- Aug 3
Who killed Cynara?: A forensic linguistics deep dive [video essay]
- Clive Forrester
- Academia, Video Essay
- 0 comments
When police heard Cindy Ali blame two "Jamaican sounding" intruders for her daughter’s death, it became a crucial piece of evidence in the murder trial. But that story fell apart when a threat letter arrived. I put that letter under the microscope and the truth came out: the letter was a total fake. It wasn't written by anyone from Jamaica, but by someone trying—and failing—to mimic a sound they didn't know.
As you all know, my area of linguistics is called "forensic linguistics" which, broadly speaking, looks at the various ways in which language intersects with the law. On Tuesday, I'll be presenting a conference paper on a forensic linguistic analysis of a murder confession letter for a case here in Canada. But, as you are a subscriber to my blog, I'm giving you the first peek at my presentation. And so as you're not bored to death, I've attached it as a video essay:
And if you'd like to see the full conference paper, you can check it out here:
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