Christina Raines Moves Back In

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You couldn’t write news this interesting if you were to create fiction. This is unbelievable, but not surprising. Raines is obviously a lost soul, hoping the men in her life will bring her happiness. She doesn’t realize happiness comes from within, and is never created by others.

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I really feel for her dad and her children. This roller coaster would drive any normal person insane.

Here is my previous post on Raines.


Thanks, Ree, for the update!

Off Topic: Request for Jokes

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This past week, I got the sobering news that a good friend of mine in Japan has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He is only 40 years old. I can’t imagine how difficult that must be for him and his family.

When I asked him if there was anything I could do for him, he told me if I could send him jokes, it would help lift his spirit and that is something I absolutely can do. The problem is I am so serious, I don’t know one good joke!

So I am asking for your help. If you know of some good jokes, would you post them below? I would be so thankful. Also, if any of you know of any great humor books, I hope you share that with me as well. And you are welcome to say hi to Jim. He occasionally reads my blog.

Many thanks!

Jayson and Kellisue Ackernecht

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A reader has asked me to review a story coming out of Johnstown, New York. Back on September 30, 2008, Kellisue Ackernecht, 36, left work as a shift supervisor at 9:45PM, and has never been seen again.


Photo from Find Kellisue.WordPress.com

Shortly before 2:00 a.m., police found Kellisue’s car, engulfed in flames, on a road that her husband, Jayson Ackernecht, says was not her normal way home. Kellisue was nowhere to be found.

Read moreNeighbors in that area say they heard what they believed to be gunshots that night.

[WTEN] According to some neighbors, they heard noises about 90 minutes earlier. Two loud noises that to them sounded like gunshots.

“I heard the gunshot, I jumped out of bed, looked out my window and I looked up and down,” Stewart told NEWS10.

The The Leader Herald reported that Kellisue was reported missing by her husband:

“[Ackernecht] was reported missing about the same time the 1998 Saturn sedan she was driving was found engulfed in flames at West Montgomery and Chestnut streets, also known as Frog Hollow.”

What do the police think? As of October 8, 2008, WNYT reports:

“It could be a missing person. It could be foul play,” said Johnstown Police Lt. Mark Gifford. “We are not ruling out anything at this point. The person could be voluntarily missing also.”

As of January 23, 2009, police are still saying this case can’t be labeled a “criminal matter.” Due to the car burning up completely, they are unable to conclusively determine if the car fire was due to arson, or if the car malfunctioned. They have also previously said the husband, Jayson Ackernecht, has cooperated and is not a suspect.

A week after the disappearance, Dennis Ackernecht, Jayson Ackernecht’s uncle, said the following to WTEN:

“It was Tuesday afternoon. [Jayson] stopped by and he was distraught […] He thinks that somebody kidnapped [Kellisue]. That could very well be,” Dennis Ackernecht said.

Jayson Akernecht did his first interview approximately two months after his wife disappeared. I think it is very interesting.

Ackernecht: I… cry… day after day…night after night.. I worry about her. My daughter worries about her….wondering where she is.

The reporter talks about the case–about how many in the city have formed their own opinions, and says “now for the first time ever, Jayson is speaking out…”

Ackernecht: I.Would. Never. Harm. My. Wife. I. Had. Nothing. To. Do. With this. At all. I. had. to. have. the. police department… come to my house…personally… and wake me up….. to… tell me. that my. car. was. on fire.

The reporter says Jayson has his own theory that his wife is very much alive.

Ackernecht: We think… she just took off… and left…….with somebody else….. Who? We don’t know yet.

The reporter has a message for his wife, “a plea for both him, and their 9-year-old daughter.”

Ackernecht: If you are out there someplace, wherever you are, please come home.

This interview is littered with hot spots, if you want my opinion. Jayson is completely void of emotions. That’s a huge red flag. He talks very controlled, and I noticed he moves his head (very slightly) in a yes motion at times, as if he is confirming what he said, to himself. This is very strange behavior for someone who is being honest. It’s almost as if he is thinking to himself, “Yeah, that’s right.” Most people don’t do this.

