Joshua Davis

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February 8, 2011 11:56 AM
Joshua Davis Jr. Missing: Texas Toddler Mysteriously Disappears from Home Full of People

(CBS/KENS/AP) Police aided by state officers and bloodhounds continued searching for 18-month-old Hill Country child Joshua Davis Jr., who was reported missing by his family Friday evening.


New Braunfels police Lt. Michael Penshorn says searchers removed the skirts Monday from the crawlspaces beneath the homes in the mobile home park where the family lives. Penshorn says a parallel criminal investigation also is under way into the circumstances behind the boy's disappearance.


"We have been receiving some tips throughout the past several days," Penshorn told CBS affiliate KENS. "As we get those tips, we're following up with them specifically, whether it's a search team checking a specific area or just interviewing someone that may know something in relation to this case."


The 18-month-old vanished at about 8 p.m. Friday. He was last seen inside the family's mobile home with six other people.


The family believes someone may have snatched him, reports KENS.


Penshorn said he had no information on the details, but the family was cooperating.


Penshorn had said Sunday that the search had changed to a recovery effort after hopes dimmed for the child after a weekend of subfreezing weather.

Case Type: Endangered Missing
Missing Date: Friday 04th February 2011
Missing From: New Braunfels Texas
Missing Country: USA
Sex: Male
DOB: 16/Aug/2009
Age Now: 1
Specific Details:Hair: Black Eye Color: Brown
Height: 2'0" Weight: 30lbs
Race: Black language: n/a
Special Facts: He was last seen wearing a blue and red button down long sleeve shirt, a gray long sleeve Rocawear shirt, dark blue Rocawear jeans, a beige and white Rocawear onesie, a diaper, and black and white socks. He may be in need of medical attention.



Known Circumstances: Police, friends and neighbors of a New Braunfels couple searched the area for a missing toddler Saturday.

The family said the boy disappeared from their home Friday night, New Braunfels Police Lt. Mike Penshorn said.

Police got a call just after 8:30 p.m. Friday from the child's parents saying the small boy was gone.

Penshorn said the couple last saw 18 month-old Joshua Davis inside their home about 20 minutes before they called police.

Officers searched the home, then began a sweep of the neighborhood.

They searched surrounding homes and called in a Department of Public Safety helicopter to scan the area, but could not find the child, Penshorn said.

The searched continued for little Joshua Saturday afternoon.

Police say he is 2-feet tall and weighs 30 pounds.

http://www.ksat.com/news/26760817/detail.html#

If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact New Braunfels Police immediately at 830-221-4100.

Search party of 100 volunteers looking for missing 18-month-old boy
.Posted: Saturday, February 5, 2011 2:18 pm | Updated: 2:27 pm, Sat Feb 5, 2011.

Search party of 100 volunteers looking for missing 18-month-old boy 2 comments

A search party of 100 volunteers are looking for Joshua Davis, an 18-month-old missing since Friday night.

Police say child is very mobile and it is conceivable that he left the house on his own and took off running, covering a short area in a short period of time.

Throughout the evening, the glass front door was open.

Joshua was last seen in family's double-wide kitchen dining area with five or six family members.

Front glass door did not latch properly, police said.

Sex offender across the street is not a suspect, but his home has been searched.

Command post at Klein Road Elementary is open until 7:30 p.m. tonight (Saturday).

Search teams are focusing on area around residence, wooded area and fields. Everyone is still optimistic, police said.

Call (830) 221-4570 with any information.

Visit this website, follow us on Twitter (@newbraunfelsHZ) or on the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung Facebook page for regular updates.

http://seamusoriley.blogspot.com/2011/03/joshua-davis-missing-statement-analysis.html


Statement Analysis of today's news stories. Statement Analysis is the scientific study of words seeking to discern truth from deception. All parties are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. All opinions expressed here are personal opinions and represent only the author of these opinions and not any business, government agency, or individual person other than the author.
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Joshua Davis Missing: Statement Analysis of Nancy Grace Show

What follows is Statement Analysis with limited statements in the case of missing toddler, Joshua Davis jr.

