Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet? (36 page)

Was this a spontaneous utterance that betrayed a motivation for a lack of candor about this crime?

In my view, these were questions that required further consideration. In fact, from my perspective, the entirety of this investigation was awash in a sea of red flags.

And yet, remarkably, there were additional discoveries that would be made more than thirteen years after the murder of this little girl.

“You know, America has just been hurt so deeply with the tragic things that have happened. The young woman who drove her children into the water, and we don’t know what happened with the O.J. Simpson – and I mean, America is suffering because (people) had lost faith in the American family.

We are a Christian, God-fearing family. We love our children. We would do anything for our children.”

—Patsy Ramsey during the January 1, 1997 CNN interview

A
s I became convinced that involvement of any intruder in JonBenét’s murder was not a viable possibility, I focused my attention on members of the Ramsey family who were present in their home at the time of the murder. In the preceding chapter, I have narrated my thoughts on statements and circumstances that suggest John or Patsy may have been involved.

My review of the investigation revealed that little attention had been paid to Burke Ramsey’s possible involvement in the events of December 25th and 26th. In this and the ensuing chapters, I address what we know about Burke and his circumstances at the critical times. My in depth examination of that information, I believe, shows that to reach the truth in this investigation requires a full inquiry into Burke’s family and mental health history, and his knowledge and conduct on December 25th and 26th, 1996. My analysis of what we know now provides the beginning, but by no means the end, of that inquiry.

From the outset of this investigation, the Ramsey family appeared to have gone to great lengths to distance Burke from Boulder Police investigators. Rick French attempted to speak to him on the morning of the kidnapping as he was departing the residence with Fleet White. John Ramsey intervened and told the officer that Burke had been asleep and didn’t know anything.

Well, how would Ramsey know that? The family has repeatedly stated that they never woke him up that morning to ask him
anything
about JonBenét’s disappearance.

Boulder investigators did get one preliminary opportunity to speak with Burke, however, and Detective Fred Patterson had the foresight to scramble to the White residence not long after the discovery of JonBenét’s body. This interview took place at approximately 1500 hours on the afternoon of December 26, 1996, and a woman at the residence, identifying herself as Burke’s grandmother, sat in on the interview. The transcript of the recording was the first glimpse I had into Burke’s thought processes.
⁶⁵

It is not clear whether Burke was aware that JonBenét had been found at the time that this interview was conducted, but throughout the questioning, I found it odd that he never once expressed concern for his sister or asked about the status of the search for her.

Quite the opposite was observed. Detective Patterson had to stop his interview at one point in order that Burke could finish eating a sandwich. Here was a police detective, asking him about the disappearance of his sister, and he was so engrossed in the act of eating that he couldn’t articulate his words with a mouth full of food.

Patterson was able to elicit some details about events leading up to the kidnapping and was informed that Burke had played at home until around 1630 – 1700 hours on Christmas day and had put on a sweater before heading to the White dinner party. He played and ate some sandwiches while there and stated that the family went directly home after the party.

This conflicted with statements offered by the parents who reported that they had made two stops on the way home to deliver Christmas presents to family friends.

Burke stated that he put on his P.J.’s, brushed his teeth, and went to bed upon arriving home. He estimated this time frame to have been between 2030 and 2100 hours.

The only noise he reported hearing after going to bed was the “squeaking water heater.” He did not hear any “scream, cry, yell or any raised voices” during the night.

Burke provided conflicting information about waking: in one instance he advised that he woke and his father told him about JonBenét being gone. In another instance, he advised Detective Patterson that his dad had awakened him and told him that his sister was missing and that they were going to find her.

At the close of the interview, Burke again stated that he didn’t hear any arguing between anyone the previous night.

A red flag fluttered when I noted that Burke concluded the interview, not with a question about the welfare of his missing sister, but with a comment about his excitement about going to Charlevoix. The anticipation of being able to build a fire at the family’s second home apparently held some appeal to him.

It was an odd comment, and I concluded my reading of the last page of this transcript with more questions than what I had going in at page one. How could Burke not be inquiring about the status or welfare of his missing sister? Was it conceivable that he was already aware of her fate?

Detective Patterson’s interview was the first of several that would eventually be conducted with Burke over the course of the investigation and each provided some new insight into the enigma of this little boy.

Sgt. Mason had attempted to arrange another interview with Burke during his brief visit to the Fernie residence on the evening of December 27
^th
, but as with Patsy, Dr. Buef refused to allow that to occur. When the second interview was subsequently scheduled, it was conducted by a member of the Department of Social Services (DSS), and not a law enforcement officer.

As I write this chapter, it occurs to me that I never asked anyone involved in the investigation how it came to pass that Burke was interviewed so early in the investigation and at a time when his parents were refusing to participate in follow-up interviews with police investigators.

As noted previously, however, this interview had been one of the recommendations made by the Child Fatality Review Team that had been convened by the Coroner on the afternoon of JonBenét’s autopsy. So I have to presume that it had something to do with DSS protocols that required the removal of siblings from the home in the event of a child’s death. I suspect that the Ramseys capitulated to this second interview because they didn’t want to give up temporary custody of their son to the Department of Social Services.

At the family’s insistence, the interview, conducted on January 8, 1997, was performed only by personnel from DSS, and Dr. Susanne Bernhard was the sole adult in the room with Burke. She later provided her assessment of his reaction to events surrounding the kidnapping and murder of his sister to one of the Boulder investigators.

