Barbara Corcoran recounts her 23rd and 30th birthday encounters with sexual harassment, shifting blame from shame to power dynamics while legal expert Beth Karras highlights that 90% of service workers face unwanted advances under Title VII protections. The episode pivots to a medical mystery involving baby Elia's near-fatal botulism from honey spores and concludes with alarming D.C. statistics showing Black teens comprise 40% of missing persons cases, exposing systemic failures in identifying trafficking victims like Kennedy as mere runaways. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Sexual Harassment and the Paycheck00:14:10
Today, sexual harassment in the workplace.
I've been there where I've shut my mouth because I really needed to make the paycheck.
What to do if it happens to you?
Plus, imagine one bite of food leading to paralysis.
We're investigating a hidden bacteria that could lead to death.
And black and missing teens.
About 600 people a day.
These disappearances are going unnoticed and unsolved.
Coming up next, we've been on the front lines of uncovering the explosion of sexual abuse allegations from Hollywood to the doctor's office,
to the hallways of your children's school.
Today, we investigate the place that hits closest to home.
It's the number one place women say that they're harassed, their job.
So, what can you do to protect yourself or someone you love?
One in three women say they've been sexually harassed at work.
But I was still shocked to hear it happened to one of my good friends, Barbara Corcoran, the shark.
Is here.
Nice to see you, Dr. Oz.
This is a different side of you.
Yes.
And I appreciate you because this is equally as brave, perhaps more so, from your day job of making big decisions about money.
You've witnessed a lot of women talking about how they have been harassed.
How has that affected you?
What do you think about their stories?
Well, I have felt so empowered by their stories.
I mean, women have been speaking up for a long time.
No one's been paying attention.
They're often labeled as liars or poor wishes for the men.
But now, The most powerful men in Hollywood, in politics, in business, have been brought to their knees.
I don't think there's a guy going to bed at night who's not worried about what he may have done in years past.
It's not going away.
So let's talk about your story, which caught me off guard.
I know you haven't spoken about this publicly.
You're a very self aware person.
You send out very clear vibes.
But when you're a young woman entering into business, describe what first happened.
Well, you have to realize I was 23 when I had my first real estate job, and it was my 23rd job.
So I had worked as every kind of menial worker there could be.
But I was working as a receptionist for a small development office here in New York for a very wealthy developer.
And I spent two thirds of my day answering his phones.
That was my job as a receptionist.
But I spent a full third of my day running away from him.
He was in his 80s, he was very confident.
And I think his feeling was that I was his employee, so he had the right to control my eight hours as he chose.
And so it was embarrassing come sit on my lap, come up to my office.
But I cajoled and finessed, and I never really got in trouble.
And I worked there for about a year, and then I left.
Took a fair amount of footwork.
Yes, fancy footwork.
Fancy footwork.
But it wasn't the first time, or rather the last time that you were harassed.
Well, it's funny, not funny at all, but as an employee, I was so disempowered.
I didn't feel as a young woman that I could do something about that except leave, and I really needed the job.
But when I was a successful woman, it really surprised me.
I was about 30 years old.
I already had a business for seven years.
I had 50 people working with me in my company, and I was a Going for a large development site.
It would have made such a difference in my business.
And I got a call after meeting the developer through his lovely secretary.
And she said, You can have the job, which was 200 units for sale, a lot of money, if you sleep with him.
He's asked me to call and make that proposition.
I was floored.
Like, his secretary called you?
Yeah, well, I was more embarrassed almost for her than I was for myself.
It took her so long to get those words out.
And so I just said, Absolutely not.
And interestingly enough, thinking that I would lose the job, do you know I got that job anyway?
And I never had to sleep with that clown anyway.
Did you ever, you must have had an opportunity to talk to him in the future.
I worked for him, but I worked for him in my own right.
Remember, I saw the reason I was able to say no to him, I feel, that I couldn't do at 23, is I thought I'm equal.
I was empowered by then.
I knew who I was.
I was on my own two feet.
And I'm like, how dare you?
It's an interesting observation because I'm seeing.
More and more, perhaps it was clear to a lot of women, but to me it's becoming clear that it's only about power.
Oh.
And that seems to be the recurring theme in a lot of this.
But emotionally, it still affects you whether you have power or not.
So, whether you're a 23 year old newbie perceptionist running away from the boss or a 30 year old established woman running a business who's still being propositioned via a secretary, I mean, not even doing it himself.
