child. our world has changed.

>> the story struck fear in the hearts of parents everywhere. who would take elizabeth? where had they taken her and why? salt lake city eight years ago was still basking in the glory of the winter olympics when elizabeth smart was kidnapped from her very own bed in a well-to-do neighborhood here. there were few clues. she had no enemies. her family was shattered. june 5th, 2002, an emotional plea from a father in distress. >> elizabeth is the sweetest girl. she's an angel. >> are you having fun, elizabeth? >> yeah. >> elizabeth smart, an innocent 14-year-old was taken at knifepoint from her family's home in the middle of the night. the only witness, her 9-year-old

sister, mary katherine. scared, she waited two hours before running to tell her parents. a slice through the kitchen window screen confirmed their worst fear. elizabeth was gone. elizabeth's father, ed, called 911. and then close family. >> this is a family who really was called into action to do everything we could. we knew that time was of the essence. >> ed's brother, tom, a local news photographer, helped feed the story to media. >> a family waits in agony for any sign of their 14-year-old taurt. >> we really tried to get ed and lois out in front of the camera to personalize this to the nation. >> we'll be eternally indebted to you for the help you've given us. >> so that they can feel who this little girl is and the pain of the family. >> news moved fast through this close-knit mormon community. volunteers came up by the hundreds.

the search was on. >> we want all of the volunteers to know we are so thankful for you. >> as is customary in these cases, the police considered immediate family members possible suspects. >> there was a point after the initial search and the community involvement that the case turns and turns on the family. you and ed in particular became suspects. >> uh-huh. >> brought in for polygraphs and i believe ed was first. >> yeah. he actually called me and he said, i've just been through 2 1/2 hours of the worst hell i've ever been in. and then i went in and spent eight hours on a polygraph. >> eventually the family was cleared and the police turned their focus elsewhere. a green saturn seen in the neighborhood earlier. >> he's wanted for questioning. we don't consider him a suspect. >> but edmonds had no information. false leads led to false hope.

ed smart needed a lifeline. >> we've got breaking news on the elizabeth smart abduction case. >> he leaned on john walsh of "america's most wanted". >> he said, be straight with me. tell me what the odds are. i said, you know what, ed, 99% of the cases i do have a very unlucky ending. you're lucky to find the remains. you're lucky to catch the guy. most of the time you never get justice. >> but authorities were convinced they had their man -- richard reesey. a hired hand what worked for three months inside the smart family home. police grab on him him and believe he is the one. >> they do. >> why? >> there were a lot of reasons why. he was an ex-con. he didn't have a background of -- that would say he was a sexual predator. but he did have -- he had robbed one of edward's best friend, come in, taken things in the middle of the night. >> did you think he did it? >> no, i didn't think he did it.

and the reason i didn't think he did it was because the only eyewitness said he didn't do it. >> that eyewitness was 9-year-old mary katherine who insisted the man who took his sister elizabeth didn't look like reesey. elizabeth's father ed didn't know what to believe. >> if it happens to be that richard is not the one, that he will please come forward and contact us. we need elizabeth back. i still feel that elizabeth is out there. >> he was in bed with me. >> ricci's wife came to his defense. >> i truly in my heart, my mind and my soul, i know that richard did not have anything to do with this. and i will stand by him. >> the month after elizabeth's abdupgs, another house was targeted. this time, the home of elizabeth's two teenage cousins. >> the residents on the virginia hills drive had been cut in

similar fashion to what had been done at the elizabeth smart residence. >> but ricci was in custody at the time. so the attempted break-in, the smarts say, was brushed off as a cruel prank. right here at this state prison in utah, richard ricci was sitting behind bars in an unrelated burglary charge and parole violation. suddenly he was rushed to the hospital and died of a brain hemorrhage. the police's prime suspect was now dead. >> i think that they were absolutely convinced that richard ricci was the abductor of elizabeth and that he had murdered and left her body somewhere. >> i think people thought that it was over and what we held on to was false hope and a family that wouldn't give up. we had reasons for believing that it wasn't richard ricci. >> coming up, a little girl has a clue that would blow open the case. >> the big moment of course in this case was where mary katherine has an epiphany.

