We Have Your Daughter Page 4

  Examining the case years later in a three-day Boulder Police Department review, several invited and experienced homicide detectives from throughout the state of Colorado would voice concerns that officers on the scene failed to report to Whitson the other signs in the basement: the suitcase out of place, the broken window and the scrape mark on the wall. “The scene briefing is the only opportunity for the next in command to obtain initial aspects of the crime scene prior to subsequent investigation.”5

  Information about the handwriting samples collection and the police photographs of the Ramsey home was contained in Detective Linda Arndt’s report dated January 8, 1997: “Ofc. Weiss was photographing the interior and exterior of the residence. Ofc. Barklow was attempting to obtain latent fingerprints. Areas checked included: possible points of entry and exit to the residence; as well as the spiral staircase leading from outside JonBenét’s bedroom to the first floor; and the door leading into JonBenét’s bedroom.”

  There was limited documentation of evidence gathered during those first critical hours. Forensic officers only documented parts of the scene when the whole house, inside and out, had been important. The two forensic officers should have looked everywhere and documented everything, especially since at that early stage no one could have known what might be useful evidence. “Conducting a scene walk-through provides the investigator(s) in charge with an overview of the entire scene.”6

  After directing the collection of the handwriting samples, Whitson then approached Patsy. She was sitting with two friends in a small sunroom. Whitson’s conversation with Patsy was brief, lasting less than a minute. Whitson introduced himself, telling Patsy he had contacted the FBI and everyone was trying to help her and John get their daughter back. Whitson would later state, “She was extremely upset and mumbling ‘my baby.’”

  While the difference in behavior between the husband and wife was dramatic, Whitson later said, “I didn’t think it was unusual.” He added that, in his twenty-two years of police experience, “I saw people respond all sorts of ways to stress and grief.”

  Whitson got little information from Patsy, but one of his detectives reiterated that both John and Patsy had been interviewed and the process was ongoing. The interviews had not been recorded because the two detectives had only one tape recorder between them, and they’d decided to hook that to the telephone in case the kidnapper made his promised ransom call.

  Whitson left with one of the two detectives for a 10 a.m. meeting he had scheduled with the FBI. He told the remaining patrol officers they should also leave.

  After leaving the home, Whitson wrote in his report: “Det. Patterson and I checked the area near the Ramseys’ home for any suspicious looking people or vehicles and did not see anyone unusual. I responded to the Police Department and met with several Detectives and representatives from the FBI. During this meeting, [Boulder] Det. Jeff Kithcart came into the room and I handed him the two note pads which I was given as samples of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey’s handwriting.” (Commander-Sergeant Robert Whitson—Date of Report 12-27-1996.)

  The promised phone call from the kidnapper was supposed to occur “between 8 and 10 a.m.,” yet all police personnel except one detective had left the Ramsey home before 10 a.m.

  By then, hell and its resultant misery were ready to open their doors for all to see.

  CHRONOLOGY

  DECEMBER 26, 1996—THURSDAY

  According to standard police protocol, only law enforcement (detectives and lab personnel) should have been in the Ramsey home the morning of December 26, 1996, because the entire home was part of a presumed kidnapping, and therefore a crime scene. Yet there had been eighteen people in and out of the house that morning: eight police officers, two Victim Advocates, three Ramsey family members and five family friends.

  An accurate and signed police entry/exit logbook from the crime scene was not kept. Logbooks represent another way of gathering evidence. They are signed by each officer, who is also supposed to note their times of entering and exiting the scene. In the Ramsey logbook, there are occasionally several times listed for what should have been one sign-in and sign-out for each of the officers.7 Here are the best records available from the JonBenét Ramsey Murder Book Index:

  5:52 a.m.—Patsy calls 911.

  6:00 a.m.—First officer, Rick French, arrives at the Ramsey home.

  6:01 a.m.—Friend of the family arrives at the Ramsey home. The records never mention his wife’s arrival, but she appears a short while later.

  6:02 a.m.—Second officer, Sergeant Paul Reichenbach, arrives at the home.

