Ramsey Project Rebuttal (Non Intruder Posters Only)
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I'll eat them!
I reworked the Aphrodite Jones logo to more aptly reflect who really is behind the Investigation Discovery True Crime documentary on the JonBenet case.
(There is a 10 second transformation.)
After noticing some material from previous Michael Tracey documentaries in AJs documentary, I set out to see exactly how much had been borrowed. That turned to be very time consuming as it became evident that the majority of the Aphrodite Jones documentary was from previous Tracey documentaries.
I stopped and decided that it would be far easier to show what was not from previous Tracey documentaries.
The only original material consists primarily of the following:
A linguistic analysis of the ransom note by Dr. James Pennebaker.
A body language analysis of the Ramseys by Patti Wood.
Psychotherapist, Dr. Robi Ludwig, commenting on the sexualization of JonBenet
Some clips from Ramsey home movies.
The story of a woman who claimed she spoke to a man at a pageant that had approached JonBenet and identified himself as John Ramsey.
A statement that the Ramseys have been cleared by Mary Lacy, (but, of course, no mention of Stan Garnetts un-clearing of the Ramseys.)
Michael Tracey was involved as a co-producer in 4 documentaries on the JonBenet case.
Its clear that from time to time he was also involved in a less defined way in other specials and documentaries.
As an example, the CBS show, 48 Hours Mystery, JonBenet: Prime Suspects, December 18, 2004, used Traceys, Who Killed the Pageant Queen? The Prime Suspect, June 15, 2004 (UK,) although Tracey was not listed in the credits.
All of the material below was used by Aphrodite in her documentary:
"Who Killed JonBenét?" / "JonBenet`s America
July 9, 1998 aired in the UK
Producer: David Mills of London, Co-producer: Michael Tracey of Boulder Colorado
The Case of JonBenét - The Ramseys vs The Media
September 28, 1998 aired in the USA
Producer: David Mills of London, Co-producer: Michael Tracey of Boulder Colorado
Associate producers: Newsweek Reporters Dan Glick and Sherry Keene-Osborn
The Christmas Home Tour:
Tracey: Patsy Ramsey says she has similar regrets. She was always inviting people to her home. She made this video and even held a Christmas open house for the Boulder Historical Society.
{shows video}
PR: And we had probably from 1500 to 2000 people come through our home in 2 days. But in retrospect I often wondered if, you know, that was just an open invitation to a murder. I mean, if somebody was trying to scope out your house, whose bedrooms were where, I mean there were a lot of people in that house.
Tracey: The Ramseys had people in their home for the last time just two days before the murder. It was a children's party.
Video clip of John and Patsy speaking about the morning of Dec. 26th:
Patsy: You don't know what to do. You're just insane.
John - "We had no choice. I mean, I would have gone mad sitting there hoping someone would call. We had to do something.
Basic errors made by the BPD in the early hours of the investigation:
Man: It is now accepted the police made basic errors that morning. There was no proper search of the house nor any attempt to protect possible forensic evidence. Friends were allowed to walk around. The scale of the failure became apparent that afternoon. A detective asked a friend of John Ramsey to take him and do a search of the house for anything unusual. They started in the basement.
John: As I was going through the basement, I opened the door in the room and just knew immediately that I'd found her because I, there was a white blanket. Her eyes were closed, I feared the worst
The detective was there that had helped us that morning, spent a minute with her and looked at me, said to me, "She's dead".
Julie Hayden comments on her perception of the BPDs early investigative efforts:
Julie Hayden, TV Reporter: Early on there, definitely before the five o'clock newscast, we were beginning to get the sense that the police were not hunting Boulder for some mad kidnapper That the police were looking more inside the family.
Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby comments on the media frenzy:
Koby: I have never in the 28 years I have been in this business seen such media focus
The press release that there were no footprints in the snow:
Take the story that there were no footprints in the snow and that therefore there was no intruder. News video shot on the night of the 26th shows large areas around the house had no snow at all.
John Ramseys perception about the police:
John: And we said Oh boy - the worm has turned. What are these people about? It changed the whole chemistry of how we looked at the police. They were not there to help us, they were there to hang us and we became very suspicious, defensive, untrusting.
Allegations that JonBenet was sexually abused by her parents:
Man: One of the basis for public reaction to you is that when they saw the pageant videos that what they saw was a sexualized child.
With pageant images already circulating, the implications her parents may have sexually abused JonBenet turned the story into a media firestorm.
The CNN interview, there is a killer on the loose:
Patsy: There is a killer on the loose.
John: Absolutely
Patsy: I don't know who it is, I don't know if it is a he or a she, but if I were a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep, keep hold your babies close to you. There's someone out there.
"Who Killed the Pageant Queen?" July 11, 2001 (UK)
Producers: David Mills/Michael Tracey
Executive Producer : Ray Fitzwalter
The Elite - JonBenet: A Second Look, Court TV, November 7th, 2002 (USA)
Producers: David Mills and Michael Chrisman
Executive Producer for Mills Productions: Michael Tracey
Greg Walta speaks of the legendary Lou Smit, also video of Lou climbing into the basement through the window:
GREG WALTA: "He knew I'd tried cases against Smit. I told him that if the Ramsey's were guilty, they'd better look out because Smit would nail them and if they were guilty not to let them talk to Smit. He'd get under their skin and he'd get information that would kill them. On the other hand, I told him that if they were innocent, go ahead and cooperate, because this guy has integrity. He'll follow that evidence wherever it goes, and if it leads away from the Ramsey's, he would follow it. Also, in looking into the window well, the window in the center, that had been opened, had a great deal of disturbance in that particular area of the window. You can also see was appears to be finger marks on the window frame itself.
NARRATOR: - All this convinced Smit an intruder could easily have got in this way.
Lou SMIT - You know its been said that only a midget can get down into that window well, well I'm no midget and I'll show you how easy that can be done.
It really wasn't that difficult coming in that window. And often a burglar or an intruder - if they find a safe way in they also figure it'll be a safe way out. And if you remember, there was a suitcase that was right underneath this window. And if he figures that he has to go out this window he may think it would be much easier if he has something to stand on. On top of this suitcase was a very small tiny pea sized piece of glass which may have been picked up by a person's shoe. And a faint impression of possibly a footprint on the suitcase. And that suggests very strongly to me that perhaps someone did stand on that suitcase at one point, perhaps to go out the window or perhaps just to test to see if he could go out that window.
Now I can't say for sure if an intruder went through that window, but also we cannot just disregard it and say that he did not come through that window.
Who Killed the Pageant Queen? The Prime Suspect
Executive Producer: Ray Fitzwalter; Producer: David Mills; Producer: Michael Tracey
June 15, 2004 (aired in the UK)
A new look, suspects identified:
A completely new team of investigators has recently uncovered dramatic new facts about the murder. They have identified a number of suspects
Clip of JonBenet at a pageant:
Pageant Hostess: Name and how old are you?
JonBenét: My name is JonBenét Ramsey and Im five and a half.
The 911 call, John searching the home, early police suspicion:
911 Tape We have a kidnapping. Hurry .
Narrator: The police arrived within minutes. From the outset, they suspected the parents. Their suspicion grew, when John Ramsey asked by the police to search the house, found his daughters body in this small cellar room.
By the time JonBenéts body was removed from the house that night, Police already believed the parents were responsible. It was leaked to the media that not only was there no evidence of a break-in, but no-one could have got in because there were no footprints in the snow. The media was then told that there was evidence of *advertiser censored* and sexual abuse.
