Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet? (13 page)

Next to a school picture showing the child beauty queen without makeup, the ad offers $100,000 “for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of JonBenét Ramsey.”

The ad says the 6-year-old girl was murdered Christmas night “…in her home by an unknown person or persons.”

It says the reward is offered by the JonBenét Ramsey Children’s Foundation and “the family urgently requests that if you have any knowledge which can assist in solving this crime, please contact (303) 443-3535 or Crime Stoppers at (303) 440-7867.”

JonBenét’s body was found in the basement of her parent’s Boulder home on the morning of December 26 after Patsy and John Ramsey reported finding a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the girl’s return.

—Boulder Camera

April 28, 1997

“Police spokeswoman Leslie Aaholm told CNN Wednesday that Patricia Ramsey has yet to turn in a fifth handwriting sample requested by investigators, who have ruled out her 53-year-old husband as the writer of the note. But she said investigators expect her to do so.”

—CNN U.S. News,

April 30, 1997

B
oulder investigators were anxious to have another opportunity at interviewing the parents after they had suddenly ceased communication on Saturday, December 28, 1996. There were many unanswered questions that they wanted to ask, and they wanted to further clarify information that had been gathered on the day of the kidnapping.

The F.B.I’s Behavioral Analysis and Child Abduction and Serial Killer Units,
the
premier federal law enforcement investigative agencies that dealt with these types of cases, were in direct consultation with Boulder Police and offering advice on how to arrange and conduct these follow up interviews.

It was apparent from the standpoint of Ramsey attorneys that they didn’t want their clients walking through the doors of the police department and being subjected to interrogation style interviews. They wanted to control the environment and the setting and continuously rejected investigator’s requests that the Ramseys come to the station like every other victim, witness, or suspect.

Patsy Ramsey continued to be emotionally fragile, and her attorney at one point had suggested that she be interviewed for no longer than an hour at a time and that she be in the company of her physician. The proffer was made that detectives would be allowed to see her at one of the Ramsey attorney’s offices, but no visit to the police department building would be permitted.

These terms were unacceptable to the investigators. They were perplexed by the Ramsey’s early decision to obtain legal counsel and felt that they were attempting to hide something. They wanted to speak to Patsy Ramsey in particular due to the similarities of her handwriting to the ransom note. This and the fact that the note had been written on a pad of paper belonging to her put Patsy in the “bucket” of suspects as Steve Thomas would later describe it.

The negotiations went on for weeks and were frequently played out in the press. Just when it seemed that everyone had agreed to a set of conditions, something would change, and the Ramsey PR team usually blamed authorities for being inflexible and insensitive to the victims of the crime.

Eventually, a date and time would be set: April 30, 1997. Investigators would be permitted the opportunity to separately interview John and Patsy Ramsey, and they could use the time in any manner they saw fit. Each would be represented by his or her attorney, of course, and a member of the D.A.’s office would also sit in as an observer.

Investigators were predominantly interested in Patsy Ramsey. In addition to her handwriting style being consistent with the ransom note, photographs that had been developed from the White’s Christmas day dinner party had been reviewed, and it was discovered that Patsy had been wearing the same clothing, a red turtleneck sweater and black pants, on the morning of the reported kidnapping as those depicted in the holiday photos.

Rick French had noted his observations about the attire in his initial police report and had also observed that her hair and makeup had been done on the morning of the kidnapping.

The clothing seemed out of character for the former Miss America beauty contestant, and family friends had told investigators that Patsy had never been observed to wear the same outfit two days in a row. She was always meticulous about her appearance.

Investigators were pondering if she had ever gone to bed that night, and were anxious to hear a full accounting of her story line.

Detectives Tom Trujillo and Steve Thomas were assigned the task of interviewing Patsy and John Ramsey, and it had been agreed that the interviews would take place in a conference room at the district attorney’s office.

Trujillo began the questioning by asking Patsy for some general background information and learned that she had grown up in Parkersburg, West Virginia. She pointed to some of the highlights of her upbringing, becoming a member of student government in junior high, mentioning that she had been a cheerleader in 10
^th
grade, and had moved on and up to the “drill team” her senior year.

She attended the University of West Virginia where she obtained a degree in Journalism and graduated Magna Cum Laude. During her college years, Patsy won the title of Miss West Virginia and went on to compete in the Miss America pageant. She reported winning a $2,000 scholarship during the West Virginia competition in the category of “dramatic dialogue.”

After completing college, Patsy moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the summer of 1979 where she met her future husband, John Ramsey. They were married in November, 1980.

Trujillo moved on to generic questions regarding her relationship with people in her neighborhood, her knowledge about the details of her husband’s business dealings, and the types of visitors who had frequented her home. She initially did not seem to be aware of any conflicts taking place in John’s work environment, but later in the interview was able to name three people who had left Access Graphics, John’s Boulder business, under difficult circumstances. Two of the men had reportedly been making threats after their departure from the business.

She expressed ignorance about the $118,000 year-end bonus that John had received and any relevance it may have had to the ransom demand made by the kidnappers of JonBenét.

Investigators wanted to know if she was familiar with or suspected any of the service workers who had been in the home over the years. A number of names were run past her, and she was unable to say that she recognized anyone in particular. No one stood out as a potential suspect in her early part of the interview.

Turning their focus to the events surrounding Christmas Day, Patsy indicated that the kids had awakened her and John around six that morning. They attempted to pace themselves in the opening of presents, and when all was said and done, she made a pancake breakfast for the family.

A number of neighborhood children came over later that morning and played throughout the course of the day with Burke and JonBenét.

