[Music]
9:22 nearly a week after his bond was
reduced from two million dollars down to
$300,000 Air Force Reserve major Andre
McDonald's is out of jail McDonald's
charged with tampering with evidence in
connection with the disappearance of his
wife in February the Bear County
Sheriff's Office says he is their only
suspect in her disappearance he was
turned over to Air Force authorities
yesterday and Paul venema was there
here's a clip from Paul's story
Andre McDonald's bond conditions dictate
that he wear an ankle monitor as his
case works its way through the justice
system because he is an Air Force
reservists on active duty he was
initially released to military
authorities he's subject to what's
called jurisdiction by both military and
civilian authorities at this point
mcdonald's defense attorney understands
that the military will only review the
case they have the ability to charge
them with defenses not charge them with
offenses let the state through bear
County go forward
Padma joins us now to debrief this court
case this is a bizarre case first of all
in a very difficult front day one it is
andreen has not been seen nothing in
months heard from or anything and so far
they have not charged him with murder
but they say he's the only person
they're looking at and they don't think
she's coming back they assume that she
has passed that she's dead and it looks
as though it's a murder investigation at
this point but there's there's nobody
that doesn't prohibit them from
conducting murder investigation so and
as far as that investigation is
concerned he is at this point their only
suspect according to the sheriff he
could be tried even if they never find a
body if they find it at some point at
some point their case should be tried on
just circumstantial evidence and that's
been done many many times so that that's
down the road aways but certainly if
they can develop enough during this
investigation to present this case to a
grand jury and have him indicted for
murder certainly they could go forward
with a trial on murder charges what's
next for him I know he was released
yesterday people ask you questions you
know what what happens now because
there's this the civilian and there's
the military aspect of this prosecution
and
and what happened to be true now in any
potential trial what happened yesterday
after he got a pall after he got out he
was he was released just briefly to the
military simply because when you're in
the military you belong to them so it's
like a child being released to the
custody of his parents and then they
have to comply with the conditions of
the bond so he was released but he went
home and just like living living his
normal life was the exception of having
an ankle monitor and having all the
other conditions that are involved in
the bond inaudible which is fascinating
actually one of the conditions is he's
not allowed to return to the home that
they shared together right but the
couple had four homes here in San
Antonio they had a an assisted living
business that they both ran and so he
it's my understanding he is living one
of those homes that now right now the
mod conditions dictates that he not be
allowed to go to the home where he and
his wife lived and their daughter and
he's not to have any contact with with
their six-year-old daughter but aside
from that he can be living in one of
those homes and apparently he's going to
be doing that and working at the Air
Force is according to his lawyer he
expects him to be on the job with the
Air Force today speaking of the Air
Force and being a reservist I guess the
question would be for military serious a
lot of people wondering at this point
could he actually be deployed or or not
a short answer probably not simply
because the Air Force is working with
thee though they're not conducting an
investigation they're honoring the civil
side of this whole situation this whole
case and in all likelihood they would
not deploy him simply because that would
not be cooperating with with the local
investigation we heard from him at all
has he said anything about that not a
word not a word which I'm sure on the
advice of his attorney he's going to
continue to do so
but he's not spoken to anyone nobody no
nobody that we know of they spoken with
as far as helping with the investigation
I asked his lawyers is he going to be
cooperating with investigation talking
to authorities he was a bit vague on
that he said at this point we're just
taking kind of a hands-off approach and
letting the investigation take its
course what that means I don't know
whether it means he's going to make his
client available to
investigators or not I don't know but
right now that's their position have to
follow closely yeah until then no
closure for the McDonald family they
still wait for her and that's a rough
case it certainly is a rough situation
for them keep us posted if you didn't
see his entire story you can always find
it on case that thank you Paul fancy