Perfect Murder, Perfect Town Read online

  Hofstrom then called Michael Bynum, who confirmed that although John and Patsy refused interviews at this time, the entire family—including Burke, John Andrew, and Melinda—would give blood, hair, fingerprint, and handwriting samples. Bynum agreed that Detectives Arndt and Kim Stewart could speak to John Ramsey’s older children and his brother, Jeff, who were at the Fernies’ house.

  John Eller was unhappy with Bynum’s position. The commander acknowledged that a suspect had the right to an attorney once he was arrested, but he thought the investigative process was hindered by the courts’ liberal reading of the Sixth Amendment, which says that any person interviewed by law enforcement is entitled to counsel. For Eller, this court ruling was an unnecessary obstacle.

  Just after noon on Saturday, Boulder County DA Alex Hunter, who had been in Hana, a remote area on the island of Maui, without a phone or pager for the last two days, checked in with first assistant DA Bill Wise and learned about the murder. Hunter, who had been the Boulder DA for twenty-five years, often read the business section of the Daily Camera, but he didn’t recognize the family’s name and didn’t recall ever having met John or Patsy Ramsey. When Wise mentioned that Ramsey had hired private attorneys, Hunter wasn’t surprised. A man as apparently wealthy as John Ramsey would automatically retain counsel. And if the victim’s father had been Joe Schmo, Hunter knew that Boulder’s proactive public defender’s office would be right there advising Mr. Schmo just as John Ramsey’s attorneys were now advising him.

  Meanwhile, as Pete Hofstrom was talking to attorney Michael Bynum about the schedule for taking the Ramsey family’s blood, hair, and handwriting samples, he received a call from the police. Eller wanted the Ramseys to give the police formal interviews before they left to bury JonBenét in Atlanta, which he had learned was their intention. Eller told Hofstrom that he would withhold the child’s body until he got his interviews with the parents.

  “You didn’t get your statements in the first three days,” Hofstrom told Eller bluntly. “You may not use this method to get your statements now. It’s just not legal to withhold the body.” It was obvious to everyone that the commander wanted to rectify the mistakes made in the first hours of the case. But holding the child’s body hostage was unacceptable. “It’s illegal. It’s another mistake,” Hofstrom said. Eller said nothing.

  Hofstrom, balding, affable, and stocky, a former San Quentin prison guard, was exasperated by Eller’s thinking. If he had been the commander’s boss, he probably would have taken Eller off the case.

  When Eller hung up after this unpleasant conversation with Hofstrom, he told Larry Mason he was going to withhold the body. “John, you can’t do that,” Mason protested. “You’re violating their rights.”

  “I don’t give a goddamn,” Eller snapped. “You either get on board or get out.”

  Larry Mason could see that Eller had no idea how to handle this kind of investigation. His inexperience, bravado, and stubbornness were making a bad situation worse.

  On Saturday afternoon at the Justice Center, while the Ramseys were providing their various samples, Michael Bynum learned of Eller’s plan to withhold JonBenét’s body until John and Patsy agreed to be interviewed. The lawyer took Pete Hofstrom aside and told him that whether or not his clients had killed their daughter, they were still JonBenét’s parents. They had the right to bury their child. Bynum decided not to tell the Ramseys of Eller’s plan for the time being.

  When the police asked the coroner to hold JonBenét’s body until they had interviewed the Ramseys, he refused. There was no reason for his office to maintain custody of the body, John Meyer said. The police department’s legal adviser, Bob Keatley, agreed with Hofstrom and said so.

  Hofstrom would never say it publicly, but he had now lost all confidence in John Eller. According to Larry Mason, Hofstrom was a strict judge of character. Eller had clearly failed to measure up.

  At 4:37 P.M. a heavily sedated Patsy Ramsey gave the police her first blood, hair, fingerprint, and handwriting samples on the second floor of the Justice Center, a sprawling two-story sandstone building that contains not only the county courts but the sheriff’s department and the DA’s and coroner’s offices.