It's interesting.
I almost was more upset at 30 than I was at 23.
Because at 23, I at least thought, well, this is how the world works.
This is how all my jobs work.
There's always some creepy guy going at you.
But by the time I was 30, 30, I felt ashamed, which is, of course, a terrible response.
I felt ashamed of myself.
And this is how my mind went.
Well, I'm very friendly, I'm very warm, I'm very outgoing.
Maybe I made him think I was hitting on him.
Maybe he got it wrong.
Maybe I brought this on myself.
And I remember sitting at my desk after saying no and having that release of crying.
But a lot of the tearing, I think, was about me wondering if I was responsible.
Boy, you can't do that to me anymore.
I mean, where was my head even at 30 that I would think that?
It's remarkable because Blaine.
Seems to be the first response.
The fact that you would say you cried, not because you said no to the job, but because you felt that you had done something wrong to bring that proposition, still surprises me.
It's easy to say you're a guy.
Yes, I know, I feel that.
I get it.
But when you're a woman, you're accustomed to a culture where people question your motives.
And if you're good looking and attractive in any way, people assume you're playing the game.
They assume your guilt as a female.
And so it rubs off on you, and you start to wonder is that true?
Was that me?
Was I putting the language out or the words out that made him think he should come and get me?
So, what's your advice to men who are behaving inappropriately in a way?
Well, my advice to men now is so different than it could have even been two years ago, thanks to the bravery of the great women that have been speaking up.
My advice is be careful, buddy.
You're not going to sleep so well tonight if you've ever done anything wrong to anyone.
And the more powerful the man is, the more money he has, the more.
Posture he has in power, the more at risk he is.
He can be brought down so easily now.
And so I almost feel like the woman has been equalized in the power when it comes to sexual abuse.
Let me flip it around a little bit, if you don't mind.
Give them the advice as a colleague, as a fellow business leader.
So they're not doing it out of fear.
What should they be sensing?
I mean, they should have gotten this message from their mom or their dad already.
But if they haven't gotten it yet, what should the culture be?
What should they be?
A man harassing a female that were around you, what would you say to him?
Oh, to the man?
Well, first of all, how dare you?
But I think it's not me protecting a woman.
I'm not in that situation.
It's what a woman does for herself.
I think the attitude has to be, which I adopted for myself after having those experiences, of just a minute, I am me.
This is my territory.
That's your territory.
Don't you dare walk over and think you're entitled in any way.
I think it's an attitude, an attitude that you're an equal.
You're an equal.
And interesting enough, What I love, what's going on right now, and it's long overdue, is it's inequal.
It's inequal, is it such a word as that?
Unequal, whatever that word is.
And it's really the power is in the hand of the woman, the more powerful the man is.
That's a weird thing, isn't it?
Barbara.
Justice.
Justice.
It's a good thing to fight for.
We've heard women in Hollywood and corporate America speak out in droves, but we are hearing less from women in smaller workplaces like restaurants and retail where sexual harassment is rampant.
A lot of you in those jobs, what can you do to protect yourself?
We're going to teach you when you come back.
I would go to the bathroom and be cornered off and continuously asked again, Can I take you on a date?
You look really pretty today.
I like the way those pants fit.
You are just making really inappropriate comments towards me.
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A time saving Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
It actually became really scary because he didn't say a word to me.
This is when I knew something was wrong.
He simply stepped out of the hedges, grabbed me by my neck, and started feeling all over me.
We're back investigating what you can do to protect yourself from sexual harassment if you don't work in corporate America or Hollywood.
About a quarter of sexual harassment complaints come from.
From the service sector.
And one study found that three quarters reported retaliation for coming forward.
Think about that.
Three out of four women say that they're attacked for coming forward.
So, what can you do to stop this from happening to you?
Barbara Corcoran is back, along with nationally recognized legal analyst Beth Karras.
All over the internet, everybody, women have been speaking out about how sexual harassment can happen at any level.
The service industry, retail, and restaurants.
By the way, one survey found 90% of women encountered come ons working there.
Look at this.
Look at that text there.
It's a great example.
So, Beth, why are these areas such breeding grounds for sexual harassment?
You know, it occurs everywhere, not just in these areas.
We spend, those of us who work Monday through Friday, maybe through Saturday, eight, 10, 12 hours a day with the same people.
So, this is more than with your family and friends, right?
