Casey Anthony: Statement Analysis Initial Statement To Police Debunk Theories

by Peter Hyatt

In light of a multitude of theories that are circulating the internet, we can go 

back to the original statement by Casey Anthony to the police.  In the original statement we have the first deceptions to the police. 

Within the initial statement we are able to discern the nature of her deception.  Within her 

deception we also note what is missing:  verbal indicators of sexual homicide. 

In sexual homicides, the subject often has references to water that enter the statement.  For a linguistic view of participation in a sexual homicide, review the analysis of the statements of Amanda Knox.  

Although everyone washes their hands, for instance, such references are rare in police 

statements, and when they appear, the analyst is now on alert for sexual homicide, 

molestation, rape, and so on.  In child trafficking, or pimping out a child, we would expect to see multiple references.  

Here, we have plain deception to cover murder. 

We have a cold-hearted sociopath of whom a child was an inconvenience to her lifestyle. 

There isn't much mystery and theories proposing mystery will only set the stage for Casey 

Anthony to sell a "tell all" book, which will actually resemble the statement following rather than the truth. 

There are some mysteries that remain unsolved in the death of Caylee Anthony, in 

particular:

What was George Anthony's involvement post death?

What did Cindy know, and when did she know it?

What was Lee Anthony's need for immunity?

These are some of the questions that we will cover, via statement analysis of their 

statements and writings, including full analysis of George Anthony's "suicide"

letter. 

I got off of work, left Universal driving back to pick up Caylee like a normal day.
And I show up to the apartment knock on door nobody answers. So, I call Zeniada cell
phone and it’s out of service. It says the phone is no longer in service, excuse me.
So, I sit down on the steps and wait for a little bit to see if maybe it was just a 
fluke if something happened and time passed and I didn’t hear from anyone. No one 
showed up to the house so I went over to J. Blanchard Park and checked a couple of 
other places where maybe possibly they would have gone; couple stores, just regular 
places that I know Zenida shops at and she’s taken Caylee before. And after about 
7:00 when I still hadn’t heard anything I was getting pretty upset, pretty frantic 
and I went to a neutral place. I didn’t really want to come home. I wasn’t sure what 
I would say about not knowing where Caylee was still hoping that I would get a call 
or you know find out that Caylee was coming back so that I could go get her. And I 
ended up going to my boyfriend Anthony’s house who lives in Sutton Place.

----------------------------analysis------------------------------------------------------------------

This is what police had to work from, initially. 

 I got off of work, left Universal driving back to pick up Caylee like a normal day.
And I show up to the apartment knock on door nobody answers. So, I call Zeniada cell
phone and it’s out of service. It says the phone is no longer in service, excuse me.
So, I sit down on the steps and wait for a little bit to see if maybe it was just a 
fluke if something happened and time passed and I didn’t hear from anyone.

This has now become a "Statement Analysis 101 Sample" for training.  It is useful for learning.  

What do you notice first about this portion of her statement?  Even without 

training, it is likely that the reader  caught this:

1.  Casey reported what happened the day her daughter disappeared, and her statement should have been in the past tense.  In her first 5 sentences, she is in the present tense.  This is a strong indicator that not only is she lying, but she is making it up on "the fly" (the volume suggests this) and not everything is prepared.  Later, through analysis, we saw that Casey did operate 'by the seat of her pants' having a high level of confidence in her own ability to deceive, which is what likely led to the controversy where she was examined by psychologists at the end of her trial, for fitness to testify.  


It not only shows deception (present tense) but it now allows the analyst to enter into Casey Anthony's psychological profile, howbeit in a small manner:  they are dealing with a confident liar; one who works as she goes along.  This would give a strong indication to police, having never met Casey Anthony before, that they are dealing with, perhaps, a pathological liar, one who has had a great deal of success in childhood lying.  It is a red flag of trouble.


Remember:  a child is "missing" and what is the mother doing?  She is lying. 


If you continue your analysis, going by principle, you would have highlighted the word "left" for sensitivity.  If you own Mark McClish' Statement Analyzer software, you would have had this word flagged for you. 


