The Case of JonBenet Ramsey-CBS Sept. 18 # 2

[Yvettea]

I'd have to go back and look, but I think Dr. Lee started to object and then decided to go along. Regardless though of who agrees or not, I'm afraid Spitz is clueless and too many give him more credit than he deserves. Obviously, I do not. And like Heymom said, "Whether you call that sexual abuse or not, them's the facts."

I don't believe the CBS special asserted that JonBenet had never been sexually abused. I believe they said she wasn't sexually assaulted that night.

 

[spitsthetruth]

So many people get caught up in the ransom notes and fibers and all the possibilies they could suggest and that is important I believe as supporting a case but IMO its not as significant as " Opportunity " in this case. Every crime like this has to have an opportunity for the killer to commit the crime. CBS suggested this very well I thought. The pineapple is the key. They mentioned the bowl of pineapple with BR prints on it and the contents of JBR's small intestine as well as the condition of those contents. The pineapple makes BR the last known person to see her alive and the condition of the pineapple in her small intestine along with other things gives you time of death. So now you have a very small window for opportunity for the killing to occur. Put all other theories into this window of opportunity and you can eliminate a lot.

I am curious is there has been a report released estimating the time of digestion on that pineapple. would be interesting to see how long after she at it death occurred. I do know fruit metabolizes much faster then protiens such as meat.

 

[BBB167893]

otg look at a report from DR.'s McCann, Spitz, Jones ect. about their conclusions to the ME autopsy and you will understand the discussion at the end of the show o the sexual abuse. What they were agreeing to was that the immediate sexual abuse was part of the staging. Very little microscopic wood fibers on slide spitz says. However, if you read the conclusions of the McCann report you will see most agree that long term sex abuse had been taking place. That is why I believe Lee so emphatically said ....To cover up...to cover up.

In other words, make it look like a sexual perv. abused her to cover up the abuse that had been going on. John had to know an ME was gonna note a punctured hymen and scarring and such airing the autopsy. It sure provides motive for all the staging doesn't it.

spitsthetruth, you may be new, but you nailed it like a pro!

 

[spitsthetruth]

Thanks dave. read my post on the CBS thread about " Opportunity " for the killing to have happened and tell me what you think.

 

[PositiveLight]

(1)
CBS Part 1 The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey


Warning stating that the program is for mature audiences and contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some viewers.
It also contains recreations. Viewer discretion is advised.


Opening sequence is "A Colorado Christmas at The (Christmas 1994)
Snowing outside the front door opens to their Boulder, Colorado home.
Patsy, sitting on the floor in front of the Christmas tree with JonBenet in front of her and Burke to her right. Both kids
are playing with toys. All three have matching blue Christmas sweaters. The house is decorated for Christmas.
Patsy- "Hello! I'm Patsy Ramsey. Daddy's not here but this is JonBenet, she's 4 Burke is 7 and we'd like to welcome you
to our home and wish you a very Merry Christmas! Wave JonBenet.." (all three wave to the camera.)


December 26th, 1996
Kim Archuleta- "911 emergency"
Patsy- "(inaudible) POLICE. WE HAVE A KIDNAPPING. HURRY PLEASE"
Kim- "Explain to me what's going on okay?"
Patsy- "(mumbles) THERE'S A NOTE LEFT AND OUR DAUGHTER'S GONE."
Kim- "A note was left and your daughter is gone?"
Patsy- "YES."


Jim Clemente narrates
"On December 26, 1996 at
5:52am, six year old JonBenet Ramsey was reported kidnapped by her mother. Later that day,
she was found dead in her home."


Snippets from news reports and pictures are show in her pageantry clothing.


Narration continues-
"Soon, pictures of this little girl became public, igniting a media frenzy and the eyes of the world focused on this shocking
case."


Alex Hunter, D.A. press conference snippet shown.
Alex Hunter- " The list of suspects narrows. Soon there will be no one on the list...but you. (looking directly into
camera)"


Jim continues narration.
"With the investigation stalled, they never found the killer."


CNN interview of Patsy and John.
Patsy- "Keep your babies close to you. There's someone out there."


Jim's narration
"Twenty years later this homicide remains unsolved."


Boulder, Colorado
PRESENT DAY


Jim- "I'm Jim Clemente. I'm a retired FBI profiler. I'm an expert in the areas of child sex crimes, child abductions,
and child homicides."


Laura Richards- "My name is Laura Richards.I'm a criminal behavioral analyst and I've been trained by New Scotland
Yard and the FBI."


Clemente- "I joined the FBI's behavioral analysis unit in 1998 and we did a cold case review of the JonBenet Ramsey
homicide."
Clemente and Laura are riding in an SUV talking.
Clemente- "Originally it looked like a traditional kidnapping because there was a ransom demand. We found out it
clearly was not a kidnapping case within 8 hours the body was found in the house."
Laura- "My lens is firmly fixed. I'm a victim advocate. I want to get to the truth on behalf of JonBenet. It's
something that's always stayed with me if just wondering was this a predatory stalker, was this an intruder, was this a
domestic violence or child abuse situation."
Clemente- "Our goal is to finally get to the truth and tell the world what actually happened to JonBenet Ramsey."


Back to 911 call
Patsy- "Oh My God PLEASE. Hurry Hurry Hurry.."
Kim- "Patsy.. Patsy..Patsy.."


UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LAW SCHOOL


View of the WAR ROOM with boards and such. The two are writing on the boards and pinning photos of the crime scene up.
Clemente- "We're really fortunate to have this space where we can actually build our war room and work."
Laura- "So this is really our think room you know being able to go through the hypothesis go through all the
information and the facts and I think that part is going to be invaluable."
Clemente- "What we need to do is a complete re-investigation. Starting right from scratch with the 911 call, the crime scene..."
Laura- "The ransom note and the sequence of events. You know it's really important that we get that timeline absolutely
clear in our own heads."
Clemente- "We hope to get the truth out about how she died."
Laura- "and that's the biggest question mark around this case."

 

[PositiveLight]

(2)
Clemente- "So let's talk about what we know about the Ramsey's. John, Patsy, JonBenet and Burke. John Ramsey is in
his second marriage. He had three kids from his first marriage."
Laura- "So Beth, John Andrew, Melinda.."
Clemente- "Beth was killed in a car accident."
Laura- "So that was kind of a package that John came with. Patsy was actually 14 years younger than him. So when they
met, they started courting each other, she was 21,22."
Clemente- "She had been Miss West Virginia and so for him she was quite a trophy wife."
Laura- "She also graduated with a degree in journalism. So she was pretty smart herself at the University of West
Virginia."
Clemente- "Didn't she work for John at one point?"
Laura- "She did. John had a rising career in the computer industry. Access Graphic had a billion dollar turnover
that very year that JonBenet was killed. So don't forget the lifestyle. They had 2 planes at one point and I think
a 30ft. yacht. So to everybody else they sort of had the perfect family exterior."




LUCINDA PASCH-------------------
(John Ramsey's First Wife) /Beth (daughter), John Andrew (oldest son), Melinda (daughter)
John Bennett Ramsey
(Father)----------------------


Second Marriage
John Bennet Ramsey + Patsy Ramsey- Burke, JonBenet


Clemente- "This crime happened almost 20 years ago. JonBenet was just 6 years old. She would be 26 now. A grown
woman and maybe she would have her own family. Her brother Burke was almost 10 years old at the time. He's
29 now. A grown man."
Laura- "And then of course, after JonBenet's death, tragedy strikes again when Patsy's diagnosed with Grade 4
Ovarian Cancer and Patsy dies in 2006. You know we really do need to understand them as people and speak to as
many people who can give us an understanding of who they were and the dynamics between them."
Clemente- "The MOST important thing is to go where the evidence takes us. The great thing is the people we've been
able to assemble. Many of us were involved in the initial investigation and the investigation over the last
20 years."


Clemente introduces Dr. Henry Lee- Forensic Scientist, Pathologist on the O.J. Simpson Trial, Founded The Henry C. Lee
Institute of Forensic Science, Commissioner of Connecticut Department of Public Safety.
"Doctor Henry Lee- World Renown criminalist. He is so good at drilling down into the little details and scientific
facts and reconstructing crimes."


Laura introduces Jim Fitzgerald- Forensic Linguist, FBI investigator for the Unabomber. FBI investigator for the DC
Sniper,
"Jim Fitzgerald whose a profiler and he's a forensic Linguist and he's a former police officer too."


Clemente introduces James Kolar- Investigator for the Boulder D.A., Chief of the Telluride Marshal's Department
"James Kolar was actually hired by the District Attorney's office. He re-investigated the entire case."


Clemente introduces Stan Burke- Statement Analyst, FBI investigator for 23 years
"Stan Burke is somebody who actually teaches statement analysis at the FBI academy."


Laura and Clemente introduce Dr. Werner Spitz- Forensic Pathologist, Reviewed the JFK Autopsy April 1975, Consultant on
MLK Assassination
"Then there's Doctor Werner Spitz. He has an amazing background in forensic pathology. And of course with this case
we really need to understand the autopsy report and what he can tell us about that."


Laura- "20 years on putting together this elite and renowned team. Actually bringing these minds into one room. This
has never been done before and when you join up everybody's experience cumulatively, its over 250 years of experience
working in law enforcement."


Dr. Lee- "This case somehow touched my heart. I wish some way can have a conclusion. Not really for the public...
for JonBenet Ramsey."
Fitzgerald- "This is the one case that stuck in my crawl. We have so much evidence we just haven't quite put it
together."
Clemente- "What we'd like to do is start up with the actual first thing that started the investigation and that is
the 911 call. It was 5:52am. Patsy calls the police."


Timeline - 5:52am- Patsy calls 911.


The 911 call-
Kim- "911 emergency."
Patsy- " (incoherent) POLICE. 755 15th STREET."
Kim- "What's going on there, ma'am?
Patsy- "WE HAVE A KIDNAPPING.HURRY PLEASE."
Kim- "Explain to me what's going on, okay?"
Patsy- "(incoherent) THERE'S A NOTE LEFT AND OUR DAUGHTER'S GONE."
Kim- "A note was left and your daughter is gone?"
Patsy- "YES."
Kim- "How old is your daughter?"
Patsy- "SHE'S SIX YEARS OLD. SHE'S BLONDE. SIX YEARS OLD."
Kim- "How long ago was this?"
Patsy- "I DON'T KNOW. I JUST FOUND THE NOTE. AND MY DAUGHTER'S GONE."
Kim- "Does it say who took her?"
Patsy- "WHAT?"
Kim- "Does it say who took her?"
Patsy- "I DON'T KNOW IT'S..THERE'S A ...THERE'S A RANSOM NOTE HERE."
Kim- "It's a ransom note?"
Patsy- "IT SAYS 'S.B.T.C. VICTORY. PLEASE..."
Kim- "Okay what's your name? Are you .."
Patsy- "PATSY RAMSEY. I'M THE MOTHER. OH MY GOD! PLEASE!"
Kim- "I'm... okay, I'm sending an officer over, okay?"
Patsy- "PLEASE."
Kim- "Do you know how long she's been gone?"
Patsy- "NO I DON'T. PLEASE WE JUST GOT UP AND SHE'S NOT HERE. OH MY GOD PLEASE."
Kim- "Okay calm.."
Patsy- "PLEASE SEND SOMEBODY."
Kim- "I am honey. Take a deep breath for me, okay?"
Patsy- "PLEASE.. PLEASE...HURRY HURRY HURRY."
Kim- "Patsy... Patsy..."

