Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Gillian Meagher: Witness Claims Chase

In the disappearance of Gillian Meagher, a witness reportedly has come forward with a claim that a man was chasing Gillian.

It is unfortunate that media does not ask questions, even when given ample opportunity, and report quotes.   They could seek statements from her husband, and from the co-worker of whom she was said to be with until 1:30AM.

Regarding her husband, it has been asked what to make of him not denying harming Gillian.
Answer:  from the media reports we have, he was not accused, nor asked if he was involved, or was a suspect.  He could have been asked about a polygraph, for example, but media did not ask any direct or strong questions.  Putting straight forward questions to him would let the public know if he is a suspect or not; instead they chose to focus on peripheral issues.

Aggressive journalism would have already spoken to him, to Gillian's co workers, and even to others around the bar that night.

The reporting has, "the witness says..." but not "the witness said, "..." with direct statements.

In the case of Baby Lisa, we had witnesses' exact quotes available for analysis.  These tested "deceptive" and "unreliable" in that case.

Journalists could have easily asked Thomas Meagher:

"Have you taken a polygraph?"
"Do you plan on taking one?"
"Do police suspect you?
What do you say to those who think you may be involved?"

Questions along these lines would allow him to clear himself immediately.  We cannot say "he did not deny involvement" because it does not appear that he was given reason to.

Very poor journalism.

With anyone else that comes up, from the man in the blue sweatshirt, or others there, these are normal questions asked by journalists that, through the lens of analysis, give us answers.



UPDATE: A MYSTERY man captured on CCTV talking to Jill Meagher before she disappeared was earlier seen running after her, a witness has claimed.
The witness says new CCTV footage given to police shows Ms Meagher walking unsteadily along Sydney Rd oblivious to the man running towards her.
The witness has told police a car did a sudden U-turn towards Ms Meagher as a man wearing a blue hoodie closed in.
The new CCTV showed the car and also a second man walking some distance ahead of Ms Meagher, the witness said last night.
Police last night would not confirm the witness reports.
The Homicide Squad earlier released several minutes of CCTV footage showing Ms Meagher, in which the blue hooded man can be seen walking in front of a Brunswick shop on Sydney Rd between 1.39am and 1.43am on Saturday.
The man can be seen casually talking to Ms Meagher for 40 seconds as she holds her phone outside Duchess Boutique, just south of Hope St.
A man can be seen looking back towards Ms Meagher before she comes into the screen with the man in the blue top.
Police say they are now looking "more and more" at the possibility Ms Meagher was abducted close to home.
The breakthrough footage was uploaded by police at the Sydney Rd dress shop on Tuesday morning - the same day detectives also examined Ms Meagher's home for any clues as to what might have happened.
Today marks the sixth day since Ms Meagher disappeared in the early hours of Saturday after a night out with her ABC colleagues.
Homicide detectives set up an information caravan on Sydney Rd yesterday.
Homicide squad Detective Inspector John Potter said Ms Meagher had not made it home after leaving Bar Etiquette at 1.33am.
Police now know that Ms Meagher crossed Sydney Rd from east to west and began walking north towards Duchess Boutique. The footage captures her at 1.43am, looking unsteady on her feet and checking her phone.
Multiple cameras are on both sides of Sydney Rd.
There is a missing five seconds in the video released yesterday, but police say it has not been edited.
Det Insp Potter said seven people, including Ms Meagher, can be seen walking past the shop as cars, taxis and a tram pass by.
Police want to

19 comments:

Tania Cadogan said...

Off topic.

Formal complaint on official headed notepaper
(do they have official legged notepaper i wonder?)
In besterest green crayon with pointy end and intact wrapper from Crayola.

Dear Peter and Heather.
Thank you for introducing me to the world of statement analysis.
Thank you for opening my eyes and my braincells to the understanding of linguistics.

I do however have one eeny teeny itty bitty complaint.

I am currently working my way through all my Dick Francis and Felix Francis (his son) novels, thrillers based on and around the world of horseracing.
He is one of my favorite authors, however, thanks to your edjumacting of my brain cells in the area of statement analysis, i have found i no longer enjoy them in the blissful ignorance that i used to.

