Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100301

good morning, total despair -- the death toll from the massive earthquake in chile climbs above 700 as rescue crews brave aftershocks to search for survivors. hockey night in canada -- >> scores! it's over -- the gold medal to canada! >> team canada knocks off the u.s. in overtime to win gold in men's hockey. thrilling the host country, as it says good-bye to the world in a star-studded closing ceremony. and the brad 23fords are ba they filled our hearts with love in the '70s, now for the first time in 20 years, the cast of "eight is enough" is back live for a reunion today, march 1st, "eight is enough" is back live for a reunion today, march 1st, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, welcome to "today" on a monday morning, i'm matt lauer. >> and i'm meredith vieira. we have two and a half weeks, two-plus weeks that were great in vancouver, but it is so good to be home. >> it was nice to get home over the weekend. it was nice to set the alarm for normal hours this morning. kind of the middle of the night. >> did you oversleep this morning? >> no, no problems. >> i did a little bit. we're going to talk about the closing ceremony, which i watched on tv, which was terrific. and we're following latest on saturday's 8.8-magnitude earthquake in chile. >> the latest this morning, the country's president has called it a catastrophe of unthinkable magnitude as the death toll has soared to at least 708. at least half a million homes have been destroyed or damaged, leaving some two million people homeless and the first international relief aid arrived on sunday. much-needed supplies that can't get to victims fast enough. as we said, an curry has made her way to chile, we'll get her report in a couple of minutes. an unusual concession in the disappearance of alabama team, natalee holloway who vanished in a class trip to aruba in may of 2005. in an interview that aired last night, joran vander sloot has a new story, claim that he dumped her body in a swamp. why has he not been arrested. and tragedy for the osmond family, we'll have the details on the suicide of marie osmond's 18-year-old son over the weekend. but we begin on a monday morning with the devastating earthquake in chile, an curry is in santiago this morning, ann, good morning. >> earthquake was the most powerful in a century. described as more than 500 times the strength of haiti's earthquake and strong enough to be felt 1800 miles away. more than 700 people are known dead and the number is expected to rise. one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded has devastated chile for hundreds of miles. half a million buildings severely damaged or destroyed. an unknown number of people buried alive. ground zero, near chile's second-largest city of concepcion, 200 miles south of the capital. this man is saying, we thought we would die, i heard my friends scream and i opened a door and the building just dissolved around us and we fell. rescuers are using ladders and ropes, risking their own safety, as more than 90 aftershocks so far rattled nerves in santiago. >> it's a mortal trap for the firemen that are venturing into the debris. and people are still camping out in the city of a million and a half. >> the quake dealt a massive blow to chile's infrastructure, roads cracked and buckled, cars tossed like toys. bridges gone, crippling transportation. frustration is growing, as people are increasing will he desperate for food. police used teargas and water cannons to disperse crowds at a supermarket sunday. >> people really desperate and crying. and asking and begging for food and water for their kids. even until they were stealing. >> amateur videos are starting to surface showing what happened at 3:34 a.m. saturday. when the 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit. one shows the moments after tsunami waves hit a town. this man says a carnival in the town was under water within minutes. up and down the coast, towns are described as having disappeared from the map. about 90% of the town of kuraco's historic center has been destroyed. the president michelle bachelet called it a catastrophe of unthinkable magnitude and said chile welcomes international aid, especially rescue teams and field hospitals. the good news, if there's any to be had here, is that this quake was 21 miles deep, which makes it less destructive than it could have been. secretary of state clinton, who was scheduled to be here already, is now still trying to get here tomorrow. from santiago chile, now back to you, matt. >> ann curry, thank you very much. paul simons is the u.s. ambassador to chile and is with us by phone from santiago. ambassador simons, good morning to you. >> caller: good morning, matt. >> talk to me a little about communications, what are you hearing or not hearing from the hardest-hit areas? >> caller: well, matt, this is really something like a tale of two earthquakes. here in the santiago metropolitan area, things are returning fairly quickly to normalcy. the government is up and running, the stock market is going to be open today, we've been able to account for all of our american and chilean employees. we've been working 24/7 to make sure they're all safe and sound and i'm pleased to report that we have found them all. but down in the epicenter area, in the concepcion area, there's still very little information. and we've set up a consular operation center that's working 24/7 to try to determine the whereabouts of the approximately 1,000 americans who may be in the concepcion area. >> president obama has said we are here to help. but ambassador seemeimons, what the chilean government asked for? >> we're 48 hours into the crisis. and yesterday afternoon, president bachelet, after meeting with her team, did indicate, gave a speech in which she made two announcements that were quite important. first she declared a state of emergency in the affected area. which enabled the military and police to step up operations. to get a handle on public security. but secondly, she opened up an openness to accept international support. as president obama indicated in his conversation with president bachelet, we want to be as helpful as possible. >> and quickly, the americans were so generous with an outpouring of support for the haitian people following a severe earthquake in that country. so for americans watching and listening who want to do something to help, what would your best advice be, ambassador simons? >> well certainly the red cross has opened up a website where donations can be made. that would be one option. and there are other nongovernmental organizations that are beginning to open up for contributions. i think the important thing is to stick to reputable entities. >> all right. all right, paul simons, we wish you luck. i know you're very busy and i thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you very . >> and for more, here's meredith. >> luke mesher, an exchange student from iowa was sitting in bed when the quake hit. he joins us by skype from his apartment in santiago. good morning to you, luke. >> good morning. >> let me start with the beginning of this earthquake. it's 3:30 in the morning. you're on the ninth floor of a 20-storey building living with a host family and i think you're on the computer, the electricity goes out and the windows start to rattle. then what happens? >> then the entire room around me obviously started shaking rather violently. and i live with a host family, so my host mom, she kind of came running out of her room and was obviously pretty panicked. and i just made a quick grab for my head lamp that i happened to have nearby because it was completely dark obviously. and my only instinct was to just get out of the building. having heard about plenty of other earthquakes, similar, you know intensity. i just thought i could not be in this massive apartment building. >> how frightening was this for you, like? >> it was pretty scary. i was more focused on just, okay, it's time to get out. i don't know how serious it's going to be. but i need to go. because my host family was more panicked about it, i felt like i had step into the role of hey, we don't have time for this, we need to go right now. >> you had to walk down nine stories, right? >> it's like, about like eight flights, i'm actually on the seventh floor. but there's an extra level on the ground floor. >> did everybody get out of the building, as far as you know? >> right after we had gotten most of the residents were outside. there were a couple of reports of a couple of families who were more or less stuck or their door was wedged, like way up in the 13th and 14th floor, they got out eventually. the building itself, obviously, my building did not come down. but they were, they were able to get out of their apartment eventually. >> once outside, luke, did you see a lot of damage around you? >> in my immediate area, no. i mean there was a few, you know, some cracks in some walls obviously, some broken windows and more just like topical kind of stuff. in my particular part of the city, no, there was no building that came down around here. that's more in the central part of santiago. >> i know there have been a lot of aftershocks, how unnerving has been that been for you? >> it's pretty strange. i've almost become used to it. there's been apparently 60 or 70 aftershocks at this point. so there's a really large one about an hour after the first one happened. so i was ready to exit immediately again. we had stayed outside for just over an hour, just after we returned inside finally, another pretty sizeable one happened. and i jumped out of bed once again and was ready to take off, but otherwise, you know, they've been coming around probably once every couple of hours. >> and very, very quickly before i let you go. i understand your parents spoke with you and asked you to come home and you said -- >> they didn't exactly ask me to come home, they wanted to know what my thoughts