Unveiling the Hidden Cues: How Killers Conceal Guilt on Camera

Susan Smith held tightly to her husband David’s hand as they carefully navigated through the bustling crowd toward the microphone.

Facing a sea of journalists with cameras focused intently on them, she paused momentarily, closing her eyes to gather her composure.

As she opened her eyes, the 23-year-old mother began to speak, sharing a tale that embodies every parent’s worst fear. “First of all,” she pleaded, “to whoever has my children, please, I beg you, bring them back to us where they belong.”

Her voice grew increasingly emotional, rising in pitch and breaking with sobs as the press conference continued. “To my babies,” she cried, “I love you so much… I just feel in my heart that you’re okay.”

However, this heartfelt plea was a facade masking a much darker reality.

On October 25, 1994, the mom-of-two had strapped her two sons, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, into her car and rolled it into a lake in South Carolina. After intentionally drowning her children, Smith fabricated a story that a Black man had carjacked her and driven off with her sons inside.

For nine days, she stuck to the story, regaling it countless times in media interviews and making tearful appeals for their safe return on national television. Finally, Smith confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison.

It’s a story made all the more shocking by the fact Smith tried to parade her false grief on television for the world to see.

But Smith is far from alone in her antics.

Susan Smith and her husband David on October 27, 1994, as Susan claimed her children were abducted by a carjacker

A makeshift memorial is left for Michael and Alex Smith at John D. Long Lake shore in South Carolina, after their mom Susan Smith drowned them 

From family annihilator Chris Watts to murderer Scott Peterson, it’s a well-trodden phenomenon for killers to go on TV to appeal for their missing loved ones – only to be later exposed as their killers.

And, according to experts in body language and behavioral analysis, it is these public TV appeals and shows in front of the cameras that can reveal their guilt and lead to their downfall.

So why do they do it? Why do killers seek media attention and go on TV to speak about their loved ones’ disappearances? Why risk incriminating themselves?

Dr. Abbie Maroño, an author and behavioral scientist who trains federal agents in behavioral analysis, told the Daily Mail it is because of a common psychological phenomena called White Knight Syndrome.

‘These people build their identity around being a protector or rescuer, and need to be seen as the good guy saving others, so with killers like Chris Watts, or Scott Peterson, or Susan Smith that’s the role that they’re playing on TV. They try to look like the grieving husband, or the desperate mother, because it makes them appear innocent and trustworthy,’ she said.

It is also the killer’s attempt to control the narrative around their loved ones’ disappearance, she said.

‘It gives them an active hand in shaping their own story. If they put themselves on camera, and are able to discuss their narrative, they become in charge of it,’ she said.

But, regardless of how good of an actor they are – or how hard they try to play the role of the desperate family member – there are certain patterns or cues that betray that they could be lying. ‘Even when individuals are good liars and actors, things tend to slip out,’ Maroño said.

The top body language and behavioral analysis experts the Daily Mail spoke all to debunked the commonly-held belief that one non-verbal action – such as nose scratching or heavy blinking of the eyes – proves a person is lying.

Scott Peterson murdered his pregnant wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner in 2004

Before his arrest, he appeared on TV. Body language experts have revealed the clues in his TV appearances that raised red flags

Instead, the experts revealed something far more nuanced, where a cluster of cues or behaviors could together raise alarm bells that something isn’t what it seems – and needs further investigation.

‘The question of deception cues is a highly debated one,’ Maroño explained.

‘When it comes to non-verbal behaviors, there is not one single cue or gesture that proves deception. But, there are consistent patterns.

‘It’s not about finding one cue and saying they’re lying. It’s about noticing when words, emotions, and behaviors don’t all line up, and looking for a collection of cues, rather than just one.’

One of these cues is a mismatch between verbal and non-verbal behaviors.

‘When the words and feelings don’t match, there’s this mismatch. So, for example, a guilty person might say, ‘I just want them home’. But their face is blank, their voice is flat, and their body language is very calm,’ Maroño said.

Other cues include overacting, avoiding direct answers, verbal slips, and an increase in self-soothing behavior, like rubbing their arms, or touching their face. 

‘When we’re highly stressed and are trying to juggle a lie it increases our nervous system activation,’ she said.

‘So people unconsciously engage in self-soothing behaviors as it helps calm down the sympathetic nervous system and make the body more relaxed. And another cue is slips of the tongue where people reveal knowledge they shouldn’t have. All these things raise red flags.’

