Behavioral Analysis: Missing Children

A father went food shopping at Walmart with his  toddler daughter. pushing his shopping cart with one hand, and holding her hand with his other.  Frustrating as it was, he let go of his hand to push the cart, allowing her to walk behind him, rather than ride in the cart.  It was too difficult pushing a shopping cart with just one hand.  He needed both to navigate his grocery cart, which was growing heavier due to some bottles.

She did what toddlers often do, and wandered off.

When he realized she had wandered off, with his shopping cart half full, looking down at it, considering how much else he planned to purchase, he continued to shop, not stopping to look for her.

He did not call her name.

He finished his food shopping, and went to the check out line.

Once there, he loaded his groceries on the conveyer belt and took at his debit card to pay the bill, while workers bagged his groceries.

He then took the groceries in the cart, to the parking lot, opened the trunk of his car, and loaded the car up.

Next, he drove home, unloaded the groceries, and started lunch.

After lunch, he lounged in his living room, watched his favorite television show, took a nap, and woke up in time to make himself dinner.

He then decided that he would need to do something about his missing daughter, so he made a police report.

The police came to his door to ask questions, but he was tired, or so he told them, and answered but a few.

He insisted that someone "kidnapped" his daughter.

The police said that if someone had kidnapped his daughter, it would be to his daughter's benefit that he address the kidnappers through the media, who were now gathering outside his front door, ready to take his message to his beloved daughter's kidnapper and facilitate her return.

He hand wrote a short statement saying, in effect, "not now", as he was not yet ready to talk to the media.  He had another of his favorite television show about to start, and besides, he was tired.

As he put off the media until the next day, questions arose as to why he did not call after her, search for her, or even talk to the kidnapper about ransom demands.  In fact, some began to complain that all he spoke about was his own comfort, never once raising the issue of what his little girl might be experiencing in the hands of a stranger.

This angered him, primarily became he hated being questioned about himself.

Finally, the child's mother could no longer refrain herself and told the media, "her father is not helping!"

He could not bare up under such insult to his character and in defiance, presented himself to the police to take their polygraph.

He would be asked:

Do you know where she is?

Do you know what happened to her?

Did you cause her harm?

Pushed into taking the test, he "smoked" it, and was unafraid to tell the media this very thing.

Meanwhile, the trail of blood, across his shoes, his floor, his closet and his vehicle, told their own story.

As bizarre as the shopping story is, it is behavioral analysis of what it is like when the parent of a missing child acts as if he (or she) does not want the child found.

Whether it is a parent that seems to enjoy the spotlight (Deborah Bradley, Billie Jean Dunn), or one who eschews it (Justin DiPietro, Sergio Celis), it matters not:

The parent does not want the child found, and the lack of cooperation; the lack of searching ("I'm not going to search those ugly fields" Billie Jean Dunn), or the lack of truthfulness in failed polygraphs, even attempting to fool them with drugs), and the overall antagonistic attitude towards police and a public that shows more care for the child then they do themselves, all comes through the speech.

Behavioral analysis and statement analysis often agree, one with the other.

In the interview process with police, just as it is with the media, the guilty parent wishes to limit information at all costs, and hinder the location of the child.

They may blister at the public, and they may berate the police, but they speak not of the child's welfare because they know:  the welfare is not in question, any longer.