were. i'm here, taking some classes and i need to finish what i'm doing here, i think, things are going to be in santiago, they're in much better situation than they are further south, obviously. >> luke mesher, thank you for your time this morning. we're glad you're safe. >> thanks a lot. let us get a check of the rest of the top stories of the morning. natalie's over at the news desk while ann is traveling in chile. >> good morning, everyone. we begin with the rising death toll in europe. a violent storm that lashed into coastal regions on sunday has left more than 50 people dead. most of those killed were in western france. when hurricane-force winds slammed into coastal towns and massive floods destroyed homes. rescuers in helicopters are going house to house now, some one million homes are affected. french president nicolas sarkozy, is visiting the region today. bag in the u.s., more than 200,000 people still without power across the northeast three days after the major storm. some cities were hit with more than two feet of snow and wind gusts of up to 90 miles per hour. the white house is signaling that democrats may have to go it alone on health care reform and push for a vote along party lines. nbc's white house correspondent savannah guthrie is in washington, we'll hear more about this from the president this week? >> that's right, natalie. probably wednesday, we'll hear how the president sees health care reform will get across the finish line. it looks to be a democrat-only process. a two-step process. first because the senate has lost the super-majority of democrats, the house will have to pass the bill that the house passed back in december when they did have the 60 votes. then the senate would pass a series of narrow fixes, which only require as simple majority. but it's very controversial. republicans say that's ramming it through, democrats say it's only a narrow set of fixes that they need to do via this simple majority vote. either way it will be controversial and it's not at all certainly, natalie, that democrats have the votes to det get it done. in the afghan city of kandahar, two bombings killed six people, including civilians and a nato soldier. a suicide bomber targeted a nato convoy. a separate bombing targeted the city's main police station. a north carolina mother has been charged with child abuse and murder after two of her four children, a 1-year-old and 2-year-old, were killed in a house fire sunday. police say she left them home alone. today, the supreme court is hearing arguments in an appeal by former enron ceo, jeffrey skilling. the high court is considering whether a law used to convict skilling is unconstitutionally vague. he's convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy in 2006 for his role in enron's collapse. wall street watching a big deal involving insurance giant aig. melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange. does that mean that aig is going to be paying back the government? >> part of what it owes. aig is selling its asia unit to prudential. the u.s. government would get the first $16 billion in proceeds from the sale. this would be the biggest repayment yet towards the $180 billion the u.s. government sank into aig in order to bail it out. we should note the asian insurance unit is considered aig's top business and it's also one of the oldest, founded back in 1919. but yes, the u.s. government looks to get some of its bailout money back. >> melissa lee at the new york stock exchange, thank you. and more than 5,000 people got down to the bare essentials at the sydney opera house today in australia. that's why we're showing you the wide shot. they posed for more than an hour in the buff for a photo shoot by photographer spencer tunic, known for his nude photos. no close-ups, >> he explained it very well, just a little bit of light accumulation. more of a wintry mix by midweek. today, gorgeous. partly cloudy and mostly sunny skies. we will see the first that's your latest weather. matt? entertainer, marie osmond is in seclusion this morning, following the tragic suicide death of her 18-year-old son, michael. nbc's george lewis has the latest. >> reporter: a sidewalk memorial, with one word "faith." marks the place where michael blosol. the son of marie osmond, he leao his death friday note. >> in a suicide note he said he was going to take his life because he had lost all hope. >> reporter: in 2007, marie osmond admitted on "larry king live" that her son had gone to rehab for unspecified reasons. >> we know that your son has gone to rehab. >> reporter: marie osmond and her us wife had eight children. five were adopted. beginning in the '70s, marie became a star at a young age appearing with her brother, donny. >> my sister deserves the very, very best. that's why i work with her. >> reporter: in a statement released by her publicist. marie osmond is quoted as saying, my family and i are devastated and in deep shock by the tragic loss of our dear michael and ask that everyone respect our privacy during this difficult time. >> the last few years for marie have been very traumatic. she's dealt with the death of her father, she's dealt with a divorce from her second husband. and now this, the suicide of her son. it's just got to be devastating for her. >> reporter: for "today," george lewis, nbc news, lossing an los angeles. the 21st olympic winter games officially came to an end last night in vancouver. and what a sendoff, a fantastic closing ceremony, just hours after an overtime hockey thriller between the u.s. and canada. lester holt is at the international broadcast center in vancouver. lester, good morning to you. >> meredith, good morning. you can see the cauldron dark behind me after 17 days. the olympics did come to a close last night after a sunday that kept this city riveted. if canada could have written a script for the vancouver games, this is how it would have ended. crosby scores! >> with tradition, national pride and oh, yes, gold on the line. the canada men's overtime hockey viktctory over the u.s. providea dramatic finish to the 2010 games and sent a hockey-loving nation into the streets. the emotion of the day capped by a rousing colorful closing ceremony. it included a parade of homegrown celebrities. >> you come to vancouver, you spend time among us, you competed on the world stage here in canada and that makes you canadians, too. >> vancouver passing the olympic flag to sochi, russia, which will host the next winter olympics. >> i declare the 21st olympic games closed. >> the games will be remembered for athletes who raised the bar in their sports to unheard-of heights. from an american flying tomato. >> shaun white. >> to the epitome of grace on ice from korea. >> the death of georgian luger, nodar kumaritashvili, reminded us all that these extraordinary athletes balance on a razor's edge, while joannie rochette, who went forward just days after the sudden death of her mother, proved that all strength is not physical. the u.s. led with a medal count of 37. but canada had the most gold, with 14. >> these 2010 vancouver games, make no mistake, have been by and for canadians. the rest of the world was here, but this was pretty much a canadian party. >> still, team usa had plenty to celebrate. >> skate of his life. >> virtually every american who came here with high hopes delivered. from vonn and bode. to shani and apolo, who now has a record eight career winter medals. >> have you made a decision as to whether this is it for the olympics? >> as an athlete and as a competitor, you never want to say never. >> the olympic flame is now out. but apolo and his american teammates will bask in its historic glow for a lifetime. in all, nine of the u.s.'s 37 medals were gold. 15 silver and 13 bronze. and meredith, by the way, only 879 days until the london summer games. >> oh, yeah. >> still getting over vancouver, which was great. this isn't quite as dramatic as the fire in grouse mountain. >> the smoke is coming right at us. >> i thought that the whole weekend doing laundry, just trying to get the fire smell out of my clothes. >> this is like a hibachi compared to the olympic flame. >> you know what i did on saturday? >> what? >> i went out and bought snowshoes. we have at least two feet of snow. i went out in the back yard for about an hour. >> it's very hard to find snowshoes in the city. >> the people of canada showed they had a good sense of humor in the closing ceremony with kind of lifting up the final leg of the flame in the opening ceremony, a clown doing it, and it came up fine this time. and boy, how excited must have all the canadians been in that arena after the hockey game. >> it was like a scripted ending. and it was a great game. >> and the last part of the ceremony, it was almost like they were staging their own macy's thanksgiving day parade. >> but just to see the people out on the streets right after the game, i mean it was crazy. >> and i actually got excited about sochi. when they handed the flag over to the mayor. it was kind of cool. much more ahead on a monday morning. >> there is a plate of homemade wishes on the kitchen windowsill. the cast of the classic sitcom, "eight is enough," together again live in our studio for the first time in over 20 years, but first, it's "today" on some people say i'm obsessed with my chickens. but i like to think i'm just going beyond the call of duty. cock-a-doodle-do. i do 22 more inspections than the government requires. and my fresh, all-natural chickens are never given any hormones or steroids. they're raised cage-free and fed an all-natural diet of corn, soybeans, and marigolds. and no candy, gladys. (announcer) perdue. extra inspections. extraordinary chicken. what-- they're more comfortable. just ahead, an amazing story, the whistleblower in bernie madoff's ponzi scheme will be with here to tell us why he says he was prepared to kill the now-disgraced stockbroker. >> plus a strange confession of the prime suspect in the 2005 disappearance of alabama teen