The Madeleine McCann case is still a mystery and the body language of her parents raise
suspicions.
There are many videos about them, but this one caught my attention.
It's great to have you here, my Body Language Baddies!
My name is Jesús Enrique Rosas and I'm the Body language Guy.
Let's get down to it!
Madeleine McCann disappeared on the evening of May 3, 2007 from her bed in a holiday apartment
at a resort in Portugal.
She was 3 years old.
Madeleine's disappearance has involved from the local Portuguese Police, to Scotland Yard
and Interpol.
Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, became suspects less than three months after she
went missing... and there are lots of theories about their actions.
That night, Kate and Gerry were to meet some friends at a tapas bar near the apartments
where they were staying.
Their plan was... well, a little weird.
They left Madeleine, who was three years old, and her two twin brothers, who were two years
old, sleeping alone.
Go figure.
The tapas bar was roughly half a football field away from the apartments.
No way they could see or hear anything in case of any emergency.
Even worse: this is a rough map of the apartments where they were staying.
See that street on the side? to get to the children, they had to get out from the bar
to the street, walk along the public street and then enter the apartments.
This introduction is important so you're aware of the kind of persons the McCanns are.
They claim that they were going to 'check on the kids' every hour or so.
And yes, I thought the same: many things, a lot of things can happen in the span of
one hour.
Hell, a lot can happen in five minutes.
When Gerry went at 9:05, everything was alright.
But when Kate went at 10:00, Madeleine was... gone.
Now, this case has been running for so long that the statements about what could have
happened to Madeleine go from kidnapping to murder.
Gerry and Kate have had enough slips of the tongue implying that Madeleine is no longer
alive, and many researchers about the case have the right to ask, how could you possibly
know that with certainty?
And that brings us to this video.
Here, the McCanns are asked up front if they killed their daughter:
- Did you kill your daughter?
- No, no, never.
And, you know, there's nothing with any logic that could, you know, you would have to start
with why? you know, how?
When?
Who? and there's just simply, you know, answer to any of these things is there's nothing
to suggest anything.
So, no.
That's an emphatic no.
For any body language analysis of reactions to a difficult question, this matrix comes
in handy.
People either anticipate a question or not, and previously rehearse or practice the answer
or not.
This matrix works under any circumstance.
No matter if you are doing a criminal investigation, or casually asking probing questions to teenager,
it works every time.
That gives us 4 possible scenarios that we should take into account when observing reactions.
Another factor is the situation itself.
Was it a live interview?
no, it was part of a special by Australian news that would be heavily edited afterwards.
And this is one of the most important distinctions when you are going through a video.
If it's edited, we are not sure if we are looking at the first reaction of the person.
I talk about this in my R Kelly analysis, because sometimes the producers of the producers
of the program will most likely edit any hesitation or stutter before the actual answer.
In this case, the clip you just saw did NOT make it to broadcast.
In the final cut, Gerry just says "No, that's an emphatic no", so thanks to this leak we
get to see that first, unedited answer that did not went public in the original broadcast.
I also noticed the interviewer's expression.
She displays a mixture of pity and a bit of "gotcha!"
My first impression upon watching the video, I can make a guess that they did not expect
that sharp question to arise.
Sometimes interviews have a tight script, or predefined questions that the person, or
couple in this case, is aware of, but the best interviews are the ones that are more
spontaneous.
For example, the interviewer could say, "Let's make a few questions, are you OK with that?
we'll edit them later".
That's a common interview format that lets people show authenticity.
Maybe the interviewer just ad libbed the question without telling anyone previously, not even
the producers.
Now, for the McCanns...
By their reaction, they did not expect the question and did not practice the answer either.
By the way, by that year, in 2011, The McCanns would have been no strangers to legal advice.
And being prepared to these kind of questions is part of that legal advice.
Your attorneys, if they know what they're doing, will tell you exactly what can you
say to certain questions, and most important, how to say that.
It has to do with training in body language, voice tone and even the time you take to answer.
Well, there are two main red flags after the question.
First, Kate does not answer.
Instead, she turns to Gerry waiting to confirm his answer.
