susan candiotti, hearing sirens in wichita. talk to us, susan. >> reporter: don, for the first time we are starting to hear sirens, sirens that authorities said we would be hearing and now that time has come. again, the warning for people here in wichita is that they need to get inside if they aren't already. i don't know if you can hear this. let me see if i can hold the phone out for a second. i think it's a bit too distant now. it comes and goes. but in any case, the idea now is people need to hunker down here. this is a highly populated area. this had been prom night for a lot of kids. so hopefully they are inside a venue. i understand there's a concert in town. just as people in this hotel where we are staying are doing the same thing. we've been seeing some people who live in the neighborhood even come over here to take shelter, because they said they don't have basements in their house. they don't have a storm shelter and this is a safe place for them to be. so we're expecting the arrival as jacqui was talking about. it c

susan candiotti standing near the site for us. san, it's terrible, you've seen the video, what are police saying happened? do they really know? >> reporter: don, it's a horrible tragedy, and no, police still don't knowh

our national correspondent susan candiotti has more. >> reporter: steve carter has lived a happy lifeadopted when he was four, he had little reason to search for his biological parents. >> i didn't really care where else i came from. >> reporter: he always had nagging questions about his past. when he was six months old he was put in an orphanage in hawaii but never knew why. then he saw a cnn story about a woman who discovered she was a missing child and started his own enter internet search. pulled up hawaii, male, missing 34 years. >> mark barnes was reported missing by his father in hawaii after his mom left with their baby and never came back. the report included a sketch of what he might look like grown up. >> i think oh my god that looks like me. it really does. it's pretty much the spitting image. >> he contacted authorities, took a dna test and got a phone call. >> he said you are mark barnes. >> knowing he is that missing child, he learned his biological father lives in california. they haven't yet met but spoke by phone. >> he was convinced my mother had taken me and taken

our national correspondent susan candiotti has more. >> reporter: steve carter has lived a happy lifeadopted when he was four, he had little reason to search for his biological parents. >> i didn't really care where else i came from. >> reporter: he always had nagging questions about his past. when he was six months old he was put in an orphanage in hawaii but never knew why. then he saw a cnn story about a woman who discovered she was a missing child and started his own enter internet search. pulled up hawaii, male, missing 34 years. >> mark barnes was reported missing by his father in hawaii after his mom left with their baby and never came back. the report included a sketch of what he might look like grown up. >> i think oh my god that looks like me. it really does. it's pretty much the spitting image. >> he contacted authorities, took a dna test and got a phone call. >> he said you are mark barnes. >> knowing he is that missing child, he learned his biological father lives in california. they haven't yet met but spoke by phone. >> he was convinced my mother had taken me and taken

fred. >> susan candiotti in tulsa. we apologize to our viewers for such profanity being used on our air. and we'll be right back with much more in the newsroom. i'm walt gale, i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service. on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire. td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, m

cnn's susan candiotti joins me now by the phone. susan, what's the latest on this? >> reporter: well, it's a terrible, terrible accident, certainly, alison, but we're hearing from the police that it's either a car or a van with four adults and three children inside, all dead. they were on an expressway called the bronx river parkway, and the car crossed over the median into the opposing lanes of traffic, flipped over the bridge, and fell a sizable number of feet. we don't know how far, but it was quite a big drop. no one survived. no one sooiurvived. now, where this happened. it fell over just inside the southeast perimeter of the bronx zoo, which is huge. 265 acres. but it happened according to a spokesperson for the zoo, far away from any public area, not near any animals nor exhibits, nor did it affect any visitors. in fact, i'm told that if you're a visitor in the zoo, you would not be able to see where this accident occurred. so right now, police are trying to put the pieces of this together to figure out exactly how this could have happened. again, a vehicle w

