Wednesday, March 25, 2015

AJ Hadsell: Jail Interview w Wesley Hadsell

Here is the video:   Jail Interview

32 comments:

Matilda said...

He doesnt dent it. He says "I pray people who know me would know better than that."

He buried her somewhere, she's not in water: He says "even though Im in here, people will keep looking for her, and the truth will be UNCOVERED"." (caps mine)

Will watch the rest and comment more.

Sus said...

He mentions using past tense. I gave him that because we don't always know what police are focusing on.

What I do notice in all of his statements and in this interview is the use of "my daughter" instead of her name. It is blaring. It screams out that AJ is/was seen as a possession to him.

With his history of taking back his "possessions"...two kidnapping charges in his past, one when he was losing a girlfriend and one a wife, I'd have to say he felt threatened of losing AJ. Was it because she was off to college? Or that he was not living in the home? Was AJ pulling away as all teenagers do? Or maybe she wanted to meet her birth father or re-establish ties with her stepfather that raised her.

I don't know, but odds are that he felt threatened he was losing AJ. He's claiming her as his own by the repeated use of "my daughter."

Matilda said...

Did anyone else notice about half-way through he is saying that the police wanted him (since they think he killed her) to lead the search, and he says that "the police just thought we were going to stumble over a body and say 'Here HE is!"
WHY IS REFERRING TO THE missing girl as "HE"????
I have a feeling he mutilated the corpse or did something horrible to try to make identification very difficult.

Anonymous said...

Was AJ wearing two jackets when she disappeared?

Wes states in the first week that "police said "someone" found her jacket..."

Then when he was arrested he claims he found the jacket rolled up behind a cushion in the couch.

Anonymous said...

Also, does anyone else have a problem with him punching a dog?

What were the circumstances behind the punch. He said he did it out of anger, so it wasn't because the dog was attacking him. Was the dog just wagging its tail following him around the house and he just turns and punches it?

He was accused in 2005 of kidnapping his then soon to be ex-wife; it is such a jump to think he did something to his step-daughter?

Matilda said...

He says "You know, my daughter didnt run away, in our eyes. Im still standin on that."

"Im still standin on that."
I think, again, he buried her somewhere. Possibly not shallow grave...I think he "stood" on it...I think he feels confident she is well-concealed.

Unknown said...

Wow!

Peter, would you like this transcribed? I can start working on it if so.

Sus said...

Am I the only one concerned that we don't hear from AJ's mother? Any theories on that?

Matilda said...

I would love to see it transcribed but probably a lot of work.

Matilda said...

Sus, good question. I don't know but I think it is odd she is even talking with Wes while he is in jail.

I get a little bit of a Scott Peterson vibe off of him. Not as if he's a carbon copy, but he seems pretty slick (able to charm others around him) although like Scott, the police see right through him. Why the mother is not speaking out...that is a good question, was she somehow involved or just bamboozled by this liar? I'm not sure.

Unknown said...

Wondering the same thing about mom Sus.

Deafening silence from her.
---------------------

This interview is something else!

My favorite part:

R: Did you break into a house?

WH: They say I did.

R: Did you break into the house?

WH:(sighs) It's questionable where that information came from. You know what I'm sayin.

R: I'm asking you, did you, yourself..

WH: Are you puttin this on the air?

R: This is for the air.

WH: OK

R: Did you break into a house, that you believed was involved in the search.

WH: (heavy sigh) Yes, I did.

*(He proved the SA principle! He answered the question directly the third time it was posed to him, after refusing to answer twice.)

cont.

R: Did you plant evidence in the house?

WH: No sir, I didn't. (nods yes immediately after answering in negative)

R: You broke into (name redacted) house?

WH: Yes sir

R: You broke in what day?

WH: Uh, I wanna say it was Thursday or Friday, I can't remember the day exactly, but we had a lot of information, they had questioned him, all this stuff was goin on, I was getting all these uh, texts, pictures whatnot, um of, of things that my daughter was sayin about him. He was sayin, um people would tell me that he had um, we had a conversation back in 2011, as you know, um, and uh, yeah, all the, all the stuff that I had, that the cops were getting, it's just, it, just as a parent yes sir, yes sir I did, I'd, I could, I couldn't, I couldn't sit a minute from where my daughter may have been, you know, I rode past there, saw, saw a garage, saw things, and umm

R: Was the garage open

WH: No

R: So you broke into the house through the garage?