Video clip of Patsy being interviewed by investigators:
Interrogator: If I told you right now that we have trace evidence that appears to link you to the death of JonBenét, what would you tell me?
Patsy Ramsey: That is totally impossible. Go retest.
Interrogator: How is it impossible?
Patsy Ramsey: I did not kill my child. I didnt have a thing to do with it.
Interrogator: And Im not talking somebodys guess or some rumour or some story ...
Patsy Ramsey: I dont care what youre talking about.
Interrogator: Im talking about scientific evidence.
Patsy Ramsey: I dont give a flying flip how scientific it is. Go back to the damn drawing board. I didnt do it. John Ramsey didnt do it and we didnt have a clue about anybody who did do it...
DA Alex Hunter Soon there will be no one on the list but you. Introduction of Michael Helgoth:
Six weeks after the murder of JonBenét, Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, invited journalists to a press conference. He ended it with this message ...
DA Alex Hunter : I want to say something to the person or persons who took this baby from us, the list of suspects narrows. Soon there will be no-one on the list but you
Narrator: The words had been written by the FBI. It was part of a strategy to use the media to put the killer and any accomplices under pressure. Soon afterwards, car mechanic John Kenady approached the Boulder Police to tell them about someone he thought might have been involved in the Ramsey killing. It was this man, Michael Helgoth, who helped run a car salvage yard in Boulder. Helgoth had committed suicide, it was believed, just hours after Alex Hunters press conference.
Michael Helgoth, stun guns and Hi-Tec boots:
Narrator: Yet it was when detectives examined photographs of Helgoths suicide that they made the most dramatic discoveries. By now it was known that a stun gun had been used to subdue JonBenét.
David Williams: Do you see here theres a stun gun? The black object here is a stun gun. Even although it is a different type of stun gun than the one that was used on JonBenét Ramsey, We know that he owned several including an Air Taser stun gun. That is the stun gun that we believe was used on JonBenét Ramsey.
Narrator: It has never been made public, but in the Ramsey home in the small cellar where JonBenéts body was left, two different footprints were found. They were made at or near the time of the killing and strengthened suspicions that two people might have been involved. One of the footprints was made by a rare Hi-Tec boot.
David Williams: You notice here these black boots? These are Hi-Tec boots. They are the same kind of boots that left a print in the wine cellar of the Ramsey home.
Narrator: Investigators managed to get hold of these boots and compared them with the Hi-Tec footprint left in the mould on the cellar floor.
David Williams: You notice that the Hi-Tec emblem on the right and the impression in the algae on the left are a perfect match.
Talk of Michael Helgoths suspicious suicide
Ollie Gray: It makes you wonder even more ... how did he actually die? The gun, the pillow, him being right handed ... are all key factors as to why this could be a homicide and not a suicide. I would bet that this is a murder and not suicide.
Narrator: The Boulder Police have been given the evidence suggesting Helgoth might have been involved in the Ramsey killing and he might have been murdered. They were unimpressed.
Ollie Gray: I had the distinct feeling that they had absolutely no interest in anything that took them away from the theory that John and Patsy Ramsey killed their daughter.
Interviewer (unseen) Even if that meant ignoring a potential homicide?
Ollie Gray: Even if it meant ignoring a potential homicide.
The Killing of JonBenét: An Evil Twist
December 5, 2006 (aired in the UK.)
Video clip of Lou Smit:
So I encouraged it very much that Michael continue e-mailing this person and to try to ascertain his identity.
Audio of phone call between between Tracey and Daxis:
Daxis.
Is that Daxis.
Yes it is.
Daxis. This is Mike Tracey.
Hi Michael.
How are you?
Im not so good. How are you?
Why you not so good.
I think, I think, Im just suicidal.
I cant take it any longer.
Its so horrible Michael. Theres nothing more horrible than this. Theres nothing more horrible, my God you cant imagine.
There are instructions as to what should be shown during some of the dialog, and during the phone calls between Tracey and Daxis it says that there should be rotating tape wheels which is exactly what we see in the AJ documentary
Sending Daxis the photo of JBR and PR:
Michael Tracey: and said why dont you have the original photo, rather than have it scanned?
I said this photo was given to me personally by Patsy
And I said, I really think you should have it.
Video clip of Gary Phillips:
an agent or investigator walked around the floor to see if we could spot him. We had vehicles positioned all around the hotel and the exits, and we also had agents in the lobby to see when he came down.
Video clip of Gary Phillips:
And he said: But I grabbed the flashlight with all my might, and I hit her head like that. And it was act of mercy
Video clip of Ann Hurst:
From one day to the next day, the story wouldnt change. It was exactly the same every time we interviewed him. And due to those facts, we felt that he was the prime suspect in the case.
Aphrodite should have investigated Michael Tracey before relying on him.
She might have found something like this:
Tracey has a dismal track record as a Ramsey sleuth. He's been barking up the wrong tree for years, serving up one implausible suspect after another. His documentaries, although well-received in Europe, are glaring examples of shoddy, agenda-driven reporting and the packaging of speculation as fact. As Tony Ortega first reported in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times shortly after Karr's arrest, a 2004 Tracey documentary focused on an alleged ninja-stalker "prime suspect" who'd supposedly "disappeared" -- but one of Tracey's critics was able to locate the supposedly elusive suspect within minutes on the Internet. The man wasn't considered a suspect by authorities and was living in Indiana at the time of the murder.
http://www.westword.com/2006-10-12/news/made-for-each-other/
(For those who dont know, that critic was none other than our own Tricia Griffith who issued the following press release at the time.)
Colorado University Journalism Professor Michael Traceys Latest Ramsey Documentary Exposed by Forums for Justice.org
An innocent man, a man who was never a suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case according to the Boulder District Attorneys office, was fingered as the Prime Suspect by C.U. Journalism Professor Michael Tracey in his latest Ramsey documentary.
On June 16, 2004, Michael Tracey's latest JonBenet Ramsey documentary entitled "Who Killed the Pageant Queen?" aired in Great Britain. Not only is this documentary filled with errors, it also falsely implicates a man who wasn't even in the state of Colorado at the time of the JonBenet Ramsey murder.
Thanks to Michael Traceys showing of John Steven Gigaxs police record, with his case number clearly in view, the people who saw the show might actually think Mr. Gigax had something to do with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
However, there are serious problems with Traceys documentary. Mr. Gigax wasnt even living in the state of Colorado at the time of the murder. On December 25/26, 1996, Mr. Gigax was with a large number of family and friends in a state far away from Colorado. Tom Bennett of the Boulder D.As office told Mr. Gigax he was never a suspect and the Boulder D.A was never looking for him to question him. A call by a Forums for Justice.org representative confirmed, through Tom Bennett, the same information.
The documentary stated that it was the investigators top priority to find this suspect; yet, Forums for Justice found Mr. Gigax within approximately 10 minutes of hearing this claim. A simple Google search was all that was needed. Within a few days we were in contact with him and upon hearing that he was the prime suspect, Mr. Gigax immediately called the Boulder D.A.s office.
Forums for Justice would like to thank John Steven Gigax for immediately contacting the officials and offering anything they needed to clear him of any suspicion. Unlike John and Patsy Ramsey, JonBenets parents, Mr. Gigax did not hire lawyers and refuse to speak to officials for months. Instead he did what most innocent people do - he offered to cooperate with investigators to clear his name. But, that wasnt necessary, because he was never a suspect to begin with.
