We Have Your Daughter Page 26
The amount of $118,000 was also similar to an amount noted in a case involving two separate people who were fired at Access Graphics, according to police reports. (BPD Reports #5-3295, #5-3488, #5-4809.) In one case, $118,000 was the amount a former employee had been ordered by a judge to repay to Access Graphics after that former employee was convicted of altering account statements in order to steal from the company. (BPD Reports #5-3295, #5-795.) That information was never leaked to the media.
• Another factor that deeply troubled BPD officials had to do with the fact that the killer had seemed to have no fear of discovery. This understanding immediately pointed to an insider or at least to a family-involved crime. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
Those who disagreed with this theory said simply that it’s difficult to predict the behavior of an intruder who is a psychopath or a pedophile, especially one who could have waited in a home for a family to return while writing a ransom note and planning to kill an innocent child. Such proponents of the intruder theory assert that an average person’s fear is not the same as that of a predator or a psychopath, especially when one is dealing with an organized psychopathic killer.
• Additional suspicions arose when the autopsy of JonBenét revealed that she had been strangled at least twice, possibly both times with the garrote while she was facedown. The coroner/medical examiner found carpet fibers from the basement on her face and rope marks on her neck that supported this conclusion. Some Boulder
Police Department officers said that such findings indicated JonBenét’s parents wouldn’t have been able to cope with their daughter looking them in the eyes while they killed her. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
Those who disagreed with this police theory argued that it was a matter of convenience for an intruder to use the garrote while his victim was facedown. According to military experts and homicide investigators, the common method of using a garrote is to loop it over the neck from the back, causing pressure and using leverage on the front of the neck to strangle.
• In the ransom note, the phrase “and hence” was used. In the Ramsey family’s 1997 Christmas card, a year after JonBenét’s death, the phrase “and hence” was also used. (BPD Report #33-1851.) In the point of view of BPD officials, this was an uncommon phrase suspiciously repeated.
The Ramseys stated that they did not know why they’d used the phrase in their Christmas card, but added that they might have become subconsciously familiar with it from having to copy the ransom note so many times in handwriting sessions for police and in later grief therapy sessions.
• BPD investigators were very curious about a black eye that the Ramseys’ son, Burke, got in May 1997, five months after his sister had been killed. School teachers reported it to Boulder Police. Some BPD officials suggested that this might have been an indication of ongoing child abuse in the family. (BPD Reports #5-3147, #5-3369.)
Police reports documented how Burke said he’d gotten the black eye: “Burke Ramsey came to school with a black eye and he said that he got it playing baseball with his mother and she had thrown the baseball at his eye and he had gotten a black eye.” (BPD Reports #5-5261, #1-1586.)
• Most Boulder Ramsey case investigators do not think the killer used a stun gun on JonBenét, although they searched the home for one and for other possible evidence, even taking apart a fireplace grate in their search. There is still no explanation for the two different sets of similar, evenly spaced round marks on JonBenét’s body. A chief investigator with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office in the mid-2000s later stated that the marks or abrasions shown on JonBenét’s body in autopsy photos matched protrusions from the bottom of her brother’s toy railroad train tracks. The train and tracks were set up in the basement.
Detective Lou Smit, who was a proponent of the stun gun theory, as were the Ramsey attorneys, suggested that someone with a stun gun could have incapacitated JonBenét in her bed and quietly carried her away, thus supporting an intruder theory. A family member would not have needed a stun gun, he surmised.
• At least one Boulder detective questioned why the Ramseys would have put the December 25, 1996 death date on their daughter’s headstone if they hadn’t known exactly when she died. The coroner had never stated an exact time of death, but it was presumed that JonBenét died around midnight on December 25 or in the early morning of December 26. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
John Ramsey has said that he deliberately put December 25 as the date of JonBenét’s death because it was Christ’s birthday, and he wanted people to understand the outrage of her murder on that date. John added that he also chose the last day he and JonBenét’s mother and brother spent with her when she was alive.
