Friday, February 21, 2020

Gannon Stauch: Mother Speaks



The natural resistance (denial) to accept anything less than a safe return, by a mother, is weakened over time, distance, context and news. 

Here, the mother of Gannon Stauch, missing since 27 January, 2020, speaks and indicates the internal struggle of the natural maternal instinct. 

Time will slowly wear away the optimism but so does distance. 

Having not had full custody of him for the past two years will lessen the resistance --also naturally.  Not being the one to see him every morning means not seeing any challenge, risk or even danger (riding his bike in the street) that the child may experience.  This is a natural psychological distancing that takes place. Some will use the word, "that" to describe their child, when there is geographical distance.  It does not necessarily mean a lack of emotional closeness or affection.  

"Oh, I miss that girl!" uses the word "that" when there is some form of distance between the subject and the girl.  This could be psychological distance (poor relationship) but more commonly, it may be something a grandparent might say when the granddaughter moves across the country.  We flag the distancing language, but do not make a conclusion without exploration. 

You'll note some distancing language and the wearing down of denial in the mother's statement. 


"You have anger. You have so many feelings. I have so many feelings I've never felt before," Landon Hiott 

note the distancing "you" before the change to the stronger, "I" here. 

It may be that she wishes to distance herself from "anger" in context. 

What anger? 

Likely the step mother's statements and the video that shows her leave with Gannon, but come back without him.  

Why might she want to distance herself from the anger?

"You have so many feelings" continues the psychological ("feelings" and "anger") distancing. 

She lets us know that what she is feeling, she is unfamiliar with: 

"I have so many feelings I've never felt before." 

The media report fills in the information for us, though without a direct quote: 

Hiott said the circumstances of the investigation and the bad weather have made it even more difficult.

Next, we see the struggle in the language. This may be what she wants to believe in spite of the "circumstances of the investigation" and the cold, snowy weather: 

"The more time that goes by, if he did wander off, whatever happened, how can you ... it's snowing and you have them looking in snow and sifting through snow, you can't help but have bad thoughts come in," she said.

She psychologically distances herself (emotion) from both the weather and the option offered ("if").  This is not something she is able to immediately accept. 

Hiott did not comment on the footage or Stauch, but said that "when you're trying to hold it together and you hear those stories, you hear people talk about it, it's hard to hold it in sometimes."

She distances herself from the possibility that the step mother caused her son's disappearance.  It is, even after this much time, too much to bear. 

She said she maintains restraint only because she doesn't want to hinder the investigation and have "another day added to me not seeing my boy."

She did not comment on the step mother, instead trusting in the police and called Gannon "my" (possessive pronoun) boy. 

Does she believe, even as she entertained, that he may have wandered off?


She said she is confident her son would never run away.

"100% without a shadow of doubt, my boy would not run away,

Now we see the struggle. 

She would prefer that he ran off or wandered away to the alternative. 

Yet, in spite of declining to talk about Tee Stauch, the step mother, she has read or heard the step mother's words and knows exactly what the step mother was communicating: blaming her son. 

Hiott said. She also resents the notion that he may have somehow brought this on himself:

"For it to be said that he has behavioral issues, and it to be blamed on him, that's what makes me sick about this. ... It is not Gannon's fault. He is a child," she said.

She knew the step mother blamed Gannon in the rambling social media posts. 

She struggles to maintain optimism (note the present tense "is") and the reference to Gannon as a "child", which often indicates risk. 

The passivity in the statement is appropriate in context---she declined to talk about the step mother.  

The struggle against time, weather and what the step mother has written and said, is in the language: 

"This is the longest time I have not heard his voice. The only thing I can do is keep playing videos back and forth," she said through sobs.

When her two other children -- an 8-year-old and 18-month-old -- ask where Gannon is, she wishes she could have answer.

"'Where's Bubba? Is he coming home?'" she said her kids have asked her. "Only thing I can say is, 'I hope so.'"

Had the step mother not made the posts and interview, as well as the surveillance video emerging, the answer, "I hope so" would have likely been "yes!" naturally from a mother, in spite of custodial distance. 