  “Will this help find who killed my baby?” Patsy asked Detective Arndt while her fingerprints were being taken. Then she added, “I did not murder my baby.”

  Meanwhile, Melinda Ramsey, John’s twenty-five-year-old daughter from his first marriage, arrived at the Justice Center. She had been called for a formal interview about her movements over the last few days. An hour later, her brother would be interviewed at the same place.

  The Ramseys’ attorneys and the police had agreed on this location as neutral territory. The police would have preferred to see them at headquarters, but since John Andrew and Melinda were cooperating without independent counsel, the detectives accepted the Justice Center as a reasonable compromise.

  Detective Kim Stewart interviewed Melinda for almost two and a half hours. Detectives Ron Gosage and Steve Thomas questioned her brother from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M.

  Twenty-year-old John Andrew was obviously upset, but he was composed enough to explain that he was a student at CU and had been in Boulder until December 19. Then he had gone to Atlanta to spend the first part of his vacation with his mother, Lucinda Johnson, and his sister and friends. Then the plan was to continue his vacation with his sister, father, stepmother, and their children. He said his father had arranged to meet him and his sister in Minneapolis at about 10:30 A.M. on December 26, and from there they would all continue to the house in Charlevoix, Michigan.

  In the months that followed, the police would confirm that John Andrew, his mother, and her friend Harry Smiles had attended the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on Christmas Eve and that John Andrew had returned to his mother’s home at 1:00 A.M.

  Melinda, who worked at a hospital in Marietta, Georgia, finished her shift at about 7:00 A.M. on Christmas Day. That afternoon, John Andrew, Harry Smiles, Melinda, and her boyfriend, Stewart Long, exchanged gifts at Lucinda’s home in Marietta. In the afternoon they all went across the street to a neighbor’s for dinner.

  Melinda and Stewart Long left the dinner party about 7:00 P.M., and Melinda started to pack for an early flight the next day. At 9:00 they went to visit Guy Long, Stewart’s uncle, and after visiting other friends were home by midnight.

  At about 8:30 P.M., John Andrew went to his friend Brad Millard’s home in Marietta to play video games. After an hour, they left to catch a 10:30 show at the Town and Country Movie Theaters in Marietta with another friend, Chris Stanley.

  John Andrew said that after the movie he went back to Brad Millard’s house to get his car and arrived back at his mother’s house at 1:00 A.M. The next morning he left his mother’s house with Melinda, who had come there to pick him up. Together they boarded a flight to Minneapolis at 8:36 A.M. local time. That was forty-four minutes after Patsy called 911 to report that JonBenét was missing.

  Could John Andrew, with one or more of the friends who provided his and his sister’s alibis, have left Marietta, Georgia, flown to Boulder, Colorado, and returned in time to be seen by his sister’s boyfriend, Stewart Long, at about 6:15 A.M. when John Andrew and Melinda left for the airport?

  The police figured that John Andrew had a minimum of four and a half hours he could not account for—longer if he didn’t stay to see the entire movie. It would have been longer still if he never went to the theater but went to an airport instead. That scenario would give John Andrew almost nine hours to get from Marietta to Boulder and back. Until all airline and private plane flights were checked, John Andrew Ramsey would remain a suspect.

  Late on Saturday evening, December 28, DA Alex Hunter, who was still in Hawaii, called Bill Wise. He learned that the police had not only asked a heavily sedated Patsy Ramsey for a handwriting sample, they had asked her to copy out parts of the ransom note. She had become hysterical and could not complete it. Hunter agreed with the police procedure
but was upset to hear from Wise that John Eller had tried to barter with the Ramseys—JonBenét’s body in exchange for formal interviews with them.

  The DA expected the police to follow the law and not jeopardize the integrity of the case. Hunter had always protected the constitutional rights of Boulder’s citizens from overzealous police officers. To Hunter, Eller seemed to be such an officer.