Chris Watts played the grieving husband after murdering his pregnant wife Shannan and their two children

Chris Watts on the porch of the family home where he played the concerned husband and father

 Despite common assumptions, neither the presence or absence of tears gives a clear indication of whether or not someone is lying or telling the truth, Joe Navarro, former FBI agent, founding member of the bureau’s National Security Behavioral Assessment Program and author of ‘What Every BODY is Saying’, told the Daily Mail.

Rather, the chin is a far more powerful indicator of human emotion, he explained.

‘I’ve seen people cry when they’re innocent and cry when they’re guilty,’ he said.

‘The chin is more accurate in revealing emotions. When people honestly are traumatized by an event, there is a wrinkling or dimpling or vibration of the chin. So when I don’t see it in someone going through a devastating event, I begin to question why.’

It is a natural, innate sign of psychological discomfort even seen in newborn babies, he added. ‘This is where the phrase stiff upper lip comes from as it is a response to stop the lips vibrating.’

There are also other instinctual behaviors or cues that humans are unable to stop, hide or feign – no matter how hard they try.

These innate responses are caused by mental shortcuts in the brain called heuristics that developed in humans thousands of years ago as a way to protect from danger and threats from wild animals.

These include freezing, covering the neck, covering the mouth and covering the head when someone feels threatened by something.

To respond in this way during a TV appearance could indicate they feel threatened by a question being posed at that time or a piece of information presented.

‘We don’t even think about them. They are just in our DNA. They’re universal behaviors that we do without thinking,’ Navarro said.

While the most famous examples of killers parading on camera have taken place in the US, Maroño said it is actually a universal phenomenon. 

In the UK, school caretaker Ian Huntley gave several TV interviews after he lured and murdered 10-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, England, in the summer of 2002. 

When JonBenét Ramsey’s parents sat down for a TV interview days after the six-year-old pageant star was murdered, her mother Patsy’s mellow affect raised eyebrows with the public 

JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of the family’s Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996

‘We see these patterns cross-culturally. They are the same behaviors that I’ve seen in cases in the UK, in Australia, and further afield,’ she said.

But despite the common patterns and cues, the experts strike a cautionary tale: that not everyone who appears to be lying or guilty actually is.

There have been several high-profile cases where an individual’s behavior on camera is scrutinized and they are found guilty in the court of public opinion – only to be later exonerated.

When British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in Perugia, Italy, in 2007, the public and media quickly eyed her American roommate Amanda Knox as her suspected killer due to her behavior caught on camera outside the crime scene, including a now-infamous kiss with her boyfriend. Knox was convicted and served four years in an Italian prison. Her conviction was later overturned and she was eventually exonerated.

When JonBenét Ramsey’s parents sat down for a TV interview days after the six-year-old pageant star was found murdered in the basement of the family’s Boulder, Colorado, home, on December 26, 1996, her mother Patsy’s mellow affect raised eyebrows with the public glued to the screens.  

For years, the family fell under a cloud of suspicion and accusations. All family members have since been officially cleared as suspects in the still-unsolved case.

‘It can be very difficult to tell the difference between people who are guilty and innocent because some cues might appear to show guilt but could actually be present because of the extreme fear of being thought of as guilty,’ Maroño said.

Amanda Knox fell under suspicion of her roommate’s murder in part because of her behavior caught on camera, including a now-infamous kiss with her boyfriend. Knox was convicted but later exonerated

‘The cues don’t show deception but emotion and the intensity of emotion. So I might have that fear because I’m lying, but I might also have it because of a deep fear of being caught.

‘It can be very difficult to identify where the emotions are coming from.’

There can be a rush to judgement because of a lack of understanding of how humans respond to trauma, she explained.

Extreme trauma can cause the brain to go into emotional shutdown, meaning the individual appears cold and calm. Smiling inappropriately can also be a trauma response, Maroño added.

‘Grief can look really messy, and trauma responses can be unexpected.

‘This isn’t because they’re not in grief, it’s because the grief is so intense that the brain has removed that emotional processing to save them.

‘That’s why we should make sure not to rush to judgments and remember that the non-verbal cues are just one side of the coin. We need to couple them with the verbal aspect, too.’

She adds: ‘It is one piece of the puzzle.’