susan candiotti is standing by now. do they know what exactly happened, susan? >> reporter: don, they don't, this was a beautiful, sunny sunday afternoon and then something went terribly, terribly wrong. this suv as you mentioned, driven off a bridge. police say it was driven by a woman 45 years old. there was another woman in the car as well as an elderly couple, and three children, ages 5, 15 and 3, all of them wearing seat belts. but for some reason, this woman travelering south, in the left-hand lane for some reason lost control of their car, they don't know exactly how fast she was going hit the median concrete barrier only about three feet high. according to witnesses overcompensated, may a sharp left-hand turn and went sailing across three lanes and going 60 feet into the air and then 60 feet down. the car landed, turned over, it was crushed. an awful accident described as horrific by veteran investigators. >> my goodness. did any witnesses, did anyone see anything to figure out exactly what caused the driver to swerve and hit the median, susan? >> they a

sus susan candiotti, cnn new york. >> we'll to in watch that throughout the morning. >>> a witness toistory, secret service agents risk their lives every day. coming up we'll hear from two former agents who were in dallas on the back of the car when john f. kennedy was shot, they will tell us what it means to be an agent and how they live with the tragedy every day. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ ♪ >>> good morning, washington, lovely shot of the capitol there. you can see the flags are blowing in the breeze. might be a bit of a windy day in washington, d.c. glad you're with us. >>> we have been doing a lot on the secret service and going to focus in on that. the agents are meant to be invisible but the scandal involving colombian prostitutes h

susan candiotti, appreciate that.. >>> three american airlines unions are supporting a merger according to a document filed friday with the fcc. they still need the support of managers, creditors, and the back court of directors of the parent company amr. american airlines went into bankruptcy, you may recall last year. >>> rich ross, chairman of walt disney is stepping down after the epic film "john carter." his resignation came soon as loaf figures were announced. no successor has been named. >>> they protect the nation's experts from attacks. the consequences could be serious. we'll tell you what's being done next. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal eco

cnn's susan candiotti joins me right now. susan, what's the latest? >> reporter: certainly law enforcement officials here are saying it's one of the most horrific scenes that they have ever seen. many of them for 20 years or more. we have, as you indicated, seven people dead here. four adults, three children, including an infant. and an elderly couple. we don't know what the relation is. but two of them in their 80s. a law enforcement official tells me that the driver of the suv appears to be one of the women who was inside the car. we know that one was aged 45, and the other was 30. they said that the suv was traveling at a very high rate of speed on the bronx river expressway, parkway, and for some reason, they don't know why at this point, it hit a barrier and went flying over the overpass, about 50 to 60 feet into the air. and the same distance down before it came crashing down in the very heavily brush area of the southeast perimeter of the bronx zoo. we're standing at the -- one of the side entrances right now. not near any of the animal exhibit

we've lost susan candiotti. i want to just summarize quickly here.ws story out of new york. this is the 2 world financial center building that was evacuated. it started when somebody in the mail room discovered what they believed was a suspicious package at about 10:53 this morning. they called in authorities, fire, emergency workers, bomb squad seven minute later arriving on the scene according to susan candiotti at 11:00 is when they evacuated the building. and they said that they thought this package was suspicious because it went through a process of x-rays and screening process and that in looking inside of this package, they saw what they believed possibly some sort of material, explosive material, potentially an explosive device that they had identified. so they have called in the authorities to look at that package. susan candiotti is on the way. we know that they have evacuated the building. it looks like people from what we can see, our vantage point, and it's an aerial shot we're looking at, that people are outside it seems relatively calm

susan candiotti is responsible right now in new york. she'll be joining us in about two minutes from now. >>> john edwards' fraud trial begins tomorrow in north carolina. the former presidential candidate is accused of breaking campaign finance laws by allegedly using nearly $1 million to cover up a sexual affair with filmmaker rielle hunter. he denies any wrongdoing. >>> still unclear whether george zimmerman will be released from jail. he has to come up with 10% of the $150,000 bond. zimmerman is facing second-degree murder charges in the death of 17-year-old trayvon martin. >>> chuck colson, a major figure from the watergate scandal, has died. colson was the first of richard nixon's aides to be convicted, and sent to prison for seven months. he had been the president's special counsel. but was also known as nixon's hatchet man. after leaving prison in the mid-1970s, colson founded an outreach group providing spiritual support for prisoners. colson was 80 years old. >>> we're following developments in the search for 6-year-old etan pat