That's pretty odd behavior in a mother.
And second, Gerry doesn't answer immediately.
Instead, he closes his eyes for a split second.
That's a body language clue that means the person wants to evade from the situation.
To be fair, the very first reaction of Kate is a subtle denial with her head and then
looking away with her eyes down and to her left.
Remember: we guess that they didn't expect the question.
Don't you think she should react with a stronger emotion?
Anyway, just to be sure, let's play a bit and switch our guess about the situation,
and assume she expected the question.
If that's the case, she would have given a plain answer.
In either case, her reaction would have been more emotional.
That's why her reaction in this video seems so odd.
It's extremely easy for your judgment to cloud your observations.
It happens all the time; we jump to conclusions too fast and without being aware of our own
bias.
That's why using our imagination and thinking about them being aware or not being aware
of the questions helps us reach a brief conclusion that Kate's first reaction is not common.
Now, Gerry's immediate reaction is in four stages.
First, he looks at the interviewer; then, he drifts his eyes to his right and drops
his jaw, followed by a clear display of surprise and lastly he closes his eyes for a split
second and scratches his cheek.
That is hesitation both verbally and with body language.
Definitely, he did not expect the question.
The first words he says, his choice of words, is interesting.
"no, no... never", in a soft voice.
Now we can be sure that no matter if they expected the question or not, at least Gerry
was not prepared for it.
If you've spent years affirming your innocence, you won't even need a lawyer to instruct you
with a rehearsed question.
You will answer automatically, and even be mad at the interviewer.
One advantage of interviewing couples is that there's always a 'combined' body language
between them.
In this case it's a bit hard because Kate seems to suffer from something like Bell's
palsy and her facial expressions look limited.
But she's reacting to Gerry's eyes closing.
That's why if you are asking questions in real time to a couple and can't record, or
are not allowed to record the answers, you need a colleague to spot the reactions of
the one that is not answering at that moment.
That is extremely important to understand the dynamics between them and how sometimes,
when you want a piece of information from one of them, ask the other instead.
Gerry's answer is unusually wordy for an innocent person that has gone through that for 4 years.
51 words.
Fifty-one.
And he doesn't mention Madeleine, not even once, not even indirectly.
Why couldn't he give a straight answer?
why did Kate remain silent and just looked at her husband waiting for his answer?
Verbally, that's going full inside himself, in a defensive state.
The only moment when Gerry shows covert anger lasts less than three seconds.
Look the tension on his forehead.
"There's nothing to suggest... anything"
That sentence, and the subtle chin jut right at the end, is almost defiant.
Notice that it sounds a lot like "You have no proof of anything"?
And that's also part of any verbal analysis, that should always go hand in hand with body
language.
Nothing to suggest anything are external factors; proof, evidence, circumstances.
His first reaction is to address external circumstances, while an innocent person would
start their statement or their answer with the closest factor to them, that is their
own innocence.
From a plain "I didn't do it" to reacting with anger or any strong emotional reaction,
any question that attacks your innocente will be addressed as a personal question.
Like an attack directly to you.
Now, let's see these two images out of context and spot which is the strongest emotional
reaction:
Which one looks more "emphatic"?
And the first one the one with the strongest facial expression is the one saying that there
are nothing that could point to them.
But then the second one, the one less emotional is when he claims "that's an emphatic no"
That's the kind of body language and verbal contradictions that we usually seek when we
try to assess any video and that helps us reach to a conclusion about the person's trustworthiness.
And you might say that in any interview or in any interrogation the subjects could be
nervous and make any kind of blunders when answering.
But again, this interview was not live and they had spent years talking to everyone about
the case.
It's obvious that by this point they had grown a thick skin.
The Madeleine McCann case has been a real mess from the start, and this video is a good
analogy of that mess, especially when we understand that in the end, it was her parent's responsibility
for her well- being.
Let's say that they are innocent; that they had nothing to do with her dissappearance
or whatever happened to her.
But any logical thinking would take us back to the fact that they were the ones that decided
to leave a three year old with her infant brothers, alone, in an apartment while they
were having dinner with some friends.
I think that is
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