Your waking hours are spent with your work colleagues.
So, there's going to be sexual tension.
Sometimes consensual, loving relationships result, but more often there's this.
Power play, this tension.
And if you're in a small environment where there's no HR department and your supervisor is the person you have to report it to, you know, sometimes they're not taking the right action and they're the ones abusing their power position and making it very uncomfortable for you.
So it shouldn't be that way, but that's the way it is.
You found there are two kinds of sexual harassment that classically happen in these small businesses.
Yes, and elsewhere too.
But you have the harassment that is directed at the individual, whether it's verbal or physical, the unwelcome touching, it can include a quid pro quo.
Oh, you want a better.
Job, you want a promotion, you want more money, well, you're going to do something for that.
And it's sexual in nature.
So there's that.
And then there's the hostile work environment where there's behavior.
You might hear something or see something that is intimidating, makes you uncomfortable.
It could be a couple of guys or watching pornography or making comments that make you uncomfortable.
You have a right to be free from a hostile work environment as well.
Barbara, I just gave a number that I was stunned when I learned that so many women in small businesses, service industry especially, Fear retribution because guess what?
There's retribution.
Three out of four say that's what's coming at them.
So, what can they do if they're in businesses where the boss may be harassing them?
Well, I think you could probably answer that far better than I could legally.
But I could say that with many of these women, they have to believe that they do have some power.
But you know, it's easy for me to say if you're supporting three kids at home, you're working a 12 hour day in a menial job, they really need the work.
I've been there where I've shut my mouth because I really needed to make the paycheck.
So, watch.
Let me go back.
If there's no human resources department, you're in a small little business, so no one's watching that for you, what do you do?
Well, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, you have a right to be free from discrimination based on your sex.
It's not just religion and age and race, but sex as well.
And the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency where you can file a claim if you feel that you have a good claim to make.
And you can do it without a lawyer, you can do it online, but you have to do it within six months.
You've got 180 days in most cases to file a claim.
So, you don't have to have money to do it.
You don't need a lawyer to do it to at least preserve your rights.
So, that's one avenue.
Well, what if your boss finds out?
Your boss finds out you're going to lose your job?
They're going to find out.
But wouldn't you lose your job right away?
Well, you shouldn't because retaliation, you're calling it retribution.
Retaliation is what the law calls it, is also illegal.
But again, it's a process, and you might not win.
There'll be an investigation.
Your boss is going to find out.
There are risks involved, but there is an avenue to take.
Now, some states have laws that also protect you in the workplace.
So, I recommend that you talk to a lawyer in your state.
And you don't have to have money to talk to a lawyer either, because many will do a free consultation.
Let you know what your rights are in your state and what path you should take.
Just to echo what Barbara's saying, I would think most women will be intimidated from taking steps.
Does it matter if you have a friend that feels the same way you do?
So both of you do it together.
Is it harder to ignore two people coming out and saying the same thing about a work environment or workplace?
Yes.
The short answer is yes.
And there is strength in numbers.
And we see the snowball effect of all these women coming out.
We saw that happen with Bill Cosby.
There's strength in numbers.
It's not a number, it's usually not that big.
Elia's Botulism Honey Mystery00:10:22
It starts with right.
It's very important.
One brave soul may be talking behind the scenes with a second brave soul.
I'm just giving you some free advice out here, but it may make sense.
Maybe the first step is to see who else is sort of feeling the same vibes because you're probably not alone.
Most of these predators aren't going to go off, they're just one prey.
They're going to just keep going.
And so there's going to be more than just you.
We found that almost every one of these cases.
You know, another thing you need to do is you need to keep a record of it, you need to take contemporaneous notes of what's happening.
Very important.
What happened?
What are the witnesses that may have been there?
Where it happened?
And also any sort of employment memos or evaluations to show you're doing a good job.
That if you were to lose your job, it's not because you were falling down on the job, it's because it was retaliation.
Barbara, high level, how is this current environment where sexual predators are being taken down going to affect the workplace?
I mean, be real about this.
I think it has definitely changed everything.
The lowest level for the woman who's cleaning the hotel room, etc., I think they, like you suggest, have to band together.
And I think there are unions that are banning them together, I believe, if I'm not mistaken.
But on an everyday level, I think women feel that they are more empowered because they have a say and they're not going to be written off.
I think it's made enormous change.
We're not going to go back.
I don't think you can be equal, right?
