Foreign Faction: Who Really Kidnapped JonBenet? (6 page)

Photo 4 - The white blanket on the floor of the Wine Cellar that was wrapped around the body of JonBenét. Source: Boulder PD Case File / Internet

White stated that he rushed down the short hallway and joined Ramsey just as the latter flipped on the lights in the Wine Cellar. . He could now see the partially wrapped body of JonBenét. He leaned down to touch her bare ankles, which were visible outside the blanket, and later told investigators that they were cold to the touch. White left Ramsey in the Wine Cellar and ran upstairs shouting for someone to call an ambulance.

Ramsey stated that he removed a piece of duct tape that covered JonBenét’s mouth and also removed a cord that had been tied around her left wrist. He then carried her upstairs and was greeted at the top of the stairwell by Detective Arndt.

Arndt, alerted to events by White’s shouting, saw Ramsey emerge from the basement carrying JonBenét upright and away from his body. JonBenét’s arms projected above her head, stiff from rigor mortis. Arndt instructed Ramsey to place JonBenét on the floor, and she then checked for vital signs. JonBenét’s lips were blue, and she was cold to the touch. Arndt could not find a pulse, and she noted an odor of decay. It was apparent that she had been dead for some period of time.

Arndt then picked up JonBenét’s body and moved her to the living room, laying her on her back on a rug in front of the Christmas tree.

Barbara Fernie and Priscilla White had been with Patsy Ramsey in the Solarium when they heard Fleet’s shouting for an ambulance and moved from the room. Patsy did not accompany them.†

Arndt and John Ramsey stood face-to-face over JonBenét’s body, and he was told that she was gone. She then directed him to call 911, since she had no radio with her to contact her dispatch center, and to then go to his wife.

Ramsey left and returned approximately two minutes later, and before Arndt could stop him, he grabbed a blanket in the room and placed it over her body. Someone else placed a sweatshirt over JonBenét’s bare feet. Not long thereafter Patsy Ramsey was led from the Solarium, supported in the arms of her friends, where she collapsed on her daughter’s body.

Despite being instructed by Detective Arndt to stand guard at the top of the basement stairs, Fleet White returned briefly to the Wine Cellar during these events. He picked up the duct tape, touched the blanket that had been wrapped around JonBenét’s body and handled a cigar box in the room.

Father Rol was leading the group in prayer when White returned upstairs. Patsy Ramsey was hysterical, wailing for Lazarus to raise her daughter from the dead.

Acting Detective Division Commander Sergeant Larry Mason arrived on the scene at 1320 hours and was accompanied by Denver FBI Supervisory Agent Ron Walker. They had learned of the discovery of JonBenét’s body while meeting on the investigation at the Boulder Police Department.

Mason directed the evacuation of the home, now considered to be a crime scene in its entirety. Both he and Walker were reported to have inspected the Wine Cellar before leaving the home.

At approximately 1340 hours, Detective Bill Palmer overheard John Ramsey speaking on the phone and making arrangements to fly to Atlanta that afternoon or evening. Upon the conclusion of the phone call, Palmer told Ramsey that he couldn’t leave town as he would need to stay to assist in the investigation of the murder of his daughter.†

The nature of this call was passed along to Mason, and he too spoke with Ramsey about leaving town. John Ramsey reportedly told Mason that he had to leave to attend a meeting “he couldn’t miss.” Sergeant Mason eventually convinced the father of the murdered child of the necessity of remaining in Boulder.

Fleet White and John Fernie had spoken to one another about where the Ramsey family could go, now that their home was being secured by police for a search warrant. It was agreed that the Fernies would make room for the Ramseys at their South Boulder home.

As the Ramsey family and friends were departing the home at approximately 1415 hours that afternoon, a taxi pulled up that contained John Ramsey’s older son and daughter from a previous marriage, John Andrew and Melinda Ramsey. Melinda’s fiancé, Stewart Long, was in attendance. Ramsey broke the sad news of JonBenét’s death, and the family left for the Fernie residence.

The kidnap of JonBenét by a foreign faction had now become a homicide investigation.

“There is a killer on the loose…I don’t know who it is. I don’t know if it’s a he or a she. But if I were a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep—keep your babies close to you, there’s someone out there.”

—Patsy Ramsey warning viewers during the CNN interview aired January 1, 1997.