  UNEASE SETTLES OVER BOULDER MYSTERY STILL SURROUNDS CHILD’S SHOCKING DEATH

  The gloomy mystery surrounding the strangulation of JonBenét Ramsey the day after Christmas has tarnished Boulder’s reputation as a little slice of nirvana.

  The investigation has mushroomed into one of the biggest in recent years here. More than 30 detectives and uniformed officers from Boulder Police Department and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department are participating. Combined, they represent nearly a third of the local police force.

  In reality, Boulder’s mellow reputation is a bit undeserved. According to 1994 statistics, the latest available, the city ranked as the fifth-most dangerous in Colorado, with 10.3 serious crimes per 1,000 residents.

  Boulder officials objected that the data were misleading…. Many were crimes of passion or had domestic connections.

  —Joseph Verrengia

  Rocky Mountain News, December 29, 1996

  On Sunday morning, after briefing Eller on the status of the investigation, Detectives Mason, Thomas, Gosage, and Arndt attended the memorial service for JonBenét at St. John’s. Undercover officers videotaped everyone at the church. The police weren’t taking any chances. Maybe the killer, like the arsonist who returns to watch the fire he set, was among those present.

  On Sunday, December 29, I arrived at church late as usual. It was in the middle of the homily, so I sat in the balcony.

  There was a lot of crying, and I started to feel this huge wave of emotion crashing down, this huge tragedy. I realized that many families with children knew this family. They knew this child.

  The Ramseys were members of the church’s Foyer Group, which was for couples new to the community who wanted to meet people. If you weren’t involved in a group with the Ramseys, you might not know them. You see, Boulder doesn’t have any overall social structure—just clubs and more informal groups.

  That morning, Rol said he hoped this terrible thing could be resolved. And said it would never happen again.

  After the service, almost everyone went to an adjoining building for coffee, as usual. One friend, Paula Schulte, said to me, “Maybe we can pull together as a church to help this family.” I don’t know why, but I answered that I couldn’t see anything good coming from this thing.

  —Niki Hayden

  When I arrived at St. John’s, I put my arms around Patsy’s sister Polly, but I couldn’t bring myself to talk to Patsy. Pam, Patsy’s other sister, told me I had to go over and talk to her.

  “Who could have done this to JonBenét?” Patsy asked.

  “I wish I knew,” I said. “Are you sure you had all the doors locked?”

  “Yes, we are sure.”

  “Are you sure you pushed the button on the patio door?”

  “We had all the windows and doors locked,” Patsy said.

  Before I could say another word, someone else was talking to Patsy.

  That was the last time I saw Patsy or John.

  —Linda Hoffmann-Pugh

  I knew where St. John’s was because I had once gone to a wedding there. That Sunday, December 29, it was sunny but cold. Some of us from the school and the neighborhood went together. We were all crying. The service was unbearably sad—people were sobbing all over the church. Patsy was shrouded in black.

  John spoke first. He told us he was wearing a medallion that JonBenét had won at her last pageant. He said that he often told his daughter the talent division was the most important because it was judged not on your appearance but on your achievements. The medallion he was wearing had been awarded to JonBenét for talent. He made it quite clear that he was not a fan of child beauty pageants. He thanked us all for coming, told us to remember we were all part of his family. He looked spaced out.

  As I watched John speak, the gossip we were hearing about his possible involvement in JonBenét’s death seemed ridiculous. Then Patsy’s sisters spoke. They were more charismatic and evangelical in their approach to worship.

  Bill McReynolds, who’d been the Santa at the Ramseys’ Christmas party, got up to talk. He told us that JonBenét had given him fairy dust for his beard. He rambled and he was almost incoherent. He was so strange that some of us were uncomfortable.

  When the service ended and Patsy stood up to get out of the pew, John helped her. Every step of the way, he told her, “I need you to be strong.” She stopped beside me and put her arms around me and we cried. Most of the congregation was in tears.

  We all went to the parish hall. There were silver pots of tea and cookies. Funeral stuff.

  Outside, the media people were circling.

  Eventually the Ramseys left for the airport and flew to Atlanta with JonBenét’s body.

