We can approach these issues in several ways, all of them inconclusive. As we noted in the Lindbergh kidnapping, each individual is going to react differently. Many people thought Charles Lindbergh might be involved in the disappearance of his toddler son because of his seeming coldness and emotional aloofness. In fact, this was a man who knew he reacted best to crises when he maintained complete control. The same could be said of John Ramsey, a self-made business executive, navy veteran, and pilot who had already experienced the devastating loss of one child and had gone through the emotional and spiritual journey of despair and renewal that entailed. Much like John, Anne Morrow Lindbergh had been publically stoic during the crisis and its aftermath, doing her crying strictly in private. And like the Ramseys, Charles and Anne were never seen comforting each other or even having much to do with each other. Anne’s subsequently published journals, though, made clear the depths of both parents’ despair. So on this first point, remember that each person reacts differently. This is important not so much to defend the Ramseys as to give due consideration and compassion to any individual who suffers such a loss to violent crime.
That they took on lawyers so quickly could be interpreted as a sign that they knew they “needed” them. Or it could be because their friend Mike Bynum realized the perils of going into the criminal justice system unprotected, especially when Bynum believed—rightly, as it turned out—that the Ramseys had already become the focus of the police investigation. He has since confirmed that the lawyering was his idea. The Ramseys were wealthy, sophisticated people and were totally used to working through attorneys and other professionals in many aspects of their lives, much like Charles Lindbergh, who called Henry Breckinridge as soon as he discovered his son’s abduction. And being such types to begin with, they quickly became “good clients,” letting their attorneys call the shots and following their advice. The attorneys would have no real way of knowing whether their new clients were innocent or guilty, and their task would be to limit potentially jeopardizing exposure. This, in turn, might easily reinforce the message the cops already thought they’d received.
If I were still with the FBI and had been called in on this case, my first instinct, even before I’d seen any of the evidence, would be to look seriously at the parents. This, of course, was just the advice that Ron Walker gave.
But another factor that had been brewing long before the murder, of which the Ramseys had no knowledge or control, contributed to the investigative nightmare this case became: the Boulder Police Department, under chief Thomas Koby, and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, under longtime elected DA Alex Hunter, were enemy camps. They did not see eye to eye on how the law should be administered in this well-off, very liberal, freethinking community that was often referred to as “the People’s Republic of Boulder.” The crime rate was low, and what crime there was, the DA’s office was usually able to keep out of court with what the police considered absurdly generous and inappropriate plea bargains. This is an oversimplification of the issue, but rather than working together, the two agencies were often at cross-purposes.
This antagonism reached a boiling point within a few days of the murder and contributed incredibly to the mutual mistrust between the police department and the Ramseys.
Once Dr. Meyer completed the autopsy, Commander Eller and Chief Koby still had questions, mainly relating to the actual cause of death, the weapon used in the blunt-force trauma, and the meaning and significance of the vaginal abrasions. On the other side, the Ramseys wanted their daughter’s body returned to them for burial. This message came to the police through the district attorney’s office via assistant DA and felony division chief Pete Hofstrom.
According to Steve Thomas’s account, Hofstrom informed John Eller that the Ramseys wanted the remains back. The police were already annoyed because direct communication between the Ramseys and the DA’s office, rather than the PD, meant they were dealing through lawyers rather than directly. They particularly didn’t like the fact that Haddon, Morgan had close ties with several members of Alex Hunter’s staff. Eller told Hofstrom that he, the police chief, and the coroner had decided to hold the body for further tests. Eller was also irritated by his inability to get the Ramseys in for individual formal interviews.
Hofstrom then told Eller that the police could not “ransom” the body in exchange for an interview. Eller didn’t see it this way. Mike Bynum did, and the consequent bad blood between the police and the Ramseys on one hand, and the police and the district attorney on the other, would never go away.
The Ramseys “won” this round when, through their attorneys’ and Hofstrom’s insistence, the police did release the body, which the Ramseys brought back to Georgia for burial next to Beth. But unquestionably, the battle was joined.
GOING GLOBAL
A memorial service was held for JonBenet on Sunday, December 29, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, not far from John’s office at the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder. It was Patsy’s fortieth birthday. The family then flew to Atlanta for the funeral and burial on Tuesday, December 31.
On Saturday morning, the day before the memorial service, Linda Arndt and Larry Mason had gone to the Fernies’ home wanting to set up formal questioning with the Ramseys. John spent about forty minutes with them there, with two lawyers in attendance, but said Patsy was still highly medicated and in no condition to speak. In giving the officers some family background, he told them something about Patsy that, apparently, they had not known.
In June of 1993, after complaining of severe back and shoulder pains and a progressively distending belly on her normally trim and well-cared-for figure, Patsy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Originally labeled as stage III, she was soon downgraded to stage IV, the worst and most ominous designation, when it was found how far the cancer had spread. The Ramseys were once again devastated, so soon after Beth’s death, to be facing death yet again. Patsy said she questioned why God would give her two beautiful young children, only to take her away from them when they would most need her.