If you don't own your own body, as you pointed out.
That's one of the first steps.
Thank you for coming forward.
Pleasure.
I know this is out of the norm, but I appreciate it.
Again, shows you.
To be the person that you really are.
I'm just happy I'm the boss now.
Yes, for good reason, become a boss.
Thank you very much as well.
My pleasure.
Beth is going to share a one sheet to outline what your workplace rights are.
Print the darn thing out and share it with everybody.
It makes a difference.
We put some effort into it.
Put it on drraj.com.
And again, I want to thank both of you for being here.
We'll be right back.
She found the man of her dreams.
Everything was too good to be true.
But something just wasn't right.
He wanted to get married within the second date.
Then.
He tried to kill her daughter.
He was stabbing me.
Could you be dating a sociopath and not know it?
And conquering your fears to move forward.
You can't be creative if you're depleted.
Unlock the potential you didn't know you had so you can live the life you deserve.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Thursday.
Stomach pain, double vision, unable to breathe, and paralysis.
Imagine one bite of food leading to this cluster of symptoms.
Today, Medical Mystery Monday.
We're investigating a hidden bacteria in your food that hijacks the body and could lead to paralysis, respiratory failure, and yes, even death.
It could happen to anyone.
And it nearly took this child's life.
One night, Elia, an easy, fun loving baby, suddenly became disinterested in eating.
With no other troublesome signs or symptoms, the parents decided to ride it out.
But in a matter of hours, her body became completely lifeless.
Biologist Dan Riskin from Monsters Inside of Me joins us now with more.
So you investigated this frightening case.
What did the doctors do next?
So they'd ruled out a lot of common things that could cause these symptoms.
So now they had to look at rarer things, things like, Cancer or congenital problems, or even Guillaume Barre syndrome.
But even those tests came back negative.
And with every hour, Elia's condition is getting worse.
And the parents did not think their baby was ever coming home.
That's one of the things we come across on Monsters Inside Me all the time these parasites, these viruses, these bacteria that cause these diseases.
They occur in the United States every year, but they're rare.
And so you could go your entire career as a medical professional and never come across a case of it.
And so when you get presented with these symptoms, it's like a needle in a haystack to try to find what it is.
But in a case like Elia's, it's also a race against time.
And the father's a doctor.
So if he's not confident, he's got concerns that they're real.
Terrifying.
Fortunately, there was a big break in the case.
That's shocking to me.
That little movement of her tiny little toes is enough to rule out what they thought was the main possibility.
Isn't that interesting, guys?
I mean, I love it even at this stage of my career when a subtle little observation by a really good doctor changes everything because they couldn't have figured it out otherwise.
So what was really causing Elia's rapid deterioration?
Coming up, we reveal how doctors solve this medical mystery.
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The three best one-pen meals you can make in five minutes, probably.
A time-saving Dr. Oz.
That's coming up tomorrow.
We're back with Medical Mystery Monday.
Now, Elia was on the brink of death.
Little did her parents know that she was battling a lethal toxin.
It's something that can happen to anyone.
And Elia's family was about to find out what it was because doctors diagnosed her with botulism.
So, where's Elia today?
Well, Elia and her parents, Tim and Emily, are all here via Skype.
Thank you for joining us.
Elia looks so cute.
How are you doing?
Great.
Do you like playing with all your things in the house?
You have lots of good toys?
Yes.
What's your favorite toy?
My little pony.
And do you listen to everything your parents say to you, or do you sometimes want to do your own thing?
I sometimes do my own thing.
Well, you know what?
I am very happy.
I'm sure that you are able to do that.
Emily, how did you ever, ever figure out how Elliot contracted this deadly bacteria?
They never did.
The CDC tested our soil.
They tested our honey.
Of course, one of my first thoughts was, what did I do?
Where did I take her?
What did I give her?
And they tested everything and they couldn't find it.
So they said 80% of the time, we'll never know where she got it, that she most likely ingested a dust particle that contained the botulinum spore about three weeks before it took over her body.
That took some detective work.
Tim, what do you want families?
You're a doctor and you live this personally.
What do you want families in America to know about botulism?
Sure.
So the signs can be very nonspecific, and you just have to keep an ear to the ground and keep your eyes open and your mind open.
I think the big picture for me was medically, I was not sure what was going on.
I wasn't sure if this was a normal routine virus type thing, but I trusted Emily Scott.