The statements were aired on the NANCY GRACE Show. Edited out are the audio clips that are labeled as "unknown" by the transcribers. Analysis is in bold type, with any bold type within the statement added for emphasis.

Note: If the transcripts of the 911 call exist, the Statement Analysis would likely yield much information

Toddler Disappears From Home Full of Family Members

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, live, Texas, 30 miles north San Antonio. A parent`s worst nightmare, desperate 911 call, 18-month-old toddler boy Joshua vanishes, just seen 10 minutes earlier -- 10 minutes! Local temperatures dipping down in the 20s.

Bombshell tonight. Investigators first believe baby Joshua wanders off on his own. But in a new twist tonight, cops now say he didn`t just walk off on his own. Eight people in that home when baby Joshua seemingly vanishes into thin air, Mommy confirming to us the 18-month-old could barely reach the doorknob, much less turn it. As investigators seize evidence from the family`s back yard, including a tarp and a bucket, including neighborhood trash cans, tonight, where is baby Joshua.

Note use of pronouns

SABRINA BENITEZ, MOTHER: My baby`s out there somewhere. Somebody has him.

BENITEZ: He can`t reach the doorknob. Like, he reaches maybe to the bottom of it, but he can`t reach tall enough to where he could turn the doorknob.

GRACE: Well, if he can`t reach the doorknob, then how did he get out?

BENITEZ: That`s what I want to know.

BENITEZ: They have the cadaver dogs. He`s nowhere in this area, I don`t believe, because there`s no trace of him coming in the yard.

Note that "so, since, therefore, because, etc" should be considered sensitive because it tells why something happened rather than what happened. Here, she stated, without sensitivity that "he is nowhere in this area" as a known fact, but then weakens with "I don't believe" with the reason that there was no hit in the hard.

BENITEZ: He was wandering from our room to the living room, where the other family members were. When I realized after about 10 minutes that it was unusual my baby hadn`t been back in the room to come get a toy, come watch the movie.

Note that we do not know if she was speaking for herself and her husband in the room with her. If so, "our" room is appropriate. If he was not with her when she spoke this, "our" room rather than "my" room would cause us to ask questions about the relationship between her and her husband, as the emphasis of a "shared" room may indicate a need for the emphasis due to a strain in the relationship.

GRACE: I thought the theory was that somehow, he had managed to turn the doorknob and get out the door. But you`re saying he absolutely could not do that, right?

BENITEZ: Yes. I know he`s still alive.

Note that "I know he's still alive" is outside the boundary of the question.

JOSHUA DAVIS, FATHER: I hate going in there. I hate seeing my kid`s toys with him not playing with him. I hate seeing (INAUDIBLE) I used to get on my son and tell him, Pick those toys up. Boy, he would look at me and laugh and run off. I wish I even had him here. I wish I had him here for the toys to be dirty or the room to be dirty, you know? I wish I had him here.

Note that in Statement Analysis, there is no synonyms. A change in language indicates a change in reality. Change in language without a change in reality indicates deception. Here, he is "my kid's" toys, but when getting "on" him, he is "my son".
Note that he is then called "boy" and mentions discipline of an 18 month old missing child.

Note that his name is missing.

GRACE: Let`s take a listen to what the mother had to say.

BENITEZ (via telephone): We were all in the house. There was nine people in the house. I was sitting on the bed watching "Toy Story" with my baby. He was wandering from our room to the living room, where the other family members were. When I realized about 10 minutes that it was unusual my baby hadn`t been back in the room to come get a toy, come watch the movie, I jumped up and I ran to the grandfather`s room, where there was another baby that my baby was interested in and asked if he was in there. When the grandfather`s girlfriend told me he hadn`t been in there, so I ran out to the living room and I asked everyone if they`d seen the baby. We started searching, but there was no signs of the baby. I ran out of the house and everyone started looking, and we called the police about 10 minutes because we realized we had no -- nowhere to -- where we hadn`t found him.

