The disappearance of Amy Wroe Bechtel - Part 2 - Analyzing her husband's statements
Part 1 of the analysis:https://esarrianalysis.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-disappearance-of-amy-wroe-bechtel.html
2.3 Additional information in the subject’s statements
Let us now examine briefly some of the other statements he made after the event, while people were looking for her and he was being investigated by the police:
“My fondest hope right now is that Amy left me,” Bechtel says, turning from the window. “I’d love nothing better than to find out my wife ran off with somebody else. The next best thing,would be if she were being held captive. Because if an abductor doesn’t kill his victim right away, he tends to develop a relationship with her. The more time goes by, the better he gets to know her, the less likely he is to kill her.”
1. A fondest hope is something that you very much want to happen or to be true but is not very likely. The subject acknowledges that it is unlikely for Amy to have left him.
We note that in this unlikely supposition she has a name and a title.
2. The next best thing is: if she were being held captive.
He gives Amy victim status. The reason for this second best thing is not specific to Amy, but it is relevant to an abductor’s behavior in general.
This reminds me of Chris Watts when the interviewer asked him what could have happened to his family. He mentioned all the possible ways one can be killed, besides strangulation and suffocation. What about her being alive but hurt and being found? Isn’t that a hope?
Regarding allegations of domestic abuse and his probable involvement:
“Those people don’t know me, they don’t know Amy, so it’s just gossip.
But the danger is that other people are going to listen to that gossip, or read in the newspaper that I’m being investigated and assume that I murdered my wife. They’re going to think that the search for Amy is over. Some person who might’ve seen her that day, or who might have some other small but crucial piece of information, won’t come forward.
3. The subject appropriately distances himself from those people who claim there might have been domestic violence in the relationship and that he is too controlling. In the same sentence we note the use of “just”, indicating he is comparing this gossip to another thought, and a sensitivity indicator. The allegations are sensitive to him.
4. assume that I murdered my wife.
Does the inclusion of the verb “assume” make this an embedded admission?
We note that when it comes to speaking about these allegations Amy has a title.
5. There are two additional things worth noting in this statement.
First, by using “might” he indicates that there is only slight possibility that the things he mentions will happen.
Second, it is his view of other people. What he is really saying is that people will not be willing to help by giving information if they know he is being investigated. Is he aware that people do not like him or they believe he is guilty and will be glad to see him prosecuted, or is it his view of people in general and a paranoid aspect of his character? Does he feel everyone is against him for a reason or is this attitude character driven?
This is also an indication that he is manipulative. He needs to control the narrative and people’s reactions.
“No, I did not have anything to do with my wife’s disappearance. No, we did not have an abusive relationship. No, I am not going to take a polygraph test, because the test is flawed and a waste. No, there’s nothing in my journal I’m at all uncomfortable with. I try not to get angry that law enforcement still considers me the prime suspect, but every hour that they spend examining me is an hour that they’re not looking for Amy.”
In this part he answers all the allegations and accusations made against him, primarily by the police. We cannot consider these answers reliable denials as they are responses to questions already posed to him and his language could be parroting the questions.
Regarding his journals which have not been made public, they were one of the reasons the police suspected him as they contained poems and stories of abuse, killing and torture, some of which were specific about Amy. He claimed they were just dark thoughts he had.
He tries and fails to not get angry at LE and yet, he did not do anything to help them exclude him as a suspect.
The polygraph test is sensitive to him, and in explaining why, he ridicules it and minimizes its value to the investigation.
Regarding Amy
“She was so cool, Jon. Her greatest fault was that she was so friendly she was always taken advantage of. ‘I’ll take your shift. ‘I’ll watch your dog.’ It just makes you so sad.”
6. When someone is missing or dead, those who love them remember only what was good about them. Fond memories, the most endearing elements of their personality, the things that made them love the person missing from their lives. It is as if the loved one could do no wrong. It is called the angelic view.
When the subject speaks about his wife, the only good thing he has to say about her is that she was “cool”. And then he goes on to mention her faults, of which she must have had many as he feels obliged to talk about her greatest one. She was friendly and easy to be taken advantage of.
Could this be an indication of the control he needed to have on her? Narcissistic control is exerted best in isolation, and people who are helpful and friendly are the perfect targets for a narcissist. One of the reasons they choose them is because they need the narcissistic supply these people can provide them; these traits are only useful if they serve the narcissist and no one else.
Regarding his relationship with the police
[…]
Steve Bechtel reacted to Sheriff King’s suspicions:
When Sheriff King asked Steve to take a polygraph test, Steve called for legal counsel:
[…]
I ask him if he’ll take the polygraph to relieve Zerga (the current investigator) of all doubt.
“The polygraph is like one of those monkey traps,” he says. “Anybody who needs me to take that test—I don’t need them in my life.” He holds the relaxed confidence of an athlete, even while talking about a painful past. “I don’t need people to be looking at Eaton,” he says. “I don’t mind being a suspect, but to me everyone else is a suspect.”
7. Monkey trap: A clever trap of any sort that owes its success to the ineptitude or gullibility of the victim.
The subject is smarter than the police; he won’t be tricked into a trap by them.
8. I don’t need them in my life: it is the police who are asking him. He does not need the police in his life. They are not useful to him.
This has yet another recipient and this is Amy’s family who insisted on him taking a polygraph test.
This is a warning and a statement of attitude towards people: No one is indispensable and disagreement will not be tolerated.
9. “I don’t mind being a suspect, but to me everyone else is a suspect.”
This part could be revealing of aspects of his personality. Everyone else is a suspect and a possible adversary. He also states he does not mind being a suspect as long as he controls the situation.
