The way that some killers act provides little-known signs that they’re guilty of a crime when investigated by police.
Let’s look at the case of Christopher Looney for instance.
On the morning of March 30, 2009, a Pizza Plus employee in the US opened the store to find the bodies of two people.
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The owners, 52-year-old Harvey Looney and 48-year-old Valerie Looney, were left lying in pools of blood, having had their throats cut in a disgusting double-murder.
But who would do something so awful?
At first, detectives decided to question the couple’s only son, who had a pretty penny to gain from their deaths- $240,000 (£187,508.40) insurance money.
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When they asked him to come to the interview room, something was immediately off with how he acted in the room which signalled alarm bells.
In video footage of the initial interrogation, he can be seen sitting silently, almost stone cold as the detectives questioned him about the insurance payout and why he never sounded an alarm when his parents didn’t return home after work.
Not only did he not alert anyone about their disappearance, but he also refused to call and check on them when someone rang him to ask what was going on in the Pizza Plus.
This was a major red flag.
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Christopher also didn’t seem to ask any details about how his parents died, any leads they were looking into or wonder why he’s the primary suspect.
He was a brick wall throughout, devoid of any emotion when talking about his parents’ murder.
At one point, the investigator begs him to ‘give them something’ emotional when talking about his dead parents - however, he gave them nothing.
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As they couldn’t get any admission out of him, the case went cold for four years.
However, those little details are what stuck with them.
He was clearly the culprit, but they just didn’t have the evidence to lock him up.
That was until they decided to try again to ‘get the truth’.
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That’s when they enlisted the help of cold-case expert, Rich Byington, who is a senior investigator with John E. Reid & Associates.
Rich used what was called the Reid technique, a three-part process that includes the steps: Fact Analysis, Behaviour Analysis Interview and the Reid Nine Steps of Interrogation to crack suspects into admitting their guilt.
To get into his mind as soon as possible, Rich told Christopher that he had interviewed many people about the case and decided ‘there's no doubt you caused the death of your parents’.
That’s when Christopher broke down and said the murders were ‘just an accident’ before detailing how he callously murdered his parents over a money dispute.
As it turns out, it was all for their life insurance policy pay outs, which Christopher spent within two years.
In the investigation, Christopher lied to the detectives, claiming to have over one hundred thousand dollars of the insurance left - that was another lie that caught him out.
In the interrogation, he cried for himself and not due to his guilt which solidified his lack of remorse and coldness.
According to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Christopher was ultimately charged with capital murder and robbery, to which he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to life in 2014.
Topics: Crime, True Crime, US News
Britt Jones