48 Hours: Truth On Trial

This weekend 48 Hours updated us on the story of Karen Tipton (Truth on Trial). A young pretty wife of a doctor was found murdered in her home back in 1999. There has always been controversy in this case: Did Daniel Wade Moore kill Karen, or was it someone else?

In April of 2009, Daniel Wade Moore will face his third trial as the accused killer of Karen Tipton.

I originally wrote about this case in November of 2005 before Daniel Wade Moore second trial when 48 Hours first interviewed Tipton. You can read my opinion here. At that time I wrote Tipton gave me the chills. Public opinion was a toss up. People’s views were clearly split.

This time around, however, I think the the average person is seeing Tipton for who he is. His cocky grins and arrogant smiles are hard to palate. They can’t be dismissed. He almost reminds you of Drew Peterson, doesn’t he?

Read moreTipton also doesn’t seem to be feeling normal emotions, or emotions consistent with what he is telling us. He doesn’t show any indication that he is sad or upset about what happened to his wife nor does he show any anger that the truth is not prevailing, if in fact what he wants us to believe, is true.

Instead Tipton comes across as controlling yet he smiles at very odd times. He gives us this overwhelming feeling he is on a mission to make sure Moore is guilty–no matter what. He is cold, callous and uncaring, and I think everyone is picking up on this.

For me, when I sat down to watch Tipton, I noticed a very peculiar behavior that I have seen deceptive people exhibit before, and Tipton does it at the most interesting times.

What does he do?

He makes affirmative statements yet says them like a question. In essence and to be more precise, his voice inflection and pitch goes up at the end of the statement instead of down. It’s very notable and I think supportive that Dr. Tipton is not being honest with us. That along with his emotions–cockiness, arrogance and flat-odd delightful smirks–give me great pause.

Here are some things Tipton said and what I thought:

1. “He’s (DWM) a liar. He lies all the time.”

   When Dr. Tipton says this, he smiles. If your wife was killed and people were starting to believe a murderer, would you ever feel like smiling?

2. “He’s the guiltiest man in America. You can’t get any guiltier than that.”

   When he says this, listen to how Dr. Tipton’s voice pitch/inflection goes up. Yet when Dr. Tipton is in the kitchen with his girls, and he says “How’s the meatballs going?”, he strangely talks with normal voice inflection. Hmmm….

3. Erin Moriarty asks Tipton, “What drew you to her?” Tipton says “She was so pretty.” Notice the pitch and inflection of his voice when he says the word “pretty”?
4. Yet when Dr. Tipton talks of Karen pregnant with her daughter in the photo he is holding and how his daughter is hugging her– amazingly his voice pitch and inflection are normal.

   Tipton: This (photo of a pregnant Karen) brings back bad memories. It was in front of the fireplace that she was attacked.

   I suspect this is fact, and amazingly his pitch supports this.

5. “I saw immediately (voice pitch goes up) that the alarm panel which is to the right upon walking in the door (voice pitches up again)—that it had been removed from the wall. A few steps further and I see that its actually laying on the counter in the kitchen.
6. “…and I walked up the stairs and I was the most surprised person on the face of the earth (voice pitches up again) to get to the top and find a dead body there that looked somewhat like Karen (voice pitches up again).

   Here I also can’t help but notice the lack of emotions, and how he refers to Karen as a “dead body”.

7. “The worst day of my life was about a week after the murders, and that’s when Catherine, then three years old, asked me when mommy was coming back from heaven. The was the worst single moment that I could ever imagine.”

   What would be the worst day of your life? The day you find your wife’s mutilated body, or the day you had to tell your children? Normal people who feel normal emotions wouldn’t even have to second guess this one. The second worst day would be the day they had to tell their daughter what happened. The worst day would be the day they found their wife dead. There is no doubt about it, unless, of course, you hated your wife. Clearly, Tipton has difficulty feeling normal emotions for his wife.

8. Erin Moriarty: How do you think it happened?

   Tipton: He came and knocked on the door (voice pitches up), and said hello (smirking)…I work for the alarm company (voice pitches up). He had been there just a few months before.

   Tipton: He lied his way in the house (high pitched again).

   Notice each sentence ends in a high pitch/inflection.

9. “The first injury was being cut or stabbed on the back left aspect (smirk) of the neck (odd high pitch here but no where else in this sentence), her shirt was forced off of her, and then she was forced upstairs with a blood trail going on the whole way. I think it is very likely that after that prolonged period of sexual and physical torture that she managed to actually escape from that and got to the top of the stairs before she was finally killed. There. Somewhere in the range of 28 stab wounds, that and probably the last thing to be cut was her throat.”

   Isn’t that interesting? He seems to be restating factual evidence here.

10. “Daniel Wade Moore (DWM) confessed to involved. DWM is a 100% profile match for somebody that would do a crime just like this. That’s what crackheads do (inflection goes up here).

    Notice he is smirking again? It flat out eerie. Why on earth does he feel like smiling??

11. Regarding the DNA hair found at the Tipton house:
    “It rules out 99.8 percent of the population leaving 2/10ths of 1%, and he’s in that 2/10th.”

    As Tipton says this he is grinning. What is there to grin about?

12. Erin Moriarty talks about how Tipton’s friend Mike Ezell wrote Karen an e-mail about swapping wives, and Tipton responded “I was offended not only by Mike but by Karen as well.”

    Notice the eerie smile? Do his emotions fit with what he wants us to believe?

13. “Am I capable of killing somebody? (wink) Yup. Am I capable of killing a loved one? (high pitch again) No. Am I capable of torturing my wife to death? That’s crazy.

    It’s just flat out creepy. He feels like winking??

14. “I think that he (DWM) needs to be dead. I’m not allowed to kill him. The second best thing is for the state to kill him.”

    I think this says a lot by itself.

15. “They’re (his daughters) are afraid he’ll come back for them. Why not? Everybody should be afraid.”

    When Tipton says this, he grins the most haunting grin. Do you feel how bone-chilling it is? Sadly he is instilling fear and hate in his children instead of providing them with a nurturing environment which is not surprising. It fits the scenario here of someone who could do the unthinkable.

16. “I know the truth about me and Karen (odd voice pitch again) and I don’t need a bunch of rumors, and silliness to..ah…ah.. to change (smile) that. Ah, I know the real stuff.”