 

[PositiveLight]

(3)
Clemente- "There's six seconds of something that's inaudible."
Fitzgerald- "Patsy thought the phone call was ended. The last thing she ever thought was somebody was still
listening."
(commercial)
replay of end of 911 call
Kim- "Patsy... Patsy... Patsy... Patsy.."


Laura- "The clues to the 911 call play such a significant part in this case. Jim Fitzgerald is the exactly right
person to be able to provide analysis."
Fitzgerald- "There are many factors that are very interesting from a forensic linguistic prospective. The fifth word used
is the plural pronoun 'We.' 'We have a kidnapping. What does that even mean? Where's the ownership?"
Clemente- "She doesn't mention her daughter's name. She says, 'My daughter My six year old blonde.. I'm the mother.'
These are behavioral things that I think are extremely unusual."


Stan Burke- "The hanging up, if you will, when you make that phone call someone close to you has disappeared. You're sending
out that phone call for help. I've looked at a lot of 911 calls over the years. They'll hold on till the police get there.
That's your lifeline. That help indicates hope."
(Dr. Lee nodding in agreement.)
Burke- "The moment you hang up that phone, you end the hope. And for that phone to be hung up...you gotta ask
yourself why?"
Clemente- "Right."
Fitzgerald- "If they're legitimately hoping for their child to be taken care of, rescued, saved, whatever. If there's
something else going on..then you have a different set of parameters involved."
Clemente- "And it's interesting that Patsy thought she had hung up the call, and disconnected it while the dispatcher
was calling out her name because she wanted to talk to her more and keep her on the phone until the police arrived. But
she did not hang up the phone."
Dr. Lee- "In the background we heard some voices."
Clemente- "Who do you hear?"
Clemente narration-
"In the 90's they tried to do an enhancement of that tape. There's been a lot of controversy about what they have
actually uncovered on that tape. And most of the general public has never heard the enhanced version. We want to use today's
technology to actually nail down what exactly was said and by whom in those final moments of that tape."


Jim and Laura are at Coupe Studios now. They sit with Ed Kaufman an audio engineer, working on clearing up the
background voices. They both have headsets on listening intently to the 911 call.


911 call Enhancement.
Laura- "It's hard to make out"
Clemente- "Yeah. What can you do to bring that up?"
Kaufman- "We could try a little noise reduction"
They listen again.
Still not clear.
Kaufman moves some slides on the equipment and loops the first inaudible voice.
Clemente and Laura listen.
Celemente- "Can you slow it down?"
Kaufman slows it down.
The voice becomes clearer.
Clemente- "Oh wow. I think I hear a man's voice saying 'We're not speaking to you."
Clemente- "I think that's John Ramsey's voice."
They play a clip from an interview of John speaking for comparison.
Clemente repeats the phrase, "WE are not speaking to YOU."
Laura- "The tone is a parent talking to a child."
Clemente- "I've never heard that before. Ok so why don't you play it from there."
Listening intently.
Laura- "There's another voice. A female voice."
Clemente- "Wow. Yeah. Can you blow that up and slow it down a bit? Just a little bit."
Laura- "It sounds like Patsy's voice to me."
Clemente- "I don't know. Can you stretch it out a little bit more?"
Laura- "I'm getting 'Oh..something... Jesus. And then it repeats."
Clemente- "I hear either Holy Jesus or Help me Jesus."
Kaufman- "What I heard was 'what did you do... what did you do..' That's what it sounds like through
the speakers. I didn't listen with the headphones."
Clemente- "Well here you are..(hands Kaufman the headset)"
Kaufman- "yeah yeah sure." (He puts on the headphones.)
Kaufman- "I do hear the Jesus the second time. Let's put that through this noise reduction."
Clemente- "Alright great."
Kaufman- "I'm showing it just the noise between the speech so hopefully it just takes that out and
leaves the speech. Here it comes."
Clemente- "You could be right. It's the same number of syllables but when you pointed that out, I think
I hear the difference between the two sentences. The first part is a little blurry but certainly 'what
did you do' is a real probability here. Ok so let's go on to the next part."
The last phrase is played.
Clemente - "Stop there. Can you spread that out?"
listens again.
Clemente- "Oh my God. What DID you find?"
Laura- "What did you find?"

 

[PositiveLight]

(4)
Clemente- "Right! What did you find?..It sounds like a smaller voice though. It doesn't sound like a
booming adult."
Laura- "There were only 4 people in that house."
Clemente- "Right. One of them was dead."
Laura- "I believe we heard John Ramsey's voice. We've heard Patsy's voice. So we know the only
other person in the address at the time is Burke. This is hugely significant. I mean this changes
things because their account is that Burke was asleep at the time."
Clemente- "They made a point of saying he was asleep and that he had nothing to do with it and
that they never even asked him whether he heard anything."


Timeline-
January 1, 1997- Ramsey's make their first public statements since JonBenet's death;CNN interview.
April 30, 1997- Ramsey's interviewed by Boulder P.D.; claim Burke was asleep during 911 call.


