Kelle Jarka

Police Interrogate Kelle Jarka in Murder
(You can read the story here)

ABC’s 20/20 featured the Kelle Jarka story last Friday. Jarka comes home to find his wife, Isabelle, dead after running morning errands. He believes it is a break-in and denies any involvement. He is later convicted of murder.

In this interview we get to see Jarka talk and his behavior is fascinating.

Read moreJarka, an hour after his wife’s murder in a police interrogation tape, says the following about finding his wife upon his return, “I ran over there, ‘Babe, Babe’ uh, what’s w… , you know, and I couldn’t move her.”

What flags me instantly when I listen to this is how Jarka’s voice inflection changes when he says the words “Babe, Babe”. It’s a telling clue for me. For some reason when people are deceptive and put on an act, they often add in emotional inflection in the middle of normal conversation. It’s like what they would envision they would do, if they actually did this. When honest people recollect facts, they don’t do this at points where they “think” they should be emotional. I’ve seen this time and time again. It’s a pretty reliable clue to deceit. Probably one of the most reliable across the board.

Notice how he was about to say, “What wrong?” but stops himself? Then later he tells us he thought she was dead, so why on earth would he ask her what’s wrong? It makes no sense, likely because it never happened. I suspect he is just babbling up a story here, and got caught!

I love when the investigator says no innocent person is going to let me accuse them of brutally murdering their wife of 19 years. Bingo! And what is so fascinating is how Jarka responds to the questioning. Notice there is no anger? No negative emotions whatsoever? Instead, we get this subdued response–so classic of people who are deceptive. It’s what I call the “nice-guy-facade syndrome”. When people lie, their biggest goal is to be believed and they think if they are going to be trusted, they have to be liked, so they don’t ever get mad! Another very common clue to deceit seen in high stakes lies.

I also find it strange that Jarka says he couldn’t move her. What would be the reason for that? I wish that was questioned. It would have revealed his senseless babble.

I also noticed how Jarka’s voice is devoid of any stress whatsoever, and when he recalls what should be painful details, he is like a drone, devoid of normal emotional memory recall. Two more huge red flags.

Clearly, the jury got this case right on the money, circumstantial evidence and all.