I did note that Mitchell looks somewhat like the sketch distributed by the Ramsey family with the aid of a psychic. But I personally don't put much value, if any, on the sketch. More interesting to me are the possible similarities between the attacker of JonBenet's dance scool classmate "Amy" and Mitchell, though hair color is a key difference.
Doug Oswell = "Having found a convenient means of entry he might have spent considerable time alone in the dwelling prior to that date, even on the 25th itself while the Ramseys were away. He might even have been lurking in the house when they arrived home!"
AK = Apparently that is what investigators think probably happened in the 9/14/97 attempted abduction of "Amy", JonBenet's dance school classmate.
http://www.acandyrose.com/s-september97-intruder.htm
2000-04-04: Webbsleuths Forum (
http://www.webbsleuths.org)
"More on 1997 Boulder intruder"
Posted by MaskedMan on Apr-04-00 at 03:43 PM (EST)
I obtained the Boulder Police report on the intruder who sexually assaulted a girl in her bedroom in the middle of the night while her mother was asleep in the next room. To preserve their privacy, I won't use their names.
On Sept. 13-14, 1997, an intruder got into a Boulder home occupied by a mother and daugher. The father was out of town when the crime occurred. The girl was 14 years old. There was no sign of a forcible break-in. It's unclear how the intruder got in,
but he may have entered through a back door that was unlocked before the mother went to bed that night.
The intruder apparently snuck in and hid in the house for several hours, waiting until 3:00 a.m. before going to the girl's bedroom. He wore black clothing, knew the girl's name and knew his way around the house in the dark. The house had motion detectors and an alarm system which were set at 11:00 p.m., but he didn't set off the alarm.
AK = The Ramsey attacker, who may or may not be Amy's attacker, could have done the same thing while the Ramsey's were at the Christmas Party. Giving him/her plenty of time to write the ransom note, even time to look at Patsy's writing.
DESCRIPTION OF AMY'S ATTACKER
First, she thought she saw blonde hair from underneath a backwards cap. The blonde hair would rule out BDM, unless he dyed it or was wearing a wig.
Other aspects match him. A black "ninja" out fit sounds similar to clothes he wore.
"The victim 'did not recognize the voice of the suspect.' She said the suspect had a "deep voice....his jaw line stood out," his throat was real "thin," and the suspect's face was "very angular."
The mother described the assailant as about 5 feet 7 inches tall, 20 to 30 years old, with blond hair.
She noted that he had an angular, thin face, with a jaw line that "really stood out."
AK - A sketch was done with input by psychic Dorothy Allison. I don't know if other sources were used, but the Ramsey family put out the sketch as a "man who may have been in the Boulder area in December 1996." There were numerous burglaries in the usually low crime area. Also, about a dozen different internet posters noted the sketch had many similarities to the descriptions of the attacker in the Amy case - thin, angular face, strong jaw, pointed chin.
I don't believe in psychics, but this Dorothy Allison said the killer in another case was named "brown" but not spelled like the color. His name was "Browne". I do think some people may have intuitive gifts we don't fully understand. This one of the few cases of a psychic proving useful, I have read hundreds were they were not. But even if we dismiss her, the Ramsey family investigators may have used other sources for the sketch, and coincidence or not, it appears to be similar to Amy's attacker, and Boulder Police never bothered to do a sketch, so its all we have.
http://www.acandyrose.com/s-sketchman.htm
August 6, 1995: Colorado Springs Gazette - Tracking Heather's KILLER:
In 1992, Dorothy Allison, a noted New Jersey psychic who has worked with police across the country, called the Friends of Heather Dawn Church Foundation."
`I can tell you the killer's name right now,' "Allison remembered saying. " `His name is Brown.'"But not like the color brown; not spelled that way.
No one is quite sure how the tip was pursued. The name was probably compared with those of everyone connected with the case, Smit said. Then it was forgotten.
"No one got religion. But in November, El Paso County got a new sheriff, John Anderson, a former Colorado Springs police sergeant. Anderson soon hired an old partner, Lou Smit, as head of investigations. Smit, who has a knack for solving old homicide cases, made Heather a top priority again.
Shortly after starting work last January, Smit reviewed Heather's file, a process he calls "messing with a case." He asked his investigators to come up with something new, something that hadn't been tried.
Tom Carney, a crime laboratory technician, immediately thought of the prints. "We knew those fingerprints had to be from the suspect," he said.
A better approach, he figured, would be an exhaustive mailing of quality photos of the prints to every police agency with an Automated Fingerprint Identification System. Like the FBI's system, AFIS compares fingerprint images electronically. AFIS computers aren't interconnected, but each one may contain prints that aren't in the hands of the FBI.