WH: No, it was just, the, the door was accessible to the outside, it wasn't, you know, hard to get in to

R: Did you go in by yourself?

WH: Yes sir

R: Was anyone with you?

WH: No sir

R: Did you take anything?

WH: No sir

R: Did you punch the dog?

WH: Maybe (nodding)

R: Did you punch the dog?

WH: Yes sir, (pauses nodding) it was a big dog

R: You punched it in the face?

WH: No in the head, just didn't...REACTION (shrugs)

*(Note the difference between his straightforward, "yes sir", "no sir" answers, in contrast to his long, disjointed, stuttering answered about sensitive topics such as the day of the break in, how he broke in, and whether he punched the dog.)

Unknown said...

HI Matilda,

I want to transcribe more, but Haskell's disjointed way of speaking is very hard to follow. The excerpt I just posted took me at least a half an hour, and it only covers a few minutes of the video.

(I type up depositions/interviews for my mom and her colleagues all the time, which are usually several people talking, terrible grammar, etc...but this guy made them seem like cake, lol. (Plus my tablet is not ideal for typing.)

I'm like you though, Hadsell does seem to find himself charming, and he keeps trying to rope the reporter in with, "you know", and "as you already know", but the reporter does a great job of holding him to task. He allows him to go on tangents and bury himself too. It was pretty decent interviewing for once!

Ellie said...

Hey all, I started working late last night on the interview as I've been following this case early on on Websleuths. Could we put our brains together to go over it together? I've been in email contact w/ AJ's 1st stepdad who raised her from 1.5-13 yrs. He is not a suspect, and you can read his blog to see he is genuinely worried about her. If anyone is willing to help, please send me a private message so I can give you editing privileges on the doc I'm working on. I have a 16 yr old and a 13 yr old and the thought alone of losing either of them like AJ is devastating. Wesley has not given a reliable denial, the opposite in fact. the part that was most significant to me was this part, talk about a cluster of blues!
"JF: Just for the record, for this, you obviously know what I mean, no disrespect: You can say with confidence that you have nothing to do with the disappearance of anjelica?

WH: Yes sir, I can say with one hundred percent confidence, and I told them last night. I don't know where she is. I don't know if anything happened to her, I don't know what happened to her… they said I speak to her in past tense.. if I say “if” it’s not past tense, you know... I just look at things that are going on right now and it's it's... *fumbling* We’re gonna bring her home. And some people are looking at when I say “if”... I'm not saying “if” we bring her home, we are gonna bring her home. You know, having me here, people are still gonna look for her and the truth will be uncovered (References to blankets and coverings are often made in sexual abuse cases.)

Ellie said...

Jen, it's already transcribed by a Websleuth member. Could you help look for clues w/in the doc? Matilda caught the "uncovered" reference too, Sus caught the distancing language. If we can help in any way, we should help bring AJ home, even if her spirit is in heaven at least it will bring closure. She has younger siblings who love and miss her. :-(

Unknown said...

Hi Sew-

My hats off to the transcriber! I'll check it out tonight, and I think we should also review his Chelsea Hoffman interview too. He leaks info every time he speaks, and he loves to talk.

I wonder if LE asked the Mother to keep up contact with him, hoping he will admit something? I waiver back and forth on his motivation...was he actually obsessed with AJ, or was she sacrificed so that he could play the white knight in a crisis, and 'get his family back' as he has mentioned repeatedly?

I also find his repeated use of "my daughter" suspect. To me it is unexpected for several reasons.

- AJ was already a teenager when he and her mom married. At best, she would be his step-daughter, but he never refers to her in this way.

-Even if they had hit it off immediately, (meaning no rocky period of step parent conflict/resentment) that would leave him with less than 5 years spent as her father figure, most of which she was high school aged, and doubtfully interested in spending extensive amounts of time with her NEWEST step father. (*and third string father figure, in line behind her bio dad, and the step father who raised her.)

- Hadsell and AJ's mother are separated, making it even more strange for him to take such a possessive ownership over her.

Matilda said...

Jen, I can imagine how difficult it would be to transcribe because he starts, stops, hesitates stutters! The part you transcribed I couldnt believe the lying and the interviewer kept right on him!
It really sounds like he planted evidence too!

It was very strange in a different part of the interview how he says that "people who make the kinds of mistakes he's made dont make "this" kind of mistake."

Matilda said...

