Preparing For The Interview
Everyone Wants To Talk
People's Words Will Betray Them
True Stories Come From Memory
The Shortest Answer Is The Best
Everything Has A Meaning
Use The Same Language
People Do Not Want To Lie
The Denial
Starting The Interview
Get Them Talking To You
Obtaining A Statement
Analyzing The Statement
Look At The Language
Specific Words
Unique Words
Unusual Words
Untruthful Words
Test Your Knowledge
Lesson One Test
Send Email
Introduction Page
Lesson One Test
The Analysis
"That on Sunday morning May 16, 2004 at about 7:00 o'clock in the morning I was with my wife Sharon Bell and we were alone and we were going to have breakfast in Jacksonville. I had to go to the bathroom so I pulled off the road into a turnaround on the road that goes into Jacksonville. When I pulled I'm not sure where I stopped the van, but I did come to a complete stop. Sharon made some comment to me about why didn't you go before we left. She also said 'you're like the boys.' I stopped the van and got out of the van. Sharon was in the passenger seat of the van and I assume that she had her seat belt on. The van was still running and I did not put the van shift selector in park or reverse, actually I don't think I touched it at all. I knew the van was going to roll over the edge and I knew gravity would pull it over. I got out of the van and ran away like a coward. I knew if someone went over the cliff in the van they would die. I wanted to make Sharon happy and I think that by letting her die it would make her happy. This is a tragic accident that how or why it happened. I never wanted to let her go and don't how this happened"
The first thing we see is he used the unique word "with" when talking about his wife. Instead of saying "my wife and I went to breakfast" he wrote "I was with my wife Sharon Bell." The word "with" shows distance. This tells us that maybe he did not want to go to breakfast or that he and his wife were having some problems and were not getting along.
"When I pulled I'm not sure where I stopped the van." This would appear to be a fragmented or unusual statement. He told us he had to go to the bathroom so he "pulled off the road." He uses the same language "pulled" but does not include the word "off" which would make the sentence more readable. This would be an indication that pulling off the road is a sensitive area within his statement and worth exploring.
He uses the unique word "left." However, he attributes this language to his wife. It may be that she did use the word "left" when she asked him why he didn't go to the bathroom earlier. He then adopts her language when he gives his statement.
"I assume that she had her seat belt on." Everything a person says has a meaning. Why did he mention that she was wearing a seat belt? This may be important to him because if she has her seat belt on it will make it difficult for her to jump out of the van before it goes over the cliff.
"I did not put the van shift selector in park or reverse, actually I don't think I touched it at all." He uses the word "actually" which means he is comparing two thoughts. He is comparing not putting the shift selector in park or reverse with not touching it. The problem is he says "I don't think I touched it." He is not certain if he touched the shift selector. You cannot believe he did not touch it unless he tells you he did not touch it. Then he adds the phrase "at all." This violates the rule that the shortest answer is the best answer. He adds the "at all" to emphasize that he did not touch the shift selector. However, this only draws suspicion. If you were interviewing him, you would want to ask him some questions about this. It would appear that he did not put the van in park or reverse. He left it in drive but he may have acted like he put it in park so his wife would not be so quick to react and exit the van.
"I knew the van was going to roll over the edge and I knew gravity would pull it over." The key word is "knew." He is telling us that he knew what was going to happen. He says it again later in his statement, "I knew if someone went over the cliff in the van they would die." This is a clear sign that this was not an accident but premeditated murder.
"I got out of the van and ran away like a coward. Believe what people tell you. He does not state that after he saw the van go over the cliff he panicked and ran away. He says that he got out of the van and ran. He knew exactly what was going to happen.
"I think that by letting her die it would make her happy." Again, he clearly tells us this was not an accident when he says that he was "letting her die." He thinks this will make her happy but I'll bet his wife would have disagreed with that.
"This is a tragic accident that how or why it happened. I never wanted to let her go and don't how this happened" He ends his statement with two unusual sentences. He wants us to believe he does not know how or why this accident happened. The problem is he does not say that. He forgot to include the words "I don't know." We see this again with the last sentence. He probably wanted to say "I don't know how this happened." But, he took himself out of the sentence by not using the pronoun "I" and he forgot to write the word "know."
When he writes "I never wanted to let her go" it sounds like he is referring to letting her pass into eternity. But, he could be talking about not wanting to let her go over the cliff. If that is the case, then again this would be an admittance that he did purposely kill her.
Based on his language, we can conclude that this was premedtiated murder and not an accident. There are also several other things in his statement which indicate deception which we will cover in a later lesson. Click on the link below for another test on analyzing the language.
| Continue the training with "Lesson Two" |