Death by Bactine?

by Diane Dimond

How did 16 year old honor roll student Annie McCann die? Her parents have been agonizing over that heart wrenching question for too long. Definitive answers have been few but these determined parents refuse to give up asking.

On October 31, 2008 Annie left a note in her bedroom which mentioned suicide but she had also added the hope-filled line, “But I realized I can start over instead. . . . If you really love me, you’ll let me go.” Then, she inexplicably ran away, taking $1,000 in cash, jewelry and the family Volvo. It was a shock to Dan and Mary Jane McCann whose daughter was a devout Catholic, quiet and studious – a child who had never given them any trouble.

Two excruciating days later the McCann’s got a phone call informing them Annie’s body had been found at a housing project in Baltimore, Maryland about seventy miles from their home. They were dumbfounded.

The Maryland medical examiner ultimately declared Annie’s death was due to Lidocaine poisoning and concluded she had ingested the bottle of Bactine she carried to treat her newly pierced ears. The company that makes Bactine, along with a well-known medical examiner, Dr. Michael Baden, would both later declare that drinking one bottle would never be fatal.

After reviewing the autopsy and other reports prominent psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow concluded, “It strains the imagination … to believe that a person intent on dying would choose this obscure and extremely uncertain method of attempting to take her life.”

While the official cause of Annie’s death is still listed as “undetermined” Baltimore P.D. spokesman Anthony Guglielmi (right) told me this week, “Police believe it was a suicide.” Translated: While the case is listed as “pending” it might as well be closed.

The McCann’s hired a private detective to figure out how Annie – who always had a lousy sense of direction and hadn’t been driving that long – got all the way to Baltimore. P.I. Jimmy Kontsis followed the lead of a fingerprint found on the window of the McCann’s recovered car. That led to a group of local teens who admitted one of their group, a kid named D.J., had stolen the McCann’s car. But each of them insisted Annie was already dead in the back seat so they tossed her body and took a joyride. Police said they could find no evidence to charge them in Annie’s death and auto theft charges were never pursued either.

Noting that Annie’s autopsy remarked on, “fresh injuries to her face and head,” Dr. Baden suggested Annie might have died from homicidal suffocation. Was she victimized for the $1,000 she took with her? Police made note of Annie’s clean white socks but could never find her shoes. Might they have been left at the same place she ingested the Lidocaine?

That’s the mystery!” Kontsis told me. “Even the police were, like, Lidocaine? They didn’t get it either.” Drug addicts have been known to try to smoke Lidocaine but Annie never experimented with drugs. Classmates called her sheltered and naïve.

Kontsis canvassed people at spots where Annie had been – her church, a Virginia Costco, even a pastry shop in the Little Italy section of Baltimore. He discovered a consistent description of an older, apparently homeless Hispanic woman (left) seen speaking with Annie at all three locations. A sketch of the mystery woman (who claimed to be from Honduras and was seeking immigration information) brought in no helpful information.

And then, last November the teenager known as D.J. – real name Darnell Kinlaw, now 21, — was arrested in Baltimore for murdering a woman and stealing her car. It was revealed that Kinlaw’s extensive police record lists eight charges of auto theft. Annie’s parents figured it was the perfect time to get more information from Kinlaw about the day their daughter died.

The McCanns travelled to meet Baltimore police and while they were treated politely they feel they have been lied to and ignored. Police say they are sympathetic but maintain they’ve already conducted a thorough investigation.

Look, maybe Annie McCann did manage to get a stash of Lidocaine and poisoned herself. But, that seems unlikely and after researching this case and counting up the loose ends – the odd trip to Baltimore, the missing money, the mystery woman and Kinlaw’s past – I can’t help but feel that in the absence of concrete evidence Annie’s half-used Bactine bottle gave police a convenient reason for her death. Easier to declare it a suicide and move on.

Left in the wake of that decision are Dan and Mary Jane McCann who cannot find peace. They still wonder why they never got Annie’s clothes back and why no one will tell them whether she had been raped the day she died.

The sad fact is there are countless families mourning the loss of their murdered children every day in America. They are Black, Hispanic, Asian and, in the case of Annie McCann – White. Their tears are all the same color.

In the end, it really isn’t race or ethnic background that matters when a child is murdered. It is the feeling families often get that no one cares enough to find the truth – that there will be no justice – that hurts so much.

Maybe our overburdened, understaffed police departments can find some way to work on making families feel more included in the heart-breaking process of homicide investigation.

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No Visible Tears, Defensiveness and Body Language Tells of Baby Lisa’s Parent’s on Dr. Phil

by Dr. Lillian Glass

After watching Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, the parents of missing Baby Lisa Irwin, on Dr. Phil, it is my view that something does not seem right from a body language and communication perspective.