B
oulder Police received a lot of criticism for having lost control of the initial crime scene, and they were soon playing catch-up to rectify the situation. What followed was one of the most thoroughly investigated homicides this country has ever witnessed.

The home had been sealed following Sergeant Mason’s orders to evacuate the residence, and officers were posted to insure the integrity of the crime scene. Investigators gathered at the police department to strategize their next steps.

Detective Division Commander John Eller cut short his vacation and, leaving visiting family from Florida at his home, responded to the police department to direct the investigation.

FBI Supervisory Agent Ron Walker spoke to Eller briefly before leaving the department. Local authorities were responsible for investigating murder, and the FBI no longer had concurrent jurisdiction for a kidnapping.

“You need to look at the parents,” he told Eller.

Statistically, only about 6 percent of child murders are committed by strangers. The percentages drop significantly when a child is found murdered in their own home. The veteran FBI agent reiterated that the parents had to be considered in the investigation of the death of this little girl.

Detectives and officers who had the opportunity to ask questions of John and Patsy Ramsey that morning before the discovery of her body had a general outline of what had occurred the previous evening of Christmas day. They had been told that the Ramseys had attended a dinner party at the White residence on Christmas evening and returned home before 10:00 p.m. John Ramsey reported that he read to both children before retiring for the night and that he had been the one to tuck JonBenét into bed.

It was related that both parents had thought the house to be locked before they went to bed that night, and John Ramsey had actually inspected the doors before retiring. No keys had been lost or stolen, and the only other people who had keys to the residence were Patsy’s mother, John’s oldest son (John Andrew), and the housekeeper, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh. Patsy’s mother and John Andrew were both reported to be out of state for the holidays.

The family dog, Jacques, was in the custody of neighbor Joe Barnhill, who lived across the street from the Ramsey home. The family was headed to their vacation home in Charlevoix, Michigan early on the morning of December 26
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, and the dog would remain at his “second home” in Boulder.

The officers were aware that Patsy Ramsey’s version of finding the ransom note had changed. She initially told French that she had stopped by JonBenét’s bedroom on her way downstairs that morning. JonBenét’s bed was empty, and she proceeded downstairs to find the note at the bottom of the spiral staircase at the rear of the kitchen.

Patsy Ramsey had then told Detective Arndt that she had found the note first, and returned to the second floor bedroom of her daughter to discover her missing. There would be additional inconsistent statements to come in the following months.

Detective Kithcart had discovered what appeared to be a practice ransom note on a pad identified as belonging to Patsy. Written in black by a felt-tip pen were the following words:

“Mr. and Mrs. I”

The “I” appeared to Kithcart to be the down stroke of the pen that would start the capital letter “R.” He felt that investigators needed to look for additional handwriting exemplars and pens that may have been used to author the note.

Commander Eller appointed CSI Mike Everett as the lead technician responsible for directing the collection of physical evidence from the scene. Another investigator was assigned the task of writing search warrant affidavits for the home, and consideration was given to obtaining warrants for the home of Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, the housekeeper, and John Ramsey’s office.

After several re-writes of the affidavit as directed by the D.A.’s office, investigators finally returned to the Ramsey home to continue their processing of the scene. The seal on the front door was broken at 2036 hours on the evening of December 26, 1996.

CSIs carefully worked their way through the residence, videotaping the premises before any additional processing took place. 35 mm still photographs were taken that evening as well.

JonBenét’s body had remained in place where Detective Arndt had placed it in the living room earlier that day, and Boulder County Medical Examiner John Meyer accompanied investigators to the scene that evening to personally oversee the removal of her body. An autopsy to determine the cause of her death would be undertaken the following morning.

It had been a long and emotionally draining day. Investigators concluded their work for the night and resealed the home at approximately 0021 hours.

Boulder residents would learn of the crime the following morning.

A 6-year-old Boulder girl reported kidnapped early Thursday was found dead in her parent’s home later that afternoon. It is Boulder’s first official homicide of 1996.

Police detectives and crime scene investigators began searching the home late Thursday after securing a search warrant. No details of what they found were disclosed.

Although the official cause of death was not yet known, Police Chief Tom Koby said the case is considered a homicide. The child had not been shot or stabbed, said Detective Sgt. Larry Mason.

No arrest had been made as of press time, and police had no suspects, Mason said.

