Kate and Gerry McCann: New Developments

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New developments have come out this week on the Madeleine McCann case, and it is drawing a lot of visitors to my post on Madeleine McCann’s parents. People are very suspicious of the McCanns.

People have been suspicious of the McCanns from day one and only I know that because I see the searches that land people on my blog. I have seen the following searches nearly every day since the story broke nearly 100 days ago: “McCann parents guilty”, “McCann lies”, “McCann parents under suspicion”.

People have speculated and wondered if perhaps the McCanns accidentally killed Madeleine, or if she died accidentally, and the McCanns tried to cover it up.

Read more News reports are now saying that a specially trained sniffer dog came from Britain and found blood invisible to the naked eye on the wall in the room near where Madeleine was last seen alive. They also say someone appeared to try and wipe up the blood specks. DNA is being run on the specks to determine if, in fact, it is Madeleine’s blood.

Local newspapers in the area have also allegedly reported that detectives now believe that Madeleine died in the room and was not abducted.

With that, I wanted to see if I could see the McCanns speak about the newest developments. I wanted to see if their behavior is indicative of lies, one more time — because if they are covering something up, right now the stakes couldn’t be any higher.

If they are lying, the pressure should be at an all time high for the McCanns. With that, I would have the best chance to see deception, if I am going to see it.

I found video of Gerry and Kate McCann talking about the latest developments here.

If the McCanns are found to be involved in the death of their daughter, I will be absolutely dumbfounded.

When I watch the video of Gerry and Kate McCann talk, everything the McCann’s do and say is consistent with honesty. I do not see one red flag in this video or the other video I watched and wrote about earlier.

I see two people who are calm, cool and collected. I see two people who are in pain but who are pushing on, holding on to hope. I do not see any signs of anxiety, fear, stress or worry that they are being looked at closely.

I stand confident that the McCanns had nothing to do with their daughter’s disappearance even in the face of blood found on the wall in the holiday apartment where Madeleine was last seen alive.

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To read my latest thoughts
on the McCanns, click here.
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Paige Birgfeld & Howard (Ron) Beigler

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Paige Birgfeld disappeared on June 28th of this year and has not been seen since. You may have seen the story on ABC’s Family Secrets last night.

Birgfeld was a mother of three, held down odd jobs to support her family, and was twice divorced. Life wasn’t coming easy for Birgfeld who ironically lived in a million dollar home.

When she disappeared, it didn’t take people long to point the finger at her ex-husband, Rob Dixon. Birgfeld had posted her fears online in a Pampered Chef forum that she was afraid of her ex-husband who was moving within a four hour drive of her and the children.

But Birgfeld had domestic disputes with both of her husbands, and before she disappeared the last known person to publicly speak of seeing Birgfeld alive was her first husband, Howard (Ron) Beigler.

Police have said that both husbands are talking with police and are cooperating, but neither has been ruled out as a suspect.

Read more

The story then takes another interesting turn. Police discovered that Birgfeld was leading a secret life as an escort by the name of “Carrie”. It appears she told different people different things about what she did. Her first husband, Beigler, seems adamant that police will find that she didn’t sleep with any of her customers (you can see part of his conversations online by following the link above). He believes she only gave topless massages with no physical contact.

I think Beigler is in denial, personally. You don’t live in a million dollar home by simply giving topless massages. Money doesn’t come that easy.

I suspect Birgfeld lied to Beigler because they were rekindling their romance recently, or simply because she just couldn’t confess to what she was doing to an ex-husband, knowing it would get him potentially angry or upset.

But when Beigler said to ABC’s John Quinones, “I’m not the least bit worried about them coming after me for this,” I believed him. I believe Beigler is being honest. I don’t believe he has a worry about being looked at closer.

Police also have another person-of-interest in this case, a person named Lester Ralph Jones who they say knew Birgfeld intimately. They have searched Jones’ home twice.

You have to wonder if Jones was a client of “Carrie” and was perhaps one of the people in her book for that night, or one of the last people she called before she disappeared.

I would still like to see Dixon and Jones speak. If anyone see them talking online — point me to the videos!

News!

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I thought I would share with you that I am now a contributor over at Crimeblog.US. Come on over for a visit. CrimeBlog.US is written by multiple contributors and as you can guess, the focus is on crime.

Steve Huff is a writer, the site owner and editor at CrimeBlog. He is quite a fascinating person if I do say so myself, and he has generated quite a bit of media attention. He seems to have a knack at understanding people and behavior, but in a very different way than I do.

Here is an excerpt from USA TODAY talking about how Huff honed into the famous killer “BTK “:

…But some conjectures turned out to be too close for comfort.

Steve Huff, an operatic tenor from Atlanta who maintains a BTK page on his Web log, or blog, speculated in December that the killer would be a balding, stocky, mustachioed neat freak who wore glasses with heavy frames.

Rader is balding, stocky, has a mustache and wears glasses. Another code enforcement officer described him to the Eagle as a meticulous dresser who kept every pen in his day planner in perfect alignment.

“Initially, I felt vindicated,” Huff said. “I thought, ‘I scored on a couple of things.’ Then I felt chilled by it.”

Huff seems to have a great knack for sleuthing out perpetrators through wisdom, insight and a good foundation of understanding human psychology.

Here you can see Huff on Geraldo At Large:

You can also find Huff today on his own personal blog at Random Lunatic News.

I’m thrilled to be able write for Huff’s blog. I love to follow the story leads that are posted on his site – and I am fascinated to get to know him and the other writers over there!