~ beady eyed glare and a scowl~

The reason being, particularly with bonecrack, is, as i read, i found myself circling pronouns, circling missed pronouns and muttering about the number of times the number three cropped up!

Darn you Peter and Heather!

As you have said often , once learned it cannot be unlearnd an as i have said, it cannot be turned off.

How am i supposed to be puzzled, confuzzled, intrigued and educated in the ways of the whodunnit when after reading a chapter or so i know whodunnit?
In the case of Agatha Christie (who i dislike though i did like the miss marple movies with margaret Rutherford) it is usually the first couple of sentences.

I know i have read all my books hundreds of times so i know whodunnit, where , why and how. This is not the point.

~Stamps feet~

If i leave a long enough gap between reading the same book, i can at least pretend to be slightly surprised and excited at the ending.

Now, when i read books, i find myself analysing them and with factual books spotting the sensitive areas, dropped pronouns and order of importance and correcting them.

This meant that when reading Mark McClish's books i keep picking up order of importance when he points out things, and disagreeing, correcting or analysing.

I am going to have a quiet word with Santa and ask that not only does he leave you presents but that his reindeer leave you presents as well, so ner!

Kind regards

Hobnob

~signs in purple crayon with snazzy flourish~

Anonymous said...

There was a spotter in the bar or on the street near the bars. The car was more than likely positioned nearby. Whether or not she was drunk remains to be proven;wobbling on high heels after being up all day can appear drunken.

If they'd look at the cameras again, bet they'd see the purse stager. Also, look at cameras from the back entrance into the alley.

Tish said...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/irishsun/irishsunnews/4553437/Hubbys-terror-for-missing-girl-Im-freaking-out.html

Distraught Tom told the Irish Sun last night: “She went out with work friends and never came home.

“I think someone did something to her because it is so out of character.

“I’m absolutely freaking out. I just wish I knew where she was.”

Jillian was last seen leaving a bar in the early hours of Saturday.

Tom said: “She texted me asking me to come down to the pub but I was asleep at the time so I didn’t get the message until about 1am.

“I rang her phone all night. The battery is gone now.”
Tom said: “She left the bar with one male friend who got a taxi and she walked home on her own.

“None of her friends seem to know what happened next.

“We’ve checked with all the local hospitals. She didn’t take her purse out, so she didn’t have any identification on her, other than her bank card.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a second quote from Tom regarding her not taking her 'purse' out. Yet she did have her handbag with her and her indentification is still in it. So why did he state she didn't have it with her? If he was so sure she did not have her ID with her - he must have known where it was - at home in her purse? Except, it wasn't....
Unfortunately Tom's gone quiet. I wish the media could ask him to clear up this glaring discrepancy.

Tish said...

http://video.news.com.au/2282807282/ABC-radio-employee-missing-in-Melbourne?area=videoindex17

TM: “She’s my best friend, she’s um....you know she’s just ah she’s – this isn’t something she doesn’t do so um..yep ...excuse me. “

TM: “She was with a-her group of frien – the same group of friends there and then um the last person to see her um got in a cab and she was gonna go walk home um and she hasn’t been seen since.”

TM: “I have a feeling that something somebody did something to her or .. she’s um you know..I just don’t know where she is, I’d love to just know where she is or what happened or..”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He doesn't say he wants her back, only to know where she is.

Anonymous said...

She does walk as though enbriated.A social commentar claims this is the same dude that tried to pull her off her bike back in July. He failed. Perhaps looking for a less guarded victim would suit him better as he wouldn't have to fight.

Jazzie said...

Tish
re: Handbag and Purse
Apparently there is a difference in European terms. In U.S. the terms handbag and purse are interchangeable. In Europe though, a purse is only used for money and a handbag for more and a purse could be inside the handbag.

Jazzie said...

Tish:
Tom's spoken words, especially the interrupted (self edited?)/broken sentences, do bother me. I'm not great at SA. I'm not sure if his stuttering is his normal speech. I wonder if his broken sentence structures are due to stress/fear. It's hard to say.

"Det Insp Potter said seven people, including Ms Meagher, can be seen walking past the shop as cars, taxis and a tram pass by." (about 1:43am?)