• Boulder police consulted audio experts because they speculated that they had heard Burke Ramsey’s voice in the background of Patsy’s 911 call the morning the ransom note was found. That would contradict John and Patsy Ramsey, who had said their son was still sleeping when Patsy placed that call. While Burke Ramsey did say in a statement that he’d pretended to be asleep when his parents came into his room that morning because they were so upset, according to his parents, he was still upstairs when Patsy placed the 911 call. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
The 911 tape allegations went nowhere. Boulder Police Department officials were never able to play them clearly for those who gathered for their formal presentation to other law enforcement officials in June 1998.
• Since JonBenét’s murder, there has not been a similar crime. This fact led one Boulder detective to privately state, “How could it be an intruder if there was never another crime like it?” (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
There is precedent for notorious killers who simply stopped killing, however.
One Ramsey attorney has pointed to the case of Wichita’s serial killer Dennis Rader. Rader tortured and killed ten people between 1974 and 1991 and sent taunting letters to the media and police. He was self-proclaimed as BTK or “Bind, Torture and Kill.” In 1991, he stopped killing and all communications from him stopped. For thirteen years, the police and public knew nothing. However, in 2004, he began writing letters publicly again. Through new evidence, police arrested Rader a year later in 2005. A church deacon, he eventually confessed to the ten murders.
In San Francisco in 1968 and 1969, the Zodiac Killer terrorized the city, claiming that he’d killed seven people. He would send letters to newspapers describing each crime and naming the victims. As far as authorities know, he stopped killing in late 1969 and has never been identified.
The Ramsey attorneys have also said that any intruder smart enough to come up with the complicated staging involved in the Ramsey murder would change the way he commits other crimes. Or, they added, it’s possible that the killer just stopped killing, is in prison and never had his DNA taken, or is dead.
• Even though matching foreign DNA of a white male had been found on different pieces of clothing that JonBenét wore and on her body, some BPD officials considered this either an accident or a coincidence. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
The defense responded to that by saying, “What else could it be other than the killer’s DNA which doesn’t match John and Patsy or their family?”
John’s Journal:
We also offer to pay for the extensive DNA testing that is desirable, but very expensive. I imagined later how confused the police must have been if their prime suspects were offering to pay for the serious part of the investigation. All a scheme to throw them off track, they apparently think. What a bunch of idiots.
Shortly before Detective Lou Smit died in the summer of 2010 from colon cancer, he entreated those who visited him in hospice to not give up on the Ramseys and their case.
“It’s as simple as getting the DNA from the right person,” he said. “This is a DNA case now. No matter which way it goes, you have to get around that DNA. The answer is there.”
• Some Boulder Police Department detectives were suspicious of two of Patsy’s receipts from a Bou
lder hardware store in early December 1996 that each included a price of $1.99. The hardware store did not itemize then, but black duct tape was sold for $1.99 at that store. (BPD Report #1-792, #1-947, #1-948, #1-897, #1-876.) There were several other charges on the receipt. In Georgia, a sales clerk at a major hardware store reported that Patsy Ramsey had asked for “assistance in locating duct tape,” leading detectives assigned to the case to do “a hand search of approximately 20,000 register receipts … and they did not find any matches to a Colorado or Georgia driver’s license in the name of Patricia Ramsey.” (BPD Report #1-984.) The clerk said Patsy had been in the store between December 7 and December 14, 1996. (BPD Report #1-513.) Yet BPD officials also “couldn’t find a register tape for a register for which they believed the witness [clerk] would have been working.” (BPD Report #1-809.)
• Boulder police searched extensively to find evidence that one of the Ramseys had bought the type of rope or cord used on JonBenét. They went through thousands of receipts at hardware stores in Atlanta (BPD Report #1-984) and Boulder, then went through a hand search of records in Athens, Georgia, and found nothing conclusive connecting the family to the tape or rope. They did find three $2.29 charges from December 2, 1996 on Patsy’s credit card, but the charges were not itemized, and there were several other charges on that receipt. (BPD Report #1-1117.) That amount of $2.29 matched the price listed for white rope purchased at a hardware store that was similar to the rope used in the murder. BPD detectives also found “visually” similar rope at the Boulder Army Store and at McGuckins Hardware, and from a neighbor’s garbage can; the neighbor reported that the rope had been used on packages mailed to his home. (BPD Reports #1-513, #1-606, #1-779, #1-792, #1-983, #1-1114, #1-851, #1-885, #1-1125, #1-889.)
