JR's story credible...?

[azwriter]

IMO, RJ appeared 'coached' by his mother last night.

Question to anyone who has experience in child psychology: RJ did not appear to be distraught by his mother questioning him last night. Had this been a true event in his life, wouldn't he have become animated, recount what happened, and been somewhat upset?

You know LaLaw, Jr might not appear distraught because he does not know how serious things are. I believe kids learn their fears from the people close to them.
For example:
I can remember back a long time ago, I was almost 6. I fell off a curb I was trying to balance on and hit my arm and thumb. When I got up, my thumb hurt, but not very much. And, my thumb was twisted and turned backwards. I could not fold it into my palm. I recall that I found it kind of strange and funny looking. No panic. No fear.
UNTIL I went into the house and showed my mother. She started screaming when she saw my thumb in that condition. She was running to the phone to call my dad, Yelling all the way "Oh my God!"
Then, I started to cry. I was so afraid watching her reaction when just a few moments before, I was just a little kid with an amusing thumb. I recall going up to the bathroom and putting every kind of cream I could find on my thumb. I was scared to death by watching and hearing my mom.
Anyway, the thumb was just out of place and my dad came home, snapped it back into place as calm as can be. It didn't even hurt. It never hurt, until my mom came near it.
My point is that this little kid doesn't understand what's taken place. Perhaps, he's used to seeing people visit his home. And maybe he's awakened before to hear someone else in the home with his dad or Misty. No big woop to him. So his lack of emotion is something I consider would not be so strange. I for one believe his story. Especially since he told it in segments. I think kids review what they witnessed and release it one thought at a time.
Then again. Maybe I'm wrong!

 

[txsvicki]

Kids take things literally, and Jr.'s age wouldn't understand much at all about death, sex, or total fear of perverts like an adult. To Jr, a black man took Haleigh. He's probably afraid that someone will come and take him next. If a man talking to Misti did take Haleigh it's horrible and cruel to force Jr. to still be around this teenage girl.

 

[azwriter]

I had a pair of flip flops with a spongy heel and they made a kind of squeaking noise as if air was trapped in them.
A guy at my office has a pair of dress shoes that squeak too.

Squeaky shoes? When I was a kid I remember asking my mom why some shoes squeaked and some did not.
She told me shoes squeak if you have not yet paid for them. Such as you bought them on credit. (there was no such thing as a Visa credit card back then). Once the shoes were paid in full, she claimed they would stop squeaking. That's what I know about squeaking shoes.
Just wanted to add some humor about the shoes. Ok, maybe just a little humor.
However, it isn't always shoes that make squeaking noises. Sometimes leather jackets too make strange squeaky noises.
I believe little JR's account of what he heard and saw.
jmo

 

[GoneWithTheWind]

I had a pair of flip flops with a spongy heel and they made a kind of squeaking noise as if air was trapped in them.
A guy at my office has a pair of dress shoes that squeak too.

my tennis shoes squek really bad on linoleum when they are wet. It is embarassing when i walk down the hall at work.

 

[azwriter]

What would be really crazy about this case is that it was solved by what a little four year old had to say.
I think that since Ron and Misty are so quick to discount RJ's testimony, they are both surprised this little boy heard anything. I'm sure Misty thought he was sound asleep. Also Misty and Ron do not want anyone, especially LE, to take what this little boy said seriously. His words certainly cast a different light on how Misty spent her time at the home that evening, if she had a visitor.
Haliegh may have awakened, gone into the livingroom and Misty and guest were shocked to have her witness someone else in the home. Who knows, she may even have said "I'm telling dad." She became a witness and had to be dealth with.
I always go back to Why. Why would she be taken from the home? Find that reason, and you're real close to solving the case.
jmo

 

[titanfan62702]

MOO ---Since JR is with his dad, he's likely "developing" his story from what he's heard at his dad's.

 

[harleysnana]

For now I find Mrs. Picasso more credible than Ron and Misty.

I find LE to be more credible than any of them and until they come out
and say that they are looking for a man dressed in black... or they
report that what Crystal claims JR said is true I will call it just what it is
and that is a rumor!

 

[MADJGNLAW]

See, this is where I am confused. We have both sides arguing about what Jr. saw. In an earlier interview grandma Sykes also made claims that Jr. had told them about the man in the ski mask. It was also said that Jr. was taken in that morning to talk to a professional I read somewhere, sorry don't have a link. Then we have Crystal that didn't get there until later that day after Jr. had already been question and she didn't get Jr. until the following weekend. I am soo confused. Read below? Thoughts?


