becomes a terrifying plunge for a woman celebrating her 80th birthday. it was a wild ride she said but i don't need to do it again. all that and so much more on "cbs this morning: saturday" may 26, 2012. captioning funded by cbs the picture of the skydive series itself into your brain. >> it is the perfect image to start this long memorial day weekend. >> we'll explore that and a lot more this morning. first, we do begin with a man charged with murdering etan patz here in new york 33 years ago. pedro hernandez is in a hospital this morning on suicide watch. est arrested thursday after confessing to strangling the 6-year-old back in 1979. now police are looking for evidence to corroborate his confession. john miller has been following this case since day one. he joins us now with the latest. good morning. >> good morning, jeff. that's right, the suspect in this case has been arraigned and he has confessed to killing etan patz, but his lawyer now says he's mentally ill, bipolar and susceptible to hallucinations. 51-year-old pedro hernandez was arraigned on charges of second-degree murder in the death of etan patz yesterday. the suspect appeared in court over a closed-circuit tv from a hospital room. hernandez is being treated for an existing health problem and is under psychiatric evaluation after threatening suicide. police say he confessed to the strangling of the 6-year-old boy in a 3 1/2 hour videotaped statement three days ago. in 1979 hernandez was an 18-year-old stock boy at a grocery store just 200 feet from the patz's front door. etan's parents, stan and julie patz returned home friday. friends tell us news of the arrest is still sinking in. police made the arrest after receiving a tip from hernandez's own family. the suspect's brother-in-law, jose lopez says he has no doubt hernandez is the killer and that the arrest has been a big relief to the family. >> i don't know what to think really. somebody we knew, you know in the family do something like that and just came out now. >> reporter: a law enforcement source told us lopez was, in fact the man who brought the tip to new york city detectives weeks ago. after seeing news reports about police digging up a basement, looking for patz's body. >> he did the right thing you know, to confess. >> reporter: the investigation into the disappearance of patz was reopened in 2010. police were working off a short list of suspects. pedro hernandez was not on it. >> so, we can see the pathways are being kavbed out. prosecutors have to build that case with police to defend that confession and hold it up and the lawyer has already started with claims of hallucinations bipolar disease and other things to try and cut it apart. >> interesting. i want to ask you about that. we also bring in lisa cohen, the aut of "after etan," a producer for cbs and also abc. welcome to you as well. let's talk about the claim of mental illness. how does that affect the defense? >> i think that that is defense 101, which is you have a guy that gives a clear, compelling detailed confession you have to either say that he was tricked into it or that he was making it up. and i think they're beginning to forge that bath. >> lisa, what does the patz family think about all of this. do they think he made this up? >> i think they just found out about this person. they hadn't heard of him over the last 33 years. i think they're trying to take it in. they don't understand. >> did they ever see him? >> no. >> in the neighborhood? >> no -- well, i don't know that. they may be looking back through their memory and realize that. at first glance, no. >> john when it comes to connecting this individual to the crime, all they have right now is his saying that he's connected to it. how do they make a conviction here? >> well a confession in and of itself is not legally sustainable for a conviction. but it needs to be corroborated. so there's the low bar of corroboration, he confessed to taking a boy named etan patz. corroborating factor is a boy named etan patz disappeared, he worked in the deli he knew etan patz as a kid that passed through the neighborhood, so on. but they'll look for more. how often did he make these statements? to how many family members? what exactly did he say and over how many years? are there people that worked in the store with him back then that remember on this day i remember he disappeared for half an hour and when he came back i said, where were you and he said x. they'll are to build around it. >> right now he appears to be saying he lured him in then and then immediately strangled him, which i know police are look at and questioning and trying to get a little more information around exactly what happened. >> you also don't need to sustain a confession -- or conviction motive. but juries want it. juries like to know the why. there's something missing in the story here. it's very unlikely he just lured a boy down to the base wment a soda and killed him for the simple thrill of it and then went his whole life without a serious crime again. there's probably something else there. whether it was a sexual assault. he's dealing with the guilt by admitting to the crime, but the real motive probably has to do with shame, whih if his story is true he hasn't confronted yet. >> there's been so many stops and starts in this case. the parents kept up home the killer would be found. do you believe this will create some level of peace for them? >> certainly, not right away. i think it's going to raise a whole new level of stress. i mean they're under siege right now by the press, sort of trapped in their home dealing with all of these new -- brand new facts they have never heard before. ultimately, certainly not resolute -- rernlcertainly not, you know, total peace. you never get over something like this. but you always look for answers. >> they stayed in the same place for 33 years hoping etan would come home. >> never changing their phone number. >> i don't think they think he's going to come home. at first that's what it was. >> appreciate it. the memorial day weekend traditionally kicks off the summer travel season and millions of americans are hitting the road today. one big reason or at least one of them is that they have a little extra cash in their pockets because gas prices are down. but off the road there was a scary incident yesterday in miami. moments after an american airlines jet landed in miami. so, we get more of that from elaine quijano who joins us live. