The way one phrases and constructs their words are strong indicators to what the truth is and to what really happened. People say what they mean, and they mean what they say.
Humintell’s associate and body language expert, Susan Constantine comments on this terrible tragedy and the “distressed” 911 caller.
Susan’s advice while listening to the call: don’t get caught up by the hysterical voice, rather listen to what is said and the background noises to tie it all together.
Susan states, “I listened to the tape over and over again and it was clear “the father was lying.” Here is why…
DISPATCHER: “Okay. Who shot her?”
CALLER: “I was taking the gun from him. I was trying to take it from him.”
Susan: A truthful person would have said who did it “the son” not what happened. The father also said I was
TAKING the gun from him, and right after said I was TRYING to take it from him. Trying is an attempt or
struggle to take something away. Keep in mind the child is under 3 years old.
DISPATCHER: “From who? From Who? From Who?”
CALLER: “From my son. From my son. He’s right here.”
Susan: Why did the father say he is right here “this is irrelevant and unsolicited information?
CALLER: “Oh God.”
DISPATCHER: “Okay. What’s going on there? You need police or rescue.”
CALLER: “Yes. Police. We need ambulance. She’s on the ground right now. I have the gun.
Susan: Father says she is on the floor RIGHT NOW, Where was she before? Then he says he has the gun and
later says it’s on the couch
My little boy had the gun and he picked it up off the ground, I don’t know. He never have been (inaudible).”
Susan: Father had to have seen the gun on the floor before the toddler picked it up
DISPATCHER: “Okay. Okay. Slow down for me and tell me what happened.
DISPATCHER: “Listen. Listen. Listen. I already have a call in for dispatch.”
CALLER: “(inaudible) Oh God. I can’t believe this. Oh God. Please she is still on the ground. Please. Please.”
Susan: Father says she is STILL on the floor, where was she before? If mom was shot you would expect her to
be on the floor if that is where shooting occurred.
DISPATCHER: “Okay, listen. I already have a call in to dispatch. I need you to tell me how old is your son.”
CALLER: “My son is 3 years. He will be 3 years in two months time please.”
DISPATCHER: “Okay. Where is the gun right now?”
Susan: Dispatcher – great clarification
CALLER: “It’s on right here. Right here. Right here now. It’s right there on the couch.”
Susan: The father says its right here NOW. Right here NOW (where was it before). Then he
contradicts himself by saying “It’s right THERE on the couch” (now it is in a different place)
DISPATCHER: “Okay.”
CALLER: “Jesus Christ God. Why do you put myself in this spot?
Susan: He now takes ownership that HE is in this SPOT not his son or victim
Oh God. Oh no. Nothing in my life. I never go through nothing like this in my life.”
Susan: Now becomes his agenda (victim). Qualifier statement, irrelevant, unsolicited
The major element that’s missing is the father never calls out the mother’s name (distancing). He also
pauses when the dispatcher asks if she is breathing I believe he made the call from a different room and
walks into the room she is in to see if she is breathing. The father also says the son is with him, you never
hear the son in the background.
What do you think about this caller? Is he being truthful?
I believe the caller is definately withholding information and being deceptive. In my previous comments I noted that the caller failed to claim possession of the mother with a possessive pronoun “my” or by using her name. You’re right he is distancing himself from her during the call which indicates tension. Maybe the pair had been arguing prior to the shooting.
He says “please” quite a few times during the 911 call as well, which I’ve read that excessive politeness is a hot spot for deception in an emergency call. Character witnesses could establish whether he’s usually very polite, but I don’t think he’d be much more than average myself. More often, it seems to be a sign of guilt from the research I’ve read.
A 9mm pistol would be pretty loud and unnerving to a 2-3 year old child, especially if it were fired while in their hands. Also unnerving for a 2-3 year old child would be hearing his mommy or daddy scream in reaction to an accidental gunshot; seeing his mommy fall to the ground; seeing his mommy bleeding; seeing his mommy not respond like she normally does. All of these taken together should probably induce hysterical crying from a child that age I would think. We hear no signs of that at all. I think Susan is correct when pointing that out for sure.
The caveat there would be how he called 911. Was he using a noise-canceling bluetooth headset or cell phone? A small handful of cell phones now have that feature built into them, such as the Motorola Droid X, the iPhone 4, and perhaps another half dozen or so models, in addition to the dozen or so headsets available which have the same feature. They can be surprisingly effective at squelching background noise, turning a screaming child into a muffled chirp here and there etc.
I don’t believe that’s the case with this call though, because we can clearly hear the room acoustics in the background (his voice’s echo/reverberations) which would tend to be minimized by noise canceling, and his voice is very clear to me– I’d almost bet money he called from a land-line and not a cell at all.
But the noise canceling is something that should be born in mind when listening to modern 911 calls– getting familiar with the quirks of the systems and what they won’t cancel or what kinds of signal processing artifacts they produce in various noise producing environments would be very useful for investigators.
According to the wording on the call it said “why do you put my son through this” not “myself.” I just wanted to clarify that because this woman is saying he is taking ownership by saying “myself” but that isn’t what is indicated on the print of the recording.