Zuzu Verk update: Interrogation expert analyzes Chris Estrada interview
02/09/2017 11:32 am PST
In December, Crime Watch Daily aired the story of Zuzu Verk, a 22-year-old college student who went missing in October 2016 in Alpine, Texas. Now there have been several huge developments, including two arrests in connection to the case.
Remains that were found on Feb. 3 in a shallow grave in a canyon in Texas were positively identified on February 6 as Zuzu Verk.
Chris Estrada, a person of interest in the disappearance of the Sul Ross State University college student, has now been arrested.
His friend Robert Fabian, who was Verk's boyfriend at the time she went missing, was also arrested.
Verk vanished without a trace after a night with boyfriend Fabian.
According to a newly released arrest warrant, Fabian told investigators he invited Zuzu over for a romantic dinner that included a massage. But he says the two got into an argument about his ex-girlfriend, and he says he watched Verk drive away between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. That was the last time Zuzu was seen alive.
According to search warrant affidavits, on the night Zuzu disappeared, Fabian made two unanswered phone calls to his good friend Chris Estrada, who sat down with Crime Watch Daily for more than an hour to answer Crime Watch Daily's questions in his first TV interview.
What did Fabian want to talk about at 3:15 a.m.?
"He never really said," Estrada said in our December interview. "Later on at some point he just asked me if I wanted to help him paint a table, and I said 'sure.'"
Estrada said he and Robert Fabian "cruised around" later that day, and that nothing seemed off about Fabian. Estrada said he did not know what happened to Zuzu, and that he did not have anything to do with her disappearance. He said he didn't know if Zuzu was still alive, and he said he was not covering for Fabian.
Crime Watch Daily brought in expert interrogation specialist Stan "The Lie Guy" Walters, who helps train police officers around the country in the art of detecting deception, to examine our interview.
"In my opinion, Chris is with holding a lot of information that would be critical to this investigation," said Walter.
It's an opinion Walters says he formed after watching for certain facial cues, or what he calls "emotional leaks."
"There's several places I noticed in his interview that he demonstrated his contempt for the interview, contempt for the situation, that 'You're beneath me,'" said Walters.
And one of those moments, Walters says, came right at the beginning of our conversation, when Estrada is asked if he'll be honest with us, he smiles and says, "Deal."
"See the movement over here, see how this cheek is higher, it's that 'Really. Whatever,'" said Stan Walters. It's what Walters calls a "contempt signal."
"It's contempt, like, 'I'm not following this, you ask me these questions, who are you to question this,'" said Walters. "It's a contempt toward the other individual, disdain, dislike, scorn, that 'the other person is beneath me.'"
But of all the telling moments from our conversation, it was the end that caught Walters' attention the most. Estrada is asked if he knows what happened to Zuzu, and he replies "I do not."
"Gets that quick, real fast contempt," Walters said.
Estrada is asked if he's covering for Robert Fabian, and he responds by shaking his head and saying "mm-mm."
"And you got a huge reaction out of that, one of the big responses you got," said Walters.
Stan Walters calls it an "anger signal," and says he saw it in Chris Estrada.
"Emotions are hard-wired, they're very difficult to suppress. The hardest lie to accomplish is one about emotion," said Walters.
"I don't believe he was involved, from the questions you asked if he was involved actually in what happened to her, but he's withholding information that would help this investigation," Walters said.
And that's exactly what police are saying today. Estrada was arrested 650 miles away in Phoenix, after he had just moved from Texas to Arizona.
Estrada and Fabian are facing a charge of tampering with evidence by concealing or hiding a corpse. Police say additional charges are expected soon.
Fabian was being held on a half-million-dollar bond.
"We have specific timelines about what happened, and we have ideas about what happened," said Alpine Police Chief Russell Scown.
That timeline is laid out in an arrest warrant affidavit. Police say the night Zuzu vanished, Robert Fabian was captured on surveillance video using Chris Estrada's credit card to purchase three packaged items resembling plastic painter's drop-cloths. The report goes on to say thin plastic sheets that were consistent with the plastic painter's drop-cloths purchased by Fabian were found at the site where Zuzu's body was located.