natalee holloway. with 3 grams of fiber. loops now fiber makes your tummy happy so it can absorb the good stuff you need, which your mom is gonnlove. it does taste great. fiber is a great way to start your day. i can never read these things. kellogg's froot loops, apple jacks, and corn pops! cereals, now provide fiber. kellogg's makes fiber fun. >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am stan stovall. time for the morning commute with sarah caldwell. >> not too bad as far as delays. we have a few incidents to report. accident in howard county. we are seeing volume-related delays in the normal spots. southbound 95 out of the northeast from white marsh down, and the northeast outer loop having towards providence. if you are traveling south on the j.f.x., 55 miles per hour, but the west side is filling up quickly. average of about 21 miles per hour. we're looking at about an 18- minute travel time on the outer loop west side, 12 minutes on the northeast outer loop. let's give you a live view of traffic. pretty crowded. champac the southbound heading towards the beltway northeast. -- jammed packed southbound heading towards the beltway northeast. we want to let you know that and -- anne arundel county, this is shut down in both directions at eagle all about it due to an accident. >> starting at a new month today. nice sunshiny start. above freezing at the airport at 36. mid-30s on the eastern shore. as we look at the specifics, we will be in the mid-to-upper- forties today. a good dose of sunshine. change comes in and other coastal storm. it will not be as impactful for us. >> be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. our next live update at 7:55. people love 'em! gecko: yeah, thank you sir. turned out nice. boss: got another one for you. anncr: at geico.com, it's easy to get a free rate quote, manage your policy, make payments or even file a claim! boss: now that's a ringtone. gecko: uh yeah...it's interesting.... certainly not the worst ringtone i've ever heard... ♪ ringtone lyrics: a-ringedy- ding-ding-dingy-dong, ringedy-dong-ding-ding... ♪ gecko (to himself): yeah, that might be the worst. anncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. how about over here? hmm... let's go back to the left. uh... waffling is back at dunkin' donuts with the return of the waffle breakfast sandwich. two oven-toasted waffles with a hint of maple, complete with fluffy egg, a slice of melted cheese, and now with delicious sausage. so hurry in today because it's only around for a short time. america runs on dunkin'. try our oven-toasted waffle breakfast sandwich today, only at dunkin' donuts. checking out our plaza crowd waving hello to loved ones back at home and they're listening to the theme song of one of the most popular shows of the late '70s, "eight is enough." this morning, a real treat, the cast of the show together again. we'll talk to them and they'll answer your email questions in just a bit. it should be a lot of fun. i'm married mayor, alongside matt lauer. just ahead in this half hour, what really happened to natalee holloway. she vanished in 2005 during a trip to aruba and now the man who is considered the main suspect in her disappearance has changed his story about what happened. just ahead, what joran vander sloot said happened to the alabama team and reaction from natalee's family. and we'll talk to the man who first blew the whistle on bernie madoff's $60 billion ponzi scheme and he did it 10 years ago. harry marcopoulis said he was so concerned that bernie made ooff would kill him. he'll be here to share his amazing story. we begin with the tragic earthquake in chile. ann is in santiago, ann, good morning again. >> matt, we can't overstate how powerful this earthquake was, an 8.8 is really one of the most powerful earthquakes recorded in human history. we now know that more than 700 people have died. we don't know how high the number is going to rise, because there are a lot of buildings down that have not actually been approached yet. i want to give you a look at the local newspapers this morning. you can see from the front page of this newspaper, a photograph of a town that was hit with a tsunami. you get a sense of the devastation further south from where we are here in santiago. there are a lot of small towns on the way to concepcion. and that's where we believe that the epicenter was, the intensity was the highest. the epicenter was closest to. and here's another newspaper, that shows something else that's occurring here. and that is that the chilean military is now out, trying to control the streets, and prevent looting. we understand here in santiago, there actually is a curfew for this, it's difficult for people get out at night. and the reason for that is because there has been a lot of looting, a lot of people desperate for food. as the days progress, the desperation will continue to rise, in some places they've broken into places like supermarkets looking for food, matt. so it's getting to be a very difficult situation. as we've been reporting, the president is saying that she is now going to accept international aid. what they really need here are relief hospitals, field hospitals. because many of the hospitals here cannot handle the numb of people who are coming in for help. and part of the reason for that is because the hospitals themselves have been damaged. so now back to you, matt. >> ann, i want to ask you to clear something up. a lot of people at home might be wondering, we're hearing that this earthquake in chile was so much more powerful than the earthquake that struck haiti a couple of months agoth and yet, the damage is less severe. and i just wonder if maybe you could touch on that and explain that. >> sure. the reason for that, matt, a very good question. one factor, is that this earthquake, while it was 500 times the intensity of the haiti earthquake, it was also 21 miles deep. so the depth prevented some of the destruction. but also, chile is ready in a way that maybe many other countries are not. for a major earthquake. there was a major one, a 9.something in 1960. another major one in 1985. because it's very near this earthquake fault line. because of that, chile has required that its buildings being retro fitted. that they be earthquake-ready. that said, the building here behind me, was built five years ago, and as you can see, there's been major destruction here in this building. it's now unsafe, it's leaning off its foundation. no one, however, was killed there. so there are factors. chile is just much more ready than haiti was for an earthquake of any magnitude. and especially one of this particular magnitude. and that's why there are fewer deaths. but clearly, the numbers are going to go up, matt. >> ann curry, reporting live from santiago, chile, thank you very much. let us get a check now of the weather from al. >> the storm we were talking about over the weekend, the one that caused all the snow, still hanging around, won't go away, it's off the new england coast. coastal flood warnings, boston right now, high winds, a real mess, you can see the system backing up a little, but eventually moving off the coast, spreading rain along the southeastern atlantic coast, the northeastern atlantic coast. snow in northern new england. out west, things fairly quiet. we've got wet weather through the gulf coast. snow to the north and the central plains. >> hope you are doing well. it is actually going to be a beautiful day, with partly cloudy it to mostly sunny skies. winds brisk and out of the northwest at 10 to 20 don't forget, if i want to keep track of your weather all day, go to the the weather channel on cable or weather.com online. now to a strange new confession in the mysterious disappearance of alabama teen, natalee holloway. she vanished during a class trip to aruba in 2005. now the primary suspect in the case is speaking out in an interview that aired last night on dutch television. nbc's michelle kosinski is in amsterdam with more. michelle, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. this was surreal, seeing this play out on national television here last night. joran van der sloot giving an interview six months ago, to a buddy of his. claim now that natalee holloway suddenly fell off a balcony and that he disposed of her body. but he tells this tearful story, after failing an on-camera polygraph test. complete with soap opera-style scary music, some low-tech production values and the screaming headline -- "joran speaks" this was something we hadn't seen before. joran van der sloot, about a year ago, submitting to a professionally-administered polygraph test. >> are you involved in causing the death of natalee holloway? >> no. >> are you involved in the disappearance of natalee holloway in may 2005? >> no. >> reporter: but when asked if he met natalee, joran also answers no. he's been accused of deliberately trying to manipulate the results and is told, there is clear evidence he is lying. he denies that. and blows up. it was all arranged by this dutch reality tv show star, who calls himself, terror jaap. this is his website. the broadcast says a few months after the polygraph, jaap paid joran thousands of euros to sit down and talk. this is what happened. joran breaks down. claim that he and natalie went to the beach that night she disappeared. then to his friend's house. that natalee was drinking, using cocaine and dancing on this balcony. i wish i could turn back time, he says. i walked towards her. i thought i was going to hold her. i just feel as if it's my fault. at the moment when i held her, she fell off the balcony. in this new story and joran has told several, he emphasizes, she was 100% dead. at times, appearing to cry, joran claims he and his friend then placed natalie in a car. that there was a lot of blood. they put her body in this swamp. he says, i want to say i'm sorry to everyone. to my own parents. and the parents of natalee holloway. i hope they can find the heart to forgive me. prosecutors and