Analysis Conclusion:

The mother's priority has been and is Gannon--here it is maintaining hope for Gannon against an increasing tide of pessimism. 

The struggle is revealed in the language. 

The distancing language, in larger and smaller context, is appropriate distance. The custodial distance (of the last two years) likely only increases the suffering and guilt of the innocent mother. 

She takes "ownership" of him, struggles with her own instincts versus knowledge, and strains to not publicly speak about Tecia Stauch.



12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"For it to be said he had behavioral problems, it's not his fault, he's a child" (maybe not direct quote from and indirect quote)

I listened to the ABC reel of the mother and didn't hear that part. Perhaps they edited to save for another edition or sold that part to an aggregate member for when they needed to focus on the causes of behavioral problems in children.

People were flabbergasted when American families sent Russian adoptees back to their homeland because of behavioral problems of being born to drug addicted prostitutes.Some people can only take so much. That's not what they thought they were getting.

In the land of milk and honey, everyone expects someone to step out with a magic wand and make it all go away; it won't.

What's next? Look for someone else to blame.

Anonymous said...

I also read a statement from the step mum that addressed the issue of shadows. I think Mr. Hyatt covered that statement here on his blog: Please don't think for a minute there isn't technology to look at the shawdows on that video (or something like that).

Surely she doesn't think for a minute that members of a Texas based sleuthing machinery or DIY youtubers would help her for one minute. They are better at railroading people for a media inspired trial to sell their videos and books on how to be a better unpaid babysitter.

Shy Covian said...

It is very clear to me something awful happened to Gannon and step mom feels responsible, as she should as his guardian and parent. Gannon had a lot to deal with at such an early age, I pray he is free from the burdens he was unfairly given so young.

Anonymous said...

I have an adult who had severe behavior issued and a host of diagnoses. The things he experienced with his mother before we were able to get custody are unspeakable. I can't even describe the trauma he experienced but also all of us. Until people have experienced the fear of going to sleep because you're afraid he will hurt your other children, or not being able to let your younger children be alone in a room with their brother, or to turn your back, etc... People can't comprehend it. Setting fires, abusing animals, getting expelled from multiple schools for violence, being diagnosed with sexual deviance... But through it all, I love him like he's my own and even though he's an adult, I am still studying new treatments that could help him. I'm still praying that he will find peace and happiness. I still cry thinking about everything I know now that I could have done to maybe be THE thing that would set him free from the memories and traumas that haunt him. While i fully understand the exhaustion, frustration, and hopelessness that can come IF he did really have behavior problems, I wish that waterboarding was legal because he needed love, patience, and understanding. The video she posted of Gannon crying is sickening.

I yelled, threatened, and went in another room or outsideaand I hate those times that happened and I am 50 years old. He's been on his own for almost 10 years and I have more emotion worrying about him and his future than Tee has shown about an 11 year old. I think she's a freaking narcissist and it makes me sick wondering what a Gannon endure. All of that to say, I would much rather an adoption be disrupted than child be abused. There is no way a person can know what raising a child from trauma can be like without experiencing it.

Anonymous said...

One thing I've been thinking about is the video the step mom made of her questioning Gannon is why was that video made at all? Sure, there are a lot of videos of younger kids out that show them crying or throwing a tantrum but not of kids Gannon's age. What the step mom released wasn't like that, though. It wasn't a "cute" video. It was a video with the lens covered of a young boy on the cusp of being a teen crying. What was the point of that video? Had someone (husband? Gannon?) accused her of being too strict in disciplinary actions? Did she film that video to prove she was a reasonable disciplinarian? How many other video or audio snips are there? Did she video the other kids in the house like that? What WAS the point of that video in the first place??

Anonymous said...

Please help find Kyron

Please post the last photo of Kyron, the one Terri took of him before she murdered him.

happyuk said...

Off topic but Peter Hyatt would no doubt have a field day with this. We truly live in an age of deception:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKW5jOCGtfw

Fiona Onasanya has issued an appeal to voters to keep her as Peterborough's MP before a petition to force a byelection opens on Tuesday. The MP, who was jailed for lying repeatedly to avoid a speeding ticket, posted a video message online asking voters in Peterborough to ignore 'media spin' and continued to maintain her innocence

Anonymous said...

