Rifqa Bary Poll: Do you believe her?
If you are unfamiliar with this story, you can read about it here. Thanks, RC, for the links and story.
Theresa Parker, Sam Parker and Ben Chaffin
Sam Parker is on trial this week for the murder of his wife, Theresa Parker, whose body has never been found. A fellow police officer and friend to Sam at the time, Harbin “Ben” Chaffin, was later arrested for four felonies related to this case, one of which was tampering with evidence and another was making false statements to investigators.
Ben has been given immunity, if he testifies against Sam. You can see some footage of the testimony here.
Read moreBen testified this week that Sam called him on March 22, 2007, and confessed to the murder of Theresa. Ben said:
He [Sam] said, uh…something like he’d really done it this time or he was really going to do it this time. [Voice in court: You are not sure which of them?] No, ma’am. [Voice in court: What else did he say?] He said he that had a place that was hard to find her or that they never would find her. And that he’d shot Theresa through the head.
You then hear a voice question Ben, “You didn’t tell them about this so-called murder confession you heard simply because you forgot about it?” Ben replied, “I forgot about it.” According to reports, Ben didn’t remember this during three interviews with the GBI, until he was offered immunity.
Yet strangely, other news reports are saying that Ben said that he “blubbered like a baby”after Sam called him. If news reports are correct that Ben said he “blubbered like a baby” after the call, it is a complete contradiction to the fact that he supposedly “forgot” about the confession later. If something is traumatic to you, enough to cause you to try like a baby, you do not forget about it later. Period.
Ben’s account of the phone conversation on the night of March 22, 2007, raises many red flags for me. First, do you notice how Ben recounts the conversation in third person and doesn’t give us any first person accounts?
Second, when a person doesn’t hear something correctly, as Ben suggests he didn’t, especially when someone is talking about something as monumental as a murder, most people would ask for clarification, if they didn’t hear things, but obviously Ben didn’t. I find this very odd. I have to wonder was he already privy to something going down? Is that why he didn’t ask for clarification? Or is this exact conversation that Ben is telling us completely false? I don’t know.
We could suppose that Ben was afraid of Sam, if he did in fact help his friend in someway do something illegal, or if Sam threatened him, and hence that is why he didn’t dare question Sam. But then we would have expected Ben to make logical sense out of Sam’s first and second statement, if he did decide to share this confession with people–if he truly believed Sam made a confession to him. It would make sense that he would rationalize that he didn’t hear Sam say “he was really going to do it this time” because he would know that he definitely heard Sam say, “I shot Theresa through the head.”
Or I would have expected Ben to say, I wasn’t sure what Sam said at first. It was muffled etc., but Ben does not do any of this. It’s highly unusual.
When people are deceptive, however, they often make a strong statement and then get scared, and their nerves cause them to hedge or soften their statement. It’s what fear does to people when they are in a high stake lie. Is that what Ben does here?
We know for sure that these two spoke in the middle of the night. That seems well documented. Do you think it is plausible that Sam just called and woke up his friend simply to brag about his conquest that night, or do you think there was something more to it? I suspect it is the later, but that is only speculation. I will say that I personally don’t think Ben is leveling with us about what was actually said. Why that is, I can only speculate. Add to that that Ben is facing four felony charges related to this case and a picture starts to emerge that doesn’t look good for Ben.
I do not believe Sam Parker’s story either. You can read my original post on him here.
The mystery deepens…
Police: Haleigh Likely Not Abducted by Stranger
Putnam County police came out this week and said again that they believe Misty (nee Croslin) Cummings likely holds the key to case of missing 5-year old Haleigh Cummings. They are also saying that Ronald Cummings and Crystal Sheffield are not suspects. What is interesting about this is were they ever officially called suspects?
Read more (Video)I wonder if people (reporters included) are jumping to the conclusion that Ronald and Crystal are now “cleared,” because the police are just reiterating they are not suspects (see Palatka Daily news article). To me, “being cleared” and “not being a suspect” are two very different things.
When I searched Google news for “Ronald Cummings and suspect”, nothing comes up. I don’t believe he ever was an official suspect. I also don’t find any quotes in the media from the police saying the parents were “cleared”. I only see they are saying they are “not suspects”. That means nothing has changed with regard to their status, if you ask me.
