You're be right. I can understand how shock will make it hard to concentrate on the words you say and breathing.
Though checking the county morgue for you kid and saying it to a camera?"
He probably had no concept that he was talking to a camera, or if he did, he couldn't think far enough ahead to realize what it looked like. It's like you have a lobotomy. You function, but you have no ability to reason or look forward. He probably didn't even remember doing it an hour later.