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. there were tense moments aboard that flight to miami yesterday. now, one man is facing federal charges, including interfering with a flight crew. the holiday travel weekend got off to a rough start for passengers aboard american airlines flight 320, bound from jamaica to the u.s. the fbi says a canadian 24-year-old ryan snyder rushed to the front of the plane minutes after it landed in miami. passengers subdued him before police came. >> i actually extended my hand to kind of -- like i was going to shake his hand. from that point i was able to maneuver and flip it -- his arm up behind. >> reporter: no one was hurt. the fbi says the incident wasn't terror related and local police say snyder appeared to be drunk. the travel forecast for the rest of the holiday weekend looks slightly better than last year. aaa estimates nearly 31 million people will drive to their destinations over the next three days.pthat's about 400,000 more than a year ago. but travel is still nowhere near its 2005 pre-recession peak. that's when 44 million americans traveled over memorial day weekend compared to the 34.8 million expected this weekend. aaa robertson sinclair says although gas prices are down this year compared to last year drivers still have them very much in mind. >> 47% said gasoline prices would have an affect on their traveling. so gasoline prices are still a major factor for a lot of people. >> reporter: with unemployment at just over 8% and a sluggish economic recovery, researchers are also noticing a bigger difference in how income is affecting travel plans. >> people who are making more than $100,000 a year will be traveling this year. people making less than $50,000 are traveling less. >> reporter: as for air travel aaa says that's about to drop 5.5%. spending is expected to rise slightly to about $702 up about $10 from last year. >> elaine quijano, thanks. and as elaine just mentioned, gas prices are down slightly this holiday weekend. according to aaa, the national average for a gallon of regular is $3.67, and that is four cents cheaper than last week. a month ago the price was $3.84. a year ago it was $3.81. >> joining us is tom of the oil price information service. if you want to know where gas prices are heading this is the man to talk to. good morning. so gas prices have been following consistently, about half a cent a day for the last month. what's behind that? >> crude oil prices went too high. they went to $130 internationally and now they've come off to about $100 $105. that was part of it. the other part -- i mean basically gas prices were too high. we get sloppy drunk every year the trading community, and this was no exception. >> in response to fears out of iran, perhaps there would be a war, and china consuming more of it and europe falling into recession has certainly cut into demand here. >> japan has left the radar screen for now. we've used less than we have in prior years and part of that malaise in oil in general is because of the economic weakness in europe particularly in emerging economies. >> what about the refinery issues, both on the east coast and west. there was some concern about that. >> there were refineries that were going to close on the east coast. they have not done that. on the west coast we can't get everything to work well so the west coast has much higher prices. but i think it will be very comfortable. there's money to be made in refining crude right now and that usually motivates -- >> it certainly becomes a tale of two and some people in california watching saying wait a minute prices aren't coming down here. i want to ask you, tom, about the government's estimate for this summer. they think it's going to be $3.79 on average for americans to pay a gallon of gas, up eight cents from last year. are you on board with that? >> i'm on board with it but an estimate always talks about an average. average is very, very misleading. we'll see $3 $3.10 in places like the southeast. $4 $4.25 in the northwest. it's like two governors saying the average weight of the governor is this. the northwest will be very high for a while. but the whole country should calm down and it will be about the price we paid last year but considerably more than 2010. >> higher or lower come election time in. >> lower. prices always move lower from labor day to election day. has nothing to do with politics. everything to do with you can bake more cheapen ingredients into the gasoline cake. and that will happen. >> appreciate it. lower driving costs are good news for travelers but in the southeast, tropical storm warning from areas of florida. they say a system in the atlantic will be tropical storm beryl before the weekend is out. to talk about that and the 2012 hurricane season we bring in dave bernard, cbs's hurricane expert from miami. good morning. >> good morning, jeff. >> tell us about beryl. >> we're talking -- all right. i will. in fact, you're right. the warnings are up. right now, the hurricane center's classifying it as subtropical. that just means it's not a purely tropical system. it's moving to the west at around 5 miles per hour. winds right now, 45 miles per hour. it's about 260 miles east to charleston south carolina. this is going to move quick to the south and west tonight. we think by sunday night and early monday morning, making landfall as tropical storm in north east florida or possibly along the georgia coastline. that's going to mean a wet and windy holiday weekend for these areas, including the south carolina coast. even into next week it may turn around and reform as a tropical storm somewhere near cape hatteras, north carolina. not the news you want to get going into the holiday weekend. we don't anticipate the storm to become a hurricane. >> dave what are we looking at for the hurricane season this year, which kicks off on june 1st, as you know? >> right. i guess right now the best guess that we can talk about when we look at numbers is that we're looking at an average hurricane season. that usually consists of, say, 11 storms 6 hurricanes and also two major hurricanes. that would be below the 19 storms we had last year. and one of the big factors in that, jeff is this developing el nino, warm water in the pacific. that leaves a lot to rising air in the pacific. lots of thunderstorms there. in fact they'll probably see more storms in the pacific than the atlantic. but on the other hand that leads to disruptive wind shear in the atlantic. that's bad for storms. they don't like to see wind shear. that is not favorable for strong storm formation. >> dave bernard from wfor. appreciate it. thank you very much. and now we turn to the john edwards trial, which is