This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," April 25, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: This is a FOX News Alert: Dennis Payne (search), the toddlers' father, joins us on the phone. Dennis, welcome. And is there anything we can say or do for you this evening?
DENNIS PAYNE, FATHER OF TODDLERS FOUND DEAD: Well, only thing I could say, I appreciate for everybody's thoughts and feelings. And thanks for the all the GBIs (search) and Warrenton Sheriff's Department and the police department and all the fire and rescue team. They did a wonderful job. And they did hard work, and I just (INAUDIBLE) for them for all the effort they did in helping us locate them. And that's pretty much (INAUDIBLE) we're missing them. It's hard on their mother and I. But I just want some answers and what and how it happened.
VAN SUSTEREN: Dennis, your little girl, Nicole, was pretty clever in getting out of the house, wasn't she.
PAYNE: Yes, ma'am. She's a little smart little girl because she just opened the door, just like a grown-up would do. And, you know, we did everything to keep her in there, and they only took a few seconds, a minute, and she was already out. But I'm trying to figure out how they got from the house down to that pond, and that's what I don't understand.
VAN SUSTEREN: Had they ever been down to the pond before?
PAYNE: No, ma'am. That's what another thing is puzzling me and my wife. They have never been in those woods. There's a road down that way, but they'd never been that way, you know, or down to that chain-link fence area.
VAN SUSTEREN: If I stood in the front of your house or the back of your house, could I actually see the pond from there?
PAYNE: No. No. From my front yard right now, all you're going to see is trees, woods. You can't even see that pond.
VAN SUSTEREN: So what do you think happened?
PAYNE: I'll be honest, I do not have a clue. And you know, I can't really say. I don't know, and I'm leaving it up to the investigator to find out. And they're doing a good job and they're getting down to every little detail.
VAN SUSTEREN: Dennis, this may sound like a silly question, but how's their mother doing this evening?
PAYNE: She's really hurting. She can't just stand up. She's really falling apart. And like I said, these are her first two little ones, and they mean a lot to her. But she's falling apart.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Dennis, of course, all of us send our condolences to you. Thank you for joining us this evening.
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