According to the documentary, the Boulder Police tried to hire private investigators Ollie Gray and John St. Augustin to help with the investigation the day after the murder. The two refused, instead going to work for the Ramseys.
This is a highly questionable claim. Although Forums for Justice.org was not able to talk with Boulder Chief of Police Mark Beckner to confirm or deny this, it would be very unusual, if not bizarre, for the Boulder Police to hire outside private investigators when they had their own investigators working on the case and had access to FBI investigators as well.
Now, according to the documentary, these same private investigators are working with the Boulder District Attorneys office for free to help solve the case. The Boulder D. A. has sought the help of private detectives once employed by the Ramseys to hunt the killer. These investigators have been involved from the beginning. Although now unpaid volunteers because of the DAs limited resources, they are an important part of the new investigation and they are free to talk. They are led by Ollie Gray, one of Americas leading private detectives and his partner John San Augustin.
Since the documentary clearly states that these men are working with Mary Keenans office, we call upon Mary Keenan to denounce this latest lie produced by Michael Tracey. Even Keenans own very respected top investigator, Tom Bennett, has stated that Mr. Gigax is not now, nor was he ever, a suspect, nor were they ever looking for him.
We ask that Mary Keenan explain why Ollie Gray and John San Augustin are not held to the same standards as others in the D.As office (if indeed they really are working with the D.As office) and are allowed to share inside information and participate in the making of this documentary.
Forums for Justice calls for the Regents at the University of Colorado to remove Michael Tracey from his teaching position as a Journalism Professor. His latest documentary is such an outrage that the University of Colorado should be hugely embarrassed by his behavior and take the appropriate action. We also call upon the Rocky Mountain News to remove Michael Tracey as a columnist for the paper. Mr.Traceys column deals with ethics in the journalism. How ironic considering what Forums for Justice.org has uncovered.
On June 24, 2004 Michael Tracey appeared on Court TVs Catherine Crier Live show to talk about his latest documentary and his attempt to find a U.S. distributor. Forums for Justice.org calls upon all media outlets in the United States to refuse to air any part of this documentary.
John Ramsey once referred to the people who follow this case on the Internet as, beer can collectors. We would like to point out that we are not above doing whatever hard work it takes to get to the truth. Whether its doing a three-second Google search to find the prime suspect that a University Journalism Professor and volunteer investigators with the Boulder District Attorneys office cant find or doing manual labor to make money to support our efforts, we will do what it takes to help keep the truth from getting lost in the lies.
[ame="http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5292"]Forums for Justice Press Release/ Tracey Documentary Exposed - Forums For Justice[/ame]
Much more on Tracey here:
[ame="http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=249"]The Truth About Colorado University Journalism Professor Michael Tracey - Forums For Justice[/ame]
Its a shame that Tracey continues to dupe people into giving him a stage for his lies. Unfortunately, Aphrodite will probably not be his last victim, merely his latest.
(There is a 10 second transformation.)
After noticing some material from previous Michael Tracey documentaries in AJs documentary, I set out to see exactly how much had been borrowed. That turned to be very time consuming as it became evident that the majority of the Aphrodite Jones documentary was from previous Tracey documentaries.
I stopped and decided that it would be far easier to show what was not from previous Tracey documentaries.
The only original material consists primarily of the following:
A linguistic analysis of the ransom note by Dr. James Pennebaker.
A body language analysis of the Ramseys by Patti Wood.
Psychotherapist, Dr. Robi Ludwig, commenting on the sexualization of JonBenet
Some clips from Ramsey home movies.
The story of a woman who claimed she spoke to a man at a pageant that had approached JonBenet and identified himself as John Ramsey.
A statement that the Ramseys have been cleared by Mary Lacy, (but, of course, no mention of Stan Garnetts un-clearing of the Ramseys.)
Michael Tracey was involved as a co-producer in 4 documentaries on the JonBenet case.
Its clear that from time to time he was also involved in a less defined way in other specials and documentaries.
As an example, the CBS show, 48 Hours Mystery, JonBenet: Prime Suspects, December 18, 2004, used Traceys, Who Killed the Pageant Queen? The Prime Suspect, June 15, 2004 (UK,) although Tracey was not listed in the credits.
All of the material below was used by Aphrodite in her documentary:
"Who Killed JonBenét?" / "JonBenet`s America
July 9, 1998 aired in the UK
Producer: David Mills of London, Co-producer: Michael Tracey of Boulder Colorado
The Case of JonBenét - The Ramseys vs The Media
September 28, 1998 aired in the USA
Producer: David Mills of London, Co-producer: Michael Tracey of Boulder Colorado
Associate producers: Newsweek Reporters Dan Glick and Sherry Keene-Osborn
The Christmas Home Tour:
Tracey: Patsy Ramsey says she has similar regrets. She was always inviting people to her home. She made this video and even held a Christmas open house for the Boulder Historical Society.
{shows video}
PR: And we had probably from 1500 to 2000 people come through our home in 2 days. But in retrospect I often wondered if, you know, that was just an open invitation to a murder. I mean, if somebody was trying to scope out your house, whose bedrooms were where, I mean there were a lot of people in that house.
Tracey: The Ramseys had people in their home for the last time just two days before the murder. It was a children's party.
Video clip of John and Patsy speaking about the morning of Dec. 26th:
Patsy: You don't know what to do. You're just insane.
John - "We had no choice. I mean, I would have gone mad sitting there hoping someone would call. We had to do something.
Basic errors made by the BPD in the early hours of the investigation:
Man: It is now accepted the police made basic errors that morning. There was no proper search of the house nor any attempt to protect possible forensic evidence. Friends were allowed to walk around. The scale of the failure became apparent that afternoon. A detective asked a friend of John Ramsey to take him and do a search of the house for anything unusual. They started in the basement.
John: As I was going through the basement, I opened the door in the room and just knew immediately that I'd found her because I, there was a white blanket. Her eyes were closed, I feared the worst
The detective was there that had helped us that morning, spent a minute with her and looked at me, said to me, "She's dead".
Julie Hayden comments on her perception of the BPDs early investigative efforts:
Julie Hayden, TV Reporter: Early on there, definitely before the five o'clock newscast, we were beginning to get the sense that the police were not hunting Boulder for some mad kidnapper That the police were looking more inside the family.
Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby comments on the media frenzy:
Koby: I have never in the 28 years I have been in this business seen such media focus
The press release that there were no footprints in the snow:
Take the story that there were no footprints in the snow and that therefore there was no intruder. News video shot on the night of the 26th shows large areas around the house had no snow at all.
John Ramseys perception about the police:
John: And we said Oh boy - the worm has turned. What are these people about? It changed the whole chemistry of how we looked at the police. They were not there to help us, they were there to hang us and we became very suspicious, defensive, untrusting.
Allegations that JonBenet was sexually abused by her parents:
Man: One of the basis for public reaction to you is that when they saw the pageant videos that what they saw was a sexualized child.
With pageant images already circulating, the implications her parents may have sexually abused JonBenet turned the story into a media firestorm.
The CNN interview, there is a killer on the loose:
Patsy: There is a killer on the loose.
John: Absolutely
Patsy: I don't know who it is, I don't know if it is a he or a she, but if I were a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep, keep hold your babies close to you. There's someone out there.