She was pretty darn sure something was, you know, very wrong.
So listen to her.
She knew her daughter better than, you know, any doctor could know her, and we kind of followed that lead, and that led to the right diagnosis and the right treatment ultimately.
Well, God bless them for figuring it out.
Elliot, do your parents kiss you a little too much sometimes?
Yes.
That shows they're good parents.
Thanks for all of you making time to be with us today.
Good luck, Tish.
She's beautiful.
Biologist Dan Riskin is back with more about this mysterious bacteria.
That is an unbelievable story, isn't it?
So I'll come back to this dust particle, which scares me.
I didn't realize this before the show.
There are more than 100 cases of botulism just in this country.
And you can figure out from that story that a lot of people never, never understand that's what really went down with them.
Yeah.
So walk us through the more typical ways we get botulism, and then we'll come back to this dust.
Yeah, it can be just pure bad luck, but there are some things that can lead to botulism.
One common problem is people that can their own food and don't do it properly.
The bacteria can grow in the foods that are rotting in that jar, and then when you eat it, you get that toxin.
Sometimes foods you buy at the store, it's very, very rare, but it does happen that sometimes there's an outbreak because of canned foods or juices.
But one of these foods is different from the others, and that's honey.
And what's interesting about honey is that the bacteria doesn't grow in the honey, but the honey's sticky.
And it can capture those dust particles that are so dangerous.
And so, what will happen is if people give honey to, say, a baby, it's giving them the spores that that honey collected.
And so, the CDC recommends that you never give honey to a baby under the age of one.
Yeah, and it's interesting, I didn't really know that much about this botulism issue with honey.
I knew that was the reason, I just didn't think it was all that common.
But let me explain to you all just what happened.
Because just this year, two families contracted this same botulism from a park in California, and the cause really was dirt from a nearby construction site.
It was widely reported.
But let me actually then come back, we'll do it together.
Let's trivial on what really happens.
So, let's say that you eat something that has botulism in it, right?
That's sort of obvious.
But if you take the honey or if you ingest dust from playing in a park, that particle of dust, the material goes down into your gut, and the botulism, right?
It actually travels through the intestines where all these villi, these like a rug, are there.
And the bacteria, they're green little things, they come down, they stick.
And when they stick, they begin to grow within this rug and they release their little toxins.
And those toxins go up into the body and they block the communication between your nerves and your muscles.
When your nerves can't tell your muscles to move, You get paralyzed head to toe.
Remember that.
Remember, head to toe.
Being able to move your toes was not consistent with the other diagnoses, but it happens with botulism.
So, Dr. Dan, what are the most common signs that people should look out for?
Well, so in a baby, what you're looking for is it does start in the face, right?
So, droopy eyes, but also a loss of appetite, a constipation, and a strange sort of low cry.
And, you know, you're a dad, I'm a dad, you know your kid, you know they're making these milestones.
If suddenly you realize they've taken two steps back and it just doesn't seem right, You got to trust your gut.
And ultimately, that was what saved Elia.
The thing that I will never forget is when, you know, you all know when your kids can first move their heads and lift their heads up, right?
We've all been there.
Sometimes it's when they're first born, sometimes it's three weeks later.
But if they can hold their head up and then one day they can't anymore, that, that's something that should wake you up to botulism.
Missing Teens and Police Assumptions00:11:30
Remind people if they're not telling you that's a possibility.
For more medical mysteries, watch the great show Monsters Inside, made Sunday nights on Animal Planet.
We'll be right back.
Do a great job.
It's Monday.
Up next, we're investigating an under the radar crime that's going to make you angry the rise of missing black teens in our nation's capital.
And these cases are going unnoticed and unsolved.
Mother Speaks Out.
That is next.
Today, I'm signing the alarm on an under the radar crime that's going to make you angry.
Dozens of teens going missing, parents desperately searching for their children, and no one is paying attention.
Where is this happening?
Yes, sure, there are isolated disappearances spread across the country.
But today, we're talking about a shocking number of cases concentrated in the shadows of our nation's capital.
Who is missing?
Black teens.
And why are these cases not getting the attention they deserve?
Investigative correspondent Tia Brown joins us now.
And I remind you all, our nation's capital is the most guarded place in this country.
So, how can so many black teens go missing in such a small area, such a small city?
How can it be unnoticed?
That's the problem, Dr. Oz.
We don't know.