What is interesting is that the police are now saying that they don’t believe Haleigh was abducted by a stranger. I believed that from day one. I’ve always believed both Ronald and Misty hold the key to this case and that they know more than they are both letting on. To read my original thoughts on the case, click here. Unfortunately, to read all of my thoughts on this case, you have to go through the archives as searches are only bringing up the last 12 posts (a limitation of blogger).
Putnam Co., Fla. say that, although Haleigh’s mother, Crystal Sheffield, and father, Ronald Cummings, are no longer suspects in their daughter’s disappearance, Croslin-Cummings remains a person of interest. Investigators say they also believe Haleigh was abducted by someone she knew. Click here to read more…
CARS Program
My friend happened to come visit last week and pulled up in a new vehicle. I’m not a “vehicle” person, but her wheels were so sharp, that I couldn’t help but take notice. They weren’t sporty or flashy, but stylish and effective for the job she needed them for. I have to admit it, we’ve been friends since we were in second grade, and she’s always been the trailblazer of the two of us.
So when she left, it was natural for me to check out her purchase. I’ve been toying with the idea of changing my wheels and when I read about her vehicle, I was sold. It was exactly what I had been looking for, but didn’t know existed. I need tow power, but do not want to drive a truck or a clunky vehicle, and this was a perfect option!
Read moreSo I started checking online for pricing and called some dealers. I didn’t know anything about the CARS program, so I did some reading on it and found my old vehicle qualifies for the program (though in the end, I found mine will get more money on the used market than for CARS). If you go through the government website, it will tell you if your exact vehicle qualifies and how much you will receive. I then called dealers to talk about it, and the first salesman I got on the phone told me I didn’t qualify.
To convince me, he showed me a statement online for class 2 vehicles, knowing full well that I had a class 1. He made me doubt my vehicle qualified. It was clear he wanted to get rid of me. Either he thought the paperwork for the program wasn’t worth his time, or he knew they had no inventory to sell (since lots are basically empty and pre-ordered cars are all sold already), so why bother? When I verified my vehicle qualified, I called back and had him paged, and you can guess, he didn’t ever pick up. He wasn’t interested no matter what. He knew he gave me a line of crap!!
Needless to say, I was annoyed.
When money changes hands, be careful. People will tell you anything!
Next we went to CARMAX and test drove the vehicle. By the way, CARMAX verified my vehicle qualified and they wanted it! Of course, I didn’t want to give it up. It wasn’t worth it for me.
Anyway, CARMAX didn’t have exactly what I wanted so we came home and I got more price quotes. The prices seemed high for the vehicles (even at CARMAX), so I did some more research. What I found was a pricing guide online that took actual sales and charted them out, for my exact vehicle. It averaged 1200 sales records. With that, you can see what others paid and what is a fair price. You can see an example here (click on Get Pricing Analysis).
Low and behold, the dealerships where I was calling or visiting were all charging on average around $3,000 more than the sticker price, which was, you guessed it, $3,000 higher than what most people had purchased this vehicle for. You can assume that the statistics are from sales prior to the CARS program.
I was like what the hell?! I tried to negotiate, but hit a dead wall. The dealerships are taking away all the incentive and those who don’t even want to participate in the program will be paying top dollar, if they buy a car now. It’s supply and demand, and the dealerships know people will pay, because they think they are getting a deal, even though the reality is, they are not! The dealership and salesman are!! They are realistically giving you $500, but I wouldn’t doubt that gets sucked in somewhere, too!
Do you think this is honest?
The CARS program should have taken this into account as we the citizens, are getting hosed again, if you want my opinion.
I’m delaying my purchased until the CARS program ends. Maybe then they will have ramped up production on the vehicles and they won’t have buyers, which will hopefully drive prices down to near factory invoice again, which will save me thousands!! Literally.
There is always a catch, if you do your homework. Money doesn’t come for free often, and when it does, you can be assured the sharks will come out and feed big time. It’s a feeding frenzy, at the expense of the average citizen. No surprise, for me, sadly.
Sam Parker Trial: Update
From the Rome-News Tribune:
A former policeman testified this morning that Sam Parker told him he shot his wife and buried her.
Ben Chaffin, who worked with Parker, said Sam told him in a phone call, “I really did it this time” and that he had shot Theresa Parker through the head.
Sam Parker’s trial began Monday in Walker County Superior Court in downtown LaFayette before Judge Jon ‘Bo’ Wood. It is expected to last three weeks…More
To read my original thoughts of Sam Parker back on December 21, 2007, click here.
Thanks, Pat, for the story tip!!
