Your Missing Child Has Been Found: Is This How You’d React?

A crazy scene last night on Nancy Grace.  Charles Bothuell IV's 11 year old son Charlie has been missing for 11 days.  Nancy receives word that the police had just found the boy alive in the basement of the dad's home.   After being told the news he says "What?" "What?" and starts hyperventilating.  Then says "Oh sh*t".

So...take a look at the video.  What do you think of his reaction?  How long would it take for you to bolt out of that studio to get to your kid?
Is his the reaction one of relief? Confusion? Disappointment? Or, are we watching someone realize "I'm so busted."?

We got this email from Listener Brandi:

I listened this morning and was dying in my car because I wanted to call in and share with you all what I know about micro expressions and body language regarding the dad on Nancy Grace. I have been a student of body language and micro expressions for many years now and I watched the dad on the show. I’ve had meetings all morning and just now had a moment where I could address this.

If you watch his expression during the first part before she announces the boy’s whereabouts, his chin us up and his head is tilted slightly to the left. His eyebrows are relaxed and in a resting state. When she announces where the boy has been, the father’s face shows no signs of surprise or shock, but instead, his chin tilts down from its original position, his eyes blink a couple of times, his eyes dart to the left and his eyebrows show distress or worry. That last part is the most telling to me. He just finds out his son has been found and his face looks worried. Why?

You guys mentioned that the darting of eyes is an indication of deceit and that’s not always the truth. A misnomer with reading body language and facial expressions is everyone is the same. That’s not true either. You have to establish a baseline for everyone. Here’s a rule of thumb when it comes to the eyes. About 80% of the right handed people will follow a certain pattern with regards to eye movement. And, 80% of left handed people will follow a pattern of eye movement. The eye movement has to do with what part of the brain is being accessed and that is important because if you are remembering something you will access one part of the brain, but if you are making something up (called constructing something) you will access a different part of the brain. It also has to do with visual vs. audio memory, too. So, you can’t look at this guy and say because he looked to the left that he was lying or telling the truth. He could have been looking at his wife for all we know. What you have to do is watch the rest of the show before he knew and see when she asks questions regarding the son and his whereabouts and see where his eyes go. Then compare that to where is eyes go when you ask him basic questions like where he works or how much he makes or something that he wouldn’t have a motive to lie about. Then you establish the baseline and compare that eye movement to his actions after the news about his son.