"He was asleep. I got there 10 minutes after we noticed she was gone. I had Junior, he said he didn't know anything...said he was asleep," Sykes said.
Detectives have talked to Jr. Relatives on both sides say he told police he saw a man in a ski mask come in their trailer and leave with his big sister.
"They questioned Junior. I asked LE. They couldn't tell me anything. He was questioned and the story went from one thing to another and another," says Sykes.
Child psychologist says the average four-year-old can give an accurate account of what they witness. .

Video "Haleigh's Brother May Have Seen Abduction"
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/video/...ect=1044750154

Article:http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/a...2095&catid=295

 

[TxLady2]

So if GGma Sykes heard the story first, then Crystal didn't hear it till the following weekend when she took him for visitation, how does that equate to her coaching him? He is with his dad and the Cummings family more than he is with his mother. I'm sure they have all questioned him.
My thoughts are, Jr. was not quite 4 when this happened, just turned 4 a few days after the kidnapping. Some 4 yr. olds are very good at recalling things, others not so much. When my grandson was 4, he was talking like an adult and could recall things from a year before. But I have seen others that just talked baby talk.
Also, some kids do not distinguish people by color of skin... to them, they are just people a little darker or lighter, whatever the case might be.
But it is not out of the realm of possibility that he would talk about someone wearing black, or a couch bouncing or squeaky shoes. I'm just concerned that these other details did not come up until later on.
Is his story credible? Depends... but if I were the parent of a child who was there when his sister goes missing, and he told me this... I would not discount it so easily. I would be talking to him, taking him to a child psychologist, anything I could to find out what he does know.

 

[MADJGNLAW]

I have been thinking. Maybe the reason Jr. has added to his story is because of the techniques of questioning from the Child psychologist? Maybe they showed him objects, colors, pictures of women and men of different origin, and other pictures so that he could describe what he saw to better understand what he stated and seen. From the way I understand it, he was taken to see the Child psychologist that morning, was in Ron and his family care, and maybe as time went by he dreamed or started remembering bits and pieces.
I know that some feel his story is not reliable, but a young child is innocent and honest. At that age they really don't know how to lie. If they are coached that is something else, but it appears that Ron and his family had the child for a while before Chrystal had her visitation with him. I would not discredit anything he has to say, there have been cases where a 3/4 year old have been able to help LE find the perp. I think everything should be taken serious, Haleigh is still missing and Misty has the Key from what little LE has told us. Just a thought.

 

[Gaia713]

Please forgive me if there's another thread on this, or if this is inappropriate...

I work with children and have two small children myself. My son is six, and at times when he wakes in the night, he does not remember anything the next morning. Even if we ask him about something that happened or something he said in the night, he either doesn't remember it at all or laughs and says, "Oh I thought that was a dream!" For a child, who is in deep sleep, remembering details the next morning -- or a week or two later -- about something that took place over a few minutes in the middle of the night just doesn't seem likely to me.

There's also the possibility of retroactive interference: something that happens after an event can literally alter your memory of the event (eg: our family added a family room on when I was about 10 or 12. Before that we celebrated xmas in our "den", but afterwards in the new family room. HOWEVER, when I have memories of early xmases, I picture them in the family room even though it didn't exist. I can remember opening specific presents, etc, but my brain has transferred the location to the new family room.).

So here's my theory of JR's story: Haleigh goes missing. And he knows nothing. Yet, he hears talk about it day/night, different theories, etc. He then dreams something about it (which I'm sure he did even if he doesn't remember the dream/s). He then thinks *that* is what he remembered and relays it as fact.

As for squeaky shoes, if you were stealing a child, would you wear squeaky shoes to do so?!? Probably not.

JR has been cozched in my opinion. Every time a preschooler is "interviewed," their story will change to please the questioner. Incorrectreporting is common in preschoolers - read up on Maggie Bruck and her studies on preschoolers reporting of events. It's not difficult to coach a preschool -look at the McMartin trial and false memories of those children. And they were supposed interviewed by experts.