Clemente and Laura driving in SUV.
Clemente- "Now that we've heard this on the tape, it's really important that we speak to the 911
operator who received the call, Kim Archuletta. I really hope that we can talk to her to get her
insights about any kind of behavior that she picked up that the tape might not have captured."


Clemente is on speakerphone with Kim Archuletta and James Kolar is standing beside him.
Clemente- "How you doing Kim, this is Jim Clemente. We'd love to actually sit down and
interview you and I'm sure that you have a lot of things to say about what happened that
day but also what happened subsequently."
Kim- "Yeah um...I've always been under a gag order so I've never really talked to anybody.
Um..So my side of the story has never really been heard."


(commercial)
Kim Archuletta walks into the war room.
Kim- "hi."
Clemente- "How you doin?"
Kim- "Laura?"
Laura- "Laura Richards yeah. Nice to meet you!"
Clemente- "I'm Jim Clemente. So nice to meet you. Thank you so much."
They are shaking hands and friendly.
A picture of Kim is shown. She was the original 911 Dispatch Operator.
Kim- "This is the first time that anyone's asked for my opinion."
Laura- "In 20 years?"
Kim- "In 20 years."
Laura- "So, I'm going to play it first of all in full so that we can hear it."
The 911 call is played as the three sit and listen.
Laura- "What's your initial reaction to that Kim?"
Kim- "I just remember having that sunken feeling like something wasn't right. The
problem was if you hear the frantic in her voice as she's speaking to me, where
she couldn't even answer my questions, it immediately stopped."
Laura- "Was there a shift in tone from being very hysterical to suddenly
something quite different?"
Kim- "Right. What bothered me immensely, it sounded like she said
'Okay we've called the police, now what?' and that disturbed me. So I remained on
the phone trying to hear what was being said. Sounded like there were two voices
in the room. Maybe three different ones. I had a BAD feeling about this. To me it
seemed rehearsed."
Clemente- "And that's your distinct memory? And has that stayed with you the
entire 20 years?"
Kim- "Always. Yes. That's never changed. I know they did an enhancement? Right?"
Clemente- "Yes. We did enhance the end of it."
Laura- "and it's interesting. There are some bits that we can't quite make out
but there are some clear bits that we can."
Clemente- "Yeah when we cleaned it up we hear a man say, 'We're not speaking
to you.' and he's very stern. And then I think we hear Patsy saying something
like 'what did you do...help me Jesus" or help me Jesus Help me Jesus' and then
Burke I think saying 'what did you find?'"
Kim- " I wanted that case solved. I wanted someone to come talk to me. I wanted
someone to get my testimony. When they did the Grand Jury, nobody talked to me."
Clemente- "Really? You didn't testify at the Grand Jury?"
Kim- "No. I had an investigator come to my house and told me there's a gag order
do not talk about this until we go to court. And I never was talked to again. And
it never went to court."
Laura- "What did you make of that? I mean .."
Kim- (shaking her head back and forth and starts crying)...
"That's one of the reasons why I even stayed on until they disconnect because there
were things being said that somebody needed to know. It was never addressed. (wipes tears)
I think I really would have turned the case around.."


Back at the Round table in the War room.
Laura- "We spoke to Kim Archuletta who was the 911 dispatcher at the time and she said
the thing that stayed with her was that as Patsy thought she had disconnected, and she was
typing up the call, she could hear a gear shift. An instant gearshift which was in direct
contrast to the emotion of the call and she basically said that what she heard Patsy say
was 'Okay we've called the police..now what?'"
Clemente- "And then she said it went on there was a conversation, she could hear other
voices, but she couldn't necessarily make that out, however when we got the tape enhanced,
what we heard was a little different."
Laura- "You had John saying, "We're not talking to you' very clear and then it could have
been 'what did you do' and 'help me Jesus' from Patsy and then the young boy's voice
saying 'well what DID you find?' and we must remember that they said in their statements that
Burke was asleep. Why say he's asleep when he's clearly not. I believe we heard his voice
on the 911."
Clemente- "That absolutely changes the entire focus of this investigation. And we should
keep that in mind as we evaluate the rest of this evidence. So let's talk ransom note."


Clemente narration
"Although the 911 call actually initiated this investigation, when the police arrived
the first piece of physical evidence was that ransom note or letter because of the length
of this particular note."

 

[PositiveLight]

(5)
Timeline-
December 26, 1996
5:52am- Patsy Ramsey calls 911.
Approx. 5:54am- Patsy calls the Whites.
Approx 5:59am- The first officer arrives on scene.


~Ransom Note~
Fitzgerald- "In the 380 some words in this ransom note there's a treasure trove of information.
It's unprecedented in the annals of criminal justice history as far as I know that
a ransom note requesting money and the body is left behind at the scene."


