Drew Peterson Arrested

Breaking news (thanks, R!): Drew Peterson has been arrested late today (5:35 CST) for the murder of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. From The Herald News:

“I guess I should have returned those library books,” a hand-cuffed Drew Peterson said Thursday afternoon as he was being led into state police headquarters.

I can only think about how devastating this must be to Thomas and Christopher. My heart bleeds for these boys, and for Drew’s younger children. Their life has been total chaos. I wish these boys and all of Drew’s children strength and courage.

The Larry King show reported that Peterson is being held on a $20 million dollar bond. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a bond that high. They said it will likely be reduced.

Click on the labels below to read all I have written about Drew Peterson since Stacy’s disappearance. I will never forget the quote I saw in the Sun-Times when Peterson spoke about Stacy, “I believe she’s not missing.” I will never forget it.

Latest from CNN (Thanks Betty)

Dr. Timothy Stryker Loses License

From the Boston Channel.com:

Dr. Timothy Stryker, 57, of Winchester, was sentenced to four years in state prison for orchestrating and directing a perjury conspiracy in connection with the death of Dr. Lynn Goudey, a Stoneham obstetrician who was killed in 1993.

The Board of Registration in Medicine voted Wednesday to revoke Stryker’s license in light of the criminal conviction.

My previous thoughts on Timothy Stryker.

P.S. I put a new rating system below. I hope you use it as it will help me understand more of what kind of stories you like!

Kate and Gerry McCann on Oprah

Read moreMany of you said you were going to watch the McCanns on Oprah this week. I watched it with the saddest of heart, yet an open mind, just in case I have missed something in the past. I have always believed the McCanns were honest, and after watching this interview, I still feel strongly that they are not involved in their daughter’s disappearance.

I was fascinated to watch Gerry talk about what I have said as well, “How do you prove a negative?” How do the McCanns prove they are innocent? It’s one of the biggest challenges honest people face who are falsely accused.

If we speculate that the McCanns did, in fact, harm and kill their daughter, they would have to lie from the first day she disappeared until today. The cognitive load they would be under would be huge, if they are lying, because every natural thought they had, every word they spoke and every emotion they felt would have to be censored before they expressed themselves. That means they couldn’t talk from their heart or gut, because if they did, they risked exposing their lies.

With that, we would likely see one or both of them have guilt for what they did or allowed to happen, which would appear at times when we wouldn’t expect to see it. We’d also likely see fear that they might be discovered or expose their lies. More than that, we would expect to see stress as carrying that cognitive load would be exhausting and easy to mess up. Imagine, one mistake and the lie is over, and one or both of them would go to prison for life. Their other children would be abandoned to grow up without parents.

If you imagine the intensity these two people would be under to conceal such a lie, you would quickly realize that doing media interviews, like the McCanns did, after Madeleine disappeared, would be the last thing anyone would want to do. Liars typically don’t draw attention to themselves unless they feel arrogant enough that they can dupe the world. The McCanns do not show any arrogance. The type of person who comes to mind with this arrogance is Drew Peterson. Peterson and the McCanns are light-years away from each other.

Logically, it is inconsistent for the whopping majority of the people who are lying to create a worldwide media stir because that would only intensify the pressure on themselves to maintain the lie. If anything, most people would avoid the media and privately seclude themselves if they were lying, but the McCanns did anything but that. They worked tirelessly to get keep Madeleine’s name in the media’s spotlight worldwide and did many interviews with the media–even after they were called “arguidos”, which would be the pinnacle of stress, if you are deceptive, and hiding a secret of this magnitude.

If you watch the McCanns speak in this interview, they speak from their hearts. They speak from their guts. They don’t give any indications that they are self-censoring. They don’t stammer and struggle for words, hesitate, or say nonsensical things. They don’t get their word tense mixed up, they don’t show a hint of being afraid or stressed out. They are not and have not been arrogant (confident yes, arrogant no). Their emotions match what they are saying, and their facial expressions down to every single tick are consistent with their words. This is very hard to do when one is lying–especially about something as painful as this.

The McCann’s also express genuine hope, at times, which would be inconsistent with a lie.

And even more important, they give us supporting stories, which precisely fit the scenario of truth they are telling us, which would be exceptionally rare for liars to do, and even harder to accomplish if they were making up a story of their innocence.

Haunting Me

If there is one story in all the years that really stands out in my mind, it is the story of Tom and Jackie Hawks. The Hawks fulfilled a dream, and retired on a 55-foot yacht named The Well Deserved, docked in Newport Beach, California. For four years, they cruised on the ocean enjoying a life Tom always dream about. But when their grandchildren came, they decided to return back to land and sell their boat.

Read moreThat’s when conman and killer, Skylar Deleon, came into the picture. He didn’t want to buy the boat, he wanted to take it from the Hawks, and he did just that. How he did it and what ultimately happened is enough to make anyone sick. Then to watch Deleon, who is so obvious deranged, talk about it so flippantly just blows you away that a human being can be so “off”. Every single time I watch him, he makes my skin crawl. He is unable to contain his joy when he talks about the Hawks murder, and he still has no problem lying without blinking an eye. It’s chilling. If you missed 48 Hours this past Saturday, its definitely worth watching.

ABC’s 20/20 also covered this story back in February, and Skylar Deleon told us in this video snippet that he was sorry. Did you believe him? I’ll post my thoughts about this video snippet in the comment section later this week.