police do not buy it. they say nothing adds up. that the railing is too high for natalee to fall over. that this supposed vehicle showed not a trace of blood. >> the way he is reacting, sometimes he doesn't know, huh? yeah. >> reporter: this is peter telling a friend about natalee having a seizure on the beach. viers were stunned that he said he disposed of her body, not knowing whether or not she was alive. >> he hates me. >> peter and his producer -- >> he needs to make it more interesting for the money. >> reporter: also do not like what they see here. >> why is he going to a person like terror jaap? why is he not going to the police? i think i know the answer. >> reporter: now the question is there, how much of this was actually set up by joran himself? even the polygraph? is it possible that he wants to appear as though you can't really trust anything he says? what we do know is he has told two stories in which he claims to have been present when natalee holloway died and he disposed of her body. the details of those two stories are completely different. but those factors remain the same. meredith? >> very bizarre, michelle kosinski, thank you very much. we're joined by joe tacopina, as well as natalee's uncle, paul reynolds. i'll start with you, your reaction listening to joran van der sloot, to this latest confession? >> this is the third recent confession that we've heard. once she was in the swamp, this time she's in the swamp. before he dumped her out on the ocean. >> after she supposedly had a seizure of some sort. >> right. the consistent thing is that joran was always there. he was always the person there. he was there the night that natalee disappeared. he was the last person seen with her. and beth was able to identify him and go to his house that day. very disappointing that the officials did not allow the police into the house so we could find out if possibly she was even there. >> joe, this is one more confession that the authorities don't buy. do you think that he's telling the truth this time? or is there any element of truth to what he's saying? >> none whatsoever, meredith. what you're seeing here and what you saw two years ago with peter devries and what you saw on another television network are television productions. >> is that why he hasn't been arrested? >> that's why the prosecutors are itching to arrest joran van der sloot for a fourth time an put him in jail, can't even use this, the times don't match, the known facts are inconsistent. the named witnesses deny even being there. there's no blood in the car, these are made-up stories that being being paid for. this producer went to joran and gave him money to tell a different story. if he told the same con dpegs that he told the other guy who gave him money, it wouldn't be a new story. >> why would joran van der sloot do this? >> i represent the criminal investigation and the civil litigation we got dismissed in the united states. i represented him then. i represented a different person. i think he needs help. he's not well, i don't think and when he first became in the spotlight, in the fore of all this, he was a young teenaged boy who was vilified. i believe wrongfully vilified. i don't believe he had anything to do with the disappearance. >> and paul, you disagree, you think he did have something to do with the disappearance. >> we completely disagree. joran was there. he's responsible. we think it's time for joran to come forward, do the right thing and tell the truth. >> let me ask you both, his father died a few weeks ago. his father was a lawyer in aruba and also some believe, hindered the investigation. now that he has passed, do you think that people will come forward? >> there's nothing, i assure you, there's been so many rumors about his father and about joran and so many false stories put out there. now by joran as well, there's absolutely no involvement by his father. there's no evidence by anything regarding his father. the investigators turned every grain of sand on the island upside-down. they searched the house, they took the ground and the pool apart to get under the land to see if there's anything there. there's no evidence. you can't just say he was involved. if the evidence says he wasn't. >> meanwhile, your niece has been gone for almost five years, so emotionally for you, this is very difficult. >> it's almost five years. natalee's friends have graduated college, they've started their careers. we need to find natalee. >> pawn reynolds, thank you very much. joe tacopino as well. up next, the death of a trainer at seaworld, the park holds its first show since the tragedy. ♪ where do gummy bears hide? under the seat. look! yeah! ♪ [ telephone rings ] [ male announcer ] the all new chevy equinox. 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[ female announcer ] we all love. ♪ we all share. ♪ we all create. ♪ and we all get dirty. try new and improved all with more cleaning ingredients. all's trusted, powerful stainlifters help get your whole wash incredibly clean. and costs up to 40% less than the leading brand. for all your laundry, it's all good. ♪ a little encouragement changes everything. molly es muy muy intelligente. and right now, hallmark's got a whole new way to do it. new gifts and cards to cheer on kids of all ages. come in and pick up a free card today. nine to choose from. only at your hallmark gold crown store. we're back now at 7:47, the seaworld trainer who died last week when a killer whale dragged her into its tank is being laid to rest today. nbc's tom trong is outside the park in orlando with the latest. tom, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning the funeral for the trainer, will take place later this morning in chicago. here at seaworld, officials are saying the show must go on. dirs the first shamu show since the death of dawn branchau. >> i want to be here to make sure this continues, it touched so many lives. i don't think there was a dry eye in the stands. >> reporter: the show took place three days after the trainer's death. seaworld's curator said this needed to help. >> we all were expecting to have a difficult time. but actually, this show inspired me again. it really, really made me think about why we do what we do. >> reporter: how they do it has changed. trainers are no longer allowed in the water with the whales. they maintain a safe distance during this weekend's show. >> we're not getting in the water with these be a malls, we will not get in the water with the whales, and we won't until we conclude our work and ascertain if there's anything to learn from here. >> the largest killer whale in act difficulty grabbed branchau by her pony tail and dragged her under water. >> it was not an attack. he had a novel object presented to him. he simply grabbed her hair and pulled her in. it's no more than that. >> reporter: these animals are one, if not the biggest money-makers for seaworld, a national for-profit business. and they take center stage in marketing seaworld's brand. because of tillican's breeding capabilities, the 12,000-pounder is reportedly worth millions more. but just like in the movie, "free willy" some activists are demanding seaworld to free tilly. seaworld said doing that would be a death sentence, since captive killer whales stand little chance in open water. the tillican will be featured in future shows. >> tham trong in orlando, thank you very much. just ahead, the man who discovered bernie madoff's $60 billion ponzi scheme ten years ago, but couldn't get authorities to do anything. kind of an exciting night. >> it is an exciting night. >> i like the promos "get back to where you once belonged." >> getting back to the studio where he once did the jay leno show. >> great guests. >> lindsey vonn. >> you can catch it 11:35, 10:35 central here on nbc. just ahead, a walk down memory lane with the cast of "eight is enough." they're going to reunite for us for the first time in two decades. unches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. unches of oats. we call the bunches in honey bunches of oats the prize in the box. well, now there's a prize inside the prize. pecans! pecans! baked into crunchy oat bunches. taste the delicious surprise in every spoonful. honey bunches of oats with pecan bunches. beautiful. sure, but let me get a little infortion first. for broccoli, say on for toys, say two. ys ! the system can't process your response at this time. what ? please call back between 8 and 5 ceral standard time. he's in control. gobye. even kids ow it's wrong to give someone the run around. at ally bank you never have to deal with an endless automated system. yocan talk to a real person 24/7. it's just the right thing to do. yocan talk to a real person 24/7. sweet n' sour filled twizzlers. the twist you can't resist. 