There were several signals of deception in my view along with signals of defensiveness. Her “crying” on the air seemed to remind me of the non-tears and extremely quick recovery time, complete with lack of facial transition of Casey Anthony and Susan Smith.

What struck me a odd was her immediate display of a crying facial expression as soon as Dr. Phil asked her about the Kansas City Police Department and if she thought she was treated unfairly. There are no tears as she transitions to a non crying facial expression within milliseconds. In my view anger would be a more appropriate reaction instead of self sympathy tears.

She then gets defensive and volunteers the following information in a harsh and defensive vocal tone . Say says “It’s not a circus. It’s not a joke. ” Those are her words No one else said it was a circus or a joke? When someone volunteers extraneous and tangential information that has little or nothing to do with the case , it usually indicates a signal of deception. It may very well be a case of “thou dost protest too much.”

She goes on to say “This is not a game. This is my baby.” Once again no one said anything about a game. In analyzing her statement, when someone is playing games and is the first to bring up the term “game," it is often a game they may be playing.

In Debbie Bradley’s case, perhaps she is playing that “cat and mouse game” with the Kansas City police as they says he is not cooperating. Perhaps the reason she has been interviewed b them so many times, according to her attorney Joe Tacopina, is because they don’t feel thy are getting any answers from her and may very well feel as though she is playing games.

Deborah Bradley clutches on to Jeremy Irwin’s hand as his finger is extended. And does not interlock with hers, showing distance between them in my view. His cupped fist may also display anger. Perhaps he is angry at Debbie for what may have happened to Baby Lisa on her watch.

As he speaks he breaks away from her grip and comforts himself by interlocking his own fingers as he places them on his groin area. This indicates that he is feeling extremely vulnerable. He ignores the hand that Deborah places on his thigh.

His tone is robotic, yet his voice betrays him as he displays a shakiness as his words tend to trail off at the end. This may be further indication that he may be masking his true emotions.

Dr. Phil then asks Deborah if during the 90 days new light was shed and whether something developed.

Deborah looks down and says in an arrogant manner “ Yes but I’m not gonna talk about it.”

If she is not going to talk about it then why appear on Dr. Phil? Why not speak to the Kansas City police and tell them about the these new developments.

The constant dabbing of her non-tears with no liquid present throughout the interview is very disturbing.

Joe Tacopina spins his spin and speaks on behalf of the couple. As he does this we see several signals of deception with him in my view from his cocked head to his blinking, shoulder shrugs, etc, which may indicate to me that he may not really believe everything he is saying.

As he speaks, we continue to see Deborah dab her tearless eyes. To me that is a HUGE red flag body language wise.

When Dr. Phil asked baby Lisa’s mother if she was wrong when she said that all the lights were turned off in the house after her husband Jeremy contradicted her by saying the lights were on when he came home, she immediately went on the defensive and began to attack Jeremy . She leaked out anger as she looked up and said that what he said was a it was a huge exaggeration.

Her looking up during his crucial statement along with her anger and defensiveness could be interpreted as a signal of deception. It is interesting to note that Jeremy doesn’t speak up and intervene and agree with her statement.

When Dr. Phil asked her about the cadaver dog’s hit we could see her squirm around, indicating discomfort at this line of questioning. Then we see her lick her lips, no doubt due to a case of ”cotton mouth” which is due to anxiety, which is often a signal of deception. We then see her bite her lips which indicates she was no doubt holding back information.

While I am not accusing Deborah Bradley of wrongdoing, her body language and facial language and speech content and Jeremy’s voice patterns and body language may speak volumes.

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Another Missing Baby

by Holly Hughes

Once again, another child has gone missing and another mother tells an evolving story. On Tuesday, October 4th, 2011, at approximately four a.m., the alarm was sounded when ten month old Lisa Irwin was reported missing by her parents, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin. The mother, Deborah Bradley, initially reported that she last saw her baby girl when she put her to bed at ten thirty p.m. Now, weeks into the investigation, it comes to light that she last saw her at six forty p.m. 

She has steadfastly refused to speak with local media, when clearly, they would be the most effective outlet to keep Baby Lisa’s story alive in their neighborhood and the surrounding locales. Yet, when she does give an interview to a national media outlet, we hear more disturbing and unbelievable claims. 

Deborah Bradley insists she hasn’t spoken to her two boys, ages five and eight, about the night that Lisa disappeared. Another puzzling statement she has made is that she didn’t go looking for her baby, even in her own backyard because she “was afraid of what she might find.” On top of all that, neither Bradley nor Irwin are cooperating with the police and have denied police access to the two little boys who were admittedly present that night, until this week.

All of these behaviors are inconsistent with a mother who desperately wants to find her child. If my child went missing, the police would not have to be hunting me down, begging for an interview. I would be in their face, on their phones and setting up shop in their precinct. I would be tearing around my entire neighborhood, including my own back yard, looking high and low, shouting her name.