>> the kidnapper, she said, was a man named emmanuel.

fall 2002, five months after elizabeth smart was kidnapped from her salt lake city home, she was still nowhere to be found. >> it's a dark, horrible thing.

i don't know that there's too much darker than having your child be taken. >> it's hell for him. you can't sleep, you can't eat. you're waiting for every phone call. >> the steady media attention and volunteer efforts were beginning to die down. but the smart family never lost hope. >> we still feel that elizabeth is out there. we still need each one of your help. we need you to be the eyes and ears in the neighborhood. >> they know the odds of finding their daughter alive are diminished almost down to nothing. >> i'm asking and i'm pleading with whoever has her that i would do anything to have her back in my arms. >> then in october, an unexpected new lead. elizabeth's 9-year-old sister, mary katherine, who was the only witness to the abdupgs, had a

sudden flashback and was finally able to identify who took her sister -- emmanuel. a homeless man the smarts once hired to do odd jobs around their house. >> he called me up and said, mary katherine knows who it is. >> ed smart called police, realizing they'd been focused on the wrong guy, richard ricci. how did the police treat the new lead? >> they took her to the justice center. they interviewed her. they told us not to go public. they said they would do whatever they could to find this guy. >> do you think they believed her? >> no, i don't. they came out and said, we think richard ricci is by far the most important person in this. >> ricci had died in custody and the smarts worried police would close the investigation. that meant the search would come to an end, leaving elizabeth and

her abductor still out there. do you think that salt lake city police were doing enough to find elizabeth? >> i think the salt lake city police did more to find elizabeth than probably any single case they'd ever had in their life. but obviously something happened there when the police -- particularly when we found out who we thought really did do it and they wouldn't give us the time of day. yeah, at that point, we had a serious problem. >> and this is what i could remember of him -- >> the smarts were desperate to keep the search alive. so they held a press conference, releasing a sketch of emmanuel, a crucial tip came in. emmanuel was really brian david mitchell. ed called the only person he knew could help, his new friend, john walsh. >> he said, john, the police want to close this case. they say richard ricci killed elizabeth, that her body's buried in the desert somewhere,

i don't believe that, i believe she's out there alive. i'd walked in the smarts' shoes. i knew they needed help. i knew that rapidly elizabeth was becoming another poster. >> walsh put photos of mitchell on national tv. >> brian david mitchell's ex-wife calls "america's most wanted" and says, he doesn't look clean cut. he's a pedophile, he's a creep. and he looks like bin laden. he looks like the taliban. he's a creeped-out street preacher. >> this columnist says mitchell was a fixture on salt lake street, a religious zealot who considered himself a prophet. >> somewhere along the way, he became this delusional person. he progressively became the jesus man and he started doing the bizarre behavior, he moved out of his house and lived out of a trailer and put on the

robes and then started to write revelations that he said he received from god. >> tom smart went looking for mitchell, the jesus man, on the streets of salt lake. and what he learned from a local restaurant waitress was shocking. >> he said, oh, yeah, the jesus people, joseph and mary. she said, yeah, i know who they are, they come in all the time. then she stopped for a minute and she said, the last time i saw them, though, there were three of them. the next day, she called me at home and she says, tom, i've been thinking about it. and she says, i think that was elizabeth. and it was like being hit by lightning. honestly, i dropped to my knees. i thought, oh, my god, she's alive. >> on march 12th, days after watching "america's most wanted," anita dickerson was

driving in a suburb of salt lake. she spotted brian david mitchell. >> i got out of the car, walked towards the back as they were walking up the sidewalk. and i looked him in the face. he looked at me. and i turned around, went back to my husband and said, that's him, let me have your cell phone. >> when we return, the shocking story of what happened to elizabeth smart. >> he said, i got in your bedroom that night, i'll get back in that house and i'll kill your little sister and i'll kill your family but first i'll kill you. it's more than just the last day of the year. it's the last day you can switch your medicare part d plan. we just switched ourselves and we're happy we did. [ male announcer ] make the switch to an aarp® medicarerx plan, insured through unitedhealthcare. call now for a free information kit. discover why these part d plans are so popular with over 4.3 million members. [ man ] what i wanted was simple.