Sew, I will go over it all with a fine-toothed comb tomorrow. I will watch the interview again and read transcription on websleuths. I will be happy to help if I can.
Combining what I know of SA with criminology, I think he killed her, I think he buried her, I think he may have killed before, I think there is some chance he may have a "dump site" for bodies. He felt confident saying if the police found evidence, they should search where the evidence is. This leads me to believe he buried her somewhere else. He mentions the police thinking he can lead them to the body and says if they find the body they will say "Here HE is." I wonder if he killed before, hence the "he". Is there another body? Could there be a "dump site? I think this guy is capable of somewhat sophisticated "planning": we can see he "planted" the jacket evidence. This leads me to also question whether this was the 1st time he has ever killed. Too much method to his madness with planting the jacket evidence. He seems very confident which leads me to believe he may have "talked his way out" of suspicions of something very serious before. I will go over it again and listen carefully for any clues in his words.

Unknown said...

I caught that too! Really strange, as he goes from not so thinly veiled threats, such as professing his desire to 'handle it', and to 'get a firearm and discharge it ', to minimizing what has happened with 'mistakes'.

John Mc Gowan said...

Jailed stepdad of missing 18-year-old: Focus on her

Wesley Hadsell, stepfather of missing 18-year-old Anjelica "AJ" Hadsell, said the public's focus should remain on her.

Hadsell spoke Wednesday from Norfolk City Jail, following his arrest Saturday on charges of obstructing justice, breaking and entering and possession of ammunition by a felon.

"It does not matter what I have or have not done," he said. "It matters little to the investigation in my eyes as far as finding my daughter and bringing her home safe and sound.... I am now asking everyone here who sees this to bring my daughter back to the front lines. Don't worry about me. I'll be OK."

A Friday bond hearing is scheduled.

Hadsell, 36, was arrested the same day Norfolk police spent hours searching a swampy, wooded area along Battlefield Boulevard in Chesapeake after receiving new information.

The Longwood University freshman has been missing since March 2, when she was at her parents' home in Norfolk's Tarrallton neighborhood. Police also searched Northside Park in Norfolk the night of March 11 after receiving a tip.

"She's been missing 23 days. No contact, no social media, no anything," Wesley Hadsell said. "Bottom line is, I'd like to call attention to that. She is out there, missing."

Hadsell declined to talk about his arrest and said he did not know whether police considered him a suspect in her disappearance.

"I don't have an answer for that," he said.

Police have declined to say whether Hadsell is a suspect.

"The investigation into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is continuing. We have not ruled out any possibilities, and we are pursuing all leads," Officer Daniel Hudson, a spokesman, wrote on Tuesday.

John Mc Gowan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Mc Gowan said...

Cont..

Wesley Hadsell has felony convictions in North Carolina and Virginia.

In 1998, he was convicted of felonious restraint in Dare County, N.C. According to an affidavit from Hadsell's then-15-year-old girlfriend, she convinced him to help her run away from home. Hadsell was 19 at the time.

"At no time did Wesley in any way harm me or threaten me," the girl wrote in the affidavit.

Both Hadsell and the girl wrote letters to the judge prior to his sentencing declaring their love and pleading for a light sentence.

"I love him just as much as he loves me even though he's twenty and I'm fifteen, and I know that I'm a minor, but I just ask for your blessing to please let us be together," the girl wrote.

In 2006, Hadsell pleaded guilty in federal court to robbing a Fredericksburg bank. The conviction came out of a two-week saga that started when the father of Hadsell's wife reported her missing to police in Ohio on Aug. 26, 2005. Police sought to arrest Hadsell that day for an indictment that charged him with an attack on his wife a week earlier.

The Delaware County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office provided a description of events. Deputies said Hadsell abducted Michelle Hadsell, sexually assaulted her, and fled with her through Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and then to Virginia Beach.

On Sept. 2, Hadsell robbed the bank in Fredericksburg. On the same day, Michelle Hadsell bought a toe ring and piercing in Virginia Beach.

With police searching for them, the two made their way to Illinois.

Police captured Hadsell there, about 60 miles from Chicago, after finding his car in a field, according to stories in the Columbus Dispatch from the time.

Ohio prosecutors dismissed state charges including rape and kidnapping against Hadsell following the federal bank robbery indictment, according to court documents filed there.

Hadsell said he knows people will draw conclusions from his convictions.

"It's all public record. Anything that I have had any dealings with. I was convicted, obviously. There are allegations out there, if you look at my record. All kinds of allegations," he said Wednesday. "People are charged with things all the time and are later found not guilty, or it doesn't go to court. All I can say is, if things don't make it past a grand jury, there's a good reason for that. That's all I can really say."