  6:10 a.m. and 6:20 a.m.—More friends arrive after being called by Patsy. Two arrival times are listed for them in police records.

  6:10 a.m. and 6:16 a.m.—Third officer, Karl Veitch, arrives at the scene. Two arrival times are listed in police records.

  6:30 a.m.—First Victim Advocate arrives.

  6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m.—Second Victim Advocate arrives. Two arrival times noted.

  6:40 a.m. and 6:56 a.m.—Fourth officer, Barry Weiss, arrives. Two arrival times noted.

  7:00 a.m. and 7:10 a.m.—Fifth officer, Sue Barklow, arrives. Two arrival times noted.

  7:00 a.m.—JonBenét’s brother, Burke, is roused from his bed by his father and a friend and taken to a family friend’s home.

  7:13 a.m.—The Ramseys’ minister arrives.

  8:10 a.m. and 8:11 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.—Two detectives, Fred Patterson and Linda Arndt, arrive. It is two hours and 18 minutes, two hours and 19 minutes or two hours and 38 minutes after the 911 call. By protocol, the detectives are in charge of the scene.

  9:15 a.m.—Commander-Sergeant Bob Whitson arrives.

  9:45 a.m.—Whitson and one of the detectives leave.

  10:00 a.m.—All officers except Detective Arndt leave the home. Nine civilians remain. JonBenét is still missing.

  The wife of one of the Ramseys’ friends was never listed in the entry/exit log. The friend had been the first civilian to arrive, reportedly at 6:01 a.m. There is no indication in the log that his wife arrived, but she was in the Ramsey home early that morning.8 Several witness statements were taken from her about being in the home, and she and others have verified that she was there.

  CHAPTER 3

  FINDING JONBENÉT

  Burke and JonBenét at Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics. © John Ramsey.

  CHRONOLOGY

  DECEMBER 26, 1996—THURSDAY

  1:00 p.m.—Detective Arndt suggests John Ramsey and his friend search the home to see if anything is out of order.

  1:06 p.m.—(Approximate time) John finds his daughter’s body in an old basement storage room.

  1:30 p.m.—(Approximate time) John’s children from his first marriage (son, John Andrew, and daughter, Melinda, as well as Melinda’s boyfriend) arrive in Boulder after flying to Denver International Airport from Minneapolis.

  1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.—(Approximate time) The Ramseys leave their home and go to a friend’s home to stay. The police have interviewed them and don’t ask to continue to interview them. Nor do they take the family to the police department for interviews, forensic physical examinations and DNA testing.

  Early evening and that night—John’s brother, Jeff, family friends and Patsy’s sisters arrive at the airport in Denver from Atlanta.

  TO LOOK AT THE GOOFY SMILE on the handmade turtle, which sports a painted and shaped paper plate for its shell, is to see what she saw.

  Turtle with paper plate shell made by JonBenét. © John Ramsey.

  Her art teacher wrote that she “draws happy, sunny pictures. She is talented and a care-giver to other students.”

  Her music teacher said JonBenét “loves to dance and sing. She always makes sure that each student has his/her turn.”

  Her homeroom teacher wrote on JonBenét’s report card after her first few months in Kindergarten: “JonBenét is a pleasure to have in class. She is a confident, positive student who works hard on all assignments. JonBenét’s mature beh
avior makes her a positive role model for other students.”

  Self-portrait made by JonBenét. © John Ramsey.

  Homeroom teacher’s comment about JonBenét.

  THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1996

  Although John, Patsy and their friends had been allowed to wander throughout the home during the morning, after nearly all the police officers left before 10 a.m., all civilians on site were instructed by the remaining detective to stay in a back section on the main floor. This is where the detective, John and Patsy, their friends and the two Victim Advocates waited for the ransom call. The phone rang several times that morning. Some were return calls from acquaintances John had called while trying to arrange the $118,000 ransom money for when the call came from the kidnapper. Others were from friends, unaware of the devastating circumstances inside the home, who were calling to wish the Ramseys happy holidays. With each call, John experienced brief seconds of relief and then despair. He answered with a simple hello, trying to keep his voice calm. With each call, he thought, “Maybe this is the kidnapper. Maybe he’ll let me hear my daughter’s voice.”

