Blaise Barnett: Parent's interview
Are they reassuring?
I’ve been asked to look at a video of the parents of Blaise Barnett speaking about the disappearance of their son.
Here’s what they said :
Um, so around, maybe like one ten we got back home, um we parked right here where um the white Kia is uh but we faced the car this way um [inaudible] went to go drop of hi- our nephew and like some gro- I mean like some bags that we had, and stuff like that um he was in there for probably like 30 seconds maybe and within those 30 seconds he came back outside and the car was gone with Blaise in it
Q: What was going through your head?
Um …I really couldn’t think at that time at that moment I I just .. everything just shut down, like my whole mind just shut down um at this point when we came outside together and seen like that the car was really gone at that point I’m just like where could he be like where you know
Q: (to father) What was going through your mind?
I was shocked… I were… I.. I thought it was a dream… I just kept saying this is a dream this can’t be real .. and… just broke down
Q: Did you ever think something like this could happen to y’all?
No sir. not at all
Q: Something like this just comes out of nowhere for you?
Yes
Q: If you could say something right now to the person who has your child what would you say?
Just Please bring him home, you can keep.. the the car don’t even matter just bring my son home
Q: (to mother) What message do you have ?
Um. just bring my baby back, safely, unharmed, um, just bring him back you know we don’t want to press no charges, we just want him back
When children go missing in mysterious circumstances, some people have questions around the parents. I like to look at what they say and look at what reassures me and what doesn’t. Let’s break it down.
Reassuring
The good news is there is a lot about these words that is reassuring. Both parents are very to the point with what they say, they directly answer the questions, they don’t stray away into irrelevance.
The father especially says what he has to say and doesn’t add anything in or move on to another subject.
Neither parent tries to over convince us they are telling the truth by using adjectives or adverbs to minimise events or maximise their shock.
Events are all recalled in the past tense, which is what you expect when someone is truthfully recalling past events.
They don’t go into areas which cause concern when the parents of missing children go there. They don’t try to show us what good parents they are, they don’t try to minimise their mistakes (for example, they didn’t say “we don’t normally do this”.)
When both parents are asked to send a message to the person who has their son, they both focus on getting Blaise back, making clear that is what matters to them. From their words, it is obvious they think there is someone who has Blaise, and they are speaking directly to that person.
Concerning
There are two matters that concern me:
The mother stammers a lot when she recalls the moments they left the car until they got back to it. She changes what she is going to say twice.
It’s highly possible she is like this because she realises that leaving her son in the car wasn’t a good move, and telling this part of the story stresses her.
The other concern is that in a two-minute interview, they say the name Blaise only once. I’d be reassured if they’d said it more.
Conclusion
This appears to be a truthful telling of events. There are nowhere near enough indicators of deception to suggest they know more about their son’s disappearance than they are saying.
They might be hiding some details of what they did when he went missing, but that is only a small possibility and does not mean they had anything to do with it.
Since this interview their car has been found, I hope Blaise is found safe soon.
[Edit: as I was about to post this, Blaise has been found safe. I haven’t read the circumstances yet]
This post was a reader’s suggestion and I love doing these as they are often stories I don’t know until I look at them. If there are words you’d like to see analysed then let me know in the comments or see the about tab for contact details.