2.  The word "left" when used as a connecting verb is an indication of missing information.


When the word "left" is used as a connecting verb, the analyst recognizes missing information, and percentage wise: 


70% is related to time pressure and 30% is sensitive and perhaps critical information. 


Here is how:  


"I was at work.  I left work at 5PM."


The fact that the subject needs to tell us that he "left" is an indication that there is something on his mind.  70% of the time this is about time pressure, or traffic ahead of him, or, perhaps, he left a few minutes early from work.  It is likely something due to time pressure and not critical. 


But now watch how awkward the word "left" can be. 


"I was in the living room.  I left the living room and went to the bed room."


Here, the word "left" is highlighted as sensitive, as it is an indication of missing information.  Why?  Because if he was in the living room and went to the bedroom, he would not have to tell us that he "left"; as he must "leave" in order to reach a new room.  Therefore, it is "extra" information; that is, a sentence can work without these words.  "Extra" information is doubly important to the analyst.  In the above statement, something happened to cause the subject to leave the living room. It could have been an argument, it could have been nefarious, it could have been innocent, but it is something that must be sought because there is missing information there. 

3.  Repetition.   In Statement Analysis, any word repeated is 'sensitive' or important.  The analyst would note repetition and ask "why would this word be sensitive to the subject?"   Remember, the statement is NOT reality, it is the subject's version of reality.  We are attempting to enter into the subject's reality.

If, in reality, the subject  lies, we know the subject has a need to lie.  This is critical.  The word "disconnected" is repeated; it has significance to Casey Anthony and due to the already large number of sensitivity indicators, the analyst should question the veracity of the call. 

4.  "Normal"   The word "normal" is highlighted in all statements.  When someone refers to their own selves as "normal" it is an indication that they have been considered not "normal" (by themselves and/or others) in the past.  When a day or event is "normal" in the subject's reality, it is an indication that the day (or event) is anything but normal.

5.  Negative.   Anything reported in the negative is sensitive.  It is the analyst's job to learn why something is sensitive.  Here, Casey reveals high levels of sensitivity in reporting things in the negative.  A truthful statement is not only first person singular, past tense, it tells what happened; not what did not happen, nor what was not thought, felt, etc.  When someone tells us what did not happen, or what was not thought, it is to be highlighted as sensitive to the subject.

Note:  "nobody answers" is in the negative.  We often see this in theft.  "I saw nobody run across the lawn..."   sounds silly, but it is an indicator that either the subject is in fiction mode OR he did see someone run across the lawn.  

She also says, "I didn't hear from anyone" is not only in the negative, but Zanaida has now been referenced as "anyone". 

6.  Change of language should represent reality and if there is no apparent change in reality, there is likely deception. 

7.  "Because"   We highlight any words that explain rather than report, as sensitive.  "So, since, therefore, because, hence, and hence (JBR), etc" are all highlighted as the subject is no longer telling us what happened, but telling us why something happened.  This is sensitive.

8.  Body posture:  We highlight "sit, stood, stand, sitting, standing, ect" as sensitive because when body posture enters a statement, it is often an indicator of strain or tension. 

9.  "And" is highlighted as an indicator that the subject has more information about the sentence that has not been revealed.

10.  Temporal Lacunae    "time passed" Casey said.  A temporal lacunae is sensitive as the subject has jumped over time and is withholding information.  Samples:  "and the next thing I know..." and so on.  They are always flagged for sensitivity.


From just this small portion of her statement to police we have highlighted 10 indicators of sensitivity, and we have only just begun.

We will continue in the next segment.  Thus far, we do not have indicators of sexual criminality within her statement. We will examine each of the theories that makes the rounds but there is nothing in the language of Casey Anthony to indicate that Caylee was being prostituted out.  Had she been, we would expect to see it creep into her langauge since her language is her version of reality, and would have been a dominant theme forher.  See the analysis of Amanda Knox to see how sexual homicide statements look.