I would not lie to the police about the crucial time in question, altering my story by four hours. Surely, Bradley must know that in child abduction cases, every second counts. A perpetrator could be hundreds of miles away, seriously changing the scope and course of the investigation. I don’t think I’m alone in this. I believe this is the way most parents would behave who were not involved.

But does this odd behavior mean she is guilty of anything? It certainly raises eyebrows. Is it consciousness of guilt or just quirkiness. Are there too many coincidences and oddities here? The very first night that Irwin works the overnight shift, Lisa goes missing. The same night, incidentally, that Bradley is passed out drunk. Admittedly someone else could have known that Irwin was to begin the night shift, but who could have possibly known that Bradley would drink herself into oblivion?

They have hired attorneys and a private investigator to handle things. Well, that is hardly going swimmingly. They seem to making a bigger mess. The attorneys made a big deal of announcing they were going to be giving daily press releases and they would open the house, the crime scene, so the press could walk through. Well, neither of those things occurred, raising even more questions.

Much ado has been made about the fact that a “cadaver dog” hit in the bedroom of Bradley and Irwin. Unfortunately, that does not mean there was a decomposing body there. It could be blood from an old wound, sloughed off dead skin, or any number of other things. The forensic testing done on those samples will hopefully give us more definitive answers and point us in the right direction.

Although things don’t seem to look good for Bradley, there are other possible scenarios here. Maybe she is just an emotionally immature young woman who does not know how to handle all that has been thrust upon her.

Police have also reported that several credible witnesses have come forward to state that they saw a man walking with a baby around midnight, the same night that Lisa Irwin disappeared. They have obtained some grainy video surveillance that seems to corroborate that, indeed, there was a man out at that time in the reported area, but it is too poor quality to tell if he is indeed holding a baby. Then there was the finding of a backpack with purportedly soiled diapers in them found near an abandoned house not far from the Bradley/Irwin residence. 

Sadly, until Lisa Irwin is found, dead or alive, we will not have any more answers than we have now. There is always the hope that she was taken by someone who desperately wanted a baby to love and raise. At least that way, there is hope that she may be returned to her family some day.

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Do the Media Have a Cafeteria Plan When Reporting About Missing Children?

by Stacy Dittrich

I’m guilty. The hundreds of radio, print and television reporters across the country are guilty. We are guilty of standing in the dessert line in the cafeteria, picking and choosing the more attractive dishes, while completely ignoring the entrée’s to our left that our screaming for our attention. You’re over Casey Anthony—the latest Crème Brulee. I get it. I’m over Casey Anthony. For 3 years I have been commenting on the case via radio, television, and print. I’m done. I know many of the other contributors here echo these sentiments. A brief scroll down the WCI archives shows that Casey, Caylee, Cindy and George Anthony, along with Zanny the Nanny, were mentioned an astounding 137 times.

In reflection, however, the case begs to open another discussion of why some incredibly emotional and horrific cases are ignored while others are literally blasting through every artery of the media on a daily basis. Why did we focus so intently on Casey Anthony and not others? I’ve actually heard some in the media blame Nancy Grace.

Riiiiiight.

If one woman wields that kind of power, than Nancy truly is an American superstar.

In my opinion, it’s not Nancy’s fault, but the American public’s obsession with seeing justice served—and rightly so. We’ve been dragged through so many senseless tragedies with little or no vindication (ahem, O.J.) that I truly believe the public has simply had enough and wants to start holding those responsible accountable. The problem with Casey Anthony started at the beginning. It seemed like an open and shut case; mother allegedly murders daughter, mother gets arrested, mother goes to prison for life. Unfortunately, I began to see many red flags in the beginning that made me nervous. As shallow as this sounds, Casey’s attractiveness was one of them. It may sound shallow but I have the experience to back it up. I can’t begin to count the number of jury trials I’ve attended where my attractive, female, suspect was found “not guilty.” Even more incredulous, as I spoke to jurors after, they held nothing back when telling me, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t look at that nice, sweet, girl and believe she really did that. I can’t.” (Hello, professional jurors, where are you?)

Some believe that race and religion are silent factors when bringing a horrific crime to the national forefront. I have been following a disturbing case that I’ve seen briefly touched on in the national news, but nowhere near other crimes. New York City local news has been covering it frequently, but other than that—zilch. It involves the disappearance and murder of an 8-year old Orthodox Jewish boy, Leiby Kletzky, and it is gruesome.

On July 11, 2011, the Brooklyn boy had begged and pleaded with his parents to walk home by himself from day camp–a first. The parents initially hesitated, but decided to allow Leiby (pictured left) to spread his wings a little. With obvious trepidation, Leiby’s parents not only memorized the route with him, a total of seven blocks, but they actually went through a dry run. Walking by himself for the first time, Leiby never came home. This defines a parent’s worst nightmare. Of course it gets worse; much, much, worse.

