Amanda Knox on 48 Hours

Amanda Knox’s story was profiled on 48 Hours Saturday night. Did you see it? They played an audio clip of Knox talking. You can hear it here. What do you think of it?

Check back this week for my thoughts.

Pastor Lawless’ Granddaughter Arrested

Pastor Clifford “Lane” Lawless’ granddaughter, Melissa Huckaby, 27, was arrested this morning on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering little Sandra Cantu. Huckaby lived in the same trailer park as her grandparents and little Sandra Cantu. Some reports say they actually lived together. I don’t know which is true.

This really makes a strong link to the behaviors that Lawless displayed in the video the other day. I think there is a strong chance he either knows what happened to Sandra, or worse, he was in some way involved. It would explain his odd behavior, and despondence.

You can read more here. How tragic. I can only imagine Connie is absolutely stunned. I can say one thing for sure, she had no idea about anything.

If there are any videos of Huckaby talking about this the last few days, please post links below and I will look at them and share my thoughts with you.

* Thanks, Deanna, for the update this morning.

My Thoughts: Doug Grant ABC 20/20

Doug Grant and his wife Hilary were featured on ABC’s 20/20 last Friday night (You can watch the show here). Doug was put on trial for the murder of his 2nd wife, Faylene Eves Grant, who supposedly drowned in the couple’s bathtub in 2001. Doug was just convicted of manslaughter this month, and he will be sentenced in a couple of weeks.

Faylene’s daughter, Jenna Stradling, from her first marriage believes Doug killed her mother, and held her head under water. She claims she heard her mom that fateful day calling out for help. Others wonder if Faylene wanted to commit suicide.

In this poll, as I am writing, 15% of people believe Doug’s story that Faylene accidentally drowned in the tub while he was asleep, 65% do not believe Doug, and 19% of people are undecided.

Read moreWhen I watched Doug and Hilary speak on 20/20, both of them raise my eyebrows and cause me concern. Here are some of my thoughts as I watched the show:

  1. Why didn’t Doug call 911 when he found Faylene? Instead he called his friend, Chad White, a physicians assistant. Why would he do that? It makes absolutely no sense.
  2. Doug said about his call to Chad, “I called Chad. ‘You gotta come. Take the prescriptions. I….(unknown) found her in the tub, you gotta come. I’m scared.'” Does Doug say “They found her in the tub”? The word he says before “found her” is really baffling me, and I can’t quite make it out. He also seems to be struggling with pronouns here which is a red flag. Notice he doesn’t say who should take the prescriptions? Why? Why do the prescriptions even enter into his mind at this point? If Doug was telling Chad to “take the prescriptions”, why would he be saying that? This is very odd. Each of these elements are red flags for me.
  3. Chad White in his 911 call to police said that Doug was afraid to call 911. Does that make any sense if this was an “accident”? If it was a premeditated murder, would it make sense?
  4. Doug and his ex-wife, Faylene, went on a business trip to settle a company lawsuit for Doug’s company. It was during this trip that Doug and Faylene talked of reconciliation yet Doug tells us how he was only weeks away from asking Hilary to marry him. Does this make any sense? Why would he consider a reconciliation if he is in love with another woman?
  5. Jay Schadler says to Hilary, “It must have come as a blow to you” to hear about the talks of reconciliation. Hilary says, “I felt like, you know, Doug told me he had to work out his feelings, but I still felt like Doug and I would be together.” Is this how you would respond if your boyfriend just got back from a business trip with his ex-wife, and he told you they talked of reconciliation? Hilary’s response really raises my eyebrows. It doesn’t make sense. I’m just not buying it.
  6. Hilary remembers when Doug told her it was over. It was just after they had spent an intimate night together. “He came out of the bathroom, and I was standing there, and I said, ‘It’s over, isn’t?’ and he said ‘It’s over,'” said Hilary. The entire time she recollects what should be a horrible memory for her, she is smiling. This give me the complete chills!! Why is she smiling?? Wouldn’t this conversation be a bad memory?

    Emotions and memories are intertwined and Hilary doesn’t seem to be feeling the emotions you would expect for a woman who is being rejected. She seems much too positive. Alarm bells are going off in my head. Was she somehow in on some plan with Doug to get rid of Faylene? I can’t help but wonder this, time and time again.