  One call that morning was unlike the others. With this call, there was a split-second pause on the line, and then the caller hung up. In 1996, the family didn’t have caller ID, and the call was not long enough to complete a trace of it through the phone company.

  “I thought it was the kidnapper,” John said later. The caller had waited just long enough to hear his voice. Why did the caller hang up? Who was it?

  There was nothing he could do.

  It was a long, slow morning of suffering. The small group of people waited and prayed while their hearts were slowly torn apart … As Patsy negotiated with God, at one point she was overheard by a police officer saying, “If only it was me, I would trade places with … I would trade places … oh please, God, let her be safe oh please, let her be safe.” (BPD Report #5-2627.)

  JonBenét Ramsey was born August 6, 1990.

  JonBenét’s birth announcement. © John Ramsey.

  Patsy holding newly born JonBenét on her lap. © John Ramsey.

  She was named after her father, whose full name is John Bennett Ramsey. Her mother used the soft, French J when she called her by name. Her father used the hard J.

  As a baby, JonBenét didn’t cry much. When she did, her mother knew she either needed a diaper change or it was time for bed. Otherwise, JonBenét smiled a lot and was delighted to sit and watch what was going on around her, always searching for a new sight. As she got a little older, her mom once said, she loved airplanes. When she heard one, she would point and wave toward the sky and say “pane.”

  Her half-sister, Melinda, remembers how much JonBenét liked to play outside and be with other children. “Kids!” JonBenét would yell out, pointing and turning all different ways in her stroller. “Kids!”

  Patsy kept her children busy. When asked what she did for a living, Patsy said she “invested in futures.” Most assumed that meant she worked in the stock market, but Patsy was talking about her children. She was a mother.

  JonBenét and Burke took piano lessons.

  At various times, JonBenét took violin lessons and acting lessons, participated in a children’s choir and attended gymnastics, singing and dancing classes.

  Both children skied, ice skated and were enrolled in rock climbing and Bible study classes.

  Patsy and John wanted them to be well rounded and to participate in family activities that included sports as well as educational and artistic endeavors. Burke had his father’s genes. He was quiet and became easily involved in activities by himself.

  JonBenét had Patsy’s personality times ten; she was gregarious and outgoing, and she liked people. She talked in her own language from an early age and then just talked a lot. She was “exuberant,” Patsy would say, adding that yes, “JonBenét went through the two-year-old phase.” She was very strong-willed and verbal, according to both parents.

  Once, when the family was skiing in Aspen, John thought JonBenét was skiing at too fast a speed and could lose control. He remembers them being at the top of an advanced run on a clear day of vivid blue skies and sunlight and snow. The grandeur of the Colorado Rockies was all around them, and here was his little girl, racing her way down the mountain. He skied down and tackled her.

  “Man, she was mad,” he remembered, smiling. They had both face-planted in the snow. JonBenét looked around, startled, trying to figure out what had happened. Then, sputtering with indignation, she demanded, “Dad, did you do that? I was just getting going!”

  “JonBenét, you were going too fast. You could have gotten hurt.” “No. Only if I couldn’t stop. I could stop.”

  “Well,” her dad answered, “I’d like you to slow down a bit.”

  They helped each other up and brushed themselves off, and then off they went, skiing again. JonBenét took off just as quickly but, this time, her dad was very close behind.

  On her first report card in kindergarten, JonBenét got thirty-nine plusses and needed work on recognizing the differences between a penny, nickel and dime and between a letter, word and sentence. She also needed to work on writing out her numbers past thirteen and reading color words. The only “x” she got was for a failure to recognize number patterns.

  JonBenét’s kindergarten report card.

  JonBenét had a certain vitality and was always active and busy. During a parental interview for kindergarten, Patsy wrote in some paperwork that “activities [JonBenét] liked were artwork, coloring, ceramics, reading, monkey bars, rollerblading and bicycling.” Patsy also wrote that JonBenét would rather “play with others than play alone,” got along “great” with her brother, and loved “scary stories.” She felt JonBenét did “well in printing, reading, art, computer, writing and letters.” With regard to discipline, Patsy wrote JonBenét was “very sensitive” and that “it was important not to pull her from a group, but to reach compromises.”

