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TRANSCRIPT:OUR WORLD TODAY SEASON 19 EPISODE 04 TANGLED IN THE WEB

AIRDATE: APRIL 11, 2016

ANNOUNCER VOICEOVER: Tonight on Our World Today, a shocking crime has rocked the small coastal community of Chester Bay, California.

LOLA GERALD, ENGLISH TEACHER: This is... unimaginable. Completely unimaginable. Nothing like this has ever happened here before.

ANNOUNCER V/O: In the midst of grief and confusion, the students and teachers of Chester Bay High School are picking up the pieces.

DENNIS GREGORY, VICE-PRINCIPAL: No, I dont think this was something that could have been anticipated. The warning signsthe kind of warning signs youd expectthey just werent there. She was a good kid.

GIORDANA STANFORD-KYLE, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Here at Chester Bay High, students and staff are struggling to reconcile a girl they thought they knew with a crime they cannot imagine.

FREIDA RODRIGUEZ, 10THGRADE STUDENT: No... I mean, I wasnt like her best friend or anything. We didnt hang out. But I had like three classes with her and she didnt seem like that.

COOPER LIM, 10THGRADE STUDENT: I mean, I guess nobody seems like that? Thats how it happens, right?

RODRIGUEZ: And who was that other girl even? She doesnt go to school here, does shedid she?

LIM: I dont know her. I dont know anyone who knows her.

RODRIGUEZ: Coree, though, she seemed cool or whatever.

STANFORD-KYLE: Pretty normal?

RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Normal.

STANFORD-KYLE V/O: Normal is a good way to describe Coree Phipps. The only child of a local dentist and an administrative assistant, Phipps was a National Merit Scholar with no history of disciplinary problems. A talented artist and writer, Coree blossomed on the internet where she could share her work with like-minded people from all over the world. But was it that very online community that led her so far astray?

ALMA LOPES, ART TEACHER: Coree just loved to create. She took every art class we offer here at the school and some of her stuff even wound up in the display case in the front hallway. She was really good.

STANFORD-KYLE V/O: The people here at Chester Bay High speak of Coree Phipps in the past tense, though, strictly speaking, that is not accurate. It seems that, for her friends and teachers, the bright, outspoken girl they knew is gone.

FELIX SHAW, 11THGRADE STUDENT: She was really passionate. You know, its cool for our generation not to care about stuff but Coree cared a lot. If she loved something, she was going to tell you about it and if she didnt like something, youd hear about it even more. She wasnt afraid to, like, have an opinion on things. I always admired that about her.

STANFORD-KYLE V/O: Well-liked by both students and teachers, Coree Phipps played softball and excelled on the schools Quizbowl Team.

[local cable access video]

COREE PHIPPS: [buzzer sound] The fertile crescent?

HOST: That is correct!

[indistinct noises of celebration from team members]

ALMA LOPES, ART TEACHER: She started helping with the homecoming float when she was still in middle school. I do art outreach to Grades 6 through 8 and, even then, her talent was very clear. One year, she did this incredible Halloween-themed float.

[home video]

TIME/DATE STAMP: OCTOBER 17, 2014

YOUNG GIRL IN CROWD: Look! Look! Look at the skeletons!

LOPES V/O: She had help, obviously, with the construction but that whole design was her. It had these skeletons that spun around on platforms so it looked like they were dancing.

FELIX SHAW, 11THGRADE STUDENT: She wasnt, like, morbid or anything. She had certain... ideas. Like aesthetically. But that didnt mean she was some weirdo. A lot of people like darker stuff, especially when it comes to art and stuff. It doesnt mean theyre going to hurt someone. I never thought she would hurt anyone.

DENNIS GREGORY, VICE-PRINCIPAL: Miss Phipps had absolutely no history of violence. She was one of those students who... well, I always say that, ideally, I would develop a relationship with every student in this school but, in reality, Im just one man and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I didnt know Coree very welland that was a good sign. But Ive spoken with her instructors and none of themnonehad any concerns about her. She was... she just was a good kid. She had a bright future.
Any student, though, can change. Especially if they get involved with the wrong sort of people. We see it all the time. Every day. Usually, its drugs or something like that. Truancy, small time stuff. I deal with a lot of that.

Ive never dealt with something like this before.

ALMA LOPES: Chester Bay is a small town. Weve got a population of about twelve thousand but Id say it feels even smaller. No one can remember anything like this happening before. Usually, its... car accidents, you know? Maybe a drug thing or a suicide. Losing a student... thats not completely uncommon. But never like this. Its not just the violence, either. Its all just so... strange.

STANFORD-KYLE V/O: Everyone here at Chester Bay High speaks well of Coree Phipps. Nevertheless, I was unable to find anyone who claimed to be a close friend of the teenager.

FELIX SHAW, 11THGRADE STUDENT: That wasnt... that wasnt her thing. She wasnt anti-social, exactly, but it was... I dont know. Its hard to describe. She was always friendly. But it was hard to... to get close to her, I guess you would say? She was very careful about the friends she chose.

STANFORD-KYLE: Many here in Chester Bay believe that, despite her careful nature, Coree Phipps made a mistake in selecting seventeen-year-old Olivia Blanc to be her closestseemingly her onlyfriend.

ALMA LOPES: That girl... I know she had a hard life. That whole heart thing, I read about that in the newspapers and I wouldnt wish that on anyone. But I think that... something got twisted inside of her after that. It was too much for a young kid. I read that she was on all kinds of medications to manage her emotions. She couldnt even be mainstreamed into the schools over there. Basically, exactly the kind of influence you dont want for your child.