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(announcer) for five generations, with a name like smucker's it has to be good. >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am stan stovall. >> two no accidents to add to the list, and both of them are affecting major road race. all lanes closed right now, and just pass the harbor tunnel toll plaza, another crash. the biggest impact being felt on the outer loop at 295. southbound 32, watch for some closures due to an accident. police activity at joppa road and pleasant plains road. on the outer loop north side, southbound j.f.x., slowing down just a bit, 45 miles per hour. this is backing up traffic on southbound 795. we can show you white marsh is filling up quickly, going away from us. sun glare is adding to the delays as well. outer loop of 21 and 95, all lanes remain closed. southbound 295 expressing delays exiting the outer loop as well. >> today is a nice day for us under the presence of high pressure. a storm is going to affect us by tomorrow night and wednesday. it is brewing down over texas. by tomorrow night, it will end up in our direction. we have the chance of a light wintry mix. no major accumulation. tuesday night through wednesday. today, plenty of sunshine. next weekend, looking great. >> as always, you can check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic information. (announcer) you can make a bigger difference in the world. you can make a positive change in your career. you can make a greater contribution to the greater good. and you can start today, by earning your degree online... at walden university. where advanced degrees advance the quality of life. 8:00 on this monday morning, the first day of march, 2010, it's a nice day here on the plaza, with a huge crowd of people gathered to say hi to the folks back home. we appreciate it very much. we're back in new york after two and a half weeks in vancouver. and we missed you people. we missed you a lot. nice to see you. out on the plaza, i'm matt lauer. along with meredith vieira and al roker and we're starting a special series here. we're reuniting some classic television families and kicking things off with the bradfords, the lovable families of from "eight is enough." it was one of the most popular shows, fans went through all of it with they will, the angst and the weddings, and together they're here with us for the first time in two decades, we'll catch up with them in just a moment. they look great. >> they look like they're in good shape and having fun. and also ahead, harry markopouls, this is the guy who tried to bring down bernie madoff a decade ago. he warned the s.e.c. not once, but four times. no one listened to him. parts of his story reads like a hollywood thriller. it's really amazing stuff. and a guy who is starring in some hollywood movies, mr. robert pattinson. [ cheers and applause ] >> okay, now they're warmed up. >> is stopping by -- robert pattinson! >> let me try this -- harry markopoulis -- >> robert pattinson. >> oh. >> before we go further, let's go inside for the top headlines of the morning from natalie who is in while ann is in chile this morning. officials in chile say the death toll is likely to rise after saturday's powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake, this as aid begins to pour into the nation and rescuers look for trapped survivors. ann curry is in santiago. ann, what are you seeing on the ground this morning? >> well you know, you can see from the building behind me, that there are scenes of devastation here in santiago, however, is not really where the serious damage is. it's really further south of where we are, in concepcion, around there, that is considered ground zero of this quake, which is an 8.8 magnitude, natalie. it's considered one of the strongest ever recorded. it downed bridges, it downed buildings, it downed roads. and the ensuing tsunami has wiped some towns off the map. people are increasingly desperate also. and on sunday, people were seeking food for their children. they looted a market and they were met with teargas and with water cannons. the president of chile says there's a major need for field hospitals here, for rescue teams. and we want to probably also mention to you something very interesting. the quake that struck here is called a mega-thrust quake, which means one part of the earth's plate defense underneath the other and that's what caused the tsunami and caused the violent shaking. the good news, however, is that the epicenter was 21 miles beneath the surface. and just offshore. so the devastation could have been much worse than it was. now back to you. >> ann curry, reporting there at santiago, chile, thank you. a suspect is now in custody this morning, arrested in the disappearance of a san diego teenager. nbc's miguel almaguer has the latest. >> reporter: police have arrested 30-year-old john albert gardner, a register sex offender in the disappearance of 17-year-old chelsea king. >> during the course of this investigation, evidence was discovered that linked gardner to miss king in such a manner as to warrant his arrest. >> reporter: over the weekend, searchers scoured the large recreation area in rancho bernardo, where chelsea, a long-distance runner, often went jogging. >> chelsea would frequently get off of school, go out and come out here frequently, change her clothes in the car, put on her jogging gear and then run four to six miles, what we're told. >> when chelsea went missing after going for a run last week, her parents put out a desperate and emotional plea for help. >> just help us get her home, okay? help us get her home. >> reporter: her car was found near the park with her cell phone inside. her father, brent king. >> within five minutes of me finding her car, i had this dread roll over me. and a dread of where's my daughter. and it hasn't subsided. >> it's going to be hard for us to go back to school this week if we don't find her. >> reporter: investigators hope that the arrest of gardner will lead them to find out what happened to chelsea king. miguel almaguer, nbc news, los angeles. flooding is a big concern this morning in southern california, on sunday, large waves and a strong high tide flooded part of the pacific coast highway in orange county. it is 8:05 right now. let's go back outside for more on the rest of your forecast with al. all right, thanks, natalie. and we've got another part of the rob pattinson contingent here. you came from florida. where did you come from? >> philadelphia. >> where are you from? >> new jersey. >> all right. just a few of the people who have come for rob pattinson. let's check your weather. pick city, temple, texas. nbc 6, it will be rain and cool, temperature, 51 degrees. week ahead, above-normal temperatures. and out west in the northwest, with rain along the coast, rain through the southeast as we get to the mid-week period, we're looking for light snow in the northeast. below-normal temperatures in the southeast. the latter part of the week, below-normal temperatures through the southwest and the southern atlantic state. looking for above-normal temperatures in the northeast and the great lakes. some more robert pattinson fans. and this lady told me earlier, >> first day of march, and a nice start. partly cloudy to mostly sunny. 45 to 49 is the temperature range, normal for this time of that's your latest weather, i consider you my boo. >> you were my boo before i was your boo. anyway, coming up, the cast from "eight is enough" reyou nights for the first time in 20 years. , one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots. ask your doctor about plavix. protection that helps save lives. people with stomach ulcers or other conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines including aspirin may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, may affect how plavix works. tell your doctor all the medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. but my allergies put me in a fog. so now, i'm claritin clear! claritin works great on all my allergies like dust, mold, pollen, or pets without making me drowsy, cause i want to be alert around this big guy. live claritin clear. indoors and out. 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[ female announcer ] splenda®. america's favorite no calorie sweetener. this morning we're kicking off a very special series, great tv families reunited. over the next week, we'll be bringing together the cast of some classic tv shows that you grew up with. we're starting with the bradfords of the classic tv show, "eight is enough." it was the late 1970s, the vietnam war had recently ended and the nation was still reeling from the watergate scandal. television was at a crossroad and people craved the stability of american family life. enter "eight is enough." the series focused on tom bradford, played by dick van patten and his eight children. david, the eldest, living on his own. mary, the brainy one, attending medical school. joanie, the artsy one. susan the tomboy, nancy, the pretty face, always searching for direction. elizabeth, the typical teenaged all-american girl. tommy, the rebill yus bad boy of the bradfords. and nicholas, the sweet-faced youngest of the clan. >> living in this family is like living in a small town. >> premiering in march of 1977, the show tackled the tough issues of sex, drug abuse and single parenthood. things that would have been taboo in primetime a few years earlier. >> david, this is beautiful. where did you find it? >> during production of the first season, actress diana hyland, who played their mother, joan bradford, passed away. with tom now a widower, he found love again with school teach ee abby, played by betty buckley. she married him during the second season. although the series rated in the top 20 throughout its run. "eight is enough" was canceled after its fifth season. as the staple of tv pop culture, the bradfords were able to perfectly mix the idyllic world inside their household with real-world problems. earning them a place as one of the great tv families. ♪ eight is enough to fill our lives with love ♪ >> and here they are for the first time as a cast in more than 20 years, let's bring them out one by one. beginning with dick van patten who played tom bradford, come on out, dick, have a seat. nice to see you. >> i watch you every morning, you're terrific. >> you're terrific, too. have a seat. >> betty buckley, who played abby, come on out, betty. >> nice to see you. have a seat. >> grant goodeve, the oldest son, david. nice to see you. laurie walters was joanie. good do see you. connie needham played elizabeth. you look like a flash from the past. and willie aames played the bad boy tommy. nice to see you, willy. and joining us from los angeles, diane kay who played nancy. good morning to all of you. look at the smiles on all of your faces, what is it like to be reunited here? >> i'm so happy to be with all of them again, i really mean it it's great. >> it's great. it's kind of a gift. we thank you for getting us all together. >> can you believe that it's been more than 20 years? >> it's been a while. >> it's been a while. >> they all look the same. >> and to think -- i look at you, dick, and i