Maybe for the youngsters but for us couples that have been together for 40 plus years not so much.
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You have an absolute right to remain silent here too. They are now also required to tell you the potential implications/consequences.
No, that’s backwards - he was the first (and likely only) person the cops looked at, and any lawyer worth anything would tell him not to talk to police. Whatever the situation, whatever happened, whatever his guilt (or lack thereof), he’d be screwing himself by talking to police. We’ve been brainwashed by pro-police tv shows and movies to think otherwise.
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This seems too generalised. If he had a cast iron alibi (hypothetically) he would surely be helping himself by talking to them about it; I do not buy the ‘whatever …’ etc.
In such a case he would also be helping the police to find what DID happen to her and helping her family.
And however hard they were looking at him before, they are looking at him MUCH harder now.
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I’m having problems here. Can someone suggest a scenario, when one’s SO disappears, that one would not badger the police to find them, that does not involve one being guilty of them disappearing?
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As noted earlier - hypothetical situation where the SO did not want to be found (and had told you so).
ETA and even without a body, people are still convicted. If this guy DID harm her and is banking on no body being found, he needs to think again. (Though the case below was in the UK.)
Leave me in the wilderness and don’t tell anyone about it in case they look for me? Seems legit.
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Apparently.
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If me and the wife were out camping and she went for her early morning run or bike ride and didn’t come back in her usual time I would go looking for her and if I couldn’t find her I would call the cops and cooperate in any way possible because I want to find my wife. But what if when they find her they suspect me even though I know I didn’t do it? Time for a lawyer even though that probablly makes me look guilty.
If the cops came knocking at my door because they found my wife dead and they suspected me of foul play I would state I will be happy to answer all questions once my attorney shows up but… I would be so distraught that I doubt I would be able to have a coherent thought if someone told me they just found my wife dead.
Point is, I guess it all depends on the circumstances of my wife’s death. I also guess that my behavior when the cops show up will determine how they go about their investigation.
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Is this a good place for Janice, the shallow grave, and a cheese sandwich?
I feel as if it might be or it may be inappropriate, I can never read a room.
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appears dude’s gone missing now too:
that’s not going to make him look any better…
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No, no, no. No. Watch the video posted by @Purplecat above, or at least the first half (the second half is a cop admitting the lawyer is correct). He talks about the multiple ways that an innocent person can get screwed by talking to the police. He makes the point that if you’re innocent, there’s nothing to be gained by talking to the cops, it can only hurt you. (Literally - exculpatory statements made to the cops aren’t even admissible in court, only apparently incriminating ones.) “Cast-iron alibis” (if such things even exist in reality) can be undermined by mistaken witnesses (which is only an issue if you declare the alibi to begin with - you can only disprove a claim, not the absence of one), suspects will make mistakes in their statements (oh, a “lie!”), suspects can make statements that can be interpreted as them having personal knowledge of the crime (even though their statements were entirely based on what the cops told them), cops don’t record all interviews, so have wiggle room to misrepresent or straight-up lie about what was said to them by the suspect (which can’t happen if you don’t talk to them in the first place).
Now, people who are alarmed about a missing loved one will like be unaware of this and/or throw self-preservation to the wind (though that’s where the lawyers come in), and that’s how a lot of innocent people get ensnared in police investigations, put on trial (or have their lives destroyed by the police casting aspersions) and even convicted without evidence.
Given the situation, that she was his partner (that alone makes him prime suspect) and that they traveled to a place where they didn’t know anyone, he was always going to be their prime (and likely only) focus.
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Interestingly this is the complete opposite in the US.
After you are Mirandized (or are in a situation where Miranda applies) anything you say can and will be used against you, so it’s better to shut up and wait for legal counsel. (Things are a little different if you’re being questioned in a non-custodial manner where your silence can be used against you unless you explicitly invoke your fifth amendment rights.)
Here’s a great flowchart covering fifth amendment rights:
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That flow chart is interesting but how in the heck is an average person supposed to know when to keep their mouth shut especially when the police may lie to you to confuse you or trick you into answering.
All the more reason to call a lawyer which sucks because why can’t we just trust the police?
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This is why you should learn your rights (even at the most basic level) and always ask for legal counsel if you’re being detained or at risk of being detained.
It’s all a game to the police, and they are almost always the winners. They have a lot of practice and are very good at getting you into legal trouble. They can legally lie to you to coerce information but you are in trouble if you are caught lying to them.
Because by and large the police don’t have your best interests at heart. “Protect and serve” only applies to themselves.
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I bet this is really driving up their influencer score.
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Any outside possibility that he was actually innocent disappeared as soon as he did.
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Being the last person to see someone alive is never good; even less so when the other person is your SO.
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…and the police have just been called to a domestic dispute…
ETA: the police weren’t called, they pulled them over for speeding and she was crying. She’d just assaulted him but he wouldn’t press charges. So still a domestic.
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Everyone defending this guy for not talking to the police: explain why he didn’t just talk to the family, before the police were ever involved. You’re not wrong about it being a bad idea to talk to cops, but it sounds like he had ample opportunity to explain himself to the family (and could STILL talk to them directly) without police being involved. This seems shady as hell, though admittedly I don’t have all the information- the main article is locked behind a paywall.
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