cnn's susan candiotti. >> reporter: after ripping apart wall, jackhammering floors and carrying out chunks of cement, the fbi and new york police are up to their elbows in dirt and dust. meticulously sifting through layers of soil six feet deep below a basement floor recemented in 1979. the same year 6-year-old etan patz disappeared. >> we're cautiously optimistic as law enforcement always is when it executes search warrants that they will find what they're looking for. >> reporter: looking for etan's remains who lived a half block from the search scene. his parents still live here. he vanished after his mom kissed him good-bye 33 years ago. he came straight out this door out decked out in a corduroy jacket. he can't wait to get to school. for the first time, his parents allow him to walk two blocks down the street this way to get to the school bus stop all by himself. along his route that basement where a law enforcement source say etan had been the day before with neighborhood carpenter otheneil miller. this author says miller was no stranger to the patz family. >> they knew him. the fam

seven people are dead, and as our susan candiotti reports, three of them were children. susan. >> reporter: it was a beautiful sunday afternoon and then something went terribly wrong. police say they are still investigating what caused a woman driving an suv to suddenly lose control of that vehicle and go sailing over an overpass and down about 60 feet. here's what police have pieced together so far. a woman driving the suv, 45 years old along, with another woman, an elderly couple and three children inside ages 5, 15 and 3 all of them wearing seat belts driving down the highway. for some reason, according to eyewitnesses, the woman lost control of that suv, hit a concrete barrier in the middle of the highway, made a hard right turn apparently losing control, crossing three lanes of traffic going in the same direction. she hit a curb and then another barrier, a fence and went sailing over the overpass going out about 60 feet and then about 60 feet down. the suv flipped over and crushed everyone inside. authorities say they don't know what caused the accident at this time.

susan candiotti standing near the site for us. susan, it's terrible, you've seen the video, what are police saying happened? do they really know? >> reporter: don, it's a horrible tragedy, and no, police still don't know why this accident happened. what caused a woman driving her suv to go sailing over an overpass and crashing that vehicle, killing everyone inside, all seven people. here's what they do know. according to eyewitnesses, police say a woman, 45 years old was driving this suv down a six-lane highway called the bronx river park way. for some reason, they don't know why, she hit the middle barrier, a concrete barrier, the median. it's only about three feet high. witnesses say she overcompensated and made a sharp right, crossing over three lanes of traffic going in the very same direction, hit a curb that went over a fence, only again about two to three feet high, and went sailing about 50 to 60 feet. control of the suv. it could have been, authorities say, any number of things. maybe something physically went wrong with h

. >> susan candiotti is live for us this morning right outside that building. susan, good morning. first, tell me how they decided to focus their attention on this particular building and why and what have they found so far? >> good morning, soledad. based on old and new information, according to sources, the fbi was led to a carpenter who was also a handyman who had a workshop in that basement. they brought in a cadaver dog and that cadaver dog picked up a human scent. and while interviewing that man, i am told by sources, and this is new information, that this man, who had befriended the boy and who had given him a dollar and was in the basement with that boy a day before etan disappeared. he blurted out to the police very recently, what if the body was moved? that's a quote. what if the body was moved? that's when police really set the wheels in motion and started their escivation work. he has not been charged and not in custody. so, that escavation work, which is well under way, will resume, soledad, for the next five days. they're going to gather everything up that they find.

cnn's national correspondent susan candiotti is there now. nter who used to work in that basement saw etan the day before he and. he's speaking out to his attorney and the family. what's the reaction. >> reporter: through his attorney, miller, who the family said was a good boy -- a good friend, rather, of little etan. he is saying through his lawyer he had nothing to do with the boy's disappearance and is terribly torn up about it. he issued through his attorney strong denials he had anything to do with the disappearance, and so did his daughter. listen. >> mr. miller has been cooperating with this investigation for over 30 years. he's continued to cooperate on multiple occasions. i'm going to assist him in capitaling to the fullest extent possible. >> the fbi has been here to investigate the case. he cooperated with them, went to the site. he doesn't have anything to do with it. >> in fact, mr. miller is not being called a suspect by the fbi, nor has he been charged with the crime but they have been questioning him. law enforcement sources t