33 hours after intense searches and investigations, authorities were led to the home of Levi Aron, 35, a local hardware supply stock clerk. Nothing could have prepared them for what they found inside.

Inside Aron’s freezer, they found Leiby’s severed feet wrapped in plastic. Aron then led investigators to a Dumpster containing a red suitcase that held the remainder of Leiby’s dismembered body. Aron claimed he forgot about the feet in the freezer.

Through a series of bizarre interviews, Aron claimed that Leiby had become lost on his route home and approached him for a ride. Headed to a wedding, Aron claimed he took Leiby with him and, upon seeing the flyers for the missing boy the next day, panicked and killed him. Of course, investigators now know that Aron took Leiby back to his apartment where he supplied him with a cocktail of drugs, suffocated him, and dismembered his body. The answer to the perpetual question of why Aron committed such a heinous act is still unclear. However, investigators did remove numerous children’s items from Aron’s home including a blue child’s spoon and pink cup. Is it possible Aron had harmed more children? Police say that there is currently no evidence of that, but a look into Aron’s background screams red flags of violent behavior.

My point is, Levi Aron will never see the light of day again. He confessed, there is physical and circumstantial evidence to back up his confession, it’s a done deal. So, why should we care? I do, which is why I’m writing about it here. Do you think the media took a pass on this case because Leiby was an Orthodox Jew or was it because we know justice will be served?

Then there’s the case of Mariha Smith (pictured right), 5, an African American girl who was recently abducted and murdered in Detroit. On Sunday, July 31, 2011 Mariha was reported missing by her mother who said someone must have gone through Mariha’s bedroom window between 3 a.m. and noon while she slept. Mariha’s mother admitted to being heavily intoxicated and passed out when this occurred. Unfortunately, just hours later, Mariha’s burned body was found in an abandoned home just blocks from her own. Her skull had been crushed prior to her body being set on fire.

After investigators showed family members a surveillance video from a nearby gas station showing a man purchasing cans of gasoline, did they begin to suspect Darnell Cheatham, 20. Cheatam is the boyfriend of Mariha’s aunt. After executing a search warrant at Cheatam’s residence, investigators took him into custody, and subsequently charged him with Mariha’s murder. Justice served, but not much attention.

Are the cases chosen based on race, religion, or socioeconomic factors? Possibly, but to reiterate, I truly believe it’s about justice. In both of the above cases, it is rather clear that justice will prevail in each of these horrific and vile crimes. But, in Caylee Anthony’s case, it didn’t. What's the X factor here?

Justice certainly hasn’t prevailed in the case of missing Oregon boy, Kyron Horman, 7. The last person to see him, step-mother Terri Horman, has been investigated exhaustively but refuses to cooperate. Kyron (pictured left) still hasn’t been found and his parents continue to live in Hell. Now this is pure injustice and it’s downright appalling.

I have to submit that all of the above cases have been mentioned in the media, some more than others. The downside is that there are approximately 150-200 child stranger abductions every year across this country and the media couldn’t possibly cover them all. All races, religions, and socioeconomic factors are unfortunately covered here. Child abductions know no racism or bigotry and most of these children are probably deceased. Should a deranged lunatic walk into an elementary school and viciously murder 150 students in one mass murder the incident would scream across headlines worldwide, but spread each one out over a one year period and no one seems to pay attention to each and every one. Why?

It’s the nature of the media beast, our cafeteria mentality that picks those who will grab the public’s attention in a New York minute. Regardless of the how’s and why’s at least some of these cases are being brought to the national level. Even if it’s just one case where the life of a child is saved or we learn from it, it is truly worth it.

For those left behind, always keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

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Madeleine: Wherein lies the Truth

by Pat Brown

It is said there is often a lot of nonfiction in fiction and a lot of fiction in in nonfiction. Kate McCann's new autobiography, Madeleine, is a prime example of this axiom. I say 'autobiography' because Kate's book is not so much about what happened to her missing daughter, Madeleine Beth, but about Kate McCann nee Healy - her life, her loves and her losses, her trials and her tribulations. In reality, very little of the book is about the missing little girl who vanished in Praia da Luz, the lovely vacation destination in the Algarve of south Portugal; it is a carefully crafted revisionist history of one of the most puzzling missing children's cases in recent years and a strident defense of the characters and behaviors of Kate and Gerry McCann.

Children go missing every day around the world but few children get the level of publicity that has surrounded the case of Madeleine McCann, who was almost four-years-old the evening she vanished from the McCann's Ocean Club apartment, allegedly snatched from her bed as she slept in a bedroom with her twin two-year-old twin siblings, Sean and Amelie. What set this case apart from so many is the fact that her parents were not at 'home' with their children when this alleged abduction occurred; they were off in the resort complex dining and drinking with their seven friends for the evening. For that matter, all of the infant and toddler children of the Tapas restaurant party were left alone to fend for themselves while their parents enjoyed their last night in town.