There had been no transcript prepared for this interview, but a brief synopsis was written up by Detective Jane Harmer after she spoke with Dr. Bernhard. I read through the outline of the dialogue that had been exchanged between Dr. Bernhard and Burke and her assessment of the interview. She had expressed concerns about Burke’s “affect” during the interview and indicated that he showed little emotional connection with his family. I came away wanting to know more.

It took some time, but I eventually obtained a copy of the video of this interview, and I reviewed it on many occasions. I was troubled by what I saw.

At one point during the interview, Dr. Bernhard asked Burke if he felt safe in his home. There was no hesitation when he responded that, yes, he felt safe at home and was not worried about an intruder returning.

I thought it unusual that he would feel safe about his circumstances following the death of his sister. Here he was, probably 30 feet down the hall from her bedroom, when an intruder silently crept into his home and snatched his sister from her own bed and brutally tortured and murdered her within earshot of his family. There were other children and families in Boulder who were terribly afraid that they could be the next target of this monster, and Burke seemed not to give it a second thought.

When asked key questions about sexual contact, his body language exhibited signs of anxiety, and at one point, he picked up a board game they were playing and was rubbing it on his head. The display of this body language contrasted to the behavior exhibited as a baseline throughout other parts of the interview.

On another occasion, Dr. Bernhard had mistakenly taken a sip from Burke’s soda can. He seemed to bristle at the intrusion of his personal space / property and indicated that he couldn’t drink from the can anymore.

I was taken aback at another comment offered during the playing of a board game. The nature of the game involved guessing the features of faces hidden on the opponent’s side of the game board. Burke had mistakenly flipped down a face on his side of the board and then returned it to an upright position, commenting: “Oops, you’re not dead yet.” This off-hand comment seemed extremely callous and suggested little care or concern for the circumstances at hand. I would later think that this comment might have its source in the events surrounding the death of JonBenét.

Dr. Bernhard had also expressed concern about the family portrait Burke had been asked to compose during the interview. She noted that JonBenét was conspicuously absent from the picture.

It was Dr. Bernhard’s experience that many similarly situated children included dead relatives in their family portraits for years after their passing. It was an interesting contrast because it was reported that many of JonBenét’s classmates had drawn pictures of her into their artwork when they attended a grief and counseling session hosted at her elementary school a couple days after her death.

In Burke’s situation, however, a week and a half after the brutal murder of his sister, he was now moving forward with his life and JonBenét was no longer of importance. She had not been drawn into the family picture. Hardly the response I would have expected from a 9-year-old boy who had just lost a sibling to a violent death.

Dr. Bernhard also made note of the size of the figures representing Burke’s parents and suggested that their small stature in the picture possibly signified an issue with emotional attachment.

His father was pictured in the window of the cockpit of a distant plane, and she interpreted this to mean that Burke’s father didn’t play a significant role in his life and was viewed as distant and remote.

His mother was smaller than the figure representing Burke’s self-portrait, and Dr. Bernhard thought that she didn’t hold much sway or influence over him.

I also thought it interesting that Burke admitted to having
secrets
during the interview, but wouldn’t reveal them to Dr. Bernhard because then they would no longer be a
secret.

I had interviewed Dr. Bernhard, (now going under the name of Pinto) on the first of December, 2005, because I was intrigued by the composition of the family portrait Burke had been asked to draw and wanted to see it first-hand. Unfortunately, she did not have it in her possession, so I never was able to see it, or secure a copy for the investigative files.

We spoke of many things during our interview, but what concerned me the most was her continuing impression of the nine year old. She remembered that Burke had presented a flat, unemotional affect, that he was closed down and that she had a difficult time drawing information out of him. He seemed reticent to talk about his family, and she thought him very protective of them.

It was her experience that kids usually talked more about their family relationships, and Burke was not displaying attachment to either his sister or parents.

She commented on the fact that he had shed no tears when speaking about JonBenét’s death.

She went on to explain that it was sometimes difficult for children to distinguish what to say and what not to say, especially when they are trying to hide something.

I inquired about the picture that Burke had drawn of his family during their interview. She advised that it was difficult to interpret. The drawing represented a family that was not attached, and it raised questions for her about the typical behavior taking place in the household.

I asked further about indications of childhood personality disorders, and Dr. Bernhard explained that anxiety such as that displayed by Burke at points in his interview comes from caring and that this type of behavior is not typically observed in sociopathic personalities. She indicated that some of Burke’s behavior could more likely be indicative of a dysfunctional environment.

While discussing the topic of childhood development, Dr. Bernhard advised that bedwetting usually ends around the age of 3 - 4 years. If it continues into the 5
^th
year, it is usually indicative of medical or emotional issues being involved.

Dr. Bernhard had expressed concerns about having follow-up interviews with Burke because of the “affect” he was exhibiting toward his family. These never took place, however, and apparently the one interview that DSS conducted with him on January 8, 1997, got the family off the hook. Burke was able to remain in the custody of his parents.

There was one other troubling aspect to Burke’s DSS interview that bears mention, but I need to provide another piece of information to place it into proper perspective.

During my review of police reports, I came across a transcript of an interview conducted with Mary Ann Kaempfer,
⁶⁶
whose son Anthony Pecchio was a classmate and friend of Burke. Anthony and his mother had been invited to accompany the Ramsey family to Atlanta for JonBenét’s funeral services, Anthony to be a playmate for Burke. Kaempfer, not knowing anyone in attendance, assumed the duty of being a nanny to the boys throughout the course of their stay in Georgia.

Boulder Police investigators, interested in a first-person account of what had transpired in Atlanta, interviewed Kaempfer on the evening of her return from Georgia.

She described Burke as being a “very withdrawn little boy”, who didn’t care much for hugs and would “rather you leave him alone.”