Each person at the round table take turns reading the ransom note out loud.
Laura- "Mr. Ramsey, Listen carefully. We're a group of individuals that represent a small
foreign faction. We respect your business, but not the country that it serves. At this time
we have your daughter in our possession. She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997,
you must follow our instructions to the letter. "
Celemente- "You will withdrawal $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and
the remaining $18,000 will be in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache
to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you within
8- 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to
be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an
earlier delivery of the money. And hence, an earlier pick up of your daughter."
Fitzgerald- "Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your
daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentleman
watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them.
Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as the police, FBI, etc., will result in your daughter
being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities,
she dies. If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You'll be scanned for
electronic devices and if any are found, she dies."
Burke- "You can try to deceive us, but be warned we are familiar with law enforcement counter-
measures and tactics. You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to outsmart us.
Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back. You and your family are
under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not
the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate
us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It is up to you now John!
Victory! S.B.T.C"
Clemente- "I think this is one of the most important pieces of forensic evidence in this
entire investigation. Stan what do you think about the beginning of the letter?"
Burke- "I find it fascinating because first it address, you know the addressee Mr. Ramsey.
But then the next two words are 'Listen carefully'. Now if we look at the letter here, this
jumps out at me. (Burke circles 'Listen Carefully' on a large reprint of the Ransom note.)
Simply because, number one, it's a letter. What are we listening to?"
Laura- "Right."
Clemente- "So it should say 'Read Carefully."?"
Burke- "I wouldn't even expect to see 'Read carefully.' You have a missing child, you're
going to read this carefully, that's a given."
Clemente- "There seems to be multiple motives embodied in this document so you first start out
with this 'foreign faction' that's always stuck out in my mind."
Fitzgerald- "And what is a faction? It's just made up."
Clemente- "So what do you make of the amount and these really specific instructions about
what size the bills should be?"
Burke- "The amount $118,000 is very close to the bonus Mr. John Ramsey would have received or did
receive that year. That's a unique number."
Clemente- "The fact that it's so specific, makes it stand out."
Laura- "I mean he's a millionaire. I mean if you're going to do this, you go large. I mean
why would you go for $118,000 when you can go for a million?"
Fitzgerald- "When the Boulder investigators came to me and showed me this letter. I noticed
some quotes in here that I said, 'Boy I recognize them from somewhere. And it was sort of
early in the internet days and it wasn't as easy to search things back then, but I rented a few
movies that I thought I recognized these lines from and the first of them comes from these
four sentences that I'm about to read. So if you follow along with me here, on the second page
we have something borrowed from a cinematic version of a kidnapping of a young girl. The 1972
movie Dirty Harry."
Clemente- "One of the things we know from the actual crime scene video was that the house was
filled with movie posters."
Fitzgerald reads from ransom note "'If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies.'
In the movie instead of it actually being a dog, a dog breed is actually mentioned."


A snippet from the Dirty Harry script you see the quote 'If you talk to anyone, even if it's a
Pekingese (pissing?) on a lamp post, the girl dies.'


Fitzgerald- again reading from ransom note, "If you alert bank authorities, she dies."


From the ransom note vs. from the movie Dirty Harry
She dies...................the girl dies
She dies...................the girl dies
She dies...................the girl dies
Fitzgerald- "But we're not done! Last page, 'Don't try to grow a brain, John.'
A certain character who was an LAPD police officer who was on a runaway bus
was talking to a mad bomber on a cell phone. The movie was Speed."


A snippet of the Speed script is shown with the quote "Do not attempt to grow a brain."
highlighted.
Burke- "This here, 'if you alert bank authorities she dies' you told us early on
follow your instructions or she'll be beheaded! Executed, beheaded. So, why do you have
to keep telling us over and over again? 76% of this is extraneous. Really. Not necessary."
Laura- "76%?"
Burke- "To me, they are trying to sell this now. It's a sales job."
Clemente- "This whole thing could have been done in 4 lines. "We have your daughter.
withdrawal $118,000.00 put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between
8 and 10 am. Don't call the FBI or the police or she'll die. S.B.T.C"
Fitzgerald- "What you just said, from a historical perspective, is what we have in
the three ransom notes going back to Lindbergh, Whinberger (sp), and Wiles. And one
other mitigating factor in these other three kidnappings, the person was actually
missing. Wasn't dead in the house somewhere. We just have so much in the way of
variation between these particular historical kidnappings and this letter."


Clemente- "Why don't we start actually building a linguistic profile. What we are trying to do
is figure out who wrote this whole entire letter."


Fitzgerald- "Writing ability I would say is HIGH. We have an advanced writing style expressed
throughout this letter. The only mistakes are found in the first paragraph. You have the
concept of foreign Faction up here in the second sentence. Well right below it we have
'bussiness' and if you'll notice, it's misspelled. There's an extra 's' in here. Perhaps,
someone who is not a native English speaker would in fact insert that extra s. So what I
notice early on is that this was a purposeful mistake. This was done to tie in somehow
to the concept that this person is a foreigner and perhaps does not speak English as their
native tongue."
Clemente- "'Particularly, enforcement, countermeasures, they're all spelled properly."
Fitzgerald- "What it tells me is there's an element of disguise involved. These misspellings
were inserted for a reason to make it look like it was somebody other than who it really was.
Language one and I would clearly say it's English."
Clemente- "So they're native English speakers?"
Fitzgerald- "Yes. The first language they learned in life was English. I have no doubt about that.
Age is not always easy to determine but I would certainly say this persons an adult. No indication
of sort of teenage slang, vernacular. So I would say we have someone an adult, 30 or older. The
last one in part of a linguistic profile is gender. And this can be one of the trickiest ones to
determine. There are at least six examples of what I would call a maternalistic language. The
very first sentence is already circled. Can you picture a mother telling her young child 'listen
carefully'? 'When you get home', not when you get back to your house, not when you get to your
residence, but 'when you get home'. 'do not particularly like you'. Would a guy necessarily care
if someone likes them or not? In this context, I find in the thousands of cases I've worked over
the years, when someone puts a statement in like that, it turns out to be a female. "


~LINGUISTIC PROFILE~
Writing ability- HIGH
Language one- ENGLISH
Age- 30+
Gender- FEMALE

 

[PositiveLight]

(6)
Burke- "The less information you give in a ransom letter or note, the less of a chance you have
of being caught. You don't want to leave clues."
Laura- "Right."
Burke- "This does just the opposite."
Laura- "Right. And this is high risk behavior leaving such a long letter and the time it takes to
write something like this."
Clemente- "Right and it was written in the house, not before the fact in preparation for a
kidnapping which you would think they would do, right?"
Burke- "Right. You're exactly right Jim."
Dr. Lee- "The paper the investigator found a pad. Also found two practice notes."
Clemente- "That pad was actually Patsy's right? From her little writing desk in the hallway."
Kolar- "That's my understanding, yes. "
Clemente- "And the pen was actually found underneath the phone. Whoever wrote this, managed to
commit a murder, find the pad, find the pen, practice a couple of times, cause they didn't want
to show bad penmanship or something, and write it and then put the pad and pen back to where
they are normally kept."
Fitzgerald- "It makes no sense at all to do that. Unless it's something other than what the note
is making it appear to be."