"Who Killed the Pageant Queen?" July 11, 2001 (UK)
Producers: David Mills/Michael Tracey
Executive Producer : Ray Fitzwalter
The Elite - JonBenet: A Second Look, Court TV, November 7th, 2002 (USA)
Producers: David Mills and Michael Chrisman
Executive Producer for Mills Productions: Michael Tracey
Greg Walta speaks of the legendary Lou Smit, also video of Lou climbing into the basement through the window:
GREG WALTA: "He knew I'd tried cases against Smit. I told him that if the Ramsey's were guilty, they'd better look out because Smit would nail them and if they were guilty not to let them talk to Smit. He'd get under their skin and he'd get information that would kill them. On the other hand, I told him that if they were innocent, go ahead and cooperate, because this guy has integrity. He'll follow that evidence wherever it goes, and if it leads away from the Ramsey's, he would follow it. Also, in looking into the window well, the window in the center, that had been opened, had a great deal of disturbance in that particular area of the window. You can also see was appears to be finger marks on the window frame itself.
NARRATOR: - All this convinced Smit an intruder could easily have got in this way.
Lou SMIT - You know its been said that only a midget can get down into that window well, well I'm no midget and I'll show you how easy that can be done.
It really wasn't that difficult coming in that window. And often a burglar or an intruder - if they find a safe way in they also figure it'll be a safe way out. And if you remember, there was a suitcase that was right underneath this window. And if he figures that he has to go out this window he may think it would be much easier if he has something to stand on. On top of this suitcase was a very small tiny pea sized piece of glass which may have been picked up by a person's shoe. And a faint impression of possibly a footprint on the suitcase. And that suggests very strongly to me that perhaps someone did stand on that suitcase at one point, perhaps to go out the window or perhaps just to test to see if he could go out that window.
Now I can't say for sure if an intruder went through that window, but also we cannot just disregard it and say that he did not come through that window.
Who Killed the Pageant Queen? The Prime Suspect
Executive Producer: Ray Fitzwalter; Producer: David Mills; Producer: Michael Tracey
June 15, 2004 (aired in the UK)
A new look, suspects identified:
A completely new team of investigators has recently uncovered dramatic new facts about the murder. They have identified a number of suspects
Clip of JonBenet at a pageant:
Pageant Hostess: Name and how old are you?
JonBenét: My name is JonBenét Ramsey and Im five and a half.
The 911 call, John searching the home, early police suspicion:
911 Tape We have a kidnapping. Hurry .
Narrator: The police arrived within minutes. From the outset, they suspected the parents. Their suspicion grew, when John Ramsey asked by the police to search the house, found his daughters body in this small cellar room.
By the time JonBenéts body was removed from the house that night, Police already believed the parents were responsible. It was leaked to the media that not only was there no evidence of a break-in, but no-one could have got in because there were no footprints in the snow. The media was then told that there was evidence of *advertiser censored* and sexual abuse.
Video clip of Patsy being interviewed by investigators:
Interrogator: If I told you right now that we have trace evidence that appears to link you to the death of JonBenét, what would you tell me?
Patsy Ramsey: That is totally impossible. Go retest.
Interrogator: How is it impossible?
Patsy Ramsey: I did not kill my child. I didnt have a thing to do with it.
Interrogator: And Im not talking somebodys guess or some rumour or some story ...
Patsy Ramsey: I dont care what youre talking about.
Interrogator: Im talking about scientific evidence.
Patsy Ramsey: I dont give a flying flip how scientific it is. Go back to the damn drawing board. I didnt do it. John Ramsey didnt do it and we didnt have a clue about anybody who did do it...
DA Alex Hunter Soon there will be no one on the list but you. Introduction of Michael Helgoth:
Six weeks after the murder of JonBenét, Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter, invited journalists to a press conference. He ended it with this message ...
DA Alex Hunter : I want to say something to the person or persons who took this baby from us, the list of suspects narrows. Soon there will be no-one on the list but you
Narrator: The words had been written by the FBI. It was part of a strategy to use the media to put the killer and any accomplices under pressure. Soon afterwards, car mechanic John Kenady approached the Boulder Police to tell them about someone he thought might have been involved in the Ramsey killing. It was this man, Michael Helgoth, who helped run a car salvage yard in Boulder. Helgoth had committed suicide, it was believed, just hours after Alex Hunters press conference.
Michael Helgoth, stun guns and Hi-Tec boots:
Narrator: Yet it was when detectives examined photographs of Helgoths suicide that they made the most dramatic discoveries. By now it was known that a stun gun had been used to subdue JonBenét.
David Williams: Do you see here theres a stun gun? The black object here is a stun gun. Even although it is a different type of stun gun than the one that was used on JonBenét Ramsey, We know that he owned several including an Air Taser stun gun. That is the stun gun that we believe was used on JonBenét Ramsey.
Narrator: It has never been made public, but in the Ramsey home in the small cellar where JonBenéts body was left, two different footprints were found. They were made at or near the time of the killing and strengthened suspicions that two people might have been involved. One of the footprints was made by a rare Hi-Tec boot.
David Williams: You notice here these black boots? These are Hi-Tec boots. They are the same kind of boots that left a print in the wine cellar of the Ramsey home.
Narrator: Investigators managed to get hold of these boots and compared them with the Hi-Tec footprint left in the mould on the cellar floor.
David Williams: You notice that the Hi-Tec emblem on the right and the impression in the algae on the left are a perfect match.
Talk of Michael Helgoths suspicious suicide
Ollie Gray: It makes you wonder even more ... how did he actually die? The gun, the pillow, him being right handed ... are all key factors as to why this could be a homicide and not a suicide. I would bet that this is a murder and not suicide.
Narrator: The Boulder Police have been given the evidence suggesting Helgoth might have been involved in the Ramsey killing and he might have been murdered. They were unimpressed.
Ollie Gray: I had the distinct feeling that they had absolutely no interest in anything that took them away from the theory that John and Patsy Ramsey killed their daughter.
Interviewer (unseen) Even if that meant ignoring a potential homicide?
Ollie Gray: Even if it meant ignoring a potential homicide.
The Killing of JonBenét: An Evil Twist
December 5, 2006 (aired in the UK.)
Video clip of Lou Smit:
So I encouraged it very much that Michael continue e-mailing this person and to try to ascertain his identity.
Audio of phone call between between Tracey and Daxis:
Daxis.
Is that Daxis.
Yes it is.
Daxis. This is Mike Tracey.
Hi Michael.
How are you?
Im not so good. How are you?
Why you not so good.
I think, I think, Im just suicidal.
I cant take it any longer.
Its so horrible Michael. Theres nothing more horrible than this. Theres nothing more horrible, my God you cant imagine.
There are instructions as to what should be shown during some of the dialog, and during the phone calls between Tracey and Daxis it says that there should be rotating tape wheels which is exactly what we see in the AJ documentary
Sending Daxis the photo of JBR and PR:
Michael Tracey: and said why dont you have the original photo, rather than have it scanned?
I said this photo was given to me personally by Patsy
And I said, I really think you should have it.
Video clip of Gary Phillips:
an agent or investigator walked around the floor to see if we could spot him. We had vehicles positioned all around the hotel and the exits, and we also had agents in the lobby to see when he came down.
Video clip of Gary Phillips:
And he said: But I grabbed the flashlight with all my might, and I hit her head like that. And it was act of mercy
Video clip of Ann Hurst:
From one day to the next day, the story wouldnt change. It was exactly the same every time we interviewed him. And due to those facts, we felt that he was the prime suspect in the case.