This is the first open statement we have for analysis. Regarding what happened the mother speaks and beings in the first person plural, "we". This is unusual unless she is with the family, speaking for all of them. We are unable to determine if she is speaking for herself (making the "we" inappropriate) or if she is speaking for others in the room with her.

Where a subject begins the statement is very important. In this first sentence, the subject wants us to know that others were in the house. Note the sensitivity about others in the house as she repeats it, but with the number in the house (9).

Note that the inclusion of her body position ("sitting") is an indication of tension at this point of the statement.

Note that the mother said that she realized that it was unusual that her son hadn't returned to the room, she "jumped up", which suggests urgency. She didn't simply get up and look for him, but she "jumped" up, likely because she knew there was something wrong at that point. With eight other people in the home, why would she assume that there was an urgent need for her to "jump" up and find her son. It is likely that more happened at this point than her realizing that "the baby" hadn't come back into the room.

Note also that she doesn't use her son's name, but refers to him as "my baby" until the point that she talks to "the grandfather's girlfriend", and then he becomes "the baby." The change in possessive pronoun to article is important and should be explored.

Note that the grandfather is not "his grandfather" but "the grandfather". It is "the" grandfather and the "jumping up" that is sensitive to the subject. If the grandfather did something to cause her to jump up, he is not addressed, but his girlfriend is.

The addressing of Joshua's grandfather as "the" grandfather suggests distancing language and police should focus their interviewing on the grandfather in question and the mother.

Did something, like an accident, happen to the child at the hands of his grandfather and there is now a cover up? This should be explored. More statements are needed for analysis.

DAVIS: I don`t think he wandered off. He knows his play zone and -- they had the scent dogs out here, and they said there was no scent of him leaving out of the, you know, yard or anything like that. So I don`t see how he could have wandered off or else they said they would have picked something up.

Note that "he knows he play zone" may indicate unrealistic expectations for a 18 month old child, along with the mentioning of discipline above.

BENITEZ: The only way he could have got out was the front door. The screen door might not close properly and he could find (ph) himself and push the door open. But like I said, that door had been closed all day.


BENITEZ: There was a family friend in the house, and that was the latch that the door had been opened. And I at first thought, like, maybe the friend had took him. But the police say there`s no signs of that. So they said he had been in and out the back door. I thought maybe he could have slipped -- like, walked out the back door. But I highly believe that -- I believe that wasn`t the case, either, because when I walked out the back porch, there was ice all over the steps. It was too cold. And my baby`s real smart. I mean, if it was that cold, he would have found a way to come knock on the door, or there would have been signs of him out the back door because it was icy.

Note the unrealistic expectation of a toddler navigating ice. The lack of using his name shows a deliberate distancing from the child.

The mother appeared to have been startled and immediately went to the grandfather. This should be the focus. The mother should be polygraphed.

BENITEZ: We started searching when there was no signs of the baby. I ran out the house, and everyone started looking, and we called the police about 10 minutes, realized we had nowhere -- we hadn`t found him.

Note that this makes "searching" appear to be something contrived, as she speaks to "when" searching, rather than "why"

It may be that the child fell victim to an accident involving the grandfather or the mother, and have conspired to hide the child. The subject (mother) has given an account that includes the inclusion of the emotion in the logical place: this is indicative of deception.

10 minutes in a household of adults is not enough time to "jump" up.

In truthful statements, the emotions are not in the logical or "perfect" place, but come later, as human emotions take time to process. In truthful statements, they enter later in the event.

The mother should be polygraphed as her statement shows high sensitivity. By calling Joshua's grandfather "the" grandfather, she is de-personalizing him and creating distance.

The child did not wander out. Something startled the mother and it wasn't the quiet passage of 10 minutes. This is the critical part of her statement that should cause the most concern: the inclusion of emotion indicates deception.

The answer to this mystery likely resides in the house.