I find it odd how Jayson says he “worries about her”, yet shortly thereafter tells us he believes she “left with somebody else”. Aren’t these two somewhat contradictory? If he believed his wife left, you would expect him to mad and upset, but not so much worried.

Can you hear the pauses between nearly every word? It is indicative that he is thinking about what he says before he says it. This is not a good sign at all.

Don’t you find it fascinating that he says the police had to “wake him up” to tell him that “his car” was on fire? Why doesn’t he mention that it was his wife’s car? Is this a form of distancing? People who harm others are often known to do this. He also never uses her name, Kellisue. It’s notable.

I also have to wonder did Jayson report his wife missing, or not? If he did report her missing, did he just go right back to sleep? That would be odd. But it would also be odd if he didn’t report his wife missing. Either way, what Jayson says here is odd.

Did Jayson ever go and look for his wife that night? Does anyone know? I’d be curious.

I am troubled by this statement as well. Jayson says, “We think… she just took off… and left…….with somebody else….. Who? We don’t know yet.”

Jayson is clearly, without any doubt, thinking on his feet here. The pauses are very indicative of this, in how they lay out in the sentence.

Notice, also, he first said he thought she was kidnapped. Now, strangely, like Drew Peterson, he wants to suggest that he believes she “left with somebody else”. Why the change of beliefs? Did he get some evidence to point him in one direction over another? A caring husband who loved his wife wouldn’t jump to these conclusions without some sort of proof, and from what I have read, there is no indication that she left with anyone else.

Normal caring and compassionate spouses would also be notably worried about foul play, since the car burned into nothing recognizable, but we don’t ever hear that Jayson worried about that–not even the week after her disappearance. That’s a mambo red flag. Overwhelmingly huge! Why do all of Jayson’s theories involve his wife being just fine, when the rest of her family worries about foul play? Everyone else thinks it is strange she has never reached out to her daughter, and I agree.

I also find a huge problem when Jayson pleads for his wife to come home. He says, ” If you are out there someplace…”

If?

Doesn’t he supposedly believe she is with “somebody else”? This shows us that he doesn’t truly believe this, or he wouldn’t say “if”. It’s a strong indication he doesn’t believe she is out there.

This is very sad. Jayson Ackernecht, if you want my opinion, knows much more than he wants to admit, and I think the reason for this is very ominous. I don’t trust Ackernecht’s story here whatsoever. It’s all too classic, and that is painful to write.

Stanley Sisters Mystery Update

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Back in September of 2007, I wrote about the death of two sisters, Erin and Kelly Stanley, both in their late teens, who died mysteriously, just days apart.

My original post was on Steve Huff’s True Crime Weblog. I also wrote another update about the story here on my blog. Clearly, for me, Lonny Stanley, the mother of the two deceased girls, raised my eyebrows, and in a big way, several times over.

Read moreYou see, Erin died on September 1, 2007, after just moving back home to her parents’ house with her boyfriend, and new baby, Alexis. Six days later, after Erin’s death, her sister, Kelly, who still lived at home, was also found supposedly “dying” by her mother, and by the time the EMT arrived, she was deceased.

The person who was arrested and charged with Erin’s murder, however, was a big surprise. It was her boyfriend, James McFarland, who was asleep with her on the night she died, and who subsequently moved out just after her death, and was not in the house when Kelly died. McFarland has been in jail ever since, awaiting trial, until this past week.

Shortly McFarland’s arrest, the death of the second daughter, Kelly, was ruled a death by natural causes (a seizure).

As you can see, the story has taken incredible twists and turns that no one could expect. I was really baffled by it. The arrest of McFarland, the boyfriend of Erin, made little sense to me when I considered the untimely and strange death of her sister, Kelly. Worse, the actions of the girl’s mother made my hair stand up on end. Repeatedly.

