The Jessica Lunsford Murder Case

CVSA outperforms the Polygraph once again

As reported by Lt. David Wyllie of the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, Florida, in the very first days of the Jessica Lunsford abduction and murder case, several very good suspects were developed, including her father.  Since Lt. Wyllie headed the Special Victims Unit at the time of Jessica’s disappearance, and was also a seasoned CVSA Examiner, he requested that two suspects take a CVSA examination.  Jessica’s father and another suspect agreed, and the CVSA cleared Jessica’s father. The other suspect became highly emotional and combative with police officials, and therefore a valid CVSA examination could not be conducted.   

By this time in the investigation the father was still the best suspect, and investigators from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) decided they wanted an FDLE polygraph examiner to conduct a polygraph of him.  The FDLE polygraph results showed Jessica’s father to be “Deceptive” regarding the same issues for which the CVSA examination had cleared him.   

FBI investigators on the task force then requested that the father and the other suspect be tested AGAIN by an FBI polygraph examiner.  Both suspects agreed, and took an FBI administered polygraph.  The results of both suspects’ examinations were determined to be “inconclusive” – meaning these polygraph examinations were basically useless. 

Based on the conflicting results between the CVSA and the polygraph examinations, both Jessica’s father and the other individual were considered persons of interest for an additional 25 days until the killer, John Couey, was caught and confessed to her abduction and brutal murder. In the end the CVSA was accurate, and both the FDLE and FBI polygraph tests were wrong.  Jessica’s father could have been cleared as a suspect nearly an entire month earlier had all the investigating agencies relied on the more accurate results of the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer^® (CVSA) rather than the old and less-accurate polygraph test.

In fact, Lt. Wyllie and other examiners at the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office report that the CVSA has been so accurate over the past 15 years that the results from the CVSA are routinely solicited and accepted by the courts and attorneys in their area.