Madeleine and her brother, Sean, had spent a good hour of the previous evening crying for their parents and a couple of the other children were fussy or ill, one to the point of vomiting while her parents were off having dinner. Three of the families locked up their apartments while they were gone, but the McCanns, Kate and her husband, Gerry, say they left all the doors open so that someone, apparently anyone, could have easy access to the children. The parents of these children were hardly uneducated boobs. They were medical doctors and surgeons and folks of relatively high status back home in their British communities. The case made the tabloids, but, in fact, it was the McCanns themselves that courted the media relentlessly, making Madeleine the most recognized missing child in the world and, themselves a target of a good deal of criticism and skepticism. They claimed their campaign was to find Madeleine but a fair number of people think it was a smokescreen to cover their own criminal acts.

When Madeleine turned up missing at the end of the evening's revelries, the world was not only shocked that the little girl disappeared but that her parents were neglectful in their duties to provide a safe situation for her. Not only that, but rumors began to fly that the McCann children may have been sedated by their own parents so as to not be problematic again when left unattended and with that additional bit of disturbing information, the McCanns became victims and villains at the same time. Over the course of the next few months, the police came to believe that the only victim in this drama was Madeleine who they surmised died accidentally while left alone and that the McCanns hid little Madeleine's body somewhere in Praia da Luz, staged an abduction, and with the help of their friends covered-up the crime. Four years later, the case remains unsolved and the McCanns remain under suspicion.

Which is why Kate McCann wrote her book, Madeleine. Not, in my opinion, to re-energize the search for her daughter as she claims, but to convince people of her innocence and raise revenue. Considering the fact the book sold 50,000 copies of the very first day and was serialized for half a million dollars and the Amazon reviews are mostly glowing and supportive, I would say Kate has achieved her goals in quite a smashing way.

But, there are still hidden nuggets of gold to be mined from within Kate's version of what happened in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007. The one dangerous thing about telling yet another rendition of events is that there is often truth among the lies or lies among the truth; this is why police investigators always want persons-of-interest to keep talking and defense attorneys keep telling their clients to shut the hell up.

The added information in Kate's book has enabled me to complete a Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann (US) (and UK). I had been reluctant to offer one for a long time because, in spite of the many police reports and statements and television appearances of Kate and Gerry McCann, I wanted to hear the story from one of their mouths, to know their answers to some very pertinent questions. Kate finally did me the favor when she wrote, Madeleine, and although most of the book is a defense of her behaviors and actions, it is through this defense that Kate has given me a much stronger insight into what likely happened the night Madeleine went missing and why certain things happened or did not happen. Even with time to meticulously choose what one wants to say, it is amazing that what actually ends up coming out is something that perhaps would be better left unsaid. However, personal agendas, narcissism, and a lack of objectivity can cloud the judgment and the end results might not be exactly what the person intended. And I thank Kate for that.

Let me tell you two of the biggest revelations in the book: Kate admits no one came through the window of the children's bedroom. Yes, after years of insisting that someone broke into the apartment by tampering with the shutters and forcing the window open, Kate now backs down from that claim, agreeing with the Policia Judiciara that an abductor did not climbed into or out of the room. This is sort of a Bombshell Tonight. What this means is that Kate does not claim the police botched the evidence and while she still claims there was an abductor that opened the window for reasons that make no sense, her admission changes how I view what actually happened that night.

Another fascinating bit in the book is Kate's incredibly generous forgiveness of Jane Tanner for not telling her immediately that she saw a man carrying Madeleine off from the apartment; she is instead thankful that "someone had seen something." In other words, Kate is happy an abduction was seen going down, not that she was notified of it in time to do anything about it. This startling revelation tells me a lot about the mindset of the McCanns and adds greatly to the profile in determining what happened to Madeleine.

I hope Kate McCann does achieve her goal of re-energizing the investigation of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and that the truth of the matter will indeed finally come to light.

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Diane and Terri

by Anne Bremner

Remember Diane Downs? In 1984, she was convicted in the state of Oregon for the murder, attempted murder, and criminal assault ... of her own children. This was 1984, before Court TV, Nancy Grace, the saturation of cable news and true crime shows. In Diane’s case, it took the police nine months to make an arrest. She claimed that her car had been hijacked and that a “strange man” had shot her and her three children.

As it turned out, she was the one who shot her own children and herself. Alas, her story never held water. She behaved oddly, was caught in several lies, and after nine months of investigation, detectives were able to acquire enough evidence for prosecutors to indict. Who is to say how a person whose child has disappeared or has been murdered should behave?