African Americans make 13% of the population, but they're 40% of those who are missing.
40%.
And like you said earlier, many of these cases are classified as runaways.
And you know what happens when you're classified as a runaway?
No one investigates.
You're not a victim.
So these children, these families are robbed of the opportunity to be served and protected.
So when we hear terms like Black Lives Matter, these are one of the things that we're talking about, being protected and being served.
And you know, the bigger thing that happens when no one's looking for you, it's a better opportunity for predators.
They know that if they take a black young male, a black young girl, no one's coming to look for them.
It's a problem.
So on today's True Crime Tuesday, what's happening to the missing black teens in Washington, D.C.?
Take a look.
It's a parent's worst nightmare.
Your child is missing, possibly taken, harmed, exploited, or abused.
And for minority communities in the Washington, D.C. area, it appears to be a troubling and disproportionate trend.
African Americans account for almost one-third of all missing person cases.
And the most shocking statistic of all, of the current cases that remain open in the metropolitan D.C. area, a staggering 60% are of black juveniles.
Raising the concern and question, why do so many young black teens go missing in D.C.?
To help us investigate it, we've teamed up with the founders of the Black and Missing Foundation, sisters in law, Natalie and Derrick Wilson.
So, Natalie, the D.C. community is outraged, not surprisingly, but you argue this is perhaps more of a systemic issue.
What do you mean by that?
Absolutely.
And it's not only in the D.C. area, but it's around the country.
For the last nine years, Derrick and I have been sounding the alarm.
That people of color are going missing at an alarming rate.
Last year alone, there were more than 240,000 people of color going missing, and that's about 600 people a day.
So there are many reasons why people are going missing.
We do know that sex trafficking of our young girls and our boys is an issue, and we think that it's happening abroad, but it's happening in our backyards.
Derek, walk me through that.
Why do you fear that's what's really going down here, that these kids are being targeted for sex trafficking?
Well, human trafficking is a multi billion dollar industry that's happening right here on U.S. soil.
And in the metropolitan area, Maryland is number five in the country where these kids, boys and girls, are being lured into human trafficking.
And so we can't honestly say that's the case with all of these particular cases, but it is happening and they are being victimized and targeted because no one is looking for them.
So, what do we need to do now to bring these kids home?
Well, one, we need to start having these conversations and we need to pay attention to what our children are doing.
Who they're talking to online.
When we think of a predator, we think that someone is snatching them in a white van, and that is happening.
But a lot of our children are being lured online.
They think that they're talking to someone their age, and this person is grooming them, and they're being abducted.
So I wanted to hear from what the police say.
So we reached out to the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and here's what they said in part they close more than 99% of their missing person cases in a short amount of time.
And they went on to say they are committed to ensuring that each case receives the same level of police service and exposure.
Up next, the mother of a black teen who went missing is speaking out why she says her daughter was targeted for a sex ring.
Stay with us.
She found the man of her dreams.
Everything was too good to be true.
But something just wasn't right.
He wanted to get married within the second date.
Then he tried to kill her daughter.
He was stabbing me.
Could you be dating a sociopath and not know it?
Conquering your fears to move forward.
You can't be creative if you're depleted.
Unlock the potential you didn't know you had so you can live the life you deserve.
All new Oz.
That's coming up on Thursday.
We're back asking the question why are so many black teens going missing in Washington, D.C.?
And why aren't these cases getting the attention that they deserve?
So Brandy's joining us now.
Her daughter, Kennedy, went missing.
And unlike so many, thankfully, she was found.
But her story may help us piece together what's really happening out there to find out if these cases are connected in any way.
So, thanks for coming to share your story with us.
Thank you for having me.
When did you first realize that your daughter was missing?
When she didn't come home from school.
And my husband and I went looking for her, went to the school and went to the police station.
And they said, well, go home, we'll send a school police to your house, being that she didn't come home from school.
School police came, and then my case got transferred to Baltimore City Police.
And then the FBI got involved.
The FBI?
Mm hmm.
For missing kids.
And what do they say to you?
You know, I kind of felt as if she was being depicted as just like a normal runaway.
She was 16.
Although she has autism, she was treated like, oh, she's smart, she knows what she's doing.
And I kept expressing to them that my daughter is not a street kid.
She's not familiar with her surroundings.
She's very.
Vulnerable.
She trusts a lot of people and she met someone online and someone picked her up from school.
Did you know that it happened at the time?