So Carney made 100 sets of photos of the three fingerprints and began sending them to 92 agencies with AFIS. Carney remembered thinking, "If this doesn't work, that's it.
On March 24, someone from the Louisiana prison system called to report a match between the prints from the Church home and prints in its data base. The prints belonged to Robert Charles Browne. He had spent time in Louisiana prisons for various crimes, including auto theft, in the early and mid-1980s. He moved to Colorado in 1987 and, after living at several addresses, settled into a home just down the road from the Church residence.
"Considering all the publicity, detectives figured they'd hear from psychics. Some detectives scoff at psychics; others are skeptical but willing to listen.
"I'm not going to disregard them," said Capt. Lou Smit, now head of investigations for the Sheriff's Office. "Sometimes, psychics come up with things you can't explain. And sometimes they come up with things almost too hard to believe."
April 27, 1998: Dorothy Allison descibed JonBenet's killer on the Leeza Gibbon's Show:
"He's probably 5'7" to 5'9".
He's got thin, brown hair that he wears over to the side, perhaps a little bit balding underneath. He has a very wide cranium on top and a real small chin, very thin lips and a pointed nose, very light eyes -- kind of Germanic descent, and a very slender build throughout the body, a little bit wide through the hips, high pitched voice and soft spoken."
Amy's attacker described as: "She noted that he had an angular, thin face, with a jaw line that 'really stood out.' "
http://dallasnews.com/national/129104_ramsey_01nat.html
08/01/2000
Police chief doubts same person killed Ramsey, attacked teen girl
By Charlie Brennan / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
BOULDER, Colo. Nine months after the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, a girl who attended the same dance studio as the young beauty queen and lived just two miles away was assaulted in her bed by an intruder while her mother slept nearby.
That crime, detailed in Boulder police reports, has common threads with the Ramseys' theory that their 6-year-old daughter was attacked by someone who hid in their home on Christmas night 1996.
Key players in the Ramsey drama including the prosecutors who led a fruitless grand jury probe into JonBenet's slaying learned of the September 1997 incident only last week.
Police Chief Mark Beckner said he doesn't see strong similarities between the cases, primarily because JonBenet was killed while the other girl, a 14-year-old, escaped serious injury. But last week, he ordered comparisons of partial palm prints found at both scenes.
Chief Beckner said the prints appear to be from different parts of the hand, but he assigned a detective to re-examine that issue "to see if there is something there that we missed." He said he did not know when the results would be available.
The Ramseys, who plan to meet with Boulder police late this month, were told about the second case on Monday. Police said they consider the couple suspects in their daughter's slaying. The Ramseys maintain that they are innocent.
"The fact than an assault was made in a home of a young girl in Boulder within nine months of JonBenet's assault is hugely significant," Mr. Ramsey said. "Fortunately, there are not that many creatures like this out there, so this is very significant."
He said he was eager to learn more details about the other assault.
The Ramseys' attorney, Lin Wood, and investigators who reviewed the police reports last week, said the assault on the 14-year-old and the Ramseys' version of JonBenet's final night have similar elements.
Mr. Ramsey confirmed Monday that JonBenet took lessons at Dance West, a studio where the second victim had performed. The studio owner, Lee Klinger, said he has never been contacted by police investigating either case.
Both girls performed at public functions in Boulder not long before being victimized: The 14-year-old girl danced in several public performances in the year before her assault. JonBenet, the reigning Little Miss Christmas, was featured in a holiday parade shortly before she was killed.
Investigators surprised
Investigators who worked on the Ramsey case for Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter said they were surprised last week to learn about the second attack.
"I'm shocked," said Steve Ainsworth, a Boulder County sheriff's detective who spent a year as a consultant on the case to Mr. Hunter. "I think this is something that definitely should have been brought up. I was pretty amazed at the similarities."
According to Boulder police reports, there was no sign of forced entry in either incident. The 14-year-old's attacker knew her by name, while a ransom note in the Ramsey case suggested JonBenet's killer somehow knew her family. And in both cases, the sexual assault was penetration by a finger or an object, police reports said.
Mr. Ainsworth, who has never ruled out an intruder in the Ramsey slaying, said the second case shows that the Ramseys' theory is plausible.
"One of the things that people are saying is, 'Well, what did the guy do? Go in there and hide for a couple of hours until they came home?' Like, as if that's something that would never happen, that it's so stupid, no one would ever consider it," Mr. Ainsworth said. "Well, that's what happened in this case."
AK - Also, male DNA perhaps from saliva was found in a blood drop on JonBenet's panties, perhaps indicating the attacker placed his mouth on or near her vagina. Amy's attacker did put his mouth on her vagina.