realize, having read the notes last night, what i didn't know before, was you were not the original choice. >> no. >> to play tom bradford. how did you convince the producers. >> they shot it for three days with someone else and freddy silverman, the head of abc and he looked at the rushes and said, get dick van patten. he's funnier. he has a funny bone. >> and you ended up, you're the dad with these eight kids, and at the time the show was filmed, they were kids. did you become a father figure with the cast. >> i was surrounded by all of these wonderful actors and they were all so natural. they never looked artificial when they were acting, they were real. so i think that's what made the show such a hit. their acting. i really mean that. the writer of the script did a wonderful job. >> connie, what was it like on the set? >> goodness -- it was a lot of fun. it was an awful lot of fun. i was just thinking of this one particular day when we had one of those hours and hours of dinner scenes. and -- we were getting really -- you know, a little annoyed. and a little frustrated. and you know, a little grumpy. and dick says to all of us, he says, you know, you're going to miss this, once it's taken away, you're really going to miss it. you're really lucky. >> and do you? >> i do. i do. >> i do, i do. >> i remember him saying that to us. >> grant, favorite moment, if there is one? >> my favorite moments were the times that i would do scenes with dick. who was the father figure, was much funnier than my own dad. to the point that we would get the giggles sometimes, the laughing and we would hold up production sometimes for half an hour because we couldn't gather ourselves. >> we couldn't look at each other with a straight face, we would laugh. >> and i secretly wished for that. it was so entertaining. >> will, you played the bad boy on the show. you know, the -- >> a troubled teenager. >> we were just talking about that backstage. and actually laurie was the one who brought it up. said, you laugh more these days, you were such a serious young man. and i guess i was. but i'm laughing now, we've been laughing all morning. >> you mean you -- personally were a serious young man when you were playing that role? >> i believe so. laurie, jump in. >> well, yeah it just seemed it me that it's a big burden. i mean connie and willy, maybe diane, no, not diane, but certainly adam, they were children, really. and it's enormous responsibility that they've had. and willy just seemed very serious and his work and his music and his career. and you know -- i was quite a bit older than him and in a certain way kind of the way older people are invisible to teenagers. that's how i felt with willy. so -- >> that's pretty accurate. >> and so i would watch him. >> not that anybody was invisible. but i was pretty focused. i hear diane laughing in the background. >> we're missing her. she is in l.a. is there anything you want to say, diane? jump in. >> hi everybody. i miss you. i'm warm and you're cold. >> thanks for pointing that one out. >> betty, it had to be hard for you. you came in in the second season, after diana hyland passed away. was it hard getting into this group. >> it was like being a real step mother. they had only shot six episodes, i believe, with diana, but the show was a huge hit. so they brought me in, i was the idea of brandon tartikoff, the associate to brent silverman, i had done a film "carrie" and they thought the character i played would be a nice prototype to come in and marry into the family. it was pretty uncomfortable, it was a bumpy ride for the first season. but things started to calm down in season two, and really fabulous in season three and four. >> adam rich could not be here, he played nicholas. and he did send a letter. he said although i may not there be in person, please know i'm there in spirit. i will always have a deep fondness for each of you in my heart. i consider it not only an honor, but a privilege to be a member of one of tv's greatest families. >> ah. >> he was the little one, the adorable kid, dick, what do you remember most about him, dick? >> people loved adam rich. he was named nicholas. people were naming their children nicholas. he was a big hit on the show. and he was largely responsible for the show being such a big hit. >> the show was a comedy and a drama and it dealt with a lot of issues that at that time, especially, it dealt with drugs, it dealt with sex. it dealt with a lot of heavy stuff. why do you think that you were able to do that? >> good writers. >> great writers. >> it was a real hybrid in that time period, because we were never really nominated for emmys. so i think we won the people's choice award every year because they couldn't figure out if we were a comedy or a drama, because we did it all and we covered every conceivable subject matter. >> you really did. how would you compare it with what's on primetime network television now? >> it seems so innocent, doesn't it? we were cutting-edge then. but what is cutting-edge now is very different. >> there were also issues behind the scenes. there was a certain amount of alcohol and drugs. willy, you've been open about it since then. >> sure. >> talk to me about what was going on a little bit behind the scenes. and what it's like for somebody to be a kid actor and then the show goes away? >> well you know, it was, it was the '70s. where weren't their drugs? there were as many here in new york as there were in l.a. and you could find the same thing in chicago. i think th thing that really happened in l.a. and what i've always said about it is it's not so much that it's different in that environment. you just have access to more when it's happening. and so i, i kind of see, see that whole environment as sort of like a small high school. you know, everybody knows what's going on. everybody is dating each other. and not for any other reason than its proximity. so i wouldn't say that anything was different on certain not on our set than any of the other sets that were going on. it wasn't as big a deal as maybe people want to make it out to be. >> that's true, i agree. >> i wasn't aware of -- i mean there was not really aware of anybody doing anything specific. it was just that we were all at work and the days were long. and you know, you know, it wasn't that apparent in any single way. >> yeah. >> it went completely over my head. >> you were too old. you didn't know what was going on. >> you obviously didn't do enough drugs. >> no. >> on a sad note, lani o'grady dying of an accidental drug overdose certainly very sad for the cast. but i don't want to dwell on that as i said. looking back now, why do you feel this show was as -- i know you said the writers. but why do you think it resonated so much with the audience back then? were we looking for something because of vietnam? >> well there was somebody at every age. you know, i think that helped. there was the young kids, the older kids. >> i think it got to the heart of the matter. >> you know, the soul of things, we really told very sensitive truths. and were very realistic, i think. >> and adam was cute. >> i got to stop it at that, guys. it is enough, the cast. you're going to be back in our next hour to tell us what you're doing now and also to answer viewers' emails, we appreciate it. we'll be back right after your local news. thank you, guys, you still look the same. i got to tell you. >> oh, right. >> you look great. a lot of research and a lot of work, oyota has done a lot ofresearch a a lot of work, and we've been open 24 hours a day -- 7 days a week. and we've made a tremendous amount of progress. you know, safety and reliability is top priority. i mean i got a family, too. i got a mother, a grandmoth, kids, nd we all drive in tse cs. i am 100% confident in the product. male announcer ] we're grateful to technicians like ronny who are helpings provide you with fe and reliae vehicles. for mo information, please visit toyota.com. 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what is that? what is this? guy: it's a special paste i invented to replace socks. we're dipping our feet in it. wife: why? guy: because we can't find socks that shape to our feet. we're sick of it! son: sick of it! wife: that's really stupid. guy: that's the future. announcer: hanes makes better-fitting socks the whole family will love. guaranteed, or your money back. >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. let's get a final check on the morning commute with sarah caldwell. >> looking at a busy rush out there. several accidents to report. northbound 95 approaching the beltway, we will show you that in a moment the outer loop remains closed at the peak of the parkway. heavy delays in both directions. inner loop at the j.f.x., another accident off to the side. nothing significant as far as delays. north and west side is looking at so -- slow spots. delays forming on southbound 95 out of the northeast from white marsh down to just beyond the beltway. 25 miles per hour. let's switch over to a live view of traffic and show you what is going on here. northbound 95, accident in the median. bigger delays on the outer loop of 295. all lanes temporarily blocked with a multi-vehicle crash. let's get the latest on the forecast. >> right now we are well above freezing. a decent start, not only with sky conditions, but temperature- wise. 41 downtown, 39 at the airport. we will hit the mid-to-upper- forties for the daytime high today. winds out of the northwest at 10 to 20 miles per hour. plenty of sunshine in central maryland. another coastal storm developing off the carolina shores to to our night, with a mix of intermittent light and rain and snow showers. >> another update at 8:55. coldwell? yes, banker? i took the liberty of beefing up security now that we have the j.d. power & associates award in the office. is that really necessary? well, our agents work really hard. of course. but the locked door is probably sufficient. too much? coldwell banker, ranked highest in customer satisfaction. we never stop moving. 