Being a Competent Observer of Your Environment

Special interest Article
Anthony J. Iantosca, BCFE
IAFEI
Published by Anthony Iantosca, BCFE
For the International Academy of Forensic Examiners and Investigators.

Nonverbal Communication
Being a Competent Observer of Your Environment

The murder of these two innocent Jewish workers and soon to be married lovers is a heartbreaking event that should have never happened. I will explain why in this article. The security at this event in Washington D.C. were not Competent Observers of Their Environment. It was reported that this thirty-year-old terrorist was "pacing back and forth" in front of the building of this Jewish event before he committed these murders. No one found his behavior questionable and approached him to find out why he seemed so anxious, stressed and what was wrong.

A few years ago, I was involved in a home invasion case regarding my next-door neighbor. It was a very hot September Monday afternoon the temperature was in the low 90's, it was the opening season of the NFL and the Patriots were playing their first game of their season. I went outside to light my barbeque grill on my porch deck. There were two men in my neighbor's yard. I have seen them there before, they were friends of the couple living there. What I found strange is one of the men was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head in this weather. He was jumping up and down and popping his shoulders with his back towards me, the other man was pacing back and forth looking very stressed. He yelled at me and asked "have you seen her?" I said no I haven't. I walked over to our window and said "Pearl get your phone and get ready to dial 911." "Pearl asked why," "I said something is very wrong here." Their body language was off.

I went back into the house to get the food I was going to cook on the grill, when I came back outside one man was gone and the other was climbing through the kitchen window. I heard yelling and screaming coming from the house. I told Pearl dial 911 tell the police we have a home invasion. I ran over to my neighbor's house went in the back door. I will not use names in this article, she said to me "Tony they have a gun." I chased them and they ran out the front door and got into their car, they pulled the car out of the driveway and hit a truck coming up the street. They sped off down Canton Street with the truck driver chasing after them. They pulled off one of the side streets and ran into the woods of Ponkapoag Pond in the Blue Hills Reservation which is right behind my house. The Randolph and Canton police department along with the State Police with dogs were there all night looking for these two gentlemen. They could not find them. They found them a few days later hiding in a flop house in Brockton they were arrested. The Detective involved in the case who was a good friend of mine, called me and said "Tony we will need you to testify in court on this case, I said no problem Artie."

The day of my court appearance I was standing in the back with the Detective and two other police officers. The Judge asked them how do you plead? Both of them laughing and smiling said we are guilty your Honor. "Yap, we did it we are guilty." I turned to the Detective and said, "Artie something is very wrong here." Artie said why? "They pled guilty." "I said Artie these two men are laughing and smiling pleading guilty to an armed home invasion giving them both 10-15 years in prison and they find this funny, something is very wrong here, there body language is off."

Two weeks later I get a call from the Detective involved in this case, he said "Tony you were right on the body language and behavior of these two dim wits." I asked why? Artie said to me "Tony do you remember a homeless man living in a graveyard in Weymouth a while back who was killed, and his hand was chopped off."
I said, "yes I remember." Artie said to me "guess who was involved in his murder, these two dim wits they believed if they pled guilty to the home invasion and were sent to prison, they would not get caught for his murder." Both of them were found guilty for murder, one killed himself in prison, the other one is still serving time.