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You may have heard an older or retired detective use the phrase "bagging the lie." It means what it sounds like: You have the proof that someone is lying about something. It might be an innocuous white lie or it could be an outright fabrication relative to an ongoing criminal or civil investigation. As are most of us, police detectives and private investigators are on the receiving end of lies of varying degrees on a regular basis. You can learn how to spot one. Just as importantly, you also have to learn how to distinguish between a fabrication and a faulty memory. If you interview ten witnesses to a traffic accident or a gas station robbery you will most likely get ten different versions of the same incident. Our memories play tricks on us.

This paraprosdokian ¹ came to mind during the investigation of the former companion of a man who died, in testate, of sudden cardiac arrest at 45. But it was no joking matter, and there was no will. We were assisting the attorney retained by the decedent's father to handle the probate. Shortly after the probate filing a woman appeared, and said she was the ex-girlfriend with a copy of a will naming her as his only heir. The decedent's father, the executor of the estate, recalled the woman but said his son, "Bob," and "Carol" had dated only a short time and the relationship had ended at least four months before his passing. Bob, divorced for several years and with no children, had left behind a home and some investment accounts. The attorney who drafted the document and the witness to the signing were unknown to the father, who was familiar with all his son's business matters and knew his friends and acquaintances. To the father, the will made no sense.

A background investigation on Carol revealed... Read More