Laura, Clemente, Fitzgerald and Burke are standing around a table with pen and paper in front of
them.


Laura- "You know they go to all of this trouble and time writing this note, so I'd like us all to
just write out the letter and I'm going to put it to time. Let's begin."


Each begin writing
Laura- "It's not about speed but it is about exactly what they have written in the note. We're
doing it a lot quicker and without dotting all the I's which noticeably all the I's are dotted in
this."
Clemente- "Wow. Lot's of I's."
Laura- "And that takes more time because you're being exact."
Fizgerald- "I didn't understand you're instructions and I used all uppercase. So no I's to dot."
Laura- "Alright. We're done. twenty one minutes. (21:28)"
Clemente - "Finally. Just mechanically, it took 21 and a half minutes just to write this thing.
If it were in original text it would have taken so much longer, cause somebody is thinking
of what to write. But even if they did it this fast, that's 21 and a half minutes that they
could've been caught."
Burke- "Mhmm."
Clemente- "21 and a half minutes that they stayed in the house longer than they needed to."
Fitzgerald- "Assuming this is done by an outside person who broke into the house for the
purposes of a kidnapping."
Clemente- "I think we can all agree this letter is clearly staged. What we have to decide
through our investigation, is whether it was staged by somebody IN the family or somebody
who came into this home."


Celemente narration-
"Because this case is an open investigation on the books, we have to be the investigators and dig up
what we can find."


Jim is meeting a man named Ron, shaking hands and making pleasantries.
Clemente- "Ron!"
Ron Walker- "Hi Jim good to see you!"
Clemente- "Thank you for coming out."


Ron Walker- Former FBI Agent First Responder.
Clemente- "Ron Walker was the only FBI agent to visit the crime scene on that day. It's incredibly
important for us to talk to him and get his insight."
Clemente, Laura and Walker go to sit at a picnic table outside.
Clemente- "I was just telling Laura that, unlike any of the other people who were first responders
to the scene, you went as a behavioral analyst. You had already had that training, years of
experience, you knew what to look for.."
Walker- "Once it became obvious that it was a murder case rather than a kidnapping, then the FBI
really didn't have primary jurisdiction on the case."
Laura- "You know looking back, only one homicide a year was kind of what they were dealing with,
so they didn't have the knowledge and expertise."
Clemente- "What we'd like to do is build a timeline of what happened over that day. The first day is
the most critical."
Laura- "You're going to have the answers to some of the gaps we've got."


All three are now at the round table in the war room.