8:30 on a monday morning, the first day of march, 2010. if our crowd seems a little louder this morning, it could be that that man right there so to blame, that's robert pattenson, star of the vampire saga and starring in an upcoming movie out in june. we'll be talking to robert if he has any hands and arms left in just a couple of minutes. >> or ears left. exactly, meanwhile out on the plaza, i'm matt lauer along with al roker and natalie morales. meredith had to leave a little early this morning. she's producer the fourth hour of the show this morning and she's holding her morning meeting with kathie lee and hoda. and they don't seem to be too pleased. >> that's rude, they came in here and did this. they come here every morning and do their hair and makeup and what do you call these topics you do every morning. >> chat topics. not hot topics. >> i don't know whose idea this was, but it's going to air at 10:00. >> hey, meredith, if i were you i would get a whip, a chair and a pistol. >> i'll get it out of your office. a little bit later on, the cast of "eight is enough" is back, we're going to talk with them some more. and they're going to answer your email questions. also, ahead, the man who sounded the alarm about bernie madoff, almost a decade before bernie madoff was actually arrested. federal investigators did not listen to him. he's now written a chilling memoir about that and we're going to talk to harry markopolos about it in just a couple of minutes. but first, nbc's "law and order" returns tonight with its 20th season, tying it with gunsmoke as the longest-running primetime drama in history. >> and we've got two of the stars of the show, sam waterson and anthony anderson joining us this morning. let me take you back to 1989, producers loved the pilot of this. but we worry, the show won't be able to duplicate the intensity week to week. boy, were they wrong, sam. >> yes, they were. well, they didn't realize that going to the newspapers was inexhaustible source of stories. and you know, you can wear out a relationship between a boy and a girl pretty fast. because there are only so many things they can do. but the things people think of to do in the world of crime -- >> you can't make it up, can you? >> you just can't wear it out. >> what can we look forward the rest of the season? we mentioned two new episodes tonight? >> i think this is flat-out the best year of writing the show has ever had. if it's not the best, it's a tie for the best. it's absolutely wonderful. >> and sam, you played jack mccoy now all of these years, you're now the boss. anthony's the young guy here who has come in. are you learning? >> anthony, are you looking forward to say in 15 years, we're still talking to you? >> 15 years? i signed on for six. i would love to be around as long as sam. and the pace of the show. you know, it's a part of history. and it's part of our american fabric of how we watch television today. yeah. >> and you've kind of worked yourself right into this. it's amazing how seamless it is when new people join the cast. >> i think it brings, it brings new life. >> just like in a typical workplace. >> these guys are funny and they are so, they're so much fun to you know -- i don't get to spend time on the set with them, but they make life very funny. >> anthony is not used to working with a sex symbol like sam. >> i thought the screams were for the other guy, but they're for sam. they don't scream for the big guy like that. >> tonight's two-hour-long "law and order" event. and next week in its regular time slot, monday night at 10:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. central. >> it's always great to have you >> hope you are doing well. it is actually going to be a beautiful day, with partly cloudy it to mostly sunny skies. winds brisk and out of the northwest at 10 to 20 don't forget, you can check out your weather any time of the day or night on the the weather channel on cable or weather.com -- online. al, thank you very much. when we come back, we're going to be talking to robert pattinson, that's still ahead. but also ahead, the man who blew the whistle on bernie madoff, almost a decade before madoff was finally caught. we'll talk to harry markopolos. but first, this is "today" on nbc. cock-a-doodle-do. i do 22 more inspections than the government requires. and my fresh, all-natural chickens are never given any hormones or steroids. and no candy, gladys. 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[ male announcer ] perdue perfect portions. ready when you are. imagine stumbling across the largest financial fraud in u.s. history, but when you try to expose it, no one listened. that's what happened to this man, after he realized bernie madoff's investment operation was actually a $65 billion scam. we'll talk to harry markopolos in a moment. but first, how the house of madoff collapsed. >> bernie madoff awaits sentencing for mastermining the largest ponzi scheme in history. >> it was the news that rocked the financial world, on december 11th, 2008, respected financier, bernie madoff was arrested in his new york city penthouse apartment by federal agents after admitting to his sons that he had been running quote, basically a giant pondsi scheme. the losses were staggering. first thought to be $50 billion. they finally totalled $65 billion in real money and imaginary profits. >> we are struggling to pay our motor home bill. and to put food on the table. and he took our life away from us. >> bernie madoff pleaded guilty and was sentenced to the maximum term, 150 years in federal prison. madoff had operated for years under the radar of regulators. victims asked how could the securities and exchange commission, watchdog for investors, not have known? the awful truth was, they did know. for eight years, one man tried to tell them, boston trader, harry markopolos. but this warning was ignored. and lost in a sea of bureaucracy. harry markopolos is now telling his story in the new book "no one would listen." a true financial thriller. harry, great to have you here, good morning. >> good to be here. >> i want to start off, i said at the end there, one man tried to warn people. you want people to know right off the bat that you worked as part of the team, there were others working on this as well? >> i had a four-man team, we were tracking it for eight years. >> you worked for a securities firm in boston. and basically people in the business started to hear about the returns that bernie madoff was getting for his investors. and your bosses said to you, look, harry, reverse-engineer this. we want you to use his system and see if you can dupe i had indicate his results. you worked very hard at it, but you couldn't do it. >> it was impossible. it was clear in five minutes that the strategy was bogus as a $3 bill. i had to model it. i couldn't replicate it. and we were losing customers to this man. every money manager around the world was losing money to bernie madoff. >> so an alarm goes off in your head and the team you were working with and you go to the s.e.c., not once, not twice, not three times, but four separate times, starting in 2000, and either they didn't understand what you were trying to tell them, or the information fell through the cracks. >> they didn't understand. they had lawyers there, not finance people. they weren't capable of understanding what i had written and presented to them. i had gift-wrapped this case and delivered it on a silver platter and they still didn't take it. >> at one point, harry, didn't they call bernie madoff in for an interview? >> they called him in, but he was the only person they never talked to. they never talked to any of his staff if they had, the stories wouldn't have meshed. and they would have solved the case. >> given that the s.e.c. is supposed to be the watchdog over these kinds of investments, how long do you think it should have staken them to get this? >> half an hour at the most. >> and they did nothing for ten years? >> nothing for ten years. >> parts of this book, harry, read like a manual on investments and government bureaucra bureaucracies. other parts of it read like a real hollywood thriller. at one stage, during your investigation, and you're trying to uncover this ponzi scheme for the world to see, you begin to fear for your life. and i want you to try to explain to our viewers why you started to feel that way. >> in june 2002, i took a key trip to europe with a french nobleman. i was meeting a very high-money crowd, an offshore secret money crowd in the uk, france and switzerland. at that point, when i saw the offshore nature of this money, the money coming in was hidden, untaxed money and i knew there was organized crime connections to this case at that time. >> so basically, to connect the dots here, you're thinking, wait a second, if organized crime is involved in this, and they're reaping huge benefits from bernie madoff's scheme, the last thing they're going to want to see is someone blow the whistle on their gravy train. >> madoff was victimizing the russian mob, and the drug cartels, he had a lot to fear. >> there's something else in this book that astonishes me. i need you to explain this. at some point during this period where you're trying to expose bernie madoff, you said to yourself, first of all, you went out and bought a gun, okay, to protect yourself. but you took it a step further. you said, look, if bernie madoff contacts me directly, or indirectly, and threatens me in any way, i am going to prepare myself to -- >> kill him. it was the only choice. it was him or me. this man was a human predator. he would have no social conscience about taking me off the face of the earth. it was me or him. >> take this the right way, harry. i'm sitting across from you -- you look like an accountant, okay? you don't look like a guy who's going to commit a hit on another human being. how did you get to that stage where you actually thought, i may have to go out and kill bernie