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The Statement | |
The Analysis | |
Conclusion | |
1. The first sentence in a statement is a very important one. It is the point where the subject decided to start the statement. |
In many cases, the first sentence might include the reason for the events that follow. |
Please note that in the first sentence we find the following: |
"When I left my home on Tuesday, Oct. 25..." |
It is interesting to notice that many false statements start with "left". |
2. The subject said: |
a) "I wanted to end my life so bad and was in my car ready to go down that ramp into the water..." |
b) "I then got out of the car and stood by the car a nervous wreck." |
Please notice the change in pronouns from "my car" to "the car". |
Usually, the use of "the car" when it should be "my car" is an indication of possible deception in the statement. |
3. The subject said: "I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down the ramp into the water without me. I took off ... screaming, 'Oh God! Oh God, no! What have I done? Why did you let this happen?'" The emotions are located exactly at the "perfect" place, at the peak of the statement, as dictated by logic. Since the emotions are located by logic it is a strong indicator of deception. |
4. The subject used the pronoun "we"/"our" in only one sentence: |
"I felt I had to end our lives to protect us from any grief or harm." |
Please notice the following: |
a. During the ride "around a little while" with the intent to go later to her mom, the subject didn't use the pronoun "we", even though the children were with her in the car. |
b. The only time the subject used the "we" (=togetherness) is at the time she decided to end their lives. |
5. The subject said: |
a) "...but I didn't want my children to grow up without a mom." |
b) "I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down the ramp into the water without me." |
c) "I love my children with all my (heart)." |
d) "My children, Michael and Alex, are with our Heavenly Father now..." |
e) "My children deserve to have the best, and now they will." |
Due to the fact that the pace of speech (and definitely the pace of writing) is slower than the pace of thinking, there is a natural tendency to shorten the speech. |
This is to say that in general it is expected that people would introduce others into the statement going from the long introduction - as in (d) - and continuing to a shorter introduction - as in (a), (b), (c), and (e). |
Therefore, when someone goes from a short introduction a longer one, as we see in this case, it should indicate a bad relationship. |
One should note that the longer (formal) introduction was used in the context of the children being "with our Heavenly Father" = being dead. |
6. The subject said: |
a) "I love my children with all my (heart)." |
b) "I have prayed to them for forgiveness and hope that they will find it in their (heart) to forgive me." |
Please notice that in both places the word "heart" is placed in parentheses, indicating that it might have been added by the newspaper in order to make the sentence readable. However, it is quite likely that the subject didn't say it. |
"If the subject didn't mention something, then that something didn't happen." This is to say that if the subject didn't say that she loves them with all her heart, then we cannot say that she loves them. |
7. The subject said: |
a) "I had never felt so lonely and so sad in my entire life." |
b) "I had never felt so scared and unsure as I did then." |
c) "I never meant to hurt them!!" |
"Never" is not as strong as "didn't". This is to say that the subject's denials in these three points are weak denials. |
In regard to the subject's denials in (a) and (b) one should note that The Columbia State reported on November 26, 1994, that Susan Smith told a high school guidance counselor in 1988 that she had been molested by her stepfather of 10 years, Beverly Russell. |
Also, Court documents said that Mrs. Smith had tried to kill herself by overdosing on aspirin twice while a teen-ager. Her biological father committed suicide when she was 6 years old. |
This information, verifying the weakness of the denials in (a) and (b), should bring us to suspect that the subject meant to hurt her own children. |