Twenty-six years ago, we didn’t have the access to potential suspects we have today. Diane Downs didn’t have a Facebook page, so we weren’t able to peer into her comings and goings around the time of her crime. We didn’t tune in to Nancy Grace to check the latest developments, nor were we able to get online to chat about our suspicions with a worldwide audience. Had we been able to, I suspect we would have come to the same conclusions. That woman is lying! This is the same conclusion many have come to regarding Terri Horman. However, this time, we have had access to myriad websites, local news shows, social networking sites, and almost daily briefings from the father and biological mom of missing Kyron Horman.

Those of us who have followed Kyron's case from the beginning remember the odd behavior Terri Horman exhibited on the day her stepson disappeared; The Facebook posting about "hittin' the gym," the bizarre vacant look in Ms. Horman's eyes at the family news conference, and, most troubling, her refusal to engage the public at all. Her soon-to-be ex-husband, and his former wife (Kyron’s biological mother), have done countless press conferences and have made themselves accessible to the police for repeated questioning. But Ms. Horman has remained silent and uncooperative. The public therefore has been left to weed out information about this woman -- the last person to see Kyron -- on our own.

The similarities between Diane Downs and Terri Horman are striking indeed. Both women have children from numerous relationships, and both women appear to use sex as a tool to manipulate. In Terri’s case, it appears that she attempted to seduce a gardener in her employ in the hopes he would agree to murder her husband, Kaine.

As if that wasn’t enough, Ms. Horman was found to have sent lurid text messages and images of herself in various stages of undress to a man who was helping with the search for her stepson just weeks after the boy had gone missing. From the beginning, her story didn’t hold water. She claimed to have gone to school early for a science show but did not stay for the whole thing. Her husband claims she took his truck that day so she could bring home Kyron’s science project, which she never did. She claims to have been certain places during the several hours after leaving the school, yet her cell phone pings tell a different story.

As with Ms. Downs, people have a feeling they know she is not telling the truth but must wait for the wheels of justice to grind slowly and methodically. I wonder what would have been Diane Downs' Facebook status update on the day she did her deadly deed. “Hittin’ the salon and then off to the mall for a little retail therapy!” If it walks like a duck... .

Photos courtesy of Alate News and The Oregonian

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Caylee Anthony’s Body Language Around Mother Casey

by Dr. Lillian Glass

Despite grandmother Cindy Anthony’s comments concerning what a good mother her daughter Casey was to her granddaughter Caylee, or how much Caylee loved Casey and vice versa, a body-language analysis of Caylee and Casey since 2008 shows something different. Based on my observations of photos of Casey and Caylee over two years, it doesn’t appear as though there was a lot of TLC and bonding between mother and daughter.

That may be attributable to the interaction of Casey's mother Cindy early on. After all, Cindy was the first to hold her newborn granddaughter. Perhaps Casey so resented her baby getting all of Cindy's love and attention that Casey didn’t think twice about getting rid of her own daughter.

The girl's remains were found in a remote area about a mile from the Orlando home of Casey's parents. Casey, charged with first-degree murder in Caylee's June 2008 death, has denied having anything to do with her daughter's death. One of the most disturbing videos, to me, which we have seen over and over again, is of Casey “playing” with Caylee on the floor. Caylee kicks her feet as she tries to get away from Casey. At the end of the video, we see Casey turning her head away as Caylee keeps kicking to escape Casey’s grip.

To me, the last frames of video say it all. Casey’s facial expression shows disdain, aggravation and frustration at innocent Caylee’s existence. Caylee doesn't look happy, either. You can see the red marks under her eyes which may be indicative of a lot of crying and emotional abuse. Since the beginning of her tragic life, Caylee didn’t feel comfortable around Casey. Casey seemed to treat her like a prop -- an object, instead of a loved daughter. In fact, it's hard to see love and affection between the two in photos taken of the two of them.

Even early on in her life, when she is being held by Casey, Caylee seems to want to get away. She doesn’t nuzzle into Casey’s body but instead turns away. She also clenches her little fist in anger and makes a facial expression indicating discomfort and upset. One of those photos shows that she clearly has not bonded with Casey.

You can see that as a toddler there are no smiles from Caylee when she is held by Casey. That's not a good sign. Caylee looks sad and serious. She doesn't look like a happy child around her mother.

As Caylee gets older, it's still difficult to detect any affection or bonding between daughter and mother. Instead, Caylee’s attention is elsewhere as she points and pulls her body away from Casey, as though she wants to get away from her. There is no nuzzling or cuddling.

In the photos where Caylee is smiling, it's not a genuine smile with cheekbones raised. Instead, around her mother, Caylee's smile is forced, crooked, uncomfortable, tense and contrived.

It's as though someone told her to smile, and she obediently complied. But her smile does not appear to be heartfelt.