It's easy to see that most aren't interested in the missing child but rather the sideline causes they can promote due to the publicity generated by the missing child.

It's easy to see the incentive of taking one.

Autumn said...

Elf, I wondered the same thing. On youtube (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkHat-03Quc ) it is speculated that Gannon may have been bleeding on the couch and that Tee Stauch by posting the video was already mounting her defense to figure out “how are we going to get rid of this evidence, I better get rid of this couch”. To me the audio indeed sounds staged. Gannon is obviously in great distress (pain?) (whimpering) and she completely ignores it. Is she busy getting her message out to future listeners? Others speculate that Gannon didn't knock over a candle and burn the carpet at all but think that there was blood on the carpet and she removed it by burning it.

Below is a transcript of the video (some people - using head phones? - say they hear Gannon say “I’m bleeding” in the end).

Tee Stauch: “…[Inaudible] …I just don’t know what to do”

Laina (Tee’s daughter): “Why? What happened?”

Tee Stauch: “Gannon, I promise this the last time I’m gonna ask you. I’m just freaked out, okay? Are you sure you didn’t do it on purpose?”

Gannon: “I didn’t. I did not do it on purpose.”

Tee: “You promise? You promise? Pinky promise?”

Gannon: “Pinky.”

Tee: “Okay. All right, so. Listen. Listen. All right. We’re gonna have to sell stuff to fix it. Okay?”

Gannon: “Okay.”

Tee: “So we’ll figure out what we gotta sell. We can sell the sofa. We can sell whatever ‘cause we gotta get it fixed so [the lady?] don’t be mad at us and kick us out the house. Okay?”

Gannon: “Okay.”

Tee: “You got it?”

John Mc Gowan said...

stepmom reveals where she went the day Colorado boy disappeared [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

https://www.crimeonline.com/2020/02/27/gannon-stauch-stepmom-reveals-where-she-went-the-day-colorado-boy-disappeared-exclusive-interview/

Autumn said...

In a facebook message Tee Stauch states that the blood in the garage could also be Al’s (i.e. her husband/Gannon’s father) because “Al cut his finger off in the garage”. Strangely enough Al doesn’t seem to have a severed finger though (did a doctor put it back on?). Cutting off a finger makes me think of “pinky promise” (Tee Stauch made Gannon "pinky promise" that he “didn’t do it on purpose”). If you break a pinky promise the wronged party may cut off your pinky.

See: https://twitter.com/TheDishTay/status/1233092825643933698/photo/1

Was Gannon’s hand wounded? The article provided by John (see above comment), mentions:

“Stauch told CrimeOnline that Gannon was with her when she arrived back home and that as he exited the truck, he was holding a white bag in his hand.”

And:

“Stauch added that she clearly remembered giving Gannon a white bag to hold on January 27, “in case he puked.” She said the little boy had “pooped in his pants” the day prior and had been having issues with his stomach. ”

Why does she feel the need to (repeatedly?) explain that and why he had a white bag in his hand? Was it a bandage instead of a bag (was his hand bandaged instead of his foot)?. Also: in one of her statements she kept using the word “sh*t” ("This girl" is also a “piece of shit getting money off her child when she don’t have shit and ain’t never been shit”.) and in another to underwear? Now she’s telling us he “pooped in his pants” (a bit classless -> the whole world doesn't need to know). Is that the reason why she got angry and made him promise he didn’t do it on purpose?

So the boy doesn’t go to school because he is so sick that he needs a bag in case he pukes and has “bouts of diarrhea” but she sees no problem in taking him on an hours long shopping spree (taking “the back roads” and getting “lost”) and in letting him go to a friend’s house (having no clue who this supposed friend is). It doesn’t add up. Also: she reportedly has a criminal record for domestic violence related offences.

Autumn said...

Interesting point (made by someone on twitter): in the interview with Crime Online Tee Stauch says she left her phone at home. However in her statement she said: "There was also proof from my phone that we had taken a selfie in the truck in our driveway that was time stamped." Did she deliberately take a selfie in the truck and then deliberately bring the phone back in the house? If so, why? Was the selfie even made that day?