Aphrodite should have investigated Michael Tracey before relying on him.
She might have found something like this:
Tracey has a dismal track record as a Ramsey sleuth. He's been barking up the wrong tree for years, serving up one implausible suspect after another. His documentaries, although well-received in Europe, are glaring examples of shoddy, agenda-driven reporting and the packaging of speculation as fact. As Tony Ortega first reported in the Broward-Palm Beach New Times shortly after Karr's arrest, a 2004 Tracey documentary focused on an alleged ninja-stalker "prime suspect" who'd supposedly "disappeared" -- but one of Tracey's critics was able to locate the supposedly elusive suspect within minutes on the Internet. The man wasn't considered a suspect by authorities and was living in Indiana at the time of the murder.
http://www.westword.com/2006-10-12/news/made-for-each-other/
(For those who dont know, that critic was none other than our own Tricia Griffith who issued the following press release at the time.)
Colorado University Journalism Professor Michael Traceys Latest Ramsey Documentary Exposed by Forums for Justice.org
An innocent man, a man who was never a suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case according to the Boulder District Attorneys office, was fingered as the Prime Suspect by C.U. Journalism Professor Michael Tracey in his latest Ramsey documentary.
On June 16, 2004, Michael Tracey's latest JonBenet Ramsey documentary entitled "Who Killed the Pageant Queen?" aired in Great Britain. Not only is this documentary filled with errors, it also falsely implicates a man who wasn't even in the state of Colorado at the time of the JonBenet Ramsey murder.
Thanks to Michael Traceys showing of John Steven Gigaxs police record, with his case number clearly in view, the people who saw the show might actually think Mr. Gigax had something to do with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
However, there are serious problems with Traceys documentary. Mr. Gigax wasnt even living in the state of Colorado at the time of the murder. On December 25/26, 1996, Mr. Gigax was with a large number of family and friends in a state far away from Colorado. Tom Bennett of the Boulder D.As office told Mr. Gigax he was never a suspect and the Boulder D.A was never looking for him to question him. A call by a Forums for Justice.org representative confirmed, through Tom Bennett, the same information.
The documentary stated that it was the investigators top priority to find this suspect; yet, Forums for Justice found Mr. Gigax within approximately 10 minutes of hearing this claim. A simple Google search was all that was needed. Within a few days we were in contact with him and upon hearing that he was the prime suspect, Mr. Gigax immediately called the Boulder D.A.s office.
Forums for Justice would like to thank John Steven Gigax for immediately contacting the officials and offering anything they needed to clear him of any suspicion. Unlike John and Patsy Ramsey, JonBenets parents, Mr. Gigax did not hire lawyers and refuse to speak to officials for months. Instead he did what most innocent people do - he offered to cooperate with investigators to clear his name. But, that wasnt necessary, because he was never a suspect to begin with.
According to the documentary, the Boulder Police tried to hire private investigators Ollie Gray and John St. Augustin to help with the investigation the day after the murder. The two refused, instead going to work for the Ramseys.
This is a highly questionable claim. Although Forums for Justice.org was not able to talk with Boulder Chief of Police Mark Beckner to confirm or deny this, it would be very unusual, if not bizarre, for the Boulder Police to hire outside private investigators when they had their own investigators working on the case and had access to FBI investigators as well.
Now, according to the documentary, these same private investigators are working with the Boulder District Attorneys office for free to help solve the case. The Boulder D. A. has sought the help of private detectives once employed by the Ramseys to hunt the killer. These investigators have been involved from the beginning. Although now unpaid volunteers because of the DAs limited resources, they are an important part of the new investigation and they are free to talk. They are led by Ollie Gray, one of Americas leading private detectives and his partner John San Augustin.
Since the documentary clearly states that these men are working with Mary Keenans office, we call upon Mary Keenan to denounce this latest lie produced by Michael Tracey. Even Keenans own very respected top investigator, Tom Bennett, has stated that Mr. Gigax is not now, nor was he ever, a suspect, nor were they ever looking for him.
We ask that Mary Keenan explain why Ollie Gray and John San Augustin are not held to the same standards as others in the D.As office (if indeed they really are working with the D.As office) and are allowed to share inside information and participate in the making of this documentary.
Forums for Justice calls for the Regents at the University of Colorado to remove Michael Tracey from his teaching position as a Journalism Professor. His latest documentary is such an outrage that the University of Colorado should be hugely embarrassed by his behavior and take the appropriate action. We also call upon the Rocky Mountain News to remove Michael Tracey as a columnist for the paper. Mr.Traceys column deals with ethics in the journalism. How ironic considering what Forums for Justice.org has uncovered.
On June 24, 2004 Michael Tracey appeared on Court TVs Catherine Crier Live show to talk about his latest documentary and his attempt to find a U.S. distributor. Forums for Justice.org calls upon all media outlets in the United States to refuse to air any part of this documentary.
John Ramsey once referred to the people who follow this case on the Internet as, beer can collectors. We would like to point out that we are not above doing whatever hard work it takes to get to the truth. Whether its doing a three-second Google search to find the prime suspect that a University Journalism Professor and volunteer investigators with the Boulder District Attorneys office cant find or doing manual labor to make money to support our efforts, we will do what it takes to help keep the truth from getting lost in the lies.
[ame="http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5292"]Forums for Justice Press Release/ Tracey Documentary Exposed - Forums For Justice[/ame]
Much more on Tracey here:
[ame="http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=249"]The Truth About Colorado University Journalism Professor Michael Tracey - Forums For Justice[/ame]
Its a shame that Tracey continues to dupe people into giving him a stage for his lies. Unfortunately, Aphrodite will probably not be his last victim, merely his latest.
If someone could fill me in on these, I'd appreciate it.
Ill PM you.
- Aphrodite Jones consulted with Dr. James Pennebaker who concluded that it was likely that that the ransom note was a collaborative effort involving a man and a woman.
Later in the documentary:
Dr. James Pennebaker: If this was done by a parent, you would think that they would be under massive, massive stress. And when people under massive stress, they make certain kinds of errors, youll see spelling errors, youll see more mark-outs.
Aphrodite Jones: So youre not telling me that its one of the Ramseys?
Dr. James Pennebaker: It doesnt make sense, no.
The ransom note is certainly not without corrections or misspelled words.
In the first paragraph of the first page of the ransom note it appears that the word dont may have been marked-out (the letters "d" and possibly "o" are visible.) The intention may have been to write "We don't respect your business" but was changed it to "We respect your business."
In the same paragraph there are also two spelling mistakes involving the words "business" and "possessions."
In first paragraph of the second page there is a mark-out of the word delivery which is replaced by pick-up.
A few lines later, the word not was inserted by means of an editing symbol, an upside down caret, between the words do and particularly in the sentence, The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them.
Michelle Dresbold noted that the ransom note followed a predictable path:
I find that when a person writes a letter he or she concentrates the most in the first few sentences. After a few paragraphs, however, the hand (and the brain relax and a more natural language and script emerge.
The writer of the ransom note starts off trying to give us the impression that he or she is uneducated by misspelling the words business and possession. However by the second paragraph the writer is using sophisticated words such as attaché and monitor. And there are no more misspellings.
Sex, Lies, and Handwriting, Michelle Dresbold
I have little doubt that Pennebaker was kept in the dark with respect to many case facts surrounding the ransom note.