Amy was the dance school classmate of JonBenet's who was attacked on 9/14/97. The Mitchell Barzee journal indicates they returned to Utah on 9/21/97.
DESCRIPTION OF AMY'S ATTACKER
First, she thought she saw blonde hair from underneath a backwards cap. The blonde hair would rule out BDM, unless he dyed it or was wearing a wig.
Other aspects match him. A black "ninja" out fit sounds similar to robe clothes he wore.
"The victim 'did not recognize the voice of the suspect.' She said the suspect had a "deep voice....his jaw line stood out," his throat was real "thin," and the suspect's face was "very angular."
The mother described the assailant as about
5 feet 7 inches tall, 20 to 30 years old, with blond hair.
She noted that he had an angular, thin face, with a jaw line that "really stood out."
In pictures Brian David Mitchell, here on the far left, appears 2 to 3 inches shorter than other men. It appears he may be about 5' 7" tall.
Little Amy said the attacker 'had a voice like an older man but looked like a young man'. I wonder if in the dark, BDM's 5'7" very thin body looked like a "young man" to her, but he had the voice of a man in his 40's (which BDM was).
COMPARISON OF WORDS AND STYLES IN JONBENET RAMSEY RANSOM NOTE AND THE JOURNAL OF CHILD KINDNAPPERS BARZEE AND MITCHELL
By AK Wilks, Douglas Oswell and Zander Kite
Common words and styles in both the ransom note and the Barzee Mitchell Journal include:
"Hence"
"Individual's"
"We Represent"
"At this time/At the time"
Use of an editors caret
"am" without periods and not capitalized
"Possession"
"Instructions"
"Adequate"
"Particularly"
"Being"
"Difficult"
"southern" not capitalized
And others as well[/size]
Also found this on page 9 of the Barzee Mitchell journal. The ransom note also starts a sentence by using "At this time" and there is also use of an editors caret.
When we speak of the "South" as a distinct region of the country it is generally proper to capitalize it. "Southern Rock", "Southern cooking", etc. Thus I do find it interesting that both the ransom writer and journal writer do not capitalize "southern".
Both ransom writer and journal writer make the unneeded designation that a group consists of "individuals". Ransom note writer says we are a "group of individuals." Several writers commented on how this was odd - as opposed to a group of what, plants? All that was needed to say was "we are a group representing a small foreign faction". Similarly, the Mitchell Barzee Journal says "On occasion transported by individuals using their truck or trailer." Again, all that was needed was to say "transported by motorists using truck or trailer" or "transported by drivers". Not needed is the designation that the drivers are "individuals", as they are not going to be animals. Also, "persons" or "people" are more common that "individuals". And both ransom nore writer and journal writer include an unneeded and improper apostophre so that it appears as "individual's".
In the context of messages from God, people usually speak of "commands", "commandments", "messages" or "orders". The journal writer speaks of "instructions". Similarly, in the context of a kidnapping ransom note, we usually see "demands", or sometimes "orders, but here we see "instructions".
"Hence" is a very old and seldom used term, used by both the ransom note writer and the journal writer.
In the journal, the word DIFFICULT is used, apparently referring to kidnapping wives. Here it is on page 35: (....when we will obtain our wives, the first wife being the most DIFFICULT. In succession of taking one young woman at a time, between 10 and 14 years of age, though each experience will seemingly become easier, in all reality, each wife will be as DIFFICULT as the first but for which we will have become stronger...) The ransom note writer says: You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be DIFFICULT.
The journal seems to use BEING a lot. It's almost like a style of writing. The use of the word BEING almost seems awkward and not needed at times. Here are 2 examples from the journal: (I reflected upon my righteous desire of BEING cleansed and healed...) Bottom Page 10. (...but telling him of our BEING directed by the Lord to go to Alaska..)Page 16. The writer from the ransom note says: Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as Police, F.B.I., etc., will result in your daughter BEING beheaded.
The ransom note speaks of the wealthy John Ramsey as a "fat cat". The journal writer speaks of their mission to the poor and homeless, how they travel in areas that are "wealthy, upper class" (p. 10) and "high class neighborhood" (p. 24-25), that the rich value money over God, and that they must rescue by force their "sister wives", the "daughters of God", out of "Babylon".
Stylistics of both Barzee Mitchell Journal and JonBenet Ramsey Ransom Note:
(1) wordspacing is even throughout
(2) there is double-spacing after a period
(3) the abbreviation "a.m." contains no periods
(4) paragraphs are set off with large indents
(5) line spacing is even but tight, with the descenders of one line allowed to run directly into ascenders of the next line.