the most value for my dollar. so now that it's time, we're making the move to a plan that really works for us. plus, we'll be covered at like 60,000 pharmacies. [ male announcer ] call now and get predictable copays with no annual deductible, which means you could start saving with your first prescription. aarp® medicarerx plans include nearly all the drugs covered by medicare part d. so why wait? call now. december 31st is coming. i'm glad we switched. [ male announcer ] get the plan that gives you all this and more. aarp medicarerx plans. insured through unitedhealthcare. call today. ♪

it had been nine months since elizabeth smart disappeared from her home when police finally got a break. just days after brian mitchell's photos appeared on "america's

most wanted," they received a 911 phone call. someone had seen brian david mitchell. police found mitchell and his wife and a girl wearing a gray wig and sunglasses. at first she denied her identity. but police knew it was elizabeth. >> and then edward calls me right after that and says, tom, they've called me and asked me to come out to the police station and he's in the car driving out there as fast as he can. and i told him, i said, ed, i think you're going to go see your daughter. and then edward calls me and he's just in tears and he says, it's her, tom, thank you. >> it was the moment they had hoped for all those months but never knew would come. >> i'm so grateful for the

prayers and the help and the eyes out there. it is just absolutely wonderful. >> ed called john walsh and asked him to come to utah. >> all the brothers were there and all the kids. and when she walked down those stairs, that was incredible. that was probably the best day i've spent on the show. >> their missing angel was home again. but could home heal the nine months of hell elizabeth smart had endured? >> tonight, elizabeth smart speaks out -- >> when she was ready, she braved the cameras. >> i don't try to think back, i don't try to look back. i see my life before and then now. and i just don't sit there and think about it. i just go on. >> her parents release add book and collaborated on a med made-for-tv movie.

but the most horrifying part of the story was missing. what really happened to elizabeth during her captivity? after elizabeth was kidnapped from her home in the middle of the night wearing only pajamas, she was forced at knifepoint to walk up this trail. and it was a march that would go for miles and take anywhere from three to five hours. within a few miles of home at a makeshift campsite, her abductor, brian david mitchell, handed her off to his wife, wanda barzee, who then prepared a marriage ceremony. reporter jean casarez. >> wanda barzee said, you take your pajamas and underwear off. she said as she was told. put a robe on. she said wanda left. the defendant came in the tent, started to rape her. she thought, she screamed and she said, i'm just a little girl!

>> later on, mitchell used a cable to tether her between two trees and force her to do chores. he called himself a prophet, destined to take seven wives. remember that attempted break-in at the home of elizabeth's cousin? turns out, elizabeth revealed in court, it was no prank. it was brian david mitchell. >> he continually told her that god had spoken to him, that he was the divine prophet, the one that would have plural wives and god had chosen her to be his first wife. >> elizabeth was paraded through the streets of salt lake veiled and robed in white, raising the question why didn't she escape? was she brainwashed? elizabeth's uncle who co-authored a book on elizabeth's kidnapping said she was just trying to survive. are you elizabeth, asked officer o'neal? >> mitchell threatened her with death after an attempt to escape. >> he said, if you try that again, i will gel kill you, i

will kill your family. >> it's not so much that she's brainwashed. it's that she's come up with a strategy to get through this? >> that's my belief. i don't believe she ever felt like she was safe because of the violent and horrible things she had been through and his threats. >> despite her ordeal, elizabeth was determined to face her captors in court. >> lots of people don't have the grace. lots of people don't have the wherewithal or the loving support system that elizabeth does. she told me on many occasions, i want my day in court. >> it took eight years before elizabeth smart got her day in court. the process was delayed by defense claims that mitchell was insane, not mentally fit to stand trial. >> they've delayed this, they've threatened to move it, they've tested whether he's sane or insane. the man is sane. he's manipulating the system. >> the defense will try to prove otherwise.

in the courtroom last week, elizabeth smart testified that she was raped daily, forced to drink alcohol and to look at porn. prosecutor, ms. smart, when he was returning to the camp, would he scream out loud or in a loud voice, i'm going to "f" your eyes out? yes. did he do that often? yes. what would happen after he returned to the camp? he would rape me. jean casarez who's covering the trial was inside the courtroom when elizabeth testified. >> mitchell told her the time had come for her to engage in a new type of sexual activity with him. she said, i intentionally drank as much as i could because i didn't want to know it, i didn't want to feel it, i didn't want to remember it. >> mitchell wasn't in the courtroom to hear elizabeth testify. he was forced to leave after he refused to stop singing. mitchell faces federal charges of kidnapping and transporting a

minor across state lines for improper purposes. wanda barzee has already pleaded guilty to the same charges and is serving a 15-year sentence. if the jury finds mitchell guilty, he could get life behind bars. and elizabeth, now 23, could finally move on. >> this is one of the really incredible endings, miraculous, maybe. the real miracle of the thing is who she is and how she's handled it. i mean, she is one strong woman.

