Signs of a Psychopath

The thing inside of me, it's like the appetite.

It's like a wolf that's feeling the hunger.

Despite being law enforcement himself previously,

Clay Waller didn't bother to call dispatch

until he receives pressure from Jacque's family.

Waller's lack of concern or urgency for locating

his estranged wife, the mother of his triplets,

who are only five years old,

just makes his overall behavior suspicious.

What his son is starting to paint for us is a picture of

somebody with a parasitic lifestyle mix,

where you're using other people.

You're willing to live off of other people,

and there's no real sense of adult responsibility

or conscience to take care of yourself,

to have a sense of integrity.

39-year-old Jacque Waller, formerly of Cape Girardeau,

was last seen here on Woodland Drive in North Neal in Jackson.

Dozens of officers are now working this case.

No one believes that this mother of three

would just walk away from her children.

"Friday, December 3rd.

"I took the kids and went to my sister's house.

"Clay called me, and I told him that I was gonna file for a divorce.

"He told me that he wanted Maddox,

"and he was gonna move with him to California.

"He said that that was the only way he could ensure my safety.

"He said that he could not live near me

"knowing that another man may be with me.

"He made numerous threats during the conversation.

"He asked me if I had someone lined up to raise our kids.

"He also said that he had a feeling that one of us

"would not be around to watch our kids grow up."

So, to me, throughout this paragraph,

Jacque is consistently documenting that she was threatened

every single time she's brought up spitting up from Clay Waller.

"Wednesday, March 23rd, Clay called me at 7 a.m.

"He was threatening me and yelling at me.

"Met him at the airport.

"He told me that divorcing him was a death sentence.

"He would get me, and if he couldn't get to me,

"he would kill our kids."

So in this excerpt, you can see that there's just no regard

for his having any real genuine affection for his own children.

And just like all the characters

in a psychopath's life, they're not other people

who have feelings and interests and the ability to feel pain

or anything else.

They're simply characters in the story as they relate

to the psychopath.

And it's striking that even his young children,

that he later claims he cares so much about,

actually appear as just pawns for him to use

as suits him in a particular situation.

When we look at journal entries like this,

I think what this speaks to

is a pattern of coercive emotional abuse,

physical threats,

and he is doing what so many domestic abusers do.

When they can't get to their partner,

they use the children as a weapon,

and they threaten to harm the children.

A new development in the Jacque Waller case.

Investigators searching her estranged husband's rental

have discovered blood spatter on two walls

and that carpet had been removed.

Clay Waller says the community's out to get him.

People spray painting "killer" on his truck.

I mean, it's been a hard time for us all.

Carpet and carpet pad hidden out of view

in the back of a crawl space.

One piece had a large blood stain that the crime lab

confirmed contained Jacque Waller's DNA.

Clay, do you have any comment?

He was arrested in Malden, Missouri

on charges not related to his estranged wife's disappearance.

He now faced a charge of stealing from a Cape Girardeau company

and also a harassment charge.

They haven't yet found enough evidence

to actually charge him with anything,

and in his mind, as former law enforcement, without a body,

what are they gonna charge him with?

So he just continues to taunt them.

It's quite possible that this cat and mouse game

isn't just Clay's hope to keep himself out of trouble.

There's a secondary euphoria he's getting

by thinking he's in charge, he's smarter than them.

I think his body language is telling.

He's almost, like, stretched out,

owning the entire interrogation room.

He wants to show, I'm in control.

You may think this is your interrogation, but really,

I'm the one who's deciding which way we go.

It's only when he realizes that he can't just get up and leave,

and they keep asking him the same questions over and over again,

that you start to see his body language shift,

and he starts saying, "I don't know,"

and he just becomes this broken record

obstructing the interview process.

When he's confronted about the biological evidence,

he doesn't even miss a beat.

He doesn't hesitate to just insert another lie.

If she had a nosebleed, if she tripped and hurt herself,

why would you cut out the carpet in a rental?

And then on top of that, he very covertly hid it

so that it would be out of line of sight for anybody

if they came through the house.