For the past year, I have looked for news on this case, concerned about McFarland. I was hoping for video of him so I could feel at ease that they did get the right guy, but nothing ever surfaced. Nothing happened on this case until this week, when jury selection began, and then the most surprising news came out.

The murder charges against McFarland have been dropped.

You read that right. They have been dropped.

[Pal-item.com]”…forensic pathologist Dr. Joseph Czaja reversed his original finding that Erin Stanley had been strangled. On Monday, Czaja testified that he couldn’t be medically certain of the cause of death because Stanley’s body had been washed and sterilized and tissues had been removed prior to the autopsy.”

Another article from the Pal-item.com says:

Defense attorneys Terry O’Maley and Adam Forrest contend in their motion Shipman knew there were problems with the case after a discussion with Czaja in November 2007. That was more than a year before O’Maley and Forrest learned of the pathologist’s doubts, they contend.

It looks like this mystery has yet to be resolved. I only hope there is enough evidence for police to find the real killers of these two innocent young women. If only the parents would speak out. Lonny Stanley makes me very uncomfortable, to say the least. Has she ever been investigated?

A Study of Honesty: Captain Sullenberger

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Last night, CBS 60 Minutes’ Katie Couric interviewed the hero pilot, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, of Flight 1549 which crashed into the Hudson three weeks ago.



If you want to see the remainder of the interview, go to CBS’s website.

Read moreIt is simply fascinating to watch Sully speak, and to listen to him talk to air controllers in the moments before impact. His voice is incredibly focused, and out-of-this-world calm, considering that he is at the helm of an aircraft that is disastrously malfunctioning and over one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Add to that, it is his actions that will ultimately decide not only if he lives or dies, but whether another 155 souls survive as well.

Sully has great control over his emotions. He is a man who lives his life by reason and logic. I am sure those who know him well would tell us he has always been an emotional rock. He is and always was in control. And he remained in control and kept his wits about him under the most harrowing of circumstances. It’s simply amazing.

Not only was he amazing in his focus and control, but even after everyone had disembarked from the sinking aircraft, and Sully was on dry land, he still wasn’t at peace until he could truly confirm, again, that all souls on board had made it out alive and were safe. And that was after he walked the empty plane twice before he disembarked! He is truly a remarkable man: a man of deep ethical values (Did you see this?).

As Sully puts it himself, he believed his life experiences leading up to that day were all there to help him in these critical moments.

Yet when we watch the the majority of Sully’s interview, his emotions are muted, and his expressions are minimal. He stares at the camera and the audience intently as he recalls his story, and very uniquely, he almost never breaks his gaze as he recollects and talks of his ordeal that day. He doesn’t habitually look up or down as most people do when they recall things. At one point, Sully even says the experience was unbelievable, and when he does, he shakes his head from side to side.

Captain Sully gives us what most would people would consider a heap of red flags that hint at dishonesty, if we didn’t know he was telling the truth here. He experienced a horrific nightmare that ended almost magically, and yet Sully shows very little emotions until the end of the show.

I personally think Sully still hasn’t come to terms with everything that has happened. He is still processing it, trying to make sense of it, and perhaps still in shock. He even commented that he has lost sleep because he wasn’t sure he could not have done things better! Simply unbelievable.

For me, all of Sully’s behaviors are genuine and true because they match his personality. If I didn’t know the truth here, I would likely hone in on the truth, due to what I call paralleling. When I look at Sully, I get an immediate sense of his personality. His facial features and emotions identify to me that he is a man who is very humble, giving and kind. I would be able to confidently speculate, based on that, that he is a man who is reserved, without an ego, and without a temper. He is quieter than most and with that, I would not be surprised by his lack of expression or emotion. It would not stand out to me.

So next time you see a clue or two, think twice before saying “deceptive”. You may convict an incredible human being, like Sully, if you don’t know the nuances of personality and behavior.