Looking at Matthew Gretz (Kira Simonian)

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Matthew Gretz is the husband of Kira Simonian. Simonian was a graduate student at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. On June 28, 2007, Simonian’s landlord found her dead in her Minneapolis apartment. She was 32-years-old and an art student. Police are not saying exactly how she died, but they are calling the case a homicide and they are saying there are “multiple causes of death”. No one has been called a suspect, yet no one has been ruled out either.

That leaves us to look at Gretz. Where was he the night before and the day that Simonian was found dead?

According to news reports, he left town for business on Thursday morning before Simonian’s body was found later that evening. So, I would think by the time line, if reports are accurate, Gretz could still be a suspect.

Read more Gretz has only spoken publicly one time that I am aware of and there is only a tiny snippet of him speaking at a vigil held for Simonian several weeks after her death.

Does it tell us anything?

We know he is not lying in this video simply because he doesn’t say anything that is worthy of a lie. He makes the most generic statements which I personally find a bit odd. Usually at vigils, people talk personally about the loss of someone they love. That’s not to say that Gretz did or did not say more personal things. We really can’t discern this from the tiny snippets of vigil shown in this clip. He may have and the camera crew may not have caught it, or showed it on TV — which would be odd in itself. I would think the camera crew was looking to get him talking emotionally about Simonian, wouldn’t you? With that, we have to wonder and ask is this all he said at the vigil? If this is all he said, I’d find it perplexing.

What Gretz does say is this:

“Since my wife was murdered, everyday it gets a little bit harder in some ways…But it’s kinda days like today or moments like this: seeing your faces and seeing your support and knowing were all in this together, that makes it a little bit easier.”

He continues:

“I know that we all appreciated Kira in different ways. It’s not just my loss, it’s friends losses, it’s student’s losses, it’s neighbors losses. Going forward, let’s tell good stories about Kira because that’s what she would have wanted.”

Can we glean anything from this?

We can glean, at this point, Gretz is not in denial about his wife’s murder by the fact he uses the word “murder”. It’s a strong word. If Gretz were to try to play the part that he couldn’t accept her death , I would find that odd and contradictory — but we don’t know how Gretz is behaving at this point. If we did, we could see if his behavior is consistent. That’s key.

I do find the fact that he says, “…everyday it gets a little bit harder in some ways…But it’s kinda days like today or moments like this…” interesting. These statement shows that Gretz is having some confusing and conflicting feelings.

Things are getting harder “in some ways”? They either do, or do not get harder after the murder of a loved one. When emotions run high, things become stark black and white. I can accept either answer, but I would expect a definitive answer. You either will or will not face challenges — but you don’t face them “in some ways” at a highly volitile time in your life. It’s a half-baked answer. It’s odd. It’s unusual. It’s a raised-eyebrow but nothing more.

I would like to ask Gretz what has gotten harder in some ways? His answer might be telling.

Gretz goes on with his wishy-washy response when he says “But it’s kinda days like today…” It kind of is, but it isn’t? This is another odd answer. It’s unusual. This response doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Either you find solace in the gathering of Simonian’s friends, or you don’t. You don’t sort of find solace, do you?

Is he not finding solace– but trying to act like he is?

I also find Gretz’s word choices odd here when he says, “It’s not just my loss, it’s friends losses, it’s student’s losses, it’s neighbors losses. ” This statement lacks personal connection. It’s almost as if Gretz is distancing himself. You have to wonder. It’s just unusual again. I would expect to him to say something like, “It’s not only my loss, but your loss too. We all lost…”.

And last, when I watch Gretz talk, I see fear in his eyes and in his face. He looks frightened: really frightened. You can see he is trying to comfort himself by rubbing his chest. His voice quivers and he sounds as if he is out-of-breathe when he starts talking. Why? Is it due to the cut of the video, or is this how he started talking? I’d be curious to know. It would give me more information because if this is how he started talking, his voice pitch is strange.

Can I determine why he is frightened? No. I can only speculate. Why would he be afraid? Well, he could be deathly afraid of the person who murdered his wife, if he is a victim here. If that is the case, would he go to or hold a vigil after dark in the same neighborhood — a block away — if he feared for his life? That makes me ask the question who organized the vigil? I’d be interested to know.

All these answers would give me more definition.

Perhaps Gretz would be the type to push his fears aside and go to a vigil to honor Simonian. I can’t determine that from the little I know about Gretz. He doesn’t hit me as the type to take risks for his safety when I look at him, but I could be wrong. That’s simply just a guess.

Another scenario is that Gretz is an extremely shy guy — and going to this public vigil was too much for him. Could that be why he was afraid? When I watch Simonian’s video on CrimeBlog.us, I see Simonian was a strong character. I don’t believe such a timid guy would be attracted to someone like her, if that was the case. She hits me as the type to make him deal with situations — not avoid them. With that, I don’t believe Gretz was that shy and hence simply afraid of being on TV.

I’d be interested to talk to Gretz to ask him why he was so afraid. I think his responses would tell us a lot.

We can only guess at this point what is going on inside Gretz’s head. I’d love to ask him some questions, but I am not sure if I would like the answers I got back.

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Update:

September 2007:
Matthew Gretz has been arrested.

June 2008
Gretz Confesses
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How about an introduction?

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One thing I love is getting to know who is reading my blog.

How about introducing yourself?

You don’t have to tell me your name, or anything personal but how about how you found my blog, how often you visit and what you like most about it and what you like least about it (so I can improve it!)?

Or, just say something interesting about you!

Anonymous posts are accepted (no name or details required).

I think I have most quiet readers for any blog. You visit, but say so very little.