Incorrect perceptions can lead one astray. One has to be careful. There was a fixation on the parents that led to leaking of information to put pressure on them to talk. Which is a strange way to conduct an investigation. LA didn't say exactly what sort of look JR gave. Which is not evidence of any sort anyway. She must've reacted to the surprise find of JB. After PR found the RN I imagine there was an urgency of the R's to call the cops before a search could be completed of that big house..maybe they were convinced she was gone. Another person might want to know where an intruder could have gotten in. Hard to know what someone would do in that situation.
A good investigator uses a set of skills that includes their own gut feelings and perceptions based upon careful observation.There was a lot going on that morning at the R house that simply did not add up. Did the police make some mistakes? Yes. In the grand scheme of things I think that can probably be said about most similar investigations. Police after all, despite training are human beings. What police were faced with that morning was initially a kidnapping, and Linda Arndt walked into a scene that had already been compromised by the actions of the R's, who had invited a plethora of friends and associates into the house who were milling about, cleaning up and contaminating everything.
I also have to concur with Ispy here, in it being absolutely suspicious that the R's did not conduct a complete and thorough search of that house to try and find their daughter. Calling 911 is just a step in the process and should not have stopped them from looking into every nook and cranny. Their reaction to the ridiculous RN has always puzzled me and strikes me as suspicious. They were supposedly so invested in believing that their daughter had been kidnapped that it prevented them from doing a thorough search, and yet disregarded all the warnings the note included about what not to do.....like calling the police. Instead they called the police and then invited half the neighborhood over, creating a scene full of people and activity that surely any "foreign faction" that was watching them would be aware of, putting their daughter at risk of being killed.
We must also remember that once this case morphed from a kidnapping into a murder, with the body of the child being found in the home, the parents / family is always going to be the first suspects for the police to investigate, especially since there really were no signs of a break-in and an intruder. And again, the RN comes into play here in its sheer bizzarness. The R's then went on to pronounce that they had been interviewed for 8 hours that day, and an additional 2 hours the next day, which simply is not true. They answered some questions throughout the time they were present at the scene along with police, which would be normal. That does not equate to an 8 hour interview. By the end of that day, they were lawyered up. They also claimed that they understood that they would be suspect. JR kept saying it out of one side of his mouth and then complaining that anyone would suspect them out of the other side of his mouth, throwing in that police were out to get them and not looking at anyone else. This again is not remotely true, it's twisting the truth to suit his specific purpose of avoiding the facts and maligning the ongoing investigation. Of course the family has to be thoroughly investigated and cleared for the investigation to then widen. The familiar R cry of "we're cooperating" was a smoke screen. Yes, they gave blood samples, handwriting samples, DNA, etc. because they HAD to....that's something they couldn't control. But all the roadblocks began to go up by the end of that first day, and they did not sit for interviews for another four months. Just think about that.....when the first 48 hours after a crime are so very important to gather clues, evidence and witness interviews, to find the killer of their own daughter, and they refused to cooperate. They chose instead to give a televised interview in order to gain sympathy. They wasted valuable time hiding behind their team of high priced lawyers and PR people and throwing out smokescreens about how they were unjustly being targeted by police, oh but they were cooperating! When those interviews finally did happen, it's no wonder so many answers by that time were "I don't remember", "I can't recall". They insisted upon being given copies of the RN, copies of everything they had said to police up to that point, those were just some of the demands to agree to be interviewed. It was unprecedented. Who else would be afforded those concessions? But had the police not agreed, they would never have been able to interview the R's. Oh, but we're cooperating!!
During this time, despite the BS narrative being pushed by the R's and team R, the police did investigate other people, other leads. The R's had given them a long list of people they felt should be looked at, and LE performed due diligence in doing so. Some people's lives were ruined because of the scrutiny under which they were placed. But the fact remains.....until such time as the R's really cooperate and sit for interviews they could not be ruled out. So yes, they remained under the umbrella of suspicion due to their own actions, their steadfast refusal to not fully cooperate. During this time, it was the DA's office who was responsible for much of the leaking that was going on. DA Hunter and his office engaged in a very calculated effort to not only handcuff the PD's efforts to properly investigate this case, but also to publicly cast doubt on their reputation(s). DA Hunter was in contact with a tabloid reporter on almost a daily basis feeding him information about the case and enlisting this reporter to publish negative stories about certain investigators. This is all on record and is factual. The actions of the DA and his office were why more than one investigator not only quit this case but quit the force, giving up their careers after being maligned and attacked by the DA. Again, unprecedented.
To describe the police as being "myopic" is again not factual, it's R Team spin. The need to focus on the family and rule them out is not unusual nor was it unfairly targeting them. It had to happen. And if they were innocent they should have fully cooperated from the very first moments as this case unfolded. As uncomfortable and excruciatingly painful as it is, innocent people allow themselves to be investigated to the full degree necessary in order to be ruled out so that the investigation can focus its efforts elsewhere. Look at Mark Klaas. He truly understood this and cooperated. And the true perpetrator of his daughter's killer was found. You don't go on a publicity campaign paying lip service to this and disparage the very people who are trying to find your daughter's killer if you are truly invested in finding the truth. Team R hired their own investigators by 12/27/96, supposedly to "assist" the police whom they had already concluded with no evidence of why, were both incompetent and targeting them. It's on record that the private PI team in some instances beat the police to talking to potential witnesses, but weren't sharing information. Interesting that some witnesses told different stories to police than what they said to the private PI's. Melody Stanton, who heard the scream that night and described it as clearly being that of a child's, ended up questioning her own recollection. That is rather suspicious in my book.
The video I posted above takes many of the R team talking points one by one and shows the dishonesty. It's factual and eye opening. Again, if you are truly interested in this case and its truths, I highly recommend watching it. The highly respected investigator and former police officer H. Ellis Armistead was hired by the R's to investigate for them. He ended up resigning and although he has not shared any details, he did at one point say that the intruder theory just doesn't add up. Lou Smit also was not able to solve this case, hanging his hat on a theory that other investigators, the police and a Grand Jury agreed "just doesn't add up". So much of what he came up with has been debunked and explained, and yet he continued to echo the R's claims that no one is looking seriously at the IDI theory. If that were true, then how is it that so much of that theory has been debunked? Because it was investigated and explained. If anyone is guilty of myopia, it's Mr. Smit who became so imbedded with the R's that he lost his ability to remain objective. I think it's also a rather telling side note that as time went on, the majority of the close knit circle of Boulder friends began to fracture away from the R's as they were thrown under the bus of suspicion by the R's, and also began to recognize that the lack of cooperation with the investigation and the PR machine that was churning out misinformation about the investigation and the investigators was not in line with how innocent people should behave. The police were appropriately investigating them. The narrative of being falsely targeted is just that....a narrative put out by a highly paid PR team created for the sole purpose of creating doubt about the investigation and proclaiming the R's innocence without real evidence to prove that narrative. Smoke and mirrors.