She was enrolled in a rigorous experimental program at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The protocol called for a week of chemotherapy treatment in Bethesda every month, followed by recovery and a battery of tests in Boulder, before returning for another depleting treatment in Bethesda. She lost her hair and was often too weak to get out of bed, the specter of death always close. This routine went on for many months, during which she saw many of her new friends and fellow cancer battlers in the program weaken and die.
She eventually made it, attributing her miraculous cure (if such a word can be used with regard to cancer) to a combination of first-rate medical care, emotional support from her husband and children, and God’s grace and intervention.
The detectives left the Fernies’ house disappointed that they had not been able to secure the interview they sought. And with the Ramseys leaving town for the funeral and burial in Georgia, they felt the pair was slipping out of their grasp.
By the time of the memorial service, this unusual and tantalizing case had already aroused great public attention. The Ramsey attorneys hired Washington, D.C., media consultant and former reporter Patrick Korten to handle television and press and keep them one step removed from John and Patsy, as well as the attorneys themselves. This was yet another move that brought on a flood tide of criticism: the Ramseys were trying to manage the news. Fleet White was apparently troubled by their girding themselves with lawyers and suggested the best way to get their story out was to go on national television and just tell it.
They addressed this by agreeing to appear on CNN in Atlanta the day after the burial: January 1, 1997. They would be interviewed by veteran reporter Brian Cabell, who, coincidentally, went to college with Mark Olshaker.
Toward the end of the interview, Cabell homed in on the question everyone wanted to ask. “The police said there is no killer on the loose. Do you believe it’s someone outsid
e your home?”
“There is a killer on the loose,” Patsy responded.
“Absolutely,” added John.
She went on, “I don’t know who it is. I don’t know if it’s a he or a she. But if I was a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep . . .” At this she broke down. John tried to comfort her, then she continued, “Keep your babies close to you. There’s someone out there.”
The story had gone global, so much so that Boulder mayor Leslie Durgin, who knew the Ramseys personally, would call a news conference on January 3 and proclaim, “People have no need to fear that there is someone wandering the streets of Boulder, as has been portrayed by some people, looking for young children to attack. Boulder is safe, it’s always been a safe community. It continues to be a safe community.”
The day before, the second thrust of the globalization of the Ramsey murder story had taken place. ABC’s Denver affiliate ran videos taken officially (for sale to parents and friends) at the All Star Pageant in which JonBenet had competed on December 17. Then there was an amateur video of a Royal Miss competition at a shopping center. Finally, an official video from the National Sunburst Pageant held in Atlanta during the summer of 1996 was shown in which JonBenet was wearing the sparkly white Vegas or Ziegfeld Follies–style outfit. These images brought most of the public into a world they hadn’t even known existed and made them wonder what kind of parents would allow or encourage their children to enter these pageants where little girls imitate big girls.
The Ramseys would be quick to point out that many little girls and their families participated in them, particularly in the South where they came from. It was JonBenet’s own choice, she wanted to get involved, had loved dressing up and performing since she was three, and had begged her mother to let her do it. At home, she even made her mother pretend to be the emcee and announce JonBenet walking down the runway. It was no different, they said, from parents and children involved in Little League, Cub Scouts, or Brownies, skating or any other type of performing. Anyone who saw anything suggestive or inappropriately sexual was reading into it. The pageants developed confidence, talent, and poise, and many of the participants dreamed of growing up and going on to Miss America, in which Patsy and her sister Pam had both competed.
But regardless of any explanation or decidedly unapologetic statements John or Patsy would make, to countless millions of viewers around the world, the images spoke for themselves. These were rich, arrogant parents who were alone in the house the night their daughter was killed, they refused to cooperate with police, they surrounded themselves with lawyers, and they dressed up their little six-year-old girl with lipstick and rouge and tinted hair and glittery makeup in suggestive outfits that made her look like a Vegas showgirl. What kind of people were these?
Meanwhile, Boulder PD had geared up for the most challenging and public case they had ever faced. Among the detectives John Eller assigned was Steve Thomas, who had been working undercover narcotics.
WHERE I CAME IN
On Monday, January 6, I was in Provo, Utah, preparing a training seminar for police officers with Greg Cooper, a former FBI special agent and one of the stars in my unit who was now the chief of police in Provo. When I called in to check my voice mail, I had a message from a private investigator named H. Ellis Armistead from Denver, who said he had been hired by the Ramsey family. He wanted to know if I was available to provide assistance regarding the homicide of their daughter. In return I left a message that I would be tied up in Utah for several days, but looking at my calendar, if they still wanted my assistance later in the week, I could probably meet them in Denver. I had heard about the Ramsey murder through the media, but between traveling and planning the seminar, I hadn’t thought much about it and didn’t know many details.