I didn't know she was communicating with anyone online because I had confiscated her phone, iPads, laptops when I saw it wasn't being properly used.
But she was using other people's devices at school.
You said she was using other people's devices.
Tell us more about how she went missing and what happened while she was gone.
Well, she again didn't come home from school.
Someone picked her up, and she was in from Baltimore County, Maryland to Prince George's County to DC.
She said she had seen other girls where she was.
And she endured a lot.
She definitely was a victim of sex trafficking.
She's definitely not the same person she was when she left.
I know that has to be hard on you and her.
Absolutely.
Tell us what's that like knowing that your daughter went through such a trauma and you did too?
I beat myself up because I felt like a failure as a parent because my job is to protect your child.
And I just felt like I didn't do just that.
So it is hard.
We're coping.
And I value all the time that I do have with her.
And you should be proud of yourself because you fought to protect her.
Absolutely.
We can't always control what happens, but we can control our response.
Right.
And you deserve so many kudos for going after her and protecting her.
Thank you.
So we invited Kennedy to be here today, but understandably, she's still traumatized.
I don't want her to be hurt any further.
She's not going to be joining us.
Right.
From your perspective, how is she doing?
We have our good days and our bad days.
She's very antsy.
She's.
Just on edge a lot.
So she, it's really hard.
Again, we take one day at a time because I still want her to establish normalcy as a teenager.
Can I go back to law enforcement for one second?
Sure.
How long did it take for them to realize she just was not a runaway kid, but actually had probably been kidnapped?
Probably after maybe four days.
Four days?
Yeah.
Four days, eternity.
Right.
I didn't get a press conference until that Sunday.
Kennedy was found that Monday.
So.
Wow.
And that shows the importance of taking the issue public.
Right.
And I know you say that you believe race played a factor in the delay and the support that you received from the police department.
Tell us about that.
I just felt like she was just depicted as a runaway.
I expressed to them, we have a decent family life.
It was nothing alarming going on.
Again, I didn't know she was communicating with people online.
I don't know what kind of things they put in her head to say, go ahead and do it.
I'm going to pick you up.
So, I just think that she was just mentioned like she was just a kid that just ran away.
And that just wasn't the case.
And so, when we say runaway, to make it clear to everyone, when someone is categorized as a runaway, they look at it as a choice.
So, they're no longer a victim.
There's no effort to put into saving them, into finding them, into helping them.
And then the family is left to just figure things out on their own.
Absolutely.
What's your message for all the other moms out there?
You mentioned your daughter saw other children who'd been kidnapped.
They were probably assumed to be runaways, too many of them.
Especially, I'm learning today if they're African American.
So, what's your message?
To advocate for your kids, you have to continue to just fight for them because nobody else is going to be their voice.
And I stand true to that with my children.
So, I want everyone right now to stop what you're doing just for one second and take a long look at this picture.
And then look at this picture.
In fact, look at all these pictures.
These are just some of the many young people who are missing and not getting the attention they deserve.
This could happen to anybody's child in any town or any city in this country.
So I want you to remember that as we fight to get our kids safe again.
So I want to thank my guests.
I appreciate very much that you've done your part in getting the story out and get the attention that this story deserves, despite the pain it may cause you to revisit these issues.
God bless you.
For more information on the Black and Missing Foundation, go to drrides.com.
I'll be right back.
A beauty queen vanished.
Now, see how a podcast ignited new interest in a cold case.
and led to arrests.
John Meehan's Violent History00:01:23
All new Oz.
That's coming up next week.
On this Thursday's true crime, could it happen to you?
We're asking the question could you marry a dangerous sociopath or psychopath and not know it?
It happened to Deborah Newell after she met John Meehan online, and he seemed to be the man of her dreams.
At 59, Deborah Newell, divorced and single, turned to a dating site.
That's where she met John Meehan.
His profile described him as a Christian divorced physician.
Smitten, John and Deborah wed in a secret ceremony just two months after their first date.
Deborah felt she'd married her Prince Charming.
She was wrong.
John Meehan was not the man he claimed to be.
He was an unemployed grifter who'd been in prison numerous times.
He had a violent history of abusing women, drugs, and the law.
He also had a nickname.
Name, Dirty John.
They feared he was capable of killing them.
They were right.
Deborah's story was documented in the viral podcast, Dirty John, that terrified women across America.
This Thursday, Deborah is here speaking out exclusively.