  —Barbara Kostanick

  After the service, Detective Steve Thomas, thirty-six, who had been transferred to the case from narcotics only the day before and still had long hair and a goatee, helped the Ramsey family into their waiting cars as photographers closed in. “Get rid of them!” John Andrew shouted to Thomas. When the detective asked one photographer to step back, he accused the officer of protecting a killer.

  John Ramsey emerged from the church, and on his way to his car, he passed Thomas, whom he knew from the day before, when he had given blood and hair samples. Without looking directly at the detective, Ramsey shook his hand and said, “Thank you.” Thomas caught Ramsey’s eye and, looking squarely at him, said, “Good luck.” As the motorcade pulled away, Thomas was left with an uneasy feeling about JonBenét’s father. The detective had expected Ramsey to say, “Find the motherfucker” or “Bring the bastard to me.” Instead he got a thank-you and a weak handshake. Maybe Thomas’s reaction was due to frustration—the police had been unable to interview the Ramseys properly. The primary suspects were slipping out of their control, and the detectives were angry.

  Several hours before the Ramseys left for Atlanta that Sunday, Detective Linda Arndt sent a fax to Bryan Morgan, the Ramseys’ newly hired criminal attorney. It was two pages long:

  I realize the Ramsey family will be out of state for an unknown amount of time after this afternoon. If it is possible, would you meet with John Ramsey, Patsy Ramsey, and Burke Ramsey and see if [the police] could get answers to any of these questions. I appreciate your assistance. I am available through Dispatch at the above pager number.

  Det. Linda Arndt

  Questions: JonBenét’s immediate family

  John, Patsy, and Burke Ramsey

  What time did each of you go to your bedroom?

  What time did each of you go to sleep?

  Was your bedroom door open or closed?

  Was there any TV or radio on when you went to bed?

  What had JonBenét eaten before she went to bed?

  Where, specifically, was the ransom note found?

  What did Patsy do after she found the ransom note?

  Who was the first person Patsy contacted after the note was found?

  How did John find out that JonBenét was missing?

  What interior house lights were on when the family went to bed?

  What exterior lights were on when the family went to bed?

  Who checked the doors and windows of the house to see if they were secure?

  What was JonBenét wearing when she went to bed on Christmas night?

  What time was the family planning on leaving the home on the morning of December 26th?

  What time did each of you wake up on the morning of December 26th?

  Did any of you get up during the night?

  In the late afternoon of Sunday, December 29, a Lockheed Martin corporate jet left Jefferson County Airp
ort, just south of Boulder, with the Ramsey family. JonBenét’s body left on a Delta Airlines flight from Denver International Airport. Two hours later, Fleet White called Detective Arndt and asked her to retrieve JonBenét’s favorite toy from her bedroom so the family could bury her with her Kitty. The day before, one of Patsy Ramsey’s sisters had gone into the house with police permission and taken out an oil painting, several American Girl dolls, a portfolio of JonBenét’s pageant photographs, a pageant medal with a blue ribbon, graduation photos of the older children, and a Bible from John Ramsey’s desk, but she had missed JonBenét’s stuffed cat, which Patsy had wanted retrieved.

  Arndt did as she was asked and then delivered the toy to Priscilla White. The Whites would take it with them to Atlanta the next day.

  On Monday, December 30, before the Whites and Fernies left Boulder for JonBenét’s funeral in Atlanta, Linda Arndt interviewed Fleet White again.

  White believed that an intruder had gotten into the Ramseys’ house. “Somebody got into that house,” he told Arndt. “I don’t know how, but they got in. Somebody wanted to hurt that family and obviously hurt their daughter.” White suggested that perhaps some beauty pageant mothers might have resented the Ramseys. A few hours later, Arndt and Detective Jane Harmer met with Fleet White again, this time with John Fernie, in Fernie’s office. The Ramseys’ friends were worried that John Andrew was a suspect, and they wanted everything possible to be done to clear his name promptly. An hour later, the Whites and the Fernies left for the Denver airport.