Walker- "Well at some point uh, that morning, uh.. the Boulder Police Department notified the FBI
about a kidnapping for ransom about a child. That's the only information they could convey to me
at that point. 5:52am the 911 call was made. Next are the calls to the Ramsey friends the Fernies
and Whites. The next one that I have is actually the arrival of Officer French. Anddd some time
after 6 o'clock but an unknown time is the Ramsey friends arrive. And then the next thing that
I don't have the time associated with is the crime scene investigators and victims advocates arrive.
8:10am is the time that Arndt arrived at the house. I got contacted around between 8:15 and 8:30am.
I drove to the to the FBI office in Denver and I got the equipment that I thought I would need. 11:00am
I arrived at the Boulder Police Department. 11:45am is the first time I have discussion with sergeant Larry Mason.
We discussed all the information that we had up to that point. What's going on at the house, what's going on
with the police department, who is doing what."
Clemente- "Once you got in there, how did it progress from there?"
Walker- "Well, once I got into the command post, I got a look at the ransom note. You know, the first thing
that caught my eye about the note itself was the length of the note. Highly, highly unusual in the realm
of kidnappings."
Clemente and Laura in unison "Right.."
Walker- "A couple things jump out at you right away at least from my perspective. Number 1 is the
whole idea of a small foreign faction. You're gonna kidnap somebody, what you're gonna wanna do is
convey an image of authority and power."
Clemente- "Right."
Walker- "We're a large group of terrorists who have your daughter and we are going to kill her unless
you meet our demands."
Clemente- "Right."
Walker- "Not a small foreign faction."
Laura- "Right."
Clemente- "It competes against itself."
Walker- "It does! "
Clemente- "In general, abductions of children for a ransom is an extremely rare event."
Walker- "And much more prominent are the parental kidnappings of a non-custodial parent or by
a non-custodial parent. So it was my belief at this juncture, that as I said, the ransom note
was a red herring, and that it was staging. So, it's even more important at that point for the detectives
to maintain visual contact with the family. I wasn't so much concerned about Patsy, because Patsy was
in the solarium when she was surrounded by the family friends and she was crying. She wasn't gonna
go anywhere and at this point Larry Mason and I started talking about what are we gonna do to try to
make sure the detectives there maintain visual contact with the family."
Clemente- "You want to control the crime scene."
Walker- "More importantly I want to control the movements of the people IN that crime scene. About
noon, Linda Arndt calls in to Mason and tells him that uh.. Ramsey has been out of pocket for about
an hour and a half."
Laura- "Says that when he reappears his demeanor has changed. He's agitated."
Walker- "The Boulder Police are still trying to get detectives to come in. Kind of a
overwhelming scene or sense of confusion."
Laura- "The fact that this was reported as a kidnapping, those officers that were available were
actually focusing their energy and their time and resources outside of the house."
Walker- "I thought that Linda Arndt should grab John Ramsey and tell John 'We're going to search
the house from top to bottom. And from my perspective, that was nothing but kindergarten make work.
Uh.. I wanted him to be busy. But I wanted him to be busy in Linda Arndt's presence. In the presence
of the officer and that way we're not going to run into the situation where for an hour and a half
he goes missing again. But what I learned later on from Linda, is that when she tells John, 'we're
going to search the house top and bottom and we are going to start at the top, Ramsey was there
with Fleet White. He grabs Fleet by the arm and makes a beeline for the basement door. John
Ramsey opens the door, says something about finding his daughter and then turns the light on.
Virtually ever staged murder case that I've seen, the perpetrator manipulates the arrival
of friends or other family members, who are then put in a situation where they actually discover the
body, or they are with the perpetrator as the body is discovered."
Clemente- "They bring somebody along, they discover the body but, with a witness who can
testify to their shock and awe and horror at what they find."
Walker- "So, John Ramsey brings the body upstairs. He put it down right here (circling an area
on a map with his fingers)."
Clemente- "He puts her down on the ground, but right here is the living room couch, coffee table,
chairs. Why would he put her on the floor?"
Walker- "By the time I got there her body is in the living room."
Laura- "Right because she's been moved again."
Walker- "Well Linda Arndt moves her the second time. She and officer French were the only two
people there now at this point."
Laura- "She's effectively having to control people walking through the crime scene."
Walker- "The way I learned this is when Larry and I walked in the entrance, Officer French was
standing there. And I asked him 'hey were you standing here when the body was found?' and he says
'yeah Ramsey brought the body up and put it right there'. I look down at my feet and I said to French
I said, 'you mean right here?' and he says 'YEAH. Right there.' What I'm thinking is crime scene
contamination. I mean who else has walked on that carpet. You know all the people in that day, the
people that were there last week, traipsing in and out and now the body is put down there. And now
the body is picked up and moved yet again. So, that's when it really first hit me about the
nightmare that the forensic people were going to have."

 

[PositiveLight]

(7)
(commercial)


Laura and Clemente at Ramsey Home reconstruction.
Clemente- "wow its massive! Part of doing a criminal investigative analysis is doing a crime scene
reconstruction."
Laura- "We're rebuilding key rooms that relate to this case. And those rooms are JonBenet's bedroom, that was
the last place she was seen alive. The spiral staircase where the ransom letter was found. The kitchen
and the basement, including the wine cellar where JonBenet's body was eventually found."


Eddie Schmidt-executive producer
Schmidt- "We can't turn back time inside the real house but what we can do here, as much as you can
clinically and scientifically try to put it together."
Laura- "Reproduce it and put us in it."
Clemente- "It's incredibly important for us to actually see and feel what that house looked like
and actually forming a hypothesis and a theory of how the crime was actually committed."