With regard to these Boulder Police Department searches, Ramsey attorney Pat Burke said, “They’re guessing. These were costs in 1996 where pricing included a large number of items for sale for the less expensive $1.99 and $2.29. The prices then were far less expensive than they are today. It’s a good example of the police trying to stretch to find anything to arrest the Ramseys. They didn’t find it with these price checks or comparisons.”
• The Boulder Police Department also suspected the Ramseys due to unexplained and/or troubling evidence in or near the Ramsey home, or on JonBenét’s body:
• A shoe imprint from a Hi-Tec brand of work boot was found in the basement storage room imprinted in mold growing on the floor. It did not trace back to the Ramsey family. All investigators who had been in the room had their shoes tested. There was no match to that size of Hi-Tec boot to the Ramseys or the police investigators (BPD Reports #1-1576, #1-1594.)
• Additional, partial shoe impressions were found near JonBenét’s body in the basement storage room and on the toilet tank cover in the basement northeast bathroom. (BPD Report #1-1518.) The Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent investigating these footprints has said that the FBI could never match them to anyone or any brand. (BPD Reports #3-165, #1-1518.)
• An unidentified pubic hair was found on the white blanket that had partially covered JonBenét’s body. (BPD Reports #1-1440, #3-128.)
• John Ramsey noticed (and has said he reported to BPD investigators) the presence of a scuff or drag-type mark on the wall underneath the open window in the train room, where the suitcase was found. (BPD Report #1-65.) The scuff mark was noted in later police reports. (BPD Reports #1-101, #1-90.) (BPD Report # 5-421.)
• There was glass and debris from outside the home on top of the suitcase and some debris from outside on the basement floor.
• Some BPD officers stated that John Ramsey had failed to look at, or tell BPD investigators about, the suitcase and open window in the train room. Yet a reference source in a police report noted that John Ramsey had been observed going into the basement, where he found the train room window open and closed it. (BPD Report #5-2733.) One of John’s friends also said that he noticed that the basement train room window was open and reported this to BPD investigators.
Northeast basement bathroom where an additional partial shoe impression was found on the top of the toilet cover. This area was investigated for possible entry into the home. Courtesy Boulder Police and Boulder County District Attorney.
• A stain on JonBenét’s body initially labeled by police as semen (BPD Report #3-15) in later weeks was proven to be a blood smear. The untrue “semen” information, however, was leaked to the media.
• JonBenét’s body had been wiped off. The autopsy report stated that, under specific lighting, the remains of some sort of liquid could be seen on her body. (WHYD Investigative Archive—Autopsy.)
• A rope was found inside a brown paper sack underneath a bed in the guest bedroom next to JonBenét’s bedroom. This was the room that John Andrew had used when he was home from college. The rope and brown paper sack did not belong to the Ramseys. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
• Small pieces of material from the brown paper sack were found in JonBenét’s bed and in the coroner’s body bag that had been used to transport her. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
• Brown cotton fibers were found on JonBenét’s body, the paintbrush, the duct tape and the rope ligature, according to Detective Lou Smit. These fibers were not identified. Smit was a proponent of the intruder theory and considered the Ramseys innocent. He suggested that these fibers could have been from brown cotton work gloves.
• Two pieces or flakes of white paper were found on JonBenét’s cheek. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation completed a microscopic examination of the paper and concluded they were from different sources. (BPD Report #3-40.)
• The suitcase found under the basement window had been used occasionally by John Andrew, who was attending nearby University of Colorado. At the time of JonBenét’s death, he was in Atlanta visiting his mother and sister for Christmas. While these facts were not disputed, the purpose of the items found inside the suitcase was questioned. The suitcase contained a pillow sham, a duvet and a Dr. Seuss book, all belonging to the Ramseys. (SMF 146; SMF 146 Wolf v. Ramsey deposition—Judge Julie Carnes.) It has been suggested that the killer could have used these items to possibly “comfort” JonBenét.
