Murder Mystery: Lessons For Parents From Teen:s Double Life: Clint Van Zandt Discusses the Murder Of

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Event Date(s): 05/14/2010 | Event Location(s): Today New York Studio;Washington, DC; | Description: 08:11:44 STILLS Photo of murdered 18-year-old Elisabeth Mandala. Photo of Mandala and another teenage girl. 08:12:04 STILLS Photos of Mandala. 08:12:42 STILLS Photo of Mandala. Photo of Mandala and a teenage girl. Photo of Mandala. NBC News Analyst Clint Van Zandt joins Ann Curry (in Studio 1A) in two-way live remote from Washington, DC. ANN CURRY: Clint, good morning. Mr. CLINT VAN ZANDT: Hi, Ann. CURRY: This doesn't make a lot of sense. Based on what you know, based on your experience, what do you think happened to this girl? Mr. VAN ZANDT: Well, it sounds like she was living life on the wild side a little bit. She had this secret life, we're told. You know, she was a stripper in this topless bar, a one-star topless bar. But she was, you know, picking up money. But money may not have been it. It may just have been the excitement. And again, at 18, Ann, you think you're bullet-proof. So it--for her it may have been a short step from working in a topless bar to finding something else exciting, perhaps bringing illegal aliens into the United States, either because she thought it was the right thing to do or she wanted to pick up some money. But it looks like she got together with the wrong men to do this. CURRY: Well, you know, you talk about the wrong men. Let's talk about this. You say that the real--I mean, because the family obviously wants to know what happened... Mr. VAN ZANDT: Sure. CURRY: ...why she is no longer alive. You say one of the ways to do that is to follow the trail of these two men who were found murdered with her. Mr. VAN ZANDT: Yeah. These two men, at least one that had a criminal record, they were both obviously twice or more her age. I would suggest she probably met them in or around this gentlemen's club that she was working in. They probably offered her, you know, some incentive to go down to Mexico. Realize, she went down there Tuesday, she wrote on her Facebook account that she was in fact down there, so I would think if the authorities are able to determine not only who these men are, but what their associates were in Mexico, what they were doing down there, that would give us a better picture of what brought Elisabeth down there with them. CURRY: You know, you talk about the investigation. You know, a lot of murders in Mexico go unsolved. At what point do you think the US can and should get involved in this, and what about the way they died, the fact that they were beaten to death? What does that tell us? Mr. VAN ZANDT: Yeah. Well, a number of things. Number one, in certain parts of Mexico, it is a dangerous place. Early part of this year in one day 70 murders took place in an area of Mexico, 70 in just one day. Tens of thousands take place on a yearly basis. So life in many areas of Mexico can be very, very cheap. And the way she was murdered, Ann, I think is--investigators have to take a hard look at that. As Janet's setup piece said, it was staged to look like an accident, but what happened was that Elisabeth and these two men had been brutally beaten to death. Their bodies placed in this pickup truck, and then somebody, Ann, had to drive the truck, put a rock on the accelerator pedal, probably jump out at the last second and let this truck run into the back of another vehicle to simulate an accident. So again, the forensic evidence potentially could be there. Whoever set that truck up, hairs, fibers, fingerprints. But again, you know, do the Mexican authorities have those capabilities? And, Ann, they are so overwhelmed with homicide investigations, is this one more homicide investigation going to receive attention when they have police officers and public figures being murdered every day. CURRY: Mm-hmm. On that question we're going to have to leave it. Clint Van Zandt, thank you so much this morning. Mr. VAN ZANDT: Thanks, Ann.