Laura- "(referring to the crime scene reproduction) I feel like it's taking me back in time."
Walker- "Well you've done a good job with the duplication."
Laura, Celemente and Walker walk to the spiral staircase.
Laura- "So this was where the letter was found, third step on spiral staircase."
Walker- "Now a stranger would typically think the most logical place to find a note would be on
a desk, on a table in the kitchen, kitchen counter."
Clemente- "Why don't you take us through how you actually went through the basement."
Walker- "It took Sergeant Mason and me only a few minutes to get from the police department to
the Ramsey house."
Laura- "And what sort of time was this? This is around sort of..."
Walker- "It's uhh... 1:20pm somewhere in that time frame."
Laura- "So quite close to the body being discovered."
Walker- "Oh yeah. Larry Mason and I came downstairs and I was actually following his lead, I
was trying to orient myself because I had never seen the basement before. And walking to the room
that I call it a game room, they called it a train room. And as I came back into this particular
part of the room, first thing I noticed obviously was the three sets of windows on the wall up there.
And I noticed the broken one, uh, and the suitcase. When I seen a blue suitcase below a window, the
first thing that I'm thinking was the intent eventually, by the perpetrator to put the body in the
suitcase and remove the body from the crime scene. Did things move too quickly. Was the
perpetrator, who had that as his motive, overtaken by events?"
Laura- "Right or about concealing the body for a time too.."
Walker- "Or concealing a body... right."
Walker- "I have to tell ya that's the first thing that jumped in my mind."
Clemente- "So, where did you go next?"
Walker- "Well looking around and Larry Mason pointed back there and said that's the room
where JonBenet's body was found. So at that point we both walked back to that particular room.
It's just an odd feeling. Almost like you're transported back to that particular room in time."
Clemente- "It feels like a tomb."
Laura- "It does."
(The room is pitch black.)
Walker- "When Larry Mason and I came down here the lights were on, probably because John Ramsey
had turned them on after he had opened the door."
Clemente- "Right. So you can go ahead and turn it on."
Walker turns on room light.
Walker- "By the time I got there, her body is in the living room."
Laura- "John brings her up takes off the duct tape and the white blanket"
Walker- "Yeah leaves it down there. We didn't step into the room very far. Larry probably
came over to this particular area (about a step into the wine cellar)here, and I just kinda
stepped in to the doorway to the left. Didn't want to walk too much further in to the
room simply because this is the room where the child had been deposited for some period of time."
Clemente- "Statements that were made said that John called out that she was here before he turned
the light on."
The three stand in the doorway in the room now dark.
Walker- "From my perspective now, I can look in here and see objects but I don't know that I
can necessarily identify them. I mean this just looks like a jumble of cloth to me."
Clemente- "Right. And how would you know that that was actually your daughter wrapped up in there?"
Walker- "As I recall, he's never been asked those questions."
Laura- "Why was that?"
Walker- "It was my belief that the philosophy that was kinda laid out for the police department
that day was we have to treat them with kid gloves. Treat them with deference. Treat them as
victims and not as suspects."
Laura - "Was there a reason for.."
Walker- "They were influential. They were wealthy."
Laura- "From what I can see, the influence here really had a significant impact as to why
people were allowed to come and go from the house."
Walker- "Going through the list of things that initially puzzled me, but then I started thinking,
when you add them all together, I started thinking.. wow there's really something bizarre and odd
about all of this. Right around the time I was there, there was another detective there that I
think had overheard John making a call for his airplane. This was after the body has been
discovered. Why is John Ramsey wanting to leave so quickly when he has to understand that there's
going to be a police investigation and his daughter has just been killed?"
Laura- "You know for me this isn't just a red flag this is an absolute anomaly."
Walker- "First thing you do in a homicide case is if you have witnesses is you separate them,
take them someplace and you get a statement and you have to get the Ramsey's interviewed by the
police. In that first 24 to 36 hours.."
Clemente- "The only problem is, they didn't get interviewed by the police."
News snippet from the City of Boulder Press Release, December 29, 1996- "police have not yet conducted
interviews with the father and mother. They have been in no condition to be interviewed up to this
point."
Laura- "That's why we need to speak to Fleet because I really want to know what was going on in
that house. Fleet and Priscilla White are what we would call significant witnesses. They were
best friends to the Ramsey's at the time and they were at that home during those hours as it all
unfolded."
Clemente and Laura are riding in SUV talking to each other...
Clemente- "I got a message from Fleet White. I think the important thing we want to talk to Fleet about
is the Ramsey behavior that morning."
Laura- "I certainly find that a very curious decision of why you would invite your friends to your
home address when your in crisis and chaos."
Clemente- "Especially if they think that somebody actually came into their home and abducted their child,
why are they bringing in other friends? I know that the White's are very concerned about talking openly
about this case because they had a really bad experience."
Laura- "Fleet was one of the first people to question John and told him categorically to stop
hiding behind his lawyer and to cooperate with the police."


Video snippet "In a 14 page open letter, Fleet White criticized the Boulder District Attorney and took
particular aim at the Ramsey's. White says the investigation has failed because the Ramsey's have refused
to fully cooperate with investigators."


Clemente- (speaking to the cameraman in the back seat...) "So we're going to go meet Fleet but he
said no cameras so we are going to have to stop the filming. It's more important that we have it
than we have it documented."
Laura- "Agreed."
Eddie Schmidt - executive producer"You can tell him we have a camera crew nearby. We could actually
come up and do it now or we've got time at the end of the day and if those times don't work we will
do it any other time. We really really want their story."
Clemente- "Alright see ya."
Clemente and Laura drive off to meet with the White's leaving the camera crew behind in a parking lot.

 

[PositiveLight]

(8)
(commercial)
90 minutes later
Clemente and Laura pull up to the camera crew waiting.
Schmidt- "Hi. So what happened?"
Laura- "Well it was fascinating.They have so much knowledge but there's a lot of pain there."


Snippet of a video of Fleet White speaking before the Boulder City Council Meeting on March 18, 2014
Fleet White- "My wife Priscilla and I lived in Boulder since 1994. We were present in the Ramsey home
when JonBenet's body was found."
Priscilla White- "Our family were publicly branded as murderers, torturers of young children, pedophiles
and perjurers."


Laura- "You know they did have reservations. They are afraid and they don't want to see this ever
happen again."
Schmidt- "Do you think they understood how committed you really are?"
Clemente- "Yeah. They're willing to talk to us but they just don't want to do it on camera. And
when we were leaving, Fleet took me aside and said 'Jim I really think we have some really
important information that will help you' and I said 'Of course you do! That's why we are here and
we will keep coming back here as much as we have to to convince you that this is the right thing to do.
Cause we really feel it is'. "
Laura- "So we need to strategize we need to plan."
Schmidt- "Alright well you guys are embedded."


Laura sitting on a park bench and also walking door to door on the phone and speaking with neighbors.
Laura- "Our hope is to try and get what we call community intelligence. To knock on their doors and
unlock some of these secrets and try and crack this case wide open."
Everyone turns her away refusing to comment.
Laura- "It's incredibly frustrating when you're talking to people and not getting any answers."
Laura enters the Ramsey's church and is told "We just don't comment on that."
Laura- "You just get a sense that people are fearful to speak out."
Laura leaves multiple messages on answering machines.
Laura- "I'm really getting fed up with this.."


Clemente narrating as he drives the SUV- "It's critical for us to talk with people who can give us
insight into the Ramsey's private world. People who knew them, worked with them, or spent time in their
home."


Clemente interviews Brian Scott- Ramsey Gardener, 1996
Clemente- "When did you start working for the Ramsey's?"
Scott- "It might have been '94? That summer, Patsy Ramsey gave me the job. Hired me."
Clemente- "Really?"
Scott- "One of the things I remember was