Did Pennebaker consider, for example, that Patsy may have written one or more practice notes? This would significantly diminish mark-outs and misspellings in the final draft.
Chet Ubowski at the CBI had pulled startling information from the tablet belonging to Patsy Ramsey. By comparing tear patterns, Ubowski had determined that the first twelve pages were missing and the next fourpages 13 through 16-contained doodles and lists and some miscellaneous writing.
But the next group of pages, 17 through 25, were also missing from the tablet. The following page, 26, was the practice ransom (Mr. and Mrs. I), and that page showed evidence of ink bleed-through from the missing page 25.
Comparisons of the ragged tops of the ransom note pages with the remnants left in the tablet proved that it had come from pages 27, 28, and 29.
To me, being able to prove that the ransom note came from her tablet was an incredible piece of evidence.
Furthermore, the ink bleedthrough discovered on page 26 indicated that perhaps still another practice note could have been written on page 25 and been discarded. Two possible practice notes and one real one covering three pages led me to believe that the killer had spent more time in the house composing the ransom note than we originally thought.
But even more significant, it seemed clear that whoever wrote it was unafraid of being caught in the house. We never found the missing pages.
Then Eller and Koby were told that Ubowski had moved from examining the tablet to looking at the ransom note itself, comparing its writing with known samples the detectives had gathered from various sources.
What the CBI examiner told them, very privately, was astounding: Twenty-four of the alphabets twenty-six letters looked as if they had been written by Patsy.
When taken together, the tablet, the Sharpie pen, and the writing formed a powerful base of evidence. And that evidence pointed directly at Patsy Ramsey.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, page 81
Did Pennebaker consider that Patsy was the only suspect who altered her usual writing preferences when supplying writing samples to the police?
While I steered Don Paugh into a conversation about taxes, Gosage sought some unrehearsed writings by Patsy and struck gold. If Patsy didnt write the [ransom] note, why not offer some handwriting to prove it? he asked Nedra. She defiantly thrust a piece of paper at him and declared, Patsy wrote that just this morning.
As we drove away, Ron examined the list of addresses and telephone numbers Patsy had written. It included the name of her friend Barbara Fernie with an important, telltale correction.
In the 376-word ransom note, the small letter a was printed in manuscript style 109 times and written in cursive lowercase style only 5 times. The entry on Fernie contained just such a printed manuscript a as the second letter of the word Barbara, but it had been boldly written over with a black felt-tip pen and made into the cursive-style a.
We had noticed earlier that in pre-homicide writings, Patsy consistently used the manuscript a, but post-homicide, it disappeared from her samples of writing. This was a major find, for it looked as if she was consciously changing her lettering. She had more handwriting styles than a class of sixth graders and was seemingly able to change as easily as turning on and off different computer fonts.
I thought about how big a mistake it had been to provide the defense lawyers with a copy of the note. A suspect could study it prior to giving writing samples and consciously avoid certain characteristics, such as the style of writing the first letter of the alphabet.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, page 173
In the afternoon session, Foster explained why the foreign terrorists claim was transparently inauthentic and that the $118,000 ransom demand could have had its genesis from three points: the Ramsey home computer held the net liabilities figure of $1,118,000; Patsy Ramsey referred to Psalm 118 in some of her writings; and she had access to the pay stub containing that almost precise bonus figure. A stranger would not have had such inside information.
He pointed out how the odd usage and hence appeared both in the ransom note and in her 1997 Christmas letter.
The professor examined the construction of the letter a in the ransom note and in Patsys handwriting and noted how her writing changed abruptly after the death of JonBenét.
In the decade prior to the homicide, Patsy freely inter-changed the manuscript a and the cursive a. But in the months prior to December 1996, she exhibited a marked preference for the manuscript a. The ransom note contained such a manuscript a 109 times and the cursive version only 5 times. But after the Ramseys were given a copy of the ransom note, Foster found only a single manuscript a in her writing, while the cursive a now appeared 1,404 times!
That lone exception was in the sample that her mother had unexpectedly handed to Detective Gosage in Atlanta.
Not only did certain letters change, but her entire writing style seemed to have been transformed after the homicide. There were new ways of indenting, spelling, and writing out long numbers that contrasted with her earlier examples, and she was the only suspect who altered her usual preferences when supplying writing samples to the police.
Foster used an overhead projector to describe Patsy Ramseys habit of creating acronyms and acrostics, which she did with astonishing frequency.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, pages 314 - 315
Did Pennebaker consider the astonishing similarities between Patsys handwriting exemplars and the ransom note?
We were called upon to examine the ransom note that was left at the crime scene. The other handwriting expert was in Maryland. Both of us were kept separate so our opinions would be independent. In my opinion, I found that it was highly probable that Patsy was the person who wrote the note. I found over 243 similarities between her handwriting and the ransom note. The other handwriting expert said that he was 100 positive that Patsy wrote the note.
- Cina Wong
http://www.cinawongforgeryexpert.com/mediaroom_insidebusiness.asp
Joining us now from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Michelle Dresbold, the author of the new book, "Sex, Lies, and Handwriting: A Top Expert Reveals the Secrets Hidden in Your Handwriting".
Bill OReilly: All right. Patsy Ramsey, the late Patsy Ramsey. Now, this is the ransom note that we looked at? What?
Michelle Dresbold: Right, and Patsy, in the book what I did was I actually profiled the person who wrote the ransom note. And then what I did was I gave the reader Patsy Ramsey's handwriting, and step by step I compared it to Patsy Ramsey's writing. And what I, letting the reader do is be the jury and actually see in black and white the comparisons between Patsy Ramsey's handwriting and the handwriting on ransom note.
Bill OReilly: They're almost identical.
Michelle Dresbold: They're almost identical. And you can go through letter for letter, word for word and you'll see unusual connections. Pressure at certain parts. And if you look at the word "sense"
Bill OReilly: So you're convinced that Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransom note?
Michelle Dresbold: The chances that Patsy Ramsey did not write the ransom note are about 2 percent. So it's an extremely high, it's an extremely high...
Bill OReilly: That means she had something to do with her daughter's death, if that's true.
The O'Reilly Report, Fox News, December 21, 2006
During her deposition, Patsy was questioned about the letter comparison charts.
She didnt see the similarities, I wonder why?
Q. (By Mr. Hoffman) Mrs. Ramsey, what I am showing you is a series of letters. I am not identifying their source. I am just simply showing you a series of letters. I would like you to look at them carefully. Again, this is Plaintiff's Exhibit 10 for identification. Can you, without knowing the source or where these letters are from, identify any of them?
A. No, sir.
Q. Now, I would like you to also look at the letters and ask me if you see any similarities in the way in which these letters are written. And we will just start from the bottom. Looking at the B.
A. Ask you if I see any similarities?
Q. No. I am going to ask you to comment on whether you see any similarities in the handwriting.
MR. WOOD: Let me just ask you, Darnay, Patsy Ramsey is not a questioned document examiner.
MR. HOFFMAN: I just want her personal observation.
Q. (By Mr. Hoffman) Mrs. Ramsey, I am going to show you a document that has been marked Plaintiff's Exhibit 10 for identification. And I would like you to look at the document. Please look at it carefully. What you -- this document, for the record, contains eight letters that are side by side vertically on the page. The letter D, what looks like the letter S, what looks like letters R and O, what looks like an N, what looks like an O, what looks like an exclamation point, what looks like a G, and what looks like a B. I am going to ask you, Mrs. Ramsey, if you can identify any of these letters as being your handwriting.