. >> let's go now to cnn susan candiotti. she's in wichita, kansas. susan, i know it's hard to cover four states suffering from tornadoes from one spot. but tell us from your perspective what you know. >> reporter: thanks, candy. good morning. certainly the governor really made the point here, people here had much more time to prepare than they have in the past. so here in wichita, clearly this was the most populated area of all of the spots that were hit by those 97 tornadoes that ripped through this state. and i'm in the area here in wichita where probably they suffered the most damage. fortunate, again, no serious injuries. mobile home park is closed off to the public. 100 mobile homes back, there only six of them destroyed and, again, no serious injuries. nevertheless they are doing at this hour a third and a fourth check of that area to make sure that everyone is accounted for. they believe that everyone is safe back there. so now it's just a matter of making assessments now that the sun is coming up and to make sure that they find out how much da

susan candiotti, thanks so much for that.s that are sure to anchor the obama administration and make a scandal that came to light this week even more embarrassing. >> tell us about this video. it is really remarkable. we mentioned this. the week with the gsa administrator. martha johnson resigning after a scathing report detailed excess spending at a training seminar at a lavish las vegas report back in 2010. we have something you really have to see to believe. it turns out at that conference which costs taxpayers, you and me, 82 $2,000. the gsa picked the winner of a video contest, an employee from a regional office in hawaii. he won and i wanted to take a look at the video that he submitted. he makes fun of excess spending and says he would never be under investigation. ♪ >> the other thing you heard in that wrap is saying that every gs-5 would get a top hat award. a gs-5 is an entry level government employee. the top hat award we learned today is something that the gsa had. the program that they had that gave $200,000 wort

earlier i spoke with national correspondent susan candiotti. >> reporter: law enforcement officials are saying anything publicly about this, but, however, a law enforcement force does tell us that no evidence of human remains has been found in the basement where they have been digging now for a few days. now, here's the backdrop for all of this. after a team of fbi and new york police department officers were working at the scene, we watched about six hours into the day, they began to tear down a few tents that had been covering the entrance to that basement. and then they made this announcement. they said, we're going to suspend operations for today. we will be back tomorrow to resume our operations. so this adds a bit of mystery as to what they still have to do tomorrow, don. >> what do they plan to do with the concrete chunk -- obviously they're sending it to investigators for testing, but they said this is a possible stain, right? >> reporter: that's right. that's a development that we also have learned about, that on saturday investigators had sprayed luminol, a chemical that can d

our susan candiotti is live on the scene.gators have been painstakingly searching this basement. are they making any progress? >> reporter: it seems as though they are, but it's a long tedious job. and just to remind everyone. where i am standing is just a half a block away from where etan patz and his family lived when he disappeared, and his parents are still living there. so this is a basement that is being dug up in a red brick building that is just behind me. fbi agents already brought up -- after using jam hammers, brought up chunks of concrete. rye nout they are sifting, raking, shoveling through all kinds of dirt in the basement floor, and they're looking for any differences in color and texture to see whether that soil had been moved over the years. they tell me that they're digging about six feet below the ground surface to see whether again there's any indication of anything unusual as they look for any evidence that the boy might have been buried there. i'm told that if there is something there, they say they thin

susan candiotti. what are they telling people? >> this is an epicenter for all the meet yol gists all over the company. right here is where all the action is. we're supposed to be taking in hush tones because people here, all the meteorologists very busy looking at all the latest weather data. each person here has their specialty and area of expertise and then they put it all together so they can put out the latest information for all the meteorologists in particular and weather watchers all over the place looking for the highest risk areas. and they have this bank of monitors to look at this. but this one over here is of special interest. it has all these extra colors on it. you see the yellow that indicates every place in this region in particular, and across the united states for that matter, where there is some kind of weather warning at this time. any kind of weather warning. and then you see the circles of the red and the purple, jackie was talking about, where the highest risk areas are. steve weiss, one of the immediate ro