  In one Boulder Police Department report related to another care-giver for Burke and JonBenét, a long-time babysitter said, “JonBenét and Burke were the most loving brother and sister I’ve ever seen” (BPD Report #5-3610). Another report, however, related to a former nanny, stated that the nanny had “bad-mouthed the Ramseys a lot.” (BPD Report #5-1343.) It was reported by police that the same nanny “who babysat while Patsy was ill” had hit Burke: “Burke said she had hit him and he did not like her. She had been mean.” (BPD Report #5-3044.) That babysitter resigned or was let go as the children’s nanny soon after the incident involving Burke.

  When they weren’t in school, JonBenét and her brother were often outside playing with friends. JonBenét was an all-day person, which meant she’d wake up cheerful and ready for the day ahead. During the school year, she’d get up, get dressed and go to school. She and her brother carpooled to a local public school. She had a few after-school activities, and then she was home for dinner, family time and bed.

  Once, on a jungle gym with her mother standing by, JonBenét missed a rung, fell and landed flat on her back. Her parents had stressed laughter through playtime accidents. As Patsy ran up to her stunned, unmoving child, JonBenét suddenly burst into laughter and told her mom, “I’m not hurt, Mom. I’m going to get back on, and this time I won’t fall.” Patsy recalled, “I was always amazed by the confidence and maturity of statements like that from both Burke and JonBenét. I’m not so sure I would have climbed back on those monkey bars.”

  In a previously unreleased police report, Detective Linda Arndt, the only law enforcement person in the Ramsey home after 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 26, 1996, wrote about what she did that morning. According to this report (Detective Linda Arndt—Date of Report 1-8-1997), Arndt talked with Patsy about when she found JonBenét missing, who had keys to the home, their vacation plans and if Patsy had any ideas related to who might have kidnapped her daughter. Patsy told the detective about her housekeeper, the housekeeper’s family and how the housekeeper had recently asked to borrow $2,000. A
rndt also wrote that Patsy’s mother, by phone from Atlanta, had said she wanted Detective Arndt to know the housekeeper had told her “many times” that JonBenét was such a beautiful girl and asked if she (JonBenét’s grandmother) wasn’t afraid someone was going to kidnap her granddaughter.

  Arndt also interviewed John about his wife’s recent recovery from cancer. They talked about any suspicious people around the house but, according to Detective Arndt’s report, John said there hadn’t been any, as far as he knew.

  Detective Arndt also discussed the wording in the ransom note1 with John, the amount of the ransom, the strange signature on the note— “S.B.T.C”—and “things to say when the author(s) of the suspected ransom note called.” She also asked him about any employee of his company, Access Graphics, “who might be responsible for the disappearance of JonBenét.” “John did tell me that there was one employee he was forced to ‘let go’ approx. 5 months ago,” Detective Arndt wrote, adding that she and John then considered the employee in more detail.

  As Patsy lay on a couch, she talked with Arndt about the ransom note. “Patsy explained to me that [the housekeeper] did not use the words ‘hence’ or ‘attaché case.’ Patsy did not know why someone would ask for the amount of $118,000. Patsy said that amount had no significance to her. Patsy asked me why the author of the note had not asked for a larger sum of money, or at least a round sum of money. Patsy said the author of the note referred to John as being a Southerner. Patsy told me that anyone who knows John Ramsey knows he’s not from the South.”

  “John Ramsey’s friends made the following observations about the note: The author of the note directed the note to John Ramsey; the amount of $118,000 was an odd amount; the author of the note appeared to be somewhat educated, since the words ‘hence’ and ‘attaché case’ were used; the sentence ‘don’t try to grow a brain John’ seemed to be a slap in the face to John Ramsey; the closure ‘Victory! S.B.T.C’ did not make sense; and the reference to John Ramsey being a southerner [sic] indicated to the friends the person did not really know John Ramsey because John was originally from Michigan.”