John went to the airport sometime after the lunch hour to check on his private airplane. They were scheduled to fly to their “second home” in Charlevoix, Michigan at seven a.m. the following morning to have a second Christmas with John’s older children. John Andrew, Melinda, and boyfriend Stewart Long, were flying from the south to meet the Ramseys for a quick holiday celebration.

Another trip had been scheduled for the Ramsey family to take a cruise on Disney’s Big Red Boat in celebration of Patsy’s fortieth birthday, which was December 29
^th
. Patsy advised the investigators that she had continued to do some packing for both trips after their pancake breakfast. This included some last minute present wrapping in the basement of the home.

She reported that clothing for the Disney cruise was being packed into suitcases in John Andrew’s second floor bedroom.

Clothing for the Charlevoix trip was minimal and was being placed into plastic bags.

The family had been invited to Fleet and Priscilla White’s home that evening to join the family and their relatives for a Christmas dinner. The kids were cleaned up after their day of play, and Patsy advised that she believed they arrived at the White home sometime around 5:30 p.m. When queried about what JonBenét may have had to eat during the party, she indicated that Priscilla had specially prepared a plate of cracked crab to ensure that she would have some to enjoy. The kids reportedly liked seafood.

Patsy believed they stayed at the party for several hours and headed home around eight or nine p.m. They made two stops on the way, delivering Christmas gifts to the homes of the Walkers and Stines.

It was revealed that JonBenét had fallen asleep in the car when the family returned home from the dinner party, and that John Ramsey had carried her upstairs to her bedroom. Following close on, Patsy turned down her daughter’s bed and exchanged the child’s black party pants with long-john bottoms. The sequin-starred shirt that had been worn beneath a black vest remained on her daughter as she was tucked into bed for the night.

Patsy stated on several occasions that JonBenét was “really zonked” and never awakened after returning home from the party.

Patsy would confirm during the interview that JonBenét had not had anything to eat upon returning home that evening.

Patsy thought that perhaps John had stayed up to play with Burke for a few minutes before going to bed. She indicated that she had returned to the task of trying to finish putting things together for the morning trip and was not certain how Burke went to bed that evening. She denied have any further contact with him after returning home from the White dinner party.

After spending approximately 30 minutes on last-minute packing, Patsy indicated that she believed she had washed her face, brushed her teeth, and changed into pajamas for bed.

She estimated that she turned in around ten or ten-thirty p.m. Her husband joined her not long thereafter.

Patsy stated that she rose from bed around five-thirty the following morning, December 26
^th
, just after John had got up to shower. She reported that they had awakened without the use of the alarm. When queried about her activities upon rising, Patsy indicated that she had put on her makeup and done her hair and put on the same clothing worn from the dinner party the previous evening.

She stated that she stopped briefly in the hallway at the laundry machines located outside JonBenét’s bedroom door. It appeared slightly ajar the way she had left it the previous evening, and there was no light emitting from the room. Patsy then proceeded downstairs, intending to make some coffee and prepare a little breakfast before the morning flight.

She indicated that she did not check on her daughter until after finding the ransom note at the bottom of the spiral stairs at the rear of kitchen.

As she descended the rear circular stairway, Patsy noticed some papers spread across one of the lower treads. She stepped over them and turned to see three pages spread out from left to right. There was no indication that a light had been turned on in the darkened hallway, but she said that she leaned over to read the note.

She could not recall if she had handled the ransom note, and had only read the first few lines before seeing the part about someone having her daughter. She immediately ran back upstairs to check on JonBenét.

Patsy indicated that she pushed open the door to JonBenét’s bedroom and immediately saw that she was not there. The lamp next to her daughter’s bed was not on, and she screamed for John.

John rushed down stairs from their 3
^rd
floor bedroom, and Patsy told him about the note and that JonBenét had been kidnapped.

Photo 15 - Rear kitchen hallway and spiral stairs leading to 2nd floor. The Ransom Note was found on the bottom stair treads. Source: Boulder PD Case File / Internet

At some point, a quick check of Burke’s bedroom was made by her husband before police were called. He had come downstairs in his underwear, and had moved the note from the stair tread to the floor near the entrance of the kitchen. John was on his hands and knees reading the note when Patsy called 911 from a nearby kitchen wall phone.

Patsy did not believe that John had gone to the basement before the first officer arrived on scene and indicated that he had run back upstairs after the 911 call to dress.

It was indicated that Burke had remained asleep throughout the entire ordeal and that he had remained in his room until Fleet White suggested that he could hang-out at his home with visiting family in south Boulder. White did eventually drive Burke to his home where he remained until after the discovery of his sister’s body.

An initial suspect reported to police that morning was the Ramsey housekeeper, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh. Patsy mentioned that Hoffmann-Pugh had requested a $2,000.00 loan, and she thought that the handwriting on the ransom note looked similar to that of the housekeeper.

Patsy failed to mention to investigators during the April interview anything about Hoffmann-Pugh’s previous comments about “kidnapping.” On the morning of December 26
^th
, as investigators were investigating the case, it came to their attention that Linda Hoffmann-Pugh had once asked Patsy if she was ever concerned about JonBenét being kidnapped. Hoffmann-Pugh thought her to be such a pretty little girl that she might be an attractive target for someone who was so inclined.

At the close of the interview, Patsy denied writing the ransom note or knowing anything about a foreign faction or the meaning of “SBTC,” the purported signatory to the ransom note. In addition, she disavowed any knowledge about, or participation in, the death of her daughter.