Analysis of Timothy Permenter’s 911 call

Karen Pannell and two of her brothers

On October 11, 2003 at 10:30 a.m., Timothy Permenter called 911 to report his girlfriend Karen Pannell’s death:

Operator: 911, what’s your emergency?

Timothy Permenter: Please, come, send the police (crying). Karen is death.

Politeness is noted in an emergency call as is unexpected.

Permenter doesn’t introduce the victim properly. We always note the incomplete social introduction, usually a signal of a poor relationship. Anyway we assume that during an emergency call the reason for an incomplete social introduction could be the urgency.

Note that Permenter informs the operator of Karen’s death. 

Operator: Is that your wife?

Timothy Permenter: Uh, my girlfriend. I just came over here and I found her. Please, please, hurry.

Note the pause “Uh”. Before answering, Permenter needs to take time to think. 

Note that Permenter doesn’t just answer the question but adds “I just came over here and I found her”. 

The fact that Permenter pre empt the question of the operator is very suspicious especially because these words sound alibi building.

Moreover “just” is a dependent word used to comparison. Its communication is found in dependence upon another thought and, as other dependent words, reveals withheld information.

Note the words “Please, please, hurry”. Does he has a need to ingratiate himself with the operator? Does he has a need to be seen as a “good guy” on the side of the police? 

Operator: Is this suspicious?

Timothy Permenter: I would say so, yeah, I opened the door and she’s in the kitchen and there’s blood everywhere.

Note the unexpected shift from the past tense “I opened” to the present tense “she’s”. It may indicate that he is fabricating reality and not recalling from experiential memory. 

“I opened the door” is unnecessary to say.  A unnecessary reference to “doors” is often found in the language of adult victim of childhood sexual abuse.  

Operator: I have paramedics on the way. What’s the problem?

Timothy Permenter: (crying) I don’t know. She’s just laying there.

The word “just” reveals a comparison with another though. 

“there” is something unnecessary to say and also unexpected like “I opened the door”,  both are an indication of physical distance. 

“laying” not “unresponsive”. Why did he assume she was death?

Operator: She’s what?

Timothy Permenter: She’s laying there.

Note the word “there” again. 

Operator: Is she conscious?

Timothy Permenter: No.

Operator: Is she breathing?

Timothy Permenter: I don’t know. She’s laying there on the floor and there’s blood everywhere.

If he didn’t even touch her to know if she was breathing, how he assumed she was death?

Note the unnecessary word “there” again. Why does he has a need to persuade the operator he remained distant from the victim?

Operator: There’s blood everywhere?

Timothy Permenter: There’s blood everywhere.

Operator: And where’s the blood coming from?

Timothy Permenter: I don’t know.

He didn’t even check from were she was bleeding.

ANALYSIS CONCLUSION:

Deception indicated.

Timothy Permenter has guilty knowledge of what happened to Karen Ann Pannell.

He never introduces his girlfriend Karen as expected. The social introduction is a key to understand a relationship. His linguistic disposition towards Karen tells us that they had a poor relationship at the time of the call.

Permenter felt the need to ingratiate himself with the operator in two occasions.

During this short phone call Permenter tried to establish an alibi for himself.

Permenter didn’t even touch Karen, he knew she was death because he had stabbed her few hours before this phone call and when he went back he found her in the same position she was when he left her house after the attack.

On October 24, 2007, a jury convicted Timothy Permenter of the first-degree murder of Karen Pannell. The jury voted seven to five in favor of the death penalty, but the trial court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.