In one photo, there's lack of love and affection as Casey grabs her daughter's wrist. She doesn’t hold Caylee’s hand and looks down as though Caylee isn’t even there. Caylee does not seem happy about this, as revealed by her little fist-like hand position which indicates that she appears to be upset in her mother’s presence.In one of the last photos of mother and daughter together, the two are completely disconnected. Caylee is not smiling and looks very unhappy. What is most disturbing is the little mark on her cheek along with the bags and circles under her eyes.

Caylee appeared to be very capable of being happy, affectionate, connected and loving around other people. She's cuddly and comfortable in a pose with her great-grandfather, taken the last time her grandmother, Cindy Anthony, saw Caylee alive.

And look at Casey’s genuine smile with family friend Ryan Paisley.

Caylee’s relaxed facial expression and comfortable body language show up in a photo with her Grandpa George. That's in marked contrast to photos when Caylee appears with Casey.

As demonstrated in her body language in the photos, little Caylee did not feel comfortable with her own mother. She may have instinctively feared Casey. From the beginning of her short life, she may not have felt safe with her own mother. Ultimately, Cayley was right.

Photos courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel and The Associated Press.

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Hope Floats: Two Young Brothers, Two Heroes

by Cathy Scott

The case of 4-year-old Alisa Maier (photos left here and below), recently snatched from the front yard of her Missouri home while her young brother stood helplessly nearby is similar to one that went down in Vista, California, in 1992. The earlier case had a miraculous outcome.


And now, as all the world knows, so did Alisa's story end happily too.
In 1992, I was a reporter covering the crime beat for the The Vista Press, a since-closed daily newspaper in San Diego County. The police scanner was on in the newsroom and I heard the all-points bulletin when it came across. Staff photographer Jay Roberts heard it as well. We ran out of the newsroom, jumped in Jay's car and headed to the girl's neighborhood.


The case came on the heels of the 1989 disappearance of Leticia Hernandez (photo right), 7, who was snatched while playing in front of her home in nearby Oceanside, also in San Diego County. Two years later, her skull was found on a ranch 70 miles from her home. Leticia was dead, and law enforcement didn't want a repeat ending. They wanted to see the second little girl come home alive.

The Vista case I'm referring to went down like this: A 5-year-old girl and her brother, 4, were playing in the front yard of their small apartment complex. Their grandmother was washing dishes and could see the children from the window. They were playing hopscotch on the sidewalk when a man in a compact car drove up to the curb, opened the passenger door, grabbed the little girl as she approached his car, and then fled.

One moment the child was there, and the next she was gone. The little boy ran screaming into the apartment that a man had taken his sister. This was well before the Amber Alert program. Immediately, the grandmother called 911. And here is the crucial piece of information that saved this little girl. Her little brother told police, "The man was in a green car."


"A green car?" they asked. "What color of green?"

"The color of a lime," the boy told them.

The bulletin that ran across the county alerted officers to be on the lookout for a lime-green compact car driven by a man with a 5-year-old passenger.

Driving on a winding back road that eventually leads to Highway 76 and Interstate 15, was a San Diego County sheriff's deputy. In the opposite lane, headed toward him a few minutes earlier was a car that fit that description. The deputy rushed to make a U-turn, flipped on his lights and siren and headed in the direction of the lime-green car he had just seen. The officer radioed for backup.

After the call for backup went across loud and clear on the scanner, my photographer, Jay, and I headed in that direction too. Fifteen minutes later, as we got closer, a third and final call was sent: the car had been located, the driver was in custody, and, best of all, the little girl was frightened but unharmed. Every deputy available in the county was on that call.

We can only imagine what would have happened to that little girl had her brother not passed on the information and had the deputy not been traveling that road. When I learned about Alisa's case, I immediately thought of the girl in Vista and was hopeful that details from Alisa's brother would help. And it did. In Alisa's case, she was found wandering a car wash, apparently freed by the abductor. But it was the description the brother gave police, of a dark-colored, four-door sedan with a loud muffler, which helped lead authorities to the house of Paul Sterling Smith, the main suspect in the case, a registered sex offender who fatally shot himself in the head as officers surrounded his house.

Back in California in '92, the scene that afternoon on a rural road was one of relief. As Jay and I arrived, the lime-green car -- a small hatchback of some type -- was on the side of the road, where the officer had pulled over the driver.

The little girl was in the arms of a female deputy, waiting for family members to arrive. It was quite a sight, and one I won't soon forget. Uniformed deputies had tears in their eyes, this from veteran officers who had seen it all. When I saw a uniformed officer on TV carrying Alisa Maier in a parking lot after retrieving her from the car wash, it was like watching that scene all over again.

Both cases could have had tragic endings if not for the detailed descriptions their brothers gave to police and the quick responses from law enforcement. Both boys are heroes. And both cases offer hope.