A. No, sir.
Deposition of Patsy Ramsey, Wolf v Ramsey
Did Pennebaker consider that aside from the fact that Patsy graduated from the University of West Virginia with a magna *advertiser censored* laude degree in journalism and a minor in advertising which certainly qualified her as being able to write the ransom note, she also had many uniquely identifiable elements in her writing.
Throughout the month, I furnished Foster with a wide range of material from a number of suspects so we would not be accused of stacking the deck. One of the first things he picked up on was Patsys habit of using acronyms and acrostics in her communications. She often signed off with her initials, PAPR, and used such phrases as To BVFMFA from PPRBSJ, which meant, To Barbara V. Fernie, Master of Fine Arts, from Patricia Paugh Ramsey, Bachelor of Science in Journalism. That, I thought, might somehow link to the mysterious SBTC acronym on the ransom note.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, page 292
The documents he studied from Patsy Ramsey, in his opinion, formed a precise and unequivocal match with the ransom note. He read a list of unique matches with the note that included such things as her penchant for inventing private acronyms, spelling habits, indentation, alliterative phrasing, metaphors, grammar, vocabulary, frequent use of exclamation points, and even the format of her handwriting on the page.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, page 314
On and on Foster probed, racing through numerous compelling points that left little doubt the ransom note came from Patsys hand. The Vassar scholar explained that as people change over time, they incorporate some of what they read and experience into their language. The Ramsey library contains many books that were sources for Patsy Ramseys nine-teen ninety-five and ninety-six writings, many of which also contain startling verbal or other detailed parallels with the Ramsey homicide and attendant staging, including language that appears in the ransom note, he said.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, page 316
The ransom note would become public only in September 1997. Karen Howard, an employee of Access Graphics, said that she was struck by the words you are not the only fat cat around. Howard remembered that Patsys father, Don Paugh, used the word cats all the time; for example, Those cats down in marketing.
Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Lawrence Schiller, page 294
JOHN RAMSEY: Well, grow a brain, fat cats. We'd heard those before.
MIKE KANE: Were you ever able to
JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we had some names we came up with. We passed on (INAUDIBLE) our friends in Atlanta, "Atlanta fat cats" later in that week.
MIKE KANE: When was that specifically?
JOHN RAMSEY: That was when she was back; when we were back for the funeral.
MIKE KANE: (INAUDIBLE) friends saying that about?
JOHN RAMSEY: Well, when we went back, Ron Westmoreland had like a little reception after the funeral, and some of my friends were there, and he has a beautiful home in Atlanta. He makes a lot of money. It's not a stretch for him to have it. It's very nice. My friends were around me, consoling me and trying to give me advice. And to be a part of that group it's the Atlanta fat cats.
John Ramsey, 1998 interview
It was his voice in the ransom note and her hands. I can see it in my mind. Shes sitting there. We need paper, we need a note. Hes dictating and shes doing. Like hes almost snapping his fingers. She grabbed her notepad and her felt-tip pen. That is not her language. But the essence of her is there, like the percentages: 99% chance and 100% chance. That is how she talked because of her cancer or how you talk when you are around someone with cancer. And the phrase that good southern common sense of yours. John wasnt from the South, but Patsy and Nedra always teased him about being from the South.
Linda Wilcox
Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, Lawrence Schiller, page 630
When all the facts are considered, the conclusion is inescapable.
As Henry Lee said, the ransom note is "this incredibly damaging piece of evidence implicating Patsy Ramsey"
Cracking More Cases by, Henry C. Lee., page 209
Q. What is your degree of certainty yourself as you sit here today that Patsy Ramsey wrote the note?
A. I am absolutely certain that she wrote the note.
Q. Is that 60 percent certain?
A. No, that's 100 percent certain.
Deposition of Gideon Epstein, May 17, 2002
"Many forensic document examiners have given their opinions as to who wrote the note. But the only one to testify before a grand jury in the case was Chet Ubowski, forensic document examiner for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Out of 100 people he analyzed for the Boulder Police Department, he found only one person whom he thought may have authored the document, Patsy Ramsey. Investigative sources tell Fox News that the disguised letters and bleeding ink from the felt tipped pen used to write the note kept him from 100 percent ID of Mrs. Ramsey."
Fox News, Carol McKinley
Fight fire with fire, I always say!
- Aphrodite Jones chose to resurrect old video footage of Lou Smit entering the Ramsey home through the train room window. Lou believed that an intruder used the window both as a means of entry and egress. In the documentary he tells us, and often a burglar, or an intruder, if they find a safe way in, they also figure it will be a safe way out.
Downstairs in the basement, another technician examined the broken window. Three windows, each eighteen-by-thirty-inch rectangles, were in a row. The top left pane in the center window was broken, and the screen was off. The tech noticed pieces of glass outside the window and a scuff mark on the wall. The dust, film, and debris on the windowsill were undisturbed.
Outside, a detective examined the steel grate that covered the window well and found undisturbed cobwebs still attached from the grate to the bricks. The foliage around the grate also appeared undisturbed.
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, Steve Thomas, page 40
Elizabeth Vargas: You've actually done this... you and another detective tried to crawl through this window...
Steve Thomas: Yes, several of us have. What's interesting is that the dirt and debris on the sill is absolutely undisturbed so unless we have a flying Spiderman who came through this window, I don't know how anyone could enter this window without coming across the sill.
Good Morning America, Elizabeth Vargus, Interview with Steve Thomas
More on this subject here:
http://gemart.8m.com/ramsey/window/index.html
and here:
[ame="http://www.forumsforjustice.org/forums/showthread.php?p=61089"]The Truth About Judge Julie Carnes Decision. Window Well. - Forums For Justice[/ame]
Anybody have any hot irons? I kinda...melted mine.
Let_Forever_Be
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The evidence which supports the strangulation is that so little blood was found in the head. I believe it was less than a teaspoon.The "sex game gone awry" thesis postulates that the erotic asphyxiation device accidentally killed JonBenet via pressing on her vagal nerve which killed her and thus stopped the heart pumping blood. Hence the lack of blood in the brain which meant that at the time of the blow, she'd had a relatively weak, even nonexistent, heartbeat to put it succinctly.
Dr Wecht explains this:
The head bash was done afterwards as part of the staging. If no head wound existed, then only the sexual trauma would be evident.This would be very specific. The parents would be very much implicated. The head wound, at the very least, introduced another element into the narrative to confuse police. Further, imagine the person who killed her -- they didn't mean to and are aware their sick, perverse sex games killed her. Thus, the head-blow acts as a sort of way of distancing themselves from their actions of abuse towards the little girl.
Regardless of what Wecht says, the doctor who actually performed the autopsy found mild swelling in the brain (noted in the autopsy report as mild narrowing and flattening of the sulci and gyri of the brain). This indicated she was alive when she was bashed on the head. I believe the head bash came first, and she was still alive when she was strangled. But if the head bash followed the strangulation or was part of the staging, she was alive when it happened. Forensics isn't variable. The autopsy shows she was alive when BOTH causes of death were inflicted.
Let_Forever_Be
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I certainly agree she was alive when she was strangled. And the head blow came afterwards when her heartbeat was almost non-existent.To me, the lack of blood which was found in her brain and the lack of swelling (very mild) somehwat corroborates this theory or at least gives credence to it. To put another way, if the head-blow came first, it would be expected that there was more brain swelling. There wasn't. I know anomalies exist and I'm no medical expert by any means.