The Boulder County coroner’s office refused to discuss details of the case, though an autopsy will be performed today, according to city spokeswoman Leslie Aaholm.

The child was 1995 Little Miss Colorado and a student at Martin Park Elementary School, according to a family friend. Patsy Ramsey traveled around the country with JonBenét to attend her daughter’s beauty contests. “They were so serious about this beauty queen stuff, but they never put any pressure on her. She was Little Miss Colorado in 1995.” said Dee Dee Nelson-Schneider, a family friend.

“She had her own float in the Colorado Parade of Lights in December 1995, and Patsy walked along the side of the float the whole parade to make sure (JonBenét) was safe. That’s how protective Patsy was.”

—Elliot Zaret and Alli Krupski
Boulder Daily Camera, December 27, 1996

CSI Everett and other investigators would return to the home on the morning of Friday, December 27
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at 0925 hours and resume their search for evidence. During his exploration of the premises, Everett observed spider webs, approximately ten inches (10”) in length, on the southwest edge of the window grate that covered the Train Room window well. These were attached to bricks, rocks and foliage near the grate. He noted that the foliage near the grate didn’t appear to have been trampled or disturbed.

CSIs would continue to photo-document their exterior search of the residence though unfortunately, the spider webs described above were not photographed in detail.

Also, a triangular-shaped cobweb attached to the lower-left window frame of the Train Room window well was photographed by 35 mm film and video.

Photo 5 - Imprint of the poon of Hi-Tec boot print on floor of Wine Cellar. Source: Boulder PD Case File / Internet

During their initial processing of the home, the Wine Cellar was examined in detail, and investigators noted the imprint of the poon of a boot in some mildew on the floor next to where

JonBenét’s body had been concealed. It was from a “Hi-Tec” brand hiking style boot, and there appeared to be another partial boot or shoeprint impression nearby.

The poon of the boot was insufficiently distinguishable for comparison purposes, however. More specifically, there was nothing in the label of the boot impression that would help match it to another boot because of a wear pattern or other irregularity. Its presence in the cellar could only illustrate that at some point in time, perhaps days or months prior to the discovery of JonBenét’s body, someone wearing a Hi-Tec boot had stood in that room.

CSIs would make another important discovery during their search of the home.

Broken shards of wood from a “Korea” paintbrush handle would be found on the floor outside the entrance door of the Wine Cellar. A portion of the matching handle was found in a paint tray near the door, and this would eventually be matched to the broken wood handle used in the garrote that had killed JonBenét.

Photo 6 - This paint tray contained remnants of the Korea paint brush used in the garrote to murder JonBenét. Source: Boulder PD Case File / Internet

It appeared that the garrote had been constructed at the entrance to the doorway of the Wine Cellar, and investigators believed that JonBenét’s murder had taken place in that very location.

One additional odd piece of physical evidence would be discovered sitting in plain view on the top of a kitchen counter. Standing upright amidst food articles, a black Maglite brand flashlight, similar to the type used by police officers, had been observed by the CSI’s processing the crime scene. There were no identifying marks on the flashlight, and no officer who had been present at the scene claimed ownership. CSI’s collected the flashlight as possible evidence.

Photo 7 - Maglite flashlight left on kitchen counter. Source: Boulder PD Case File / Internet

It was processed for latent fingerprints, inside and out, but nothing could be lifted from its surfaces.

The Ramseys would later indicate that they may have owned a similar style of flashlight, and stated that it had been kept in a kitchen drawer. It had been given to them by John Andrew, but the fingerprint powder depicted in the photograph of the flashlight altered its appearance in such a way that it apparently threw off their identification of the gift.

John Fernie and housekeeper Linda Hoffmann-Pugh would subsequently identify the flashlight as belonging to the Ramsey family, both having seen it in the home before the kidnapping.

The presence of the flashlight on the kitchen counter was never fully explained, however. It would later be identified as a possible weapon used in the blow to JonBenét’s head.

Investigators and CSIs worked through the day, collecting and tagging numerous items of potential evidence. They would return again the following morning and continued to process the home for evidence for 10 straight days, having sought two additional search warrants over this period of time.

While CSIs carefully worked their way through the Ramsey home, Eller had detailed a team of police officers to round-the-clock security at the Fernie residence, and they were on-site not long after the Ramsey family took refuge in the home of their steadfast friends.