right now on cnn, we take an

in-depth look at a murder in beverly hills straight out of a hollywood movie. the victim, a publicist to the stars, shot to death while driving down one of the ritziest streets in the world. what happened to ronni chasen and are police close to an arrest? good evening, everyone. i'm don lemon. we'll speak live with people who knew ronni chasen in just a moment. but first, we want to give you your news. the u.s. remains committed to reducing american forces in afghanistan beginning next july. that word today from president barack obama at a nato summit in lisbon, portugal. >> we adopted the goal of afghan forces taking the lead for security across the country by the end of 2014. this is a goal that president karzai has put forward. i've made it clear that etch as americans transition and troop reductions will begin in july, we will also forge a long-term partnership with the afghan people.

and today nato has done the same. >> the u.s. has about 100,000 troops in afghanistan. nato has a security force of about 40,000 troops from 48 countries. with thanksgiving travel getting under way, the president also weighed in on the growing protest against full-body scans and patdowns at airports. he said while he understands the enhanced security measures are necessary for your safety. the president says the tsa has been under intense pressure to tighten security after the attempted underwear bombing on christmas day last year. and right now, these measure, he says, are the most effective. in utah, some 130 law enforcement officers are hot on the trail of a suspect they believe shot a park ranger. they are scouring rugged terrain in grand county right now. investigators say the suspect is wounded and on foot. 34-year-old brodie young was shot three times after he stopped the suspect friday night. he is reported to be conscious and talking with officers. in ohio tonight, a coroner says three people who disappeared last week were stabbed to death before being

dismembered. the remains of tina herman, her 11-year-old son and a family friend were found stuffed in garbage bags, placed in the hallow of this tree. the 13-year-old daughter was found alive in the basement of matthew hoffman's home. hoffman is being held on kidnapping charges and his attorney says that he led the investigators to those bodies. pope benedict xvi has okayed the use of condoms in certain cases, he says, to stop the spread of aids. this is seen as a shift away from the catholic church's absolute ban on contraceptions. he says in his book, the use of condoms is okay when the sole purpose is to reduce the spread of infection. for the first time in 40 years, they played football at chicago's wrigley field. there it is right there. it was transformed into a football stadium for the first time since the chicago bears moved out in 1970. today's game featured

northwestern and illinois. officials had to run all defensive plays toward the same end zone since the other end zone was up against a brick wall. illinois won 48-27. we want to go to our special coverage of murder in beverly hills. funeral services will be held tomorrow for hollywood publicist ronni chasen. there are no suspects, no motive. but a whole lot of rumors are fueling this shocking story. chasen was found dead early tuesday, shot five times behind the wheel of her crashed mercedes-benz in beverly hills. she had just left a party for the new movie "burlesque." the mayor suggested the shooting could be a hit. he backed away from those comments the very next day. the police chief has been urging everyone to stop speculating, though. without much hard information, it seems everyone has a theory. for the next 30 minutes, we're going to try to make some sense of this mystery.

and these people are going to help me out. they are beverly hills publicist edward lozi, who new ronni chasen. and then there's christine plesic and alan duke. alan, i want to start with you. walk us through what happened. she's driving down sunset, she's going to turn on whitaker. then what happened? >> well, she turns -- she's in a turning lane at a light. sunset at whittier, three blocks from the famous beverly hills hotel. she takes the left and just about maybe 100 yards or less down the road, she hits a light pole. from that intersection to there, she was shot -- either at the intersection or just before she hit the light pole. i just coincidently drove that route today at lunchtime. and i saw how it would be possible that she would have been shot at that intersection, still been alive and drove herself down.

there was glass found at the intersection. they don't know where she was shot. it's a very residential area and it's only about a quarter of a mile from where michael jackson died just last year. >> alan, people heard from her minutes before she died. apparently she maid made some phone calls. her window was partially rolled down which leads police to think something else. but are there any clues to the messages she left from those calls? >> they were apparently routine messages left for an assistant at her office. voice mail, she would apparently routine ly routinely do that when she left a to-do list for those in her office. >> christine, road rage seems to be a popular theory. what are people making of that? are you hearing about that in your work? >> yeah, a lot of people are saying that to me.

i think that one of the theories that i've heard is as she was driving down the road, she could have been on her phone and she maybe cut somebody off and they followed her. maybe she stuck her finger up at them or something along those lines and they got angry and shot at her. i think that one of the theories i think is quite plausible is that she stopped on sunset boulevard to make a left on whittier and there's this thing called a bump and rob. maybe someone came and bumped her. maybe they tried to get her to come out of the car and rob her. maybe somebody went to her driver's side window and there was another person on the passenger side. i think there must have been at least two people in the shooter car and maybe -- she wouldn't get out of the car. maybe she started going and they shot her.

