In Statement Analysis, the first thing we do when we receive a written statement is photocopy it and file the original. I often make several copies and like to check my work with others. When work is shared, we only submit the statement and the allegation to the analyst. We do not share suspicions, evidence, history, or anything else. We want the analysis to not be influenced by anything but itself. We should see similar analysis done anywhere; though some may be deeper than others.
With the copy of the statement, before I read it, I circle the pronouns.
This is done before reading it, or any other analysis.
Pronouns solve many crimes. Pronouns answer many questions. It is estimated that as much as 70% of murders are due to the pronoun
"mine".
Pronouns are understood by children at a very early age. Even for children they cannot speak, the concept of "mine" is strong. Adults and children with developmental disabilities understand "mine".
At an early age, children will use the pronoun "my" and "mine" for everything from food, to toys, to even attention. The pronoun is the single most focused indicator in Statement Analysis.
Pronouns show ownership.
Pronouns show hidden confessions.
As cases come and go; one day they are being reported everywhere, only later to be displaced by another case, observe carefully what the accused says.
In Statement Analysis, we listen to what words are used, and not what we think the author meant. This is the basic premise of all Statement Analysis, no matter what it is called.
If someone used the past tense in a verb, we acknowledge that they used past tense. We don't make excuses or accept, "that's not what I meant" as an excuse, and are content to make a report knowing that later the subject will deny its meaning. We let a jury decide if "that's not what I meant to say" is credible or not.
Why do we insist that the words a person chose are to be taken at face value?
Because the words chosen by the brain are communicated to the tongue in less than a micro second. The more freely the subject speaks, the more information we have. When in an interview, the interviewer must be careful NOT to introduce new words or new subjects: the best interview is when the subject of the interview introduces his own words. When the subject introduces a new word, or a new topic, THEN and only THEN should the interviewer reflect the words (or topic) back in the form of questions.
As one practices Statement Analysis, (media provides us with more examples per day than we could ever have time to cover)things such as verb tenses and pronoun alerts become second nature. (I circle them in my mind as I hear someone speak). This is more accurately called "Verbal Polygraphy". It is the result of practicing Statement Analysis.
Pronouns jump out at us. This leads to a very important principle:
Pronouns show ownership.
"Mine!"
"My daddy!" "My cookie!"
It is something ingrained within the human mind from the first moments of language.
It is something we do not suddenly dismiss in Statement Analysis. We recognize it in 2 year olds, in 10 year olds, and in adults.
If someone does not take ownership of something, we do not ascribe ownership of it to them.
If someone takes ownership of something, we do not argue with them.
When an arguing parent says, "maybe if you controlled your daughter more, we wouldn't be in this situation!", one parent is not owning responsibility for the current crisis, but is casting blame on the other.
"Oh, that's not my clean up. It's your dog, not mine!" It is likely that this subject is not going to clean up after the dog.
"Woke up, made the bed..." is different than "Woke up, made my bed"
What is the difference?
The pronoun "my" tells me that the person is either single, or is about to be single. Couples normally say "the" bed, but do not feel a need to say "my" bed. Singles sometimes do, but married couples when having marital trouble will sometimes say "my" bed, especially if they are headed towards divorce.
"I have to go and pick up our daughter" is different than "I have to go pick up my daughter". For most biological parents, if they are together, they use "my", but if there is step parenting involved, the pronoun "our" is likely to slip in. (Foster children and adopted children's parents often say "our" but when a married person says "our" and there are no step parents involved, it is a sign of marital trouble).
When someone says "I have to take care of the dog" instead of saying "I have to take care of my dog" it tells me that the subject is likely part of a family and the dog is a family pet.
These are things that are likely to show up.
Pronouns show cooperation.
"He threw me in his car. We drove to the woods. He raped me and threw me out of the car."
She's lying.
"He threw me in his car. We drove to the woods. He raped me and threw me out of the car."
You may have already noted that "his" car became "the" car, as we note change in language. But in Statement Analysis, the first thing you do (after photocopying) is circle the pronouns. This is done BEFORE the statement is read.
"He threw me in his car. We drove to the woods. He raped me
and threw me out of the car."