The next day Armistead got in touch with me at the Provo Park Hotel where I was staying. He said my expenses and a consultation fee would be paid, though the rate was not discussed. He indicated that attorney Lee Foreman, a partner of Hal Haddon and Bryan Morgan’s, the attorneys for John Ramsey, would be contacting me.
Foreman called around 9:00 that night and said he would like me to come to Denver and Boulder and conduct an analysis for them. He continued by saying that he had researched pedophiles and that John Ramsey did not fit the profile. John was successful in business, financially well-off, and married to a former beauty queen. I listened to Foreman’s evaluation without comment. It seemed clear to me that he was looking for someone “objective” to come up with the same analysis and evaluation.
I gave Foreman the standard rap I’d given all potential clients since I’d left the Bureau, whether they were private citizens or police agencies: You can buy my time if I have it to give, but my analysis is completely independent, and you can’t influence it. I will give you my report verbally. You may or may not like or agree with what I have to say, and it’s up to you whether you use it or not. If you wish, I will then produce a written report, which, since I am not an attorney, may be subject to subpoena. I won’t reveal any privileged or protected information you give me or say anything based on it. But if I’m asked for my opinion based on public information, I reserve the right to give it. Foreman agreed to the terms.
I flew to Denver on Wednesday, January 8, 1997. During the flight I made notes for myself of things I felt I needed to know and understand:
I. Facts of Case
Day, date, time. When was child determined to be missing? What did they do? Who did they call? Did they call police? What time? What time was child located? Where? By who? Describe location and position of child, crime scene, how dressed, cause of death. Blood? Where? Sexually assaulted? How do you know?
II. Note
Where found? By who? Paper—where obtained? Review letter.
III. Background of Family
—Business
—Who lives in house?
—Prior marriages
—How long married?
IV. Access to House
—Who?
—Security systems
V. Modeling Career [I was under the impression the victim was a child model.]
—Who sponsors?
—Who photographs?
—Family photographs?
When I got to Denver, I met with Lee Foreman and Bryan Morgan in their law office, which had been converted from an historic downtown building. We met in a glass-enclosed conference room they called “the bubble.”
I prefaced my conversation by saying I understood that they might have an opinion relative to the Ramseys’ involvement based upon their experience and research with pedophiles. However, I told them, at this stage they should not necessarily assume we were dealing with a pedophile. I explained the differences between preferential and situational child molesters, going through the steps necessary to do an analysis and noting that they would not have the autopsy reports, crime scene photos, and toxicology results, all of which I routinely use in making a determination about the type of offender.
I said that based on the limited media reports I’d read, it didn’t look good for their clients. Whether the information I’d seen was fact or fiction or a combination of both, the perception of the general public seemed to be that the Ramseys were responsible. For example, it was my understanding that they did not immediately contact the police department after finding their daughter. You can see that my factual knowledge at this point was still very limited.
I said I had heard that the Ramseys had never cooperated with the police, which sounded problematic to me.
The lawyers responded by saying that the Ramseys had been very cooperative with the PD since day one. Even though the extortion note had advised them not to contact the police or FBI, they had immediately notified the police. The police had searched the house along with some of John and Patsy’s friends but did not locate the victim. The Ramseys were so visibly upset that a friend of theirs had suggested getting John to search the house with a neighbor to keep him occupied. John and his fri
end Fleet White searched the house, ending up at a ten-foot-square wine cellar used for storage. The friend noticed that a window in the basement was broken and that glass fragments were on the floor. Ramsey remarked at the time that he was responsible for the broken window because he had locked himself out on several occasions and had broken the basement window to gain access. A window well outside the window was covered by a grate. You would have had to know about the broken window underneath to have attempted entry from that point.
As you can see, there were even some minor discrepancies in the attorneys’ version of events. The story was still being pieced together.
They continued by saying that Ramsey and White had searched the basement, and that it was Mr. Ramsey who went into the wine cellar room, then screamed, “Oh, my baby!”
This was an important point to me. From our experience with staged domestic homicides—that is, murders committed by a family member and made to look like something else, such as a rape or burglary gone bad—the killer will generally maneuver and manipulate to have someone else find the body. It is much easier for him to “react” and to maintain some distance from the crime.
For example, I had a case in which a man had killed his wife in their bedroom, then gone to work. But before he left, he moved the body to a storage cellar with access from the outside, then made the body look as if she had been sexually assaulted. He did this because he didn’t want his son to find the body when he came home from school, and so that, when it was found, it would appear to have been a rape gone bad. At his office, he called home several times to establish a phone company record, then, in the afternoon, called a neighbor who had a key to the house, telling her in a worried voice that he had been unable to reach his wife and would she please go over and check. The neighbor looked through the house without finding her, then called back and told him his wife wasn’t home but that the car was there and the bedroom was pretty messed up (the wife had been a meticulous housekeeper). The husband then called the police, relating the entire story told to him by the neighbor, and when they came over to investigate, they found her in the storage cellar. After this, my unit was called in.
The Cases That Haunt Us Page 37