  7. When Faylene tells Doug that she had this revelation that she and Doug are supposed to be together, Doug tells us he told Faylene that he was just intimate with Hilary, and according to Doug, Faylene’s simply says, “That’s interesting. All I can tell you is that I’ve been told at the San Diego temple….” Does that even seem plausible? Doug seems to make Faylene out to be a complete idiot, who has no emotions and is completely able to overlook that Doug just slept with another woman. I’m not buying it.
  8. When Hilary recounts her story about hearing that Doug and Faylene got remarried, she tries to act surprised, but it doesn’t sit right with me. She is smirking through it all. Why? Why wasn’t she truly surprised? Her emotional memories are not matching her story, which is a huge red flag for me, again.
  9. Faylene at one point writes, “I must have faith in Doug’s vision.” I think this is powerful. Whose vision was Faylene following? Her vision or Doug’s vision?
  10. In one letter that Faylene wrote, it has the word “I” underlined in multiple places. This is very strange and notable (a reader pointed this out in the comment section). Most people don’t underline “I”, however if someone else wrote it, they might to emphasize it. Have you ever written a letter, and emphasizes “I” with an underscore? This is a huge red flag for me.
  11. When Hilary reads that letter, her “cry” jumps out at me. There are no tears. Nothing about Hilary feels genuine.
  12. When Faylene believes that she is going to die, and she writes to Hilary that she wants Hilary to be with Doug, she writes”Hilary, only you can know between Heavenly Father and yourself if it is heavenly father’s will for you to be with Doug & to be part of our eternal family.” How do we know that she means marriage by this? How do we know that this is Faylene’s Doug, Doug Grant? Could Hilary have introduced another character with the name Doug to Faylene as a part of a bigger scheme? I’d have to read the diaries and journals to see. Of course, Faylene could have simply been brainwashed. She has the personality and predisposition for someone who succumbs to brainwashing.
  13. I find it odd how Faylene wrote “…whoever this guy is that you are dating…” If Hilary and Faylene are close, why wouldn’t Hilary tell Faylene his name?
  14. Also nowhere in that letter does Faylene talk about her Doug and Hilary raising her children as a family, nor does she use the term marriage. It’s oddly missing. You would think she would have written this letter to Doug and Hilary, wouldn’t you, if she wanted them to be together? Perhaps she only wanted Hilary to raise her children and be a “mom” for them should something happen to her. Then again, she could have been brainwashed. You can rule that out.
  15. I don’t believe Faylene could fall of a 60-foot cliff and still be standing, or would be able to get up and walk away. That’s flat out outrageous to me and a huge red flag.
  16. Schadler says, “If she did fall, did you push her?” Notice Doug smiles, and laughs and then very controllingly stops himself and softly says, “No”. All of these behaviors are notably odd and out of place for me and they are blaring red flags for me as well.
  17. Doug insists he made a 911 call, but there is no record of it. It’s absolute nonsense. Chad White further supports that Doug didn’t want to call 911 either because he was “afraid”.
  18. And how ironic is it that just three weeks after Faylene dies that Doug and Hilary marry? Clearly, Doug wanted to be with Hilary.

I can’t help but wonder if Doug stood a financial gain by eliminating Faylene.
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I suspect Doug confuses a lot of people because the tears stream down his face, but he could have been crying because he was worried about loosing his freedom, as his trial date was looming. At times, Doug’s tears seem genuine, such as when he looks at Hilary, but other times, I wonder if they are manufactured by thinking about how he would cope if he was convicted and lost everything, instead of truly feeling empathy for Faylene.

Faylene was deeply religious and believed in revelations. This tells us she was very open to suggestions, and had the personality which was highly susceptible to brainwashing, and I wouldn’t put it past someone like Hilary or Doug to do it to her for money. Not for an instant. I certainly don’t trust either one of them.

Pastor Lane Lawless Video

There is one small snippet of video of Pastor Lawless talking to reporters, where he actually says a few sentences. In this video, Lawless’ wife, Connie, is the one who predominantly speaks to reporters, and Lawless sits on the passenger side of the car and mumbles half the time. I don’t know if he drops his voice, or if the microphone doesn’t pick him up, but I can’t hear him through most of what he says. If anyone does hear what he says, please feel free to type his words below in the comment section.

Read moreWhile this video still does not provide me with enough information to draw any conclusions, I do find it odd how soft-spoken Lawless is when I do hear him speak. I find it odd that he doesn’t want to get out and talk to reporters, and share his thoughts. As a pastor, he is a man who is used to speaking publicly, and with that, we can confidently conclude that he is not a shy guy, so why is his demeanor shy now–especially if he feels the finger is pointed at him and he knows he is innocent? As a pastor, Lawless is used to helping people, so I am surprised he doesn’t want to do that now. At first, I thought this might be due to anger (for being wrongly questioned) and a lack of control over the situation, but when I see Lawless speak, I do not detect any hints of anger whatsoever.

Another thing that bothers me about Lawless is that when he is asked, “Did you have anything to do with Sandra’s disappearance or her death?” he acts like he doesn’t hear or understand the question. Yet he tells us he heard it, because he parrots back what the reporter said. He said, ” Did I have…?” in a very slow, subdued voice. It takes him a few seconds to say, “no”, and he says it without any strong inflection in his voice. It’s notable for me.

Parroting back is a hot spot for me, especially when someone confirms for us that they heard the question. This is often a trait that liars do subconsciously, because they flat out don’t know how to answer the question. If you see after Lawless says that, he looks down and appears confused. Notice how quickly his wife is to respond, “No, no!”. Why isn’t Lawless, himself, that quick to respond? Why does that question cause him to pause? It concerns me.

I also get a sense that Lawless is emotionally a bit despondent at this point, which is odd as well. I could understand upset, or angry, but I am surprised by despondent. Why would he feel despondent? I want to ask him are his church members rallying behind him? If they aren’t, could that be why he is despondent?

With just this little bit to go on, I don’t think it is enough for me to formulate any opinions at this time. Each of the these clues alone might be explainable, as no one clue by itself says anything. It’s only the computation of clues that gives me the best indication. I will only say that Lawless definitely has my interest piqued, quite notably, and I know that I want to see him talk more about this. He is on my radar, for sure. So if new videos come online, please post them below.

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Update 4-11-2009 8:50 AM:
Pastor Lawless’ granddaughter arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and murder.

Looking for Footage of Pastor Lane Lawless

If anyone sees Pastor Lane Lawless of the Clover Road Baptist Church in Tracy, California, speak out about being interviewed by the police and FBI, please let me know. I’ve seen very brief snippets, but they don’t yield anything as they are too short.

Thanks.