Photos courtesy of The Associated Press

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Get to know Jose Antonio Ramos

by Lisa R. Cohen

As I wrote in my last post, Cyrus Vance Jr. is beginning his new term as Manhattan's District Attorney by taking a different tack than his predecessor, the legendary Robert Morgenthau.

Morgenthau meted out criminal justice in New York City for three decades until finally retiring in January. Throughout almost his entire reign, he demurred from pursuing the infamous Etan Patz case. "Not enough evidence," he'd say, on the few occasions he even deigned to comment.

The case involved the disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz off the streets of New York on his way to the bus stop, walking the two blocks on his own for the first time ever. He was never seen again. The mystery sparked a nationwide manhunt and a shift in our cultural sense of safety.

Even if you didn't read my last post, you would know from reading any one of numerous headlines, or watching ABC News Nightline's lengthy top story last Friday, that Vance has revealed he's taking a fresh look at the 31-year-old case with an eye to (hopefully) bringing charges against Jose Antonio Ramos.

Ramos is coming to the end of a very long prison stint in Pennsylvania for molesting two boys back in the '80s. He's due out in November 2012, unless a new charge can start the clock ticking again. Since there's no statute of limitations for murder, nor, in some situations, for felony kidnapping, the Patz case might be the way to do it. But people need to know more about Ramos to understand why people like Stuart GraBois, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, have fought so hard for so many years to keep him locked up.

Ramos's mug shot, grim and forbidding, has been splashed across the tabloids for years, but few have ever really talked to him, or even met him.

I have, and it's not an experience I'd want to repeat. When he refused to talk to me for my book, AFTER ETAN, I was disappointed. But part of me was glad not to face the barrage of invective and crazy I'd been through on the first go round, for a prison interview I produced at ABC News back in 1991, the only time Ramos has ever talked on camera.

Ramos has been locked away since a June day, much like this one, in 1986, when he was arrested in his converted school bus by the side of a highway. He'd gotten stuck there when the bus sputtered to a halt, just as he was about to hit the interstate heading across state lines.

He was trying to escape the Pennsylvania State Police, who'd put out a BOLO (Be On the Lookout) for him, once they'd heard the story of a sweet faced eight-year-old I call Joey. Joey and his parents walked into a Western Pennsylvania barracks, sat down in front of a video camera, and with little hesitation and no artifice, Joey told police that over a period of two days Jose Ramos had anally and orally assaulted him several times.

Joey didn't appear traumatized, just slightly uncomfortable, mostly unaware that he would be affected for the rest of his life. That's exactly the kind of victim Ramos would go after. A boy, often, although one father I talked to said Ramos used to wheel his pre-verbal twin toddlers off to babysit for hours at a time, and we'll never know what happened to them on his watch.

But usually his target was a boy, one whose parents were either very open, absent or in some way marginalized - impoverished, or a junkie or alcoholic ... maybe just hapless.

Ramos was very attentive to both parent and child. He looked menacing, but his voice was soft and mellifluous. After a while, he'd offer to take the boy fishing, or to the movies, eventually on sleepovers; a welcome break for a beleaguered single mom. He talked about wanting to be a father figure, giving these little "friends" of his what they desperately craved - attention and affection.

On at least one occasion, another (four-year-old) victim told police Ramos threatened to kill him if he alerted anyone. But sometimes a child was so eager to please, he'd simply go along with Ramos's seduction, not understanding what was happening. Maybe some of it even felt good. That was the plan, to create a victim who had "participated" and so was just as much to blame. Joey hadn't been coerced in a classic sense, and in a way, that was part of the damage done.

I met Joey four years after Ramos had gotten to him. He was a likeable boy, but he seemed numb and slightly sad. In those four years, he'd been attacked countless times over, by other kids who knew what had happened, and who hurled offensive slurs, ostracizing him. His own brother, fearing he'd be tainted by association, was the worst offender. Joey's grades had tanked. He had recurring nightmares of Ramos chasing him. It was heartbreaking.

When I interviewed him for the book, Joey, now an adult, told me that was worse than the sexual abuse. By then he was old enough to understand what had really happened to him, to suffer anguish because he hadn't put up a fight, and to turn his loathing inward. His family hadn't had the resources to get him treated properly. Again, heartbreaking. Ramos left a swath of such victims around the country, wandering from one to the next. When I heard he'd settled for awhile near a home for Downs' Syndrome children, and even targeted some of them, it literally made me nauseated.

Since that June day in 1986, Jose Ramos hasn't had access to a young victim. In two years, if and when he walks free, he'll have been without for 27 years. Maybe he'll be too old, too wary, too chastened to stalk again. I very much doubt it.

I hope he never gets that chance. But if he does, take a good look. Get to know this face well.

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