the guy on the passenger side shot her. >> stand by, guys. we're going to talk to ed lozi, he knows her. he worked with her. there are also theories about tensions in beverly hills because of the shifting demographics there. we'll talk about that in just a moment and we'll hear from ed lozi who knew her very well. our special investigation called murder in beverly hills is going to continue. we want you to be part of this discussion tonight. send us a message. logon to twitter or facebook or check out our blog. look for us on fair oursquare as well.

>> ronni chasen, a well-connected, well-liked publicist. someone who knows every ashgs a-lister. she was gunned down in her car. my guests are ed lozi, christine pellisik and our very own alan duke. ed, i want to start with you. you knew her, you worked with her.

i know the funeral services are tomorrow. tell me about her. >> ronni chasen is the ultimate professional. she's in the 30-year club, which many of us are, well-trained by rogers and callan, one of the great p.r. firms of the 20th century. i started out there in the mailroom and she was already a junior publicist at the time. but i talked with her as recently as last friday. she was handling on event at the beverly hills hotel two blocks from where she was shot for natalie portman for -- it was a luncheon luncheon for "the swan," the motion picture that's coming out. some of our clients that were being handled. she was in an exclusive club, mainly oscar nominated, gloelden globe nominated. she was in an upper club and she was not old school but she was only 64. some people say, well, is that old? i don't think so.

especially when i'm pushing that. but she was a trained professional. but she suffered -- she didn't suffer fool's wealth. she did have a short fuse. i think i'm going to go with what the beverly hills -- which is where our company is, and the mayor and the beverly hills courier who got involved with this controversy on friday, thursday, with that sort of bogus story about it was a professional hit. i know that the mayor has apologized in a way for it and there were some friction between the beverly hills police. so we're back to ground zero again. we're back to anything could go. so there's all kinds of speculations. >> yeah, the question is, though, if it was a hit, a professional hit, why would they do it in such a public place? why wouldn't they find a place that might not be seen? i want to talk to you about a successful other things.

she left this afterparty for the new movie "burlesque." maybe her short fuse could have led to this, we don't know. >> it's a shame that the spotlight on our industry has to be around a murder. usually we're behind the scenes. we're there for our clients, we're doing the red carpets. all of us -- it's a small family, this public relations community here because we all need each other. we all have our clients going to each other's events. we all want to make sure they're taken care of properly on the red carpet and that the stories on them are accurate with the media. if that didn't happen smoothly with ronni, she would be in your face and a lot of media people know that. >> so she ruffled some feathers in her day. but does that -- would she ruffle enough feathers for someone to want to target her for something like this, ed?

>> no, absolutely not. come on. she's in the fluff p.r. business. she's dealing with fantasy. we're talking motion pictures. we're not talking crisis management and legal p.r. we get hate mail for that. not that. i really think that without speculating again, which we've been asked not to, that this -- the wrong cards were dealt to her. she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. and by the way, that stretch of sunset boulevard is known as road rage alley. a friend of ours, christine may known him, is frank swurdlo who works for "people" magazine. and he was involved with a road rage incident three blocks from there. >> these are just your theories, i want to stress, because police aren't sure exactly what happened. >> that's exactly what i said. the beverly hills police and the

mayor both cleared that up. anything could go with this story. >> ed, hold that thought. i know we have a lot to talk about when it comes to this story. we're talking about murder in beverly hills, a high-profile publicist killed in beverly hills, one of the ritziest places in the world. we're talking to people who knew her coming up. [ man ] december 31st. it's more than just the last day of the year. it's the last day you can switch your medicare part d plan. we just switched ourselves and we're happy we did.