• Fibers from the same sham and duvet were found on JonBenét’s shirt when her clothing was examined. (SMF 147; PSMF 147 Wolf v. Ramsey deposition—Judge Julie Carnes.) The Ramsey attorneys asserted that this finding indicates that, at some point, JonBenét or her killer had had contact with those items.
• Fibers from the basement carpet, but no fingerprints, were found on a baseball bat found just outside the Ramsey home. The bat was considered a possible weapon that could have been used to fracture JonBenét’s skull. John, Patsy and Burke all said the bat didn’t belong to them. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
• A heavy flashlight, similar to the type of flashlights carried by many police officers, was found on the counter in the Ramsey kitchen. It, like the baseball bat, was considered a possible weapon that could have been used to hit JonBenét and fracture her skull. (BPD Report #3-145.) The flashlight and its batteries were fingerprinted, but no prints were found. The outside of the flashlight and the batteries inside had been wiped clean, according to an investigator. The Ramseys said the flashlight wasn’t theirs. (For several months, the flashlight couldn’t be found, according to one person working on the investigation. It was finally discovered in police evidence storage when the new commander on the investigation ordered a resorting and documentation of all Ramsey articles.) (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
• Forensic examiners found JonBenét’s blood on her Barbie Doll nightgown, which was found next to her body in the basement storage room. (JonBenét Ramsey Murder Book Index.)
• Fibers from the rope used to strangle JonBenét were found on her bed. (JonBenét Ramsey Murder Book Index.)
• Investigators discovered dark animal hairs on JonBenét’s hands. These hairs did not match any items tested from inside the house. (JonBenét Murder Book Index
.)
• An examination of the duct tape by the FBI discovered a black beaver hair stuck to the duct tape. (BPD Report from FBI #1-1140.) The FBI also found human hairs and fibers on the duct tape. (BPD Report #3-205.)
• Open doors were found in the home the morning the kidnapping was reported. (BPD Report #5-419.)
• A piece of blue paper was found outside next to the southwest window grate with a Boulder woman’s name on it. There was also a reference to a New Year’s Eve party. (BPD Reports #26-125, #5-4812.)
• An unidentified palm print was found in the storage room door area. (JonBenét Ramsey Murder Book Index.)
• Patsy Ramsey’s palm print was found in the storage room door area. (WHYD Investigative Archive.)
• “Leaf and white Styrofoam packing peanuts consistent with leaves and debris found pooled in the window-well were found on the floor under the broken window.” (SMF 136; PSMF 136 Wolf vs. Ramsey deposition—Judge Julie Carnes.) Such items were also “found in the wine-cellar [storage] room of the basement where JonBenét’s body was discovered.” (SMF 134; PSMF 134 Wolf v. Ramsey deposition—Judge Julie Carnes.)
• On December 24, 1996, in the morning hours, a neighbor who was also a personal friend of Boulder Detective Linda Arndt “observe[d] a dark blue Astro van parked across the street” from the Ramsey home. (BPD Report #1-98, Source.) On December 25 at 10 a.m., the same neighbor “observed a dark blue Astro van traveling north bound [sic] on 15th Street in the 700 block and stopped [sic] in front of the Ramsey home.” (BPD Report #1-98, Source.) On December 26, 1996, the same neighbor “may have seen [a] dark blue Astro van parked in the same general location near front of Ramsey home.” (BPD Report #1-98.) On May 21, 1997, Boulder Sheriff Homicide Detective Steve Ainsworth “determined a blue van parked across the street from the Ramsey residence on the morning of December 26, 1996 belonged to friends of the Ramseys.” (BPD Report #26-80.) There was no tiein with the blue van on Christmas Day, when it was spotted twice. There was also no indication that “the friends” with the van visited the Ramseys on Christmas Day.