May Newsletter: Proceed With Caution, Time Your Sorrow Right
Welcome to the May Newsletter!
We're digging into all things deception and truth in words this month.
Keep Going
I don’t think I’ll ever finish an analysis. The work I do professionally and for my videos takes hours, spread over many days. Each time I go back through statements, I spot something new. Even when I’m recording, it’s not unusual for me to add a new thought I’ve realized as I see the words once more. No matter how many times I’ve looked at a statement, there’s always something I’ve missed.
That happened to me with the interview of Malehya Brooks-Murray. She’s in Nova Scotia and the mother of missing kids (at the time of writing) Lily and Jack Sullivan. I’ve done multiple episodes on what she said, and what she said concerned me a lot. Two weeks after doing that work, I was listening to a podcast on the case which played Malehya’s interview.
I spotted something new, and it was big. Here’s the extract:
It was the word “sorrow” which I hadn’t noticed before. Sorrow is a word that comes after a finality, it’s often linked to sorrow too. Let’s move the situation to a family dog. If that dog dies you’ll feel sorrow for the family, if that dog is missing will you express sorrow? Or would you express hope it will come back? Concern for what the owner is experiencing? For me, those are much more likely than sorrow. Another word Ms Brooks-Murray said that I don’t like.
Just a Word
Here’s a great use of my favorite word, "just." It’s a comment on one of my episodes:
Do you think the episode “just” came up on their feed. Or are they using the “just” to play down how much they have been actively seeking out content on the story?
Pay Attention to the Negatives
I love seeing real-life examples of the theories I talk about. Here’s a classic: Remember, when someone tells you what they’re not, or what isn’t happening, it’s highly likely the opposite thought is going on inside their head, and therefore it’s possible the opposite is true. In other words, when someone makes a statement in the negative, be open to the fact that the truth could be a complete reversal of what they say.
Here’s someone telling us "they don’t care what anyone says" about something:
Putting my theory to the test, there’s a high chance that they DO care what someone says about the subject. And… well…
Past Tense
Here’s a cautionary one. Many people got in touch to ask me to look at the wife of the missing (at the time) Michael Grain. They pointed out that even though he was only missing, she spoke about him in the past tense as if he was dead. Here’s a clip:
We’ve seen this before, more famously with Maxine Carr. She was talking about two girls who were missing at the time, but she knew her partner had killed them.
We’ve got to be really careful when we spot this. Talking about a missing person in the past tense shows that the person talking psychologically feels they are talking about someone no longer with us. That’s all. It isn’t an indicator of guilty knowledge.
Maxine knew the girls were dead, which is why she used past tense. Sometimes the passage of time will lead someone to feel like the "missing" person doesn’t exist anymore, so they’ll use past tense to refer to them, even though they may still express hope the person will be found.
In the case of Michael’s wife, I think the passage of time may have factored into her past tense, but she also mentions "what happened" as if she was aware of an event that led to Michael not being around anymore. There are many reasons why she might be aware of an event; perhaps the police asked her not to mention some details, or perhaps she knew that someone wished harm on Michael and Michael was seeing that person the day he went missing.
Whatever the reason, using past tense to talk about a missing person doesn’t prove the person has guilty knowledge of what happened.
No Deception Detected
I believe this to be a truthful statement:
"Thank you Jack for running the course. I've really enjoyed it and it's been great learning more about Statement Analysis. I'm also loving the Facebook group and practising reading statements with everyone"
That’s from someone who completed my Statement Investigation course! If you’d like to learn the skills for yourself, let me help you become a word-detecting wizard at https://statementfox.com/training/ Use Coupon Code FORTY to get 40% off.
Next Time
The next newsletter is a celebrity edition featuring names such as George Harrison and David Tennant. If you’re not already subscribed, do it now so you don’t miss it!
Jack