[ male announcer ] make the switch to an aarp® medicarerx plan, insured through unitedhealthcare. call now for a free information kit. discover why these part d plans are so popular with over 4.3 million members. [ man ] what i wanted was simple. the most value for my dollar. so now that it's time, we're making the move to a plan that really works for us. plus, we'll be covered at like 60,000 pharmacies. [ male announcer ] call now and get predictable copays with no annual deductible, which means you could start saving with your first prescription. aarp® medicarerx plans include nearly all the drugs covered by medicare part d. so why wait? call now. december 31st is coming. i'm glad we switched. [ male announcer ] get the plan that gives you all this and more. aarp medicarerx plans. insured through unitedhealthcare. call today. ♪

tonight we're taking a closer look into the murder of hollywood press agent ronni chasen. she may not be a household name in america. but everyone in hollywood knew her. alan duke, you are not buying that she was targeted, are you? >> i'm not buying any theory yet. but i can tell you that knowing the area by driving through it, i do know that there is a road rage problem there. in fact in los angeles throughout, there is the special salute that people give each other. and people i talk to who neuron nae tell me that she was a kind of a personality as -- she may give that salute.

according to people i know. this is a posh neighborhood. this is about 1,000 yards as the crow flies from the house where michael jackson lived and where he died on carroll wood drive. you know that well, don. and it's also just a couple of houses away from from 1947 the gangster bugsy siegel was killed in a machine gun attack. there's been some very infamous events happening in this very quiet neighborhood. >> christine, why such back and forth with the police chief and all these other theories about the tensions and the demographics are supposedly changing in beverly hills and people drawing conclusions about that? have you heard that? >> the police aren't really saying anything, so it's leading everybody to speculate about what's going on.

and so it's really hard for anyone to know exactly because the police chief will say one thing. the mayor says another thing. so it's really hard to figure out anything what's going on. >> so, ed, tell us about the funeral arrangements tomorrow, the services. does she have any kids? married? >> no, the services are at hillside tomorrow. and it's -- there's a lot of people expected to be there, of course. but some of the inside information i had from my friends at the beverly hills police and the beverly hills courier acknowledged that when knx news and city news service put it out there that they had evidence of the videocameras following her all the way down sunset boulevard through beverly hills, they have her. so she was alone. but what's so puzzling is that

they actually mentioned sherry hackett, buddy hackett's wife, that the videotapes on her house were an integral part of their reasoning that this could have been a hit. that is so flabbergasting. and then mention that name as well. it's already been out there. to mention a name with evidence when the murderers are still out there. and sherry's not talking about it. so it's baffling. her house is about three blocks south of where the shooting was. so they're talking about that maybe the murderers, they have them on tape. that's what everybody thought thursday night when this came out. then they've canceled that whole thing out now. we're all frustrated about this. >> it is frustrating. i imagine for her family as well having to deal with the grief and not knowing and then -- because all those cameras that are supposed to protect us around all the cities we have and to not have it on tape, what's going on.

alan duke, take us forward, where does this investigation go next? what happens? >> there's just a lot of legwork, hard police work going on. the police chief assured us yesterday, as recently as yesterday that they are working seven days a week, 24 hours gathering this evidence. as ed said, they're canvassing the neighborhood, a lot of security cameras. what they're really hoping is one or some of those security cameras would have captured some images, perhaps a car that was following ronni's car. her mercedes. perhaps even something better than that, an eyewitness coming up saying they saw something happen. they've been trying to figure out exactly where the shots were fired. 911 calls are clues there. but they still don't exactly or they're telling us they don't exactly know where that happened. so the investigation is wide open. they've not ruled in anything and they've not ruled out anything. >> have you spoken to the family, alan? >> no, i've not. the family? i don't believe she had any children.

>> family members, sisters, brothers. i was wondering if you spoke to someone in her family? >> no. i've spoken to her family if you think of her family as the broader community of publicists, spoken to many of them. people like ed, in fact, who are very stunned by this. her family, i think, and ed probably would confirm that, were the people she worked with and the people she worked for. >> i here she was very hard working. this is a mystery. no one knows where this is going to go. i want to thank you everyone on our panel tonight. ed, christine and also our very own alan duke. have a great evening. if you guys hear anything, please let us know. >> absolutely. >> when we come right back here on cnn, a preview of a very special tribute in los angeles. 33 chilean minors are honored at the cnn heroes all-star tribute.

33 chilean miners appeared on stage at the shrine auditorium tonight as cnn paid tribute to the men and some who aided their rescue. they endured 69 days trapped underground before they were rescued. it was the longest mining captivity in history.

here's a portion of tonight's cnn tribute. >> look at that, very nice. all 33 chilean miners and some of their rescuers will be special guests at the all-star tribute that airs thanksgiving night. nearly 2 million of you voted. watch to see who will be the next cnn hero of the year. that's thanksgiving night at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. i'm don lemon at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. thanks for joining us. see you back here tomorrow night. "escape from jonestown, starts in 90 seconds.