Again, he said, the focus should be on his missing stepdaughter.

This reminds me of Dylan Redwines father.

He said he has a 3-year-old daughter at home who doesn't understand what is happening and a wife worried about her missing daughter.

"It's been 23 days," he said. "We have hope; I have hope... but we are also not stupid in the same sense. She did not run away. So we implore anyone who knows anything to come forward."

His Pronouns are all over the place.

http://hamptonroads.com/2015/03/jailed-stepdad-missing-18yearold-focus-her#

Anonymous said...


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1025uXR2A4W5cOl08c74yyTAfnP2z2upQdFdywZTtyEw/edit?pli=1

“I could blow this case wide open. I could put the names out there, I could do so much damage to the case – that’s what I consider damage because my daughter, I have to hold my anger and not give in to these trolls because my daughter is the common goal.”

Doing “so much damage to the case” was on his mind.

Matilda said...

John,

Thanks for sharing and I copied this from your post. Wes said

I am now asking everyone here who sees this to bring my daughter back to the front lines. Don't worry about me. I'll be OK." You had highlighted FRONT LINES. Yesterday, it had jumped out at me Wes had said "He will not sit on the SIDELINES." I thought this was odd and I dont know why.
But now that he is also saying FRONTLINES...could it point to where his step-daughter's body may have been left. Near A field with lines for playing sports: soccer, football, etc.?

Matilda said...

Wes said "Daughter is common GOAL".

Worth noticing

FRONTLINES
SIDELINES
GOAL

A lot of imagery that could relate to an outdoor area where sports could be played. It may be nothing but it's been jumping out at me. He's stressed out, and he's pulling these words quickly from his brain.

Anonymous said...

The family is very into sports and Anjelica played several.

Hobnob noted in comments here http://statement-analysis.blogspot.com/2015/03/missing-angelica-hadsell.html
that Wesley Hadsell referred to her as "athlete" first in his statement on the gofundme page, and order is important.

"Hey guys, I'm the father. Understand that my daughter is missing and this isn't like her. While I remain positive in support of all her hard work and accomplishments it has never entered my mind that this is her playing a "joke" or a "game" or anything other than what she deserves. My daughter helped people and gave 100 percent in everything life offered. Athlete, scholar , friend, daughter, girlfriend. So why give money to my cause and my families? Well if you want to I thank you. Your money will be used to help feed supporters, searchers, gas for cars to move around and look, pass out flyers. Also I plan to use the donations to assist in any way to help find our kid. You have any issue with that please donate somewhere else. I want to find my daughter and so does anyone that helps. Anyone that knows our family knows all that we do within our community and life. Please respect us and leave negatives on face book or social media."


Matilda said...

Anon @ 5:48, VERY interesting information and very interesting about what Hobnob noted about Wes listing "ATHLETE" first, very strange. He's under pressure, he's stressed, he's pulling these words quickly out of his brain. His foremost thought, image, in his brain is probably where he has left her body,
We have now

SIDELINES
FRONTLINES
GOAL
ATHLETE

John Mc Gowan said...

"FRONTLINES"

Does he have any military background or anything of that ilk ?

Anonymous said...

@john
No, he doesn't have a military background. One of the earlier court papers says that he is bipolar.

Matilda said...

John, interesting question. Maybe previous to felony convictions he could have had military involvement?

Matilda said...

Wes said
While I remain positive in support of all her hard work and accomplishments it has never entered my mind that this is her playing a "joke" or a "game" or anything other than what she deserves

If you look at exactly what Wes says here, he is disparaging her "hard work and accomplishments" and this is somehow linked in with her disappearance.
He links her hard work and accomplishments to being a "joke" or "game". My guess is he was very verbally abusive, very undermining towards her.
We have the word "GAME".

wreyeter72 said...

What kind of parent doesn't want help looking for their child? One who is grieving because she knows the child is already dead? Mother finally says something publically, but not what I expected:

http://wtkr.com/2015/03/26/mother-of-missing-norfolk-teen-leave-us-alone/

Matilda said...

wreyeter,

Wow. Yep she knows that her daughter is dead and probably also knows it is by the husband's hands. I wouldn't let the juxtaposition of the "crazy psycho Mom" compared to the "cool as cucumber Wes" that the news station created fool you though. Psychopaths can remain quite calm. If he has seen the psycho Mom video, it will refuel his cool demeanor as the media focuses on her outburst.