tonight, cnn's susan candiotti is reporting the biggest question now is why did this happen? >> reporter: less than 24 hours after a plea for tips, tulsa police arrested two suspects in the shootings of five people, all black, at four different locations over a span of a few hours starting just after 1:00 a.m. saturday. three of the victims died. >> it sickens me. it angers me. >> reporter: 19-year-old jake england and 32 yearly alvin watts were charged with murder and shooting with intent to kill. police found engelland's burned pickup truck here according to arrest papers and found the two men hiding in a house nearby. were the victims targeted because of their race? >> it is very premature to talk about hate crimes. we have yet to analyze all the information, to understand the motivations. >> reporter: among the possible motives, england's father was gunned down two years ago last week by a black man who was never prosecuted. england's relatives tell cnn say her girlfriend shot herself in front of him and her baby in january. police believe this facebook page belongs to en

national correspondent susan candiotti is at the scene in new york. susan, any more information as to why they suspended that search? >> reporter: they've been very tight-lipped about it, fred. it is a very curious development, however, because after working here all day long, i would say early in the afternoon, all of a sudden we noticed some movement. and one of the crime scene units from the new york police department pulled up in an apparent attempt to block our view from down the street. but we've been able to look down there. we noticed the fbi was taking down a blue tent that had been covering the entrance to the basement where they had been doing their excavation work. when we peppered them with questions to find out why they were stopping their work, they simply said, we're suspending operations for now, and we will resume them in the morning. but they would tell us nothing more. so we're left to wonder, is there a development? have they found only that suspicious stain that we'll tell you more about? or were they simply knocking off for the d

susan candiotti is to explain more on this. what are investigations telling you? >> reporter: well, on the record investigators weren't saying more about it but a law enforcement source tells me they found this possible blood stain on saturday after they sprayed an agent called -- a chemical agent called luminol. luminol can detect blood. they picked out this one section of the cement wall. they cut it out using chain saws in order to do more analysis. and this luminol can indicate blood. that's why after taking this sample section -- we don't know how big it is -- the fbi is going to be sending it to its main lab in quantico, virginia, to do analysis. if it turns out to be blood, they then have to determine whose blood is it? does it belong to etan or somebody else? >> etan went missing on his very first walk to a bus stop alone. give us a sense as to how close to the scene of the investigation right now is to his home and the location where he was walking that day? >> reporter: yeah, it's quite remarkable. he lives literally a half a block away, maybe a hundred

now the fbi is taking a second look at it, and cnn susan candiotti has more from the day he disappeared. >> may 25th, 1979. it's a friday, and 6-year-old etan patz is upstairs in his family's apartment getting ready. he comes down decked out in a corduroy jacket, pants, and a kid's pilot hat. he can't wait to get to school. for the first time, etan's mom and dad are allowing him to walk two blocks down the street this way to get to his school bus stop all by himself. >> it was friday before memorial day weekend. this would be one of his last opportunities. they finally relented and said he could go. >> it's just after 8:00 a.m. according to author lisa cohen, etan's mom kisses him good-bye and watches him walk to the bus stop. everything seems fine, so hes mother runs back upstairs to take care of her 2-year-old son. this is the corner where etan was heading to meet the bus with just two blocks away from their apartment, i can still see it from here. but etan never made it. at the end of the school day when he didn't come home, his mom calls police. by that time, several hours had passe

that's where cnn's susan candiotti is reporting.reporter: the scores of twisters that pummeled kansas mainly stuck to rural areas, except for wichita. and one of the worst storms hit a mobile home park that had about 100 structures, about a quarter of them were destroyed. another two dozen heavily damaged. there were no fatalities, incredibly. search and rescue teams began their work on saturday night, and continued well into sunday. >> it's just devastation. these are people's lives, you know. people's lives that are laying here in big piles. what we try to do is be as respectful as possible while we're looking through it. and just to make sure that we're taking care of lives and property. >> reporter: when you look at the extent of all this damage, it is hard to believe that the most serious injury that someone suffered here was a broken leg. to make sure everyone was accounted for, the fire department used search and rescue dogs, and police and firefighters also went door to door. two things really helped. number one, they had ad