The overtly sexual nature to the case has somewhat led me to favour that EA device/sex game gone wrong was what killed her. The evidence of prior sexual trauma to the genitals adds to this theory.
If the strangulation came shortly after the head bash, the swelling would be as noted.
We know there was prior trauma/abuse. And it had to be someone with regular, private access to JB (i.e. family member). But obviously there is no way to know whether there had been any type of erotic asphyxiation -type games that had been played previously. If a "game " like that was played, I can't imagine a worse time to play it. A late arrival home, late-night pineapple snack, bringing the timeline to 10-11 PM. Parents up, awake and about (Patsy admitted puttering around getting ready for the trip) and the kids decide to play at an erotic strangulation? Her death happened (according to the evidence found at autopsy as well as the stage of rigor mortis she was in when found) around midnight. That sex game would have happened while the parents were still awake.
Let_Forever_Be
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I have a hard time understanding how, if the head-blow came first, that the parent responsible, who would surely be traumatised, could then plan the strangulation to cover-up so quickly. And as the brain swelling was mild, it would mean that the strangulation would have to have occurred very shortly after such a head blow.It takes time to tie the garrotte aswell as to source all the parts -- the rope, brush handle etc.
I think it would be much easier if the culprit killed JonBenet via the EA device as per Wecht's theory and then used an object (flashlight?) to bludgeon her head. That seems to me more congruential with human behaviour. But that's just me 2 cents.
I have considered that the EA game was done by Burke but the totality of the evidence forces me to rule him out. The prior sexual trauma and acute trauma to the genitals aswell as the garrotte and sexual connotations of that; aswell as the ransom note (wrote by an adult) makes me suspicious of the parents alone.
Further, I read that JonBenet's underwear had fecal staining on it and that she wet the bed which ofcourse is sometimes evidence of an abused kid.
Forensic specialists say that up to an hour could have elapsed between the head blow and death. "This isn't something that kills her quickly" was the quote. Adrenaline kicks in and who knows what someone is capable of?
The reason why I don't feel the head bash was staging is that it was not apparent until the autopsy. The coroner was surprised to find it, in fact, and did not find it until her scalp was pulled back for preparation of the removal of the skullcap to examine and weigh the brain (standard procedures). Because it was not VISIBLE as a cause of death (but of course, WAS one of the two CODs), it was unnecessary as staging. It added nothing.
BUT on the other hand, if the head bash came first, you have the problem of a (seemingly) dead little girl with NO apparent reason for her death. So the garrote was made as staging so that there was an immediately obvious cause of death. Of course, she was still alive when that happened. Some people speculate that IF there was an erotic strangulation it may have been done with something softer, like a scarf (JR oddly chose a scarf that he had been given as a Christmas gift to put around JB in her coffin). I have to point out that there were NO other marks on her neck except for the marks made by the garrote and petechiae. BUT if you look at photos of victims of strangulation with a scarf or other soft ligature, there are IDENTICAL red triangular marks on their throats to the one JB had. There were such photos on Ruthee's Pages (on ACR) but Ruthee's site is pretty much unavailable as she has been dead several years now. Those photos were posted here a while back.
The deep ligature furrow on JB was red, which was one of the things (along with the petechiae) that indicated she was alive when she was strangled. There also seems to be a ligature mark (not a deep one) that was WHITE, indicating it was made AFTER death. There is no way to tell how much time elapsed between the red and white marks, but the white mark was made while she was in the early blanching stage of livor mortis, before it became fixed. The cord was long enough to have wrapped a few times around, even after the tightly knotted section that made the deep furrow.
The reason why I don't feel the head bash was staging is that it was not apparent until the autopsy. The coroner was surprised to find it, in fact, and did not find it until her scalp was pulled back for preparation of the removal of the skullcap to examine and weigh the brain (standard procedures). Because it was not VISIBLE as a cause of death (but of course, WAS one of the two CODs), it was unnecessary as staging. It added nothing.
BUT on the other hand, if the head bash came first, you have the problem of a (seemingly) dead little girl with NO apparent reason for her death. So the garrote was made as staging so that there was an immediately obvious cause of death. Of course, she was still alive when that happened. Some people speculate that IF there was an erotic strangulation it may have been done with something softer, like a scarf (JR oddly chose a scarf that he had been given as a Christmas gift to put around JB in her coffin). I have to point out that there were NO other marks on her neck except for the marks made by the garrote and petechiae. BUT if you look at photos of victims of strangulation with a scarf or other soft ligature, there are IDENTICAL red triangular marks on their throats to the one JB had. There were such photos on Ruthee's Pages (on ACR) but Ruthee's site is pretty much unavailable as she has been dead several years now. Those photos were posted here a while back.
The deep ligature furrow on JB was red, which was one of the things (along with the petechiae) that indicated she was alive when she was strangled. There also seems to be a ligature mark (not a deep one) that was WHITE, indicating it was made AFTER death. There is no way to tell how much time elapsed between the red and white marks, but the white mark was made while she was in the early blanching stage of livor mortis, before it became fixed. The cord was long enough to have wrapped a few times around, even after the tightly knotted section that made the deep furrow.
Let_Forever_Be
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Great points. And it's points I will surely mull over until the case is solved. That's if it ever is.
I can see the logic to the idea that the head-wound was not staging e.g. it wasn't visible so wasn't apparent.
But I feel that whoever did this, after the sex-game went wrong (my theory) panicked. Their sick, sexual game had went wrong. They had a dead/dying body before them. They didn't want to go to prison. They acted out in a manner to try and make the crime look like the work of an intruder. A sexual perpetrator as the Ramseys would recall in interviews.I think the head-blow was emblematic of the cathartic state of the perpetrator's mind -- it represented a singular, evil act that was an attempt to mirror what an intruder would supposedly do.I don't think they had the mettle to butcher JonBenet's body.
If JonBenet was struck on head in rage, why would parents not call ambulance? Was it because the head-blow was related to the sexual molestation and the molestation implicated the parents(s)?
I can't understand how the head-blow was related to the molestation. And we know for a fact she was molested near her death and at least 72 hours before.
I think the more succinct theory, which carries less speculations, is that the garrotte was an EA device. It went wrong. It pressed on her vagal nerve, stopping the heart. The perp tried to resuscitate her.It failed. They had to think of a plan. They decided to 'blame some evil outside faction' and thus whacked JonBenet's skull, cracking it. The vagal nerve reflex explains why the brain swelling was mild and only 7ccs of blood were found -- it's because her heart/blood supply had been damaged via the garrotte. Thus, the head-blow came after the EA device/neck trauma She was near dead when it occurred.
That's just my theory though. In time it may change. But as of now, it's what I think best explains what happened.
One of my main theories suggest she screamed during the sexual molestation. She was bashed on the head to silence her- to stop her from screaming. The flashlight was likely the weapon IMO, and was handy if it was being used to walk around the dark house (as would be the case with someone engaging in sexual abuse of a child). So in this sense, the head bash is related to the sexual abuse.
The neighbor who reported hearing the scream (then denied it, after probably being "approached" by R lawyers- then later reversed again claiming she did, in fact, hear the scream) around midnight- and that it was a horrifying scream which stopped abruptly. A likely scene if she was bashed to shut her up.
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