 

[Gaia713]

So if GGma Sykes heard the story first, then Crystal didn't hear it till the following weekend when she took him for visitation, how does that equate to her coaching him? He is with his dad and the Cummings family more than he is with his mother. I'm sure they have all questioned him.
My thoughts are, Jr. was not quite 4 when this happened, just turned 4 a few days after the kidnapping. Some 4 yr. olds are very good at recalling things, others not so much. When my grandson was 4, he was talking like an adult and could recall things from a year before. But I have seen others that just talked baby talk.
Also, some kids do not distinguish people by color of skin... to them, they are just people a little darker or lighter, whatever the case might be.
But it is not out of the realm of possibility that he would talk about someone wearing black, or a couch bouncing or squeaky shoes. I'm just concerned that these other details did not come up until later on.
Is his story credible? Depends... but if I were the parent of a child who was there when his sister goes missing, and he told me this... I would not discount it so easily. I would be talking to him, taking him to a child psychologist, anything I could to find out what he does know.

If you saw the videos of the hosue, you would know that you cannot see the couch from the bed. You can barely see it from the doorway to the bedroom.

 

[Brwnigirl]

Sorry if this is being covered elsewhere. Yesterday on GR Crystal said that JR is now scared that someone will come up through the floor to get him.

What is directly under a trailer? Does anyone know if under the trailer has been checked??

 

[DotsEyes]

Come up through the floor? Poor baby.

Yes, LE took a piece of the trailer skirting down and went under the trailer.

Are there access doors in the floor of mobile homes to get to plumbing, etc.? Was it under the bouncing couch?

 

[SeriouslySearching]

If you saw the videos of the hosue, you would know that you cannot see the couch from the bed. You can barely see it from the doorway to the bedroom.

You figuring this out means the part of the story about the bouncing couch could not possibly be true, imo. If he were in any other part of the house...he didn't just wake to see this man in black/black man TAKE sissy either. You can have one or the other...but not both.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Sorry if this is being covered elsewhere. Yesterday on GR Crystal said that JR is now scared that someone will come up through the floor to get him.

What is directly under a trailer? Does anyone know if under the trailer has been checked??

GRRR! Now look what they have done emotionally to this baby!!! They keep feeding him BS stories and are going to mess the kid up for life, imo. He will always be afraid instead of feeling safe and secure in any home. To me, this is mental abuse.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

I believe everything this little boy has to say.When crystal and the little boy was on Geraldo the little boy said Haleigh did not wake up when the man took her.May I please ask if any one knows where the little boy said he took Haleigh from?The bedroom?living room?where?

 

[Boytwnmom]

GRRR! Now look what they have done emotionally to this baby!!! They keep feeding him BS stories and are going to mess the kid up for life, imo. He will always be afraid instead of feeling safe and secure in any home. To me, this is mental abuse.

who's feeding him the BS? Why is it so impossible to believe he awoke, maybe even got up and looked and saw something. He WAS there-it's certainly not impossible or incredible that he saw SOMETHING. I don't think what we know at this point allows you to conclude he's being fed the story. I'm imagine if, as GMM Sykes said, he has been interviewed by multiple psychologists about his story, that it was not so easily dismissed in total. I

That said, it could certainly NOT be true and he dreamed it or is trying to help or make sense of what happened or confused it with what happened after with LE coming in. But that also doesn't lead to the conclusion that someone deviously and illegally fed him the story in an attempt to obstruct justice because that's what it would be. Also, just lying to the FBI is a crime as Martha Stewart made widely known.

 

[seekeroftruth]

Haliegh may have awakened, gone into the livingroom and Misty and guest were shocked to have her witness someone else in the home. Who knows, she may even have said "I'm telling dad." She became a witness and had to be dealth with.

He still married her any way.....

Reminds me of Scott Peterson saying that Lacey knew about his affair with Amber and didn't care either.

 

[Seifsister]

Just my opion but I believe what Jr. is saying. Okay as we know that when Misty called 911 that Ron was yelling in the background. I think this child was so scared of what was going on in this house that he could not confide in his father. I think he did tell his mom this. I can see this happening. As my kids where growing up my children would come to me first because I was calm and cool headed about things, now there dad was a hot head and he would go off. The child may have also felt that he let his sister down by not defending her, plus someone in the house could of have threating him.

Maybe to much thinking but I think ( just thinking) that maybe Misty could of have been messing with this guy and the little girl woke up and woke her brother up and she saw them and said something like I am going to tell my dad( because there has already is a pass with this guy) and she ended up hurt or killed. This may be why she passed the test because she herself did not hurt her. Then the little one could of have been threatened to be quit.

Just thinking