When the young lady was confronted, she admitted that she had lied because her father would not allow her to go out with this young man, and she was caught. "We" solved the case because "we" denotes cooperation and there is never a "we" involved in sexual assault. The victim's disdain for the perpetrator precludes her from using the pronoun "we". The investigator in this case had training which served him well.
However, pronouns go even deeper.
Within a pronoun, we find ownership. When we see ownership of a crime, we have a confession.
Innocent people will not take ownership of guilt. They have been using possessive pronouns since they could talk. It is decided in less than a micro second and if there is one thing a person will NOT make a mistake over, it is something they learned before they could even walk, and have practiced it EVERY single day of their lives up to now:
"my".
Pronouns show ownership, even of guilt.
"For those of you who believe in my guilt, I want to say to you..." (OJ Simpson).
Innocent people will not take ownership of something they did not do. When a person is guilty of a crime, they will use the possessive pronoun to lay claim to the guilt.
In at least 3 interviews, Patsy Ramsey said "our guilt" in her statements.
Scott Peterson did it.
It is a powerful habit, deeply embedded within us, to recognize what belongs to us. If it is guilt that belongs to us, the pronoun will be used to frame a sentence, in less than a micro second, which will give its indication.
Later, the person will say "that's not what I meant!" but it is what they said.
Remember when Casey Anthony attempted to explain the smell of decomposition in her car? She said "dead squirrels climbed up" into the engine.
Since dead squirrels cannot climb, you may interpret it as "squirrels climbed up into the engine and died".
But that would mean rather than listening, you are interpreting.
In Statement Analysis, we know that truthful people recall from memory meaning that they can recite backwards and forwards what happened, but deceptive people are noted because sometimes they mix up order. When something is out of order, it is a red flag for deception.
Squirrels climb first, and later die. This would be noted linguistically as out of order and marked "deceptive" in Casey's statement. We would not say she "misspoke". We would say she was practicing deception, just as she did when she attempted to say that Caylee was alive, kidnapped while her own words told us Caylee was dead.
"Caylee loved the park."
Misty Croslin did the same with missing 5 year old Haleigh Cummings.
Parents and care providers do NOT speak of missing children in the past tense unless they believe the child is dead.
When Texas Equasearch was organizing their massive volunteer search for Caylee Anthony, Tim Miller presented Casey Anthony (and her mother Cindy) with a map of Orlando and asked for help on where to begin the search. When Casey would not cooperate, Tim Miller asked her to simply put an X on the map; but Cindy intervened and would not allow Casey to do anything.
As stunning as it may be to the sensibility of a parent of a missing child, what Cindy said next was more important than what she did when she blocked Casey from helping find her missing daughter:
Cindy spoke to the camera and said, "George and I don't believe that Caylee's in the woods or anything."
Caylee's remains were found in the woods, down the block from Cindy Anthony's home.
Statement Analysis shows that Cindy chose "woods" because "woods" were in her mind. We were not surprised to learn later that she had her private investigator videotape the woods, quite close to where the body was found, previously.
Question: Did Cindy Anthony know that Caylee was in the woods when Tim Miller went to search?
Answer: Yes.
People choose their words for a reason. The reason is simple: it is what is in their mind.
"Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" Christ.
The heart is the seat of the affections and the intellect. Both what we think and what we feel comes out through the mouth.
Watch the interviews on television that are becoming popular. "Real Interrogations" is a good one because they have the transcript of the interview on the screen as it is being spoken. Listen when someone says, "Oh, man. You think I did it?" and note the person.
The person who says this, unprompted by the Interviewer, is telling you, within the sentence, "I did it", and you will find, as the show concludes, that the person who said "I did it" even though it was framed in a question, is the one who "did it" and is in prison.
If your beloved says "You think that I cheated on you! I'm telling you once and for all, 'Nothing happened' but you don't believe me!".
I can tell you two things:
1. Something happened. "Nothing" cannot happen.
2. They cheated and confessed with their own words "I cheated on you".
(These words must be spoken unprompted. If they were prompted by the Interviewer, they are not the subject's own words, but a reflecting back of the Interviewers words).
Listen for confessions by listening for pronouns.
