Irish_Eyes
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Mods - OK to move to another thread if you think it fits better there...
I knew I had this book somewhere and I finally found it...
Towards the end of his book "The Anatomy of Motive" reknowned profiler John Douglas gives several demonstration exercises at the back of the book on profiling...When I heard this story I immediately thought of one of them, just want to include as much of his vignette as I can here without plagiarizing so that you can see what he says about this type of case...
Beginning on page 303, John's example case is a single mom and 2 year old daughter getting ready to go visit mom's boyfriend on his jobsite, almost ready to walk out the door when mom cuts her hand pretty good on a kitchen knife...by the time she cleans and bandages her hand and cleans up the mess she comes out of the bathroom and her daughter isn't there...After frantically searching the area mom calls 911 to report that someone has kidnapped her daughter...Police come search, find nothing, then a few days later mom calls and says she recieved one of the girls mittens in the mail from the kidnapper - no note, just the mittens...The fictional profiler in this case tells the cops to lean on mom, they do and she confesses...How, John asks, did they know it was mom?? Some quotes from the book:
"There are a couple of elements that arouse suspicion. The first is that the mother left the child alone..." (Or in our case with an imaginary nanny)
"The second is that when she called 911 she told the operator her baby had been kidnapped. This is such a horrible thing for parents to even contemplate that most of them will consciously or subconsciously suppress it as long as they can" (How does this compare to the initial 911 calls re Caylee?)
"We'd also pay some attention to Ms. Singer's situation..." (it's okay I used her last name mods, she's fictional anyway) ..."she is a young single mother who is becoming increasingly involved with a single man without children"
He goes on to say "There are really only three cases in which children are taken by strangers" He lists the three types as kidnappers seeking ransom, kidnappers who intend to harm children for their own gratification, and people who can't or don't have children of their own, but are so desperately in want of them as to kidnap them... It's worth noting none of these situations sound like what Casey described...
He goes on to say that the motive in this case is that mom is missing out on the fun of young life and either from something he said or from something she percieves, the mom believes that she has to choose between the relationship with her man and the child, and she chooses the man...He says its "not all that uncommon".
So there you go...I said that I was sure the FBI have developed a profile on this case, which we have yet to see, but it's clear that John Douglas developed a profile for a very similar fictional case that I think may fit this case quite well also...Just thought WSers may be interested to read.
Side Note: The entire book is really quite good...I would highly recommend buying it or checking it out at your local library.
I knew I had this book somewhere and I finally found it...
Towards the end of his book "The Anatomy of Motive" reknowned profiler John Douglas gives several demonstration exercises at the back of the book on profiling...When I heard this story I immediately thought of one of them, just want to include as much of his vignette as I can here without plagiarizing so that you can see what he says about this type of case...
Beginning on page 303, John's example case is a single mom and 2 year old daughter getting ready to go visit mom's boyfriend on his jobsite, almost ready to walk out the door when mom cuts her hand pretty good on a kitchen knife...by the time she cleans and bandages her hand and cleans up the mess she comes out of the bathroom and her daughter isn't there...After frantically searching the area mom calls 911 to report that someone has kidnapped her daughter...Police come search, find nothing, then a few days later mom calls and says she recieved one of the girls mittens in the mail from the kidnapper - no note, just the mittens...The fictional profiler in this case tells the cops to lean on mom, they do and she confesses...How, John asks, did they know it was mom?? Some quotes from the book:
"There are a couple of elements that arouse suspicion. The first is that the mother left the child alone..." (Or in our case with an imaginary nanny)
"The second is that when she called 911 she told the operator her baby had been kidnapped. This is such a horrible thing for parents to even contemplate that most of them will consciously or subconsciously suppress it as long as they can" (How does this compare to the initial 911 calls re Caylee?)
"We'd also pay some attention to Ms. Singer's situation..." (it's okay I used her last name mods, she's fictional anyway) ..."she is a young single mother who is becoming increasingly involved with a single man without children"
He goes on to say "There are really only three cases in which children are taken by strangers" He lists the three types as kidnappers seeking ransom, kidnappers who intend to harm children for their own gratification, and people who can't or don't have children of their own, but are so desperately in want of them as to kidnap them... It's worth noting none of these situations sound like what Casey described...
He goes on to say that the motive in this case is that mom is missing out on the fun of young life and either from something he said or from something she percieves, the mom believes that she has to choose between the relationship with her man and the child, and she chooses the man...He says its "not all that uncommon".
So there you go...I said that I was sure the FBI have developed a profile on this case, which we have yet to see, but it's clear that John Douglas developed a profile for a very similar fictional case that I think may fit this case quite well also...Just thought WSers may be interested to read.
Side Note: The entire book is really quite good...I would highly recommend buying it or checking it out at your local library.