still going. jurors have the holiday weekend off. they'll begin their seventh day of deliberations on tuesday. friday afternoon the judge abruptly cleared the courtroom, consulting with attorneys, and then sent the jury home. here to stortort out what's going on, "48 hours" correspondent, erin moriarty also an attorney and following the john edwards case. >> can you imagine what it must be like for john edwards and his family? you know, they have to stick pretty close to the courtroom. and just as day goes on and his life is on hold and in the balance, it's very tough. >> we said there's no way we would see erin next saturday. >> right. i might be here next saturday. no i don't know. look i'm not really surprised it's taking this long. we talked about this a little bit. yesterday what happened was -- at least what we think happened because all we can really tell is from what the judge said in the open courtroom. but she admonished the jurors. they're only supposed to talk about the case when they're all together, the 12 are together. apparently they may have been talking in small groups. so that could be just that they made the mistake or -- then i got this feeling -- is that i sign of an early divide. maybe a couple people are saying what are you going to do when we can go back in? we can't tell. we won't be able to tell until next week. >> where are the gray areas in the evidence? >> just about the entire case. >> everything? >> yeah. can i just show you -- you know as i've talked about there were 45 pages of jury instructions. so that's what these jurors have to deal with. and i want to show you really to me what one of the more difficult things they have to determine. so, part of it says don't look at any evidence about the intent or goals of miss mellon. >> not present in the courtroom. >> exactly. and then they also say in this that the government does not have to prove that the soul and only purpose of the money was to influence the election because people often have different intentions. so, here's what the jury has to do. they have to take a look at rachel mellon's intent and determine what the real purpose was for giving money. they have to look at also fred baron, his intent. neither one of them testified. they have to know what john edwards was thinking. he didn't testify. so, then we have to go look at all the evidence. last week they asked for exhibit after exhibit. so many exhibits because the judge finally said to them, why don't you just take all the exhibits? but here's the problem with exhibits. i could even show you some. so, here is one -- probably the most damaging for bunny mellon and it's a letter she sent. we call it the haircut letter because she sent it to andrew young. remember when he was criticized for his $400 haircuts. so she send this letter and says basically i'm going to start paying for these things. then here's the line please send the bills to me. it is a way of helping our friends. here's the three words -- without government restriction. so that's looks really damaging. she's avoiding the law, except for her lawyer testified, no she just liked john edwards and really wanted to help him. so every piece of evidence you look at it's contradicted by testify or other evidence. that's what this jury is struggling with. >> if we talk about it next week, we'll have something new. erin more airty, thank you very much. we appreciate it. the first round of egypt's landmark presidential election has set up a roundoff next month between two very different candidates. one is deposed hosni mubarak's former prime minister who has the backing of egyptian christians. about 10% of the population. the other is a member of the muslim brotherhood which seeks to impose more islamic law in egypt. here at home it will not be a holiday weekend for firefighters battling fires across the dry and windy southwest. one fire is blocking 85,000 acres so far. more than 500 firefighters are trying to bring it under control. major fires are also burning in arizona and southern california. and vice president joe biden addressed the families of fallen soldiers friday in arlington, virginia. his very personal remarks shed new light on his own grief four decades ago after losing his first wife and daughter in a car accident. >> for the first time in my life i understood how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide. not because they were deranged, not because they were nuts. because they had been to the top of the mountain and they just knew in their heart they'd never get there again. folks, it can and will get better. there will come a day, i promise you, and your parents as well, when the fog of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. >> biden says his life finally turned around when he met and married his second wife jill. it's about 20 minute past the hour. with more on our holiday weather weekend, we have lonnie quinn. >> good morning to you. want to give you a little shot of the empire state building. what i'd like to do is show you the satellite and radar image that would go with the entire country because you're going to find -- first of all, subtrob cal storm beryl. you can see it 250 miles southeast of charleston south carolina. but i'm looking at this area of disturbed weather in the northern tier of our country. a front from northern rockies up to northern new england. it's around the northern rockies rockies, montana portions of wyoming, we're talking snow above 6,000 feet. look at this 1 to 2 feet of snow. somebody tell i will tell you, everybody, a big swath of cool air in a big portion of our country. >> thank you, lonnie. here's an interesting story that's getting some attention. the faa is now investigating an online video that's gone viral. why? because it looks like an 80-year-old woman was pushed out of an airplane. dave broad >> whose idea was all this? >> mine. >> and the occasion? >> i just turned 80. >> reporter: for her 80th birthday lavern everett decided she wanted to jump out of an airplane, but after strapping on her goggles, it looks like she changed her mind. now she maintains her knees gave out and her tandem diving instructor was just giving her a nudge. >> he knew how bad i wanted to jump. >> reporter: but after they started their descent it seemed like the 80th would be the last. shes her blouse flew up over her face and she couldn't see what was going on. she just said hold on. the photographer shooting the video even tried in to help. laverns she has no idea how scared she should have been until she saw the video which was shot a year ago. lavern