2.4 A bit of speculation
From the same article:
[…]
“Kent Spence (Bechtel’s lawyer) was suspiciously high-powered.
“He pro-bonoed I don’t even know how many hours to us,” says Steve.“Just hiring those guys was controversial. But imagine having heart surgery and saying, ‘Well, I’ll just get a crappy doctor.’”
Was his life depending on it? The analogy between a very serious situation of being investigated for your wife’s murder and a heart surgery which can be life threatening seems exaggerated for an innocent person. What produced it?
The state of Wyoming has not abolished the death penalty in cases such as these among others:
-The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to two or more persons.
-The murder was especially atrocious or cruel, being unnecessarily torturous to the victim.
-The defendant knew or reasonably should have known the victim was less than 17 years of age or older than 65 years of age.
Let us move on:
“Living is so fascinating. I have these two little kids and more than anything in my life, those two are what I was born for, to raise those kids. It means everything to you.
And the thing that’s a really profound challenge emotionally for me is knowing that those two kids never would have existed if I would have been able to keep hold of Amy. You look through history and these tragedies happened in order for wonderful things to happen.”
1. The subject is distancing himself from his kids four times; three by using the word “those” and one more by the use of the pronoun “you”. Is this a loving father? Can someone so self centered define his purpose in life to raise kids from whom his character keeps an emotional distance?
Why are these kids so unique and specific to him when he distances himself from them, revealing there is no real emotion? Raising them is sensitive to him. The sensitivity is closely connected to his distancing. It may be character driven, as narcissists do not care about other people unless they are useful to them and they usually are not caring parents because there is no room within them for anyone else’s needs besides their own ones.
But we can also wonder: Was he given an opportunity to raise another kid or kids and didn’t he want to do it?
2. if I would have been able to keep hold of Amy.
To keep hold of something is to not lose something, or to not let someone else get it.
Was Amy objectified? Why would he say he wasn’t able to keep hold of her? Was she slipping away from his control? Was she disobedient at any point? Was she thinking of leaving him?
3.You look through history and these tragedies happened in order for wonderful things to happen.”
These tragedies are close to him and plural. This is not a statement about tragedies in history in general terms. What produces this closeness? Amy’s disappearance was a tragedy. What was the other one? Were there more people involved as victims?
Could Amy have been pregnant at the time of her disappearance and did he know about it? Could this have been what made this a matter of life and death to him if he had been charged with her murder?
If one has truly experienced the sense of loss in early life, he/she will find it difficult to see the silver lining of a traumatic situation. The mind will go back and wonder how life would have been different in almost any way. Two beautiful kids could probably be the silver lining in this case, but the emphasis given on them and the shallow emotion manifested in the subject’s language does not constitute sufficient justification for this statement. It is cold and unemotional. The subject is probably referring to other “wonderful things” and not to his kids.
2.5 Additional profile notes
We noted in the first attempt of the subject’s profile a lack of empathy and regard for human life, lack of any emotional attachment, and no expected reactions to traumatic situations. We also noted that his world view may include seeing everyone as an instrument.
In analyzing the additional statements we can clearly see why he was considered a suspect by both the police and the FBI. There are indications of guilty knowledge in his interviews.
What emerges more clearly in these statements is his personality and his character traits; these strengthen the impression his language made in the 911 call. We note that his emotions are superficial in general and not only towards Amy. This is indicative of a personality with narcissistic traits.
We cannot find a sense of loss expressed in his language and the guilt people in his situation sometimes express. We can see people in similar situations blaming themselves for their actions and decisions and thinking they could have changed the flow of events if they had done something different. It is irrational and does not offer any consolation, but someone in his position who loved his wife could have blamed himself for going climbing that day, thinking that if that was different, she would not have gone missing. The only regret he expressed is taking his dog with him when he went climbing, as Amy would likely have taken him with her on her run.
The subject seems to struggle to imitate a loving father and husband’s reactions. He is not aware of how hollow his words sound. He lacks emotional intelligence and compassion. He seems to be aware that people do not like him and may have paranoid ideas that the world is out to get him. People like him are hypersensitive to criticism and cannot tolerate stress as they are deeply insecure. He is in a constant battle to prove he is smarter and better than others. He will employ manipulation to defeat any opposition and control his environment. He does not hold anyone in high regard as he is in contempt of everyone around him.
He will not tolerate disappointment and disagreement. Any sign of these attitudes will make him eject people from his life. He has clearly demonstrated how people play only a complementary part in his life and are not necessarily indispensable to him; even when he talks about his kids. Everyone is viewed as an instrument.
He is arrogant; he has a sense of entitlement and gives many indications of being controlling. Emotional abuse of his wife is a possibility, as control is consistently a part of narcissistic relationships combined with lack of positive emotions.
His narcissistic traits border to psychopathic ones. People who are paranoid are always concerned about other people’s loyalty. Even a disagreement could be construed as abandonment, and that is why nonconformity cannot be tolerated.
The narcissist continually tries to bury his weak ego in a futile attempt to deceive. Success in deceiving others equals survival. There are no rules in this battle, only the ones he/she makes.
The subject is an accomplished athlete in rock climbing. Narcissists often excel in the areas they choose, whether these are professional or a hobby. They need the constant validation and sports, politics and businesses are areas in which we can find many of them having successful careers. It is worth noting that the subject, after a short period of being away, went back to Lander and still lives there with his new wife and his children running a successful business. The battle is not over for him. He must prove to everyone he can withstand pressure and doubt, as long as he has the emotional supply he needs.
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