This makes me question someone chasing her down, when it appears that there is enough activity/people out around the area that would have witnessed it.

Walking home late at night in any city is a gamble for women. When I lived in Boston, I used to walk home from my friend's house using the parallel quiet side streets instead of the main streets where bars were located. I was still a bit scared but felt safer off the "main thoroughfare" because I didn't want to get hassled by drunks.


Lis said...

My feeling at this point is that her husband is stuttering and stammering because he is beside himself with fear and worry.

It sounds as though 2 men may have been working together to abduct someone, from these witness reports. I hope they catch whoever is responsible.

Jazzie said...

Lis:
I did watch the latest video and Tom does seem genuine in his fear/concern and his stammering/broken sentences seem to be the result of this distress.

MissUnderstood said...

I agree Lis and Jazzie. I hope we can hear more from him, especially direct quotes, from the media.

Most couples argue at times. Relationships have their ups and downs, good times and bad. I think when something horrible like this happens, if the couple had a recent argument(s), there will be sensitivity noted. The person is probably afraid to admit there was a recent argument(s), as they are probably for one thing feeling horrible about arguing with the person they love, and also they may be afraid to look like a suspect because of it.

I think something happened with the guy in the blue hoodie. He was very suspicious, walking back and forth. He was standing by, while she was on the phone or dialing her brother (? I think that's what she was doing, when she was standing directly in front of the store ?).

I wonder if she normally called her brother at 2am to check on her father. If not, I think she called, because she was nervous, but didn't say so to him. She apparently called her husband a bit earlier, but he didn't answer. Did she have a bad feeling earlier, then especially outside after?

I think the blue hoodie guy (either alone or with help) possibly waited for her to hang up the phone... :(

Jazzie said...

Miss Undrstood:

Just posted on the CCTV thread: "She called her brother in Perth at 1.43-1.45am, just after the footage ends"
Gillian calls her brother. Not her husband?
You mention her father, is her father ill?
The Hoodie Guy just gave me the bad juju feeling.
Don't like the feel of this CCTV clip.
She wouldn't be able to run in those high heels.
A man usually can overpower a woman even if the man weighs less/is shorter.

MissUnderstood said...

Hi Jazzie:

She made a brief phone call to her brother Michael at the family's Perth home about 1.45am to inquire about the health of her father, who recently suffered a stroke.

(that is from the directly previous article posted on SA "Jill Meagher on CCTV Images")

“She texted me asking me to come down to the pub but I was asleep at the time so I didn’t get the message until about 1am."

(That's from the post just above by Tish. I said call, but she apparently texted him)

Jazzie said...

MissUndrstood:
Thanks. Just wanted clarification. Text/call it's all the same to me.
I read the article so fast I missed the fact Gillian's dad is ill.
Makes sense to check with bro on dad considering circumstances.
This whole thing walking home late @night in the city, I used to do this all the time but took parallel side streets to avoid bars & drunk men on main thoroughfare. I chose minimal street lighting (I'm really scared of the dark) but felt safer in the quite neighborhood streets. Fear of Dark vs Fear of Drunk Men. No contest there.

That CCTV footage is freaky. That hoodie guy.

MissUnderstood said...

Oh no, I had a long reply and lost it upon pushing publish. I'll try again.

Jazzie, you had to chose the lesser of 2 evils. You obviously made the right choice. I'd be afraid of either choice.

I hope to see some resolve in this case. There are cases that seem to grab hold of different people. This one grabbed me, idk why.

There seems to be people who may have seen something. It appears to be a busy street, even at such a late hour. I hope someone can come forward to help provide that resolve. I hope this case does not fall off the media radar.

Anonymous said...

sx3f57n9

vp7iaztd

f39s020t9d

hpk92465

nsx3j0ot

Father hooded sweatshirts said...

Nice.
Thanks for sharing this.

Anonymous said...

Hi there, I read your new stuff regularly. Your story-telling style is witty,
keep up the good work!

my page ... where to buy penny stocks

Anonymous said...

Excellent article. I definitely appreciate this site. Continue the good work!


my blog post :: go here

Anonymous said...

Now that the dog isn't fighting against the collar he fleshlight will be able to avoid foreclosure ramifications, analysts stated.