madoff and how would you have explained it to law enforcement? >> well i would hope not to get caught. i certainly had good army training. and it really, it really was him or me. i had a family to protect. the government wasn't protecting me. they were not doing their job. and i felt forced into a rather difficult moral dilemma. >> you talk about the incompetence or dereliction of duty at the s.e.c. and a lot of people are going to say, okay, that was starting in 2000, we're now ten years later. what's changed? in your opinion, what has changed? what lessons did they learn from this? >> it rocked the s.e.c. to its foundations. they're turning this agency around. it was nonfunctional. they're trying to become dysfunctional. it's crawl, walk, run. it's going to take them years to get to the run stage. >> so right now, if there are other people committing ponzi schemes, in this country, do you think they are at a greater risk of being caught? or are they also going to operate under the radar for a long time? >> the s.e.c. is really attuned to ponzi schemes, they're bringing more and more of those to justice. whereas before they ignored them. now they're aggressive in pursuing them. so i feel very good about some of the positive benefits of this case. but there are very few. >> there are so many people who watched this whole story unfold. and a lot of those people have one major question right now, and that is -- could bernie madoff have done this alone. or even with just one or two other people. i would like you to shed some light on that. >> he had a global conspiracy. he's operating in 40 nationings. he has 339 companies feeding him new victims. he's passing along over 90% of the fees to the people helping feed victims into this scheme. he had a lot of help. he had the big banks helping hill. he had custody banks helping him. >> helping him in a criminal way or just turning a blind eye? >> turning a blind eye. the accounting firms were turning a blind eye. all the companies setting up victims. no one asked the right questions. >> everybody talks about the incompetence at the s.e.c. but what about the investors? especially the hedge funds that were funneling money into bernie madoff, who were supposed to be doing their due diligence on behalf of their investors. and did nothing. was it incompetence on their part? or sheer greed? >> it was sheer greed. they assumed that madoff was front-running an illegal activity. so they didn't want to ask questions that they didn't want to hear the answers to. so they turned a blind eye, never did any due diligence checks. >> i think even an average investor will find your book fascinating. what is the take-away for that person? the typical investor, what lessons should they learn from this? >> don't trust your government. do your own research. use common sense, if you don't understand the strategy, don't invest in it. >> harry markopolos, "no one would listen: a true financial thriller." thank you very much. up next, we'll talk to robert pattinson about his new movie and the next installment of the "twilight" saga. but first, this is "today" on nbc. "twilight" heartthrob, robert pattinson already has a legion of dedicated fans and he could add few with his latest role as a rebellious young man, tyler in the movie "remember me." >> it's a bowl, it completes the room. >> this is a bowl? sorry. >> tyler? >> i guess it was just here to tease me. good morning, welcome back. you get to sit here and talk about something other, for a little while at least, other than the vampire saga. is that refreshing for you? or do you feel like you're working without a net? >> no, i do. i just got used to my pat answers to all of my questions, i found them very, very easy and now i'm just, i'm just treading water in every interview. i was walking in here first of all, and al outside and he was like, what's "remember me" about? >> let's talk about it a little bit. you play tyler, described as lost, rebellious, what else do we need to know about him? >> i i don't know. he's kind of sensitive. i think all, you know, he's fairly sort of typical, you know, comes in a tradition, a long line of male young male characters. but i guess just the writing is very subtle and it seems very realistic. he is kind of a rebel without a cause type of thing. >> the movie takes place here in new york city. 2001, i'll let the viewers connect the dots here. this guy has just livered through a tragedy. was it important for you, was it desirable for you to do a movie that was based on this kind of major moment in recent american history? >> yeah. i mean there seemed to be something, when i first read the script, there seemed to be something about it, it didn't really feel like a film. it felt like there was -- i couldn't understand the reason behind it, why it was written. but it seemed like there was a reason to do it. it seemed like it wasn't written just to be a film. i doe know, there was just something special about it. and i thought that every part of it kind of -- you know, helped it become what it is. >> i think it's going to resonate with a lot of people. not only because of the story of the young man, but the story of this event in american history. pierce brosnan was on the show not long ago, talking about some things and i asked him about you. he was your co-star in "remember me." and i asked him what do you make of the situation that robert found him sfrl in right now. the white-hot spotlight. he said after spending time with you, he said you showed enormous grace under pressure. and i'm curious, does that come naturally? or have you had to make some adjustments to this level of fame? >> yeah. i mean you kind of -- i guess you try and limit the amount of time you have to deal with it. and then -- >> how do you do that, though? >> a bit of hiding. >> but that in itself is the price of fame. >> yeah. and you know, there are tremendous benefits. even doing films like this, which i was talking to the writer yesterday. and he was saying, it's impossible to get financing for two and a half years. and i read this and it's like, it has to be made. and it all got together really quickly. as soon as the script was being made, it was being sent to loads of actors all wanting to do it after. but it was just because of the "twilight" thing that can be the catalyst. >> i'm glad you brought that up. the diehard fans of the "twilight" saga have dedicated the opening weekend of this movie as "remember me" saturday. they're going to go out and see this movie. if you're producing a movie or directing a movie, or casting a movie, that's gold. that's money in the bank. >> hopefully. >> we'll see what happens. so now you, you're going to talk about "remember me." and then in june, the third in the "twilight" saga comes out. that's called "eclipse." have you seen it? you shot that at the same time you shot the second. >> in between. >> you've been working steady. >> how is eclipse? >> i haven't seen it yet. >> haven't seen anything? >> i just saw the trailer yesterday. the title, i can never pronounce "remember me." >> you might want to get that down in the next couple of weeks. after "eclipse" comes out and you do the publicity for that are you going to forget the word "vampire" for a while? or is there a part of you that might consider jumping back into this pool? >> i don't know. i don't have anything particularly against vampires. it's, i mean i don't even mind, people have been asking me about "breaking dawn" the last one, if it's going to be split into two. i honestly don't mind. they're great fun to work on and people really like them. yeah, i could do them for a while longer. >> there's an interview in "details" magazine with you and it's getting some controversial attention. you pose with a lot of naked women in it. i don't really have a question about it. i just want to say, you go et to pose with a lot of naked women. is it inevitable that when you do as many interviews and have as many photos taken of you, as you do, that sooner or later something is going to pop up as controversial. >> i guess so, if i didn't have to do interviews, then i wouldn't do any. nothing against them. >> you make me feel real special, robert, thank you. >> no one is particularly interesting. you know, if you just do pat answers to things, then people get sick of you for that. and you try to think of something to say and people get sick of you for that. but the thing with the naked women, i offered to do a naked photo shoot. it started off with me naked and they were like, actually, just forget it. >> "remember me" opens nationwide friday, march 12th. we're back. this is "today" on nbc. coldwell? yes, banker? i took the liberty of beefing up security now that we have the j.d. power & associates award in the office. is that really necessary? well, our agents work really hard. of course. but the locked door is probably sufficient. too much? coldwell banker, ranked highest in customer satisfaction. we never stop moving. >> live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. >> good morning. i am mindy basara. baltimore city police are searching for a 14-year-old girl missing since saturday morning. the mother says that she lost her daughter on friday night at a home in the 100 block of cecil street. the mother says she does not go to school and the neighborhood and spends a lot of time on social networking sites. she fears the someone the girl met online lowered her out of the house. anyone with >> now let's look at the forecast with sandra shaw. >> it is monday and it is going to be a nice one fries. nothing in the way of precipitation today. a storm over taxes is going to take -- is going to be offshore by tuesday night and wednesday. a little bit of a light wintry mix. no major accumulation. enjoy the day while you can. mostly sunny to partly cloudy. pleasant out there, all things considered. and looks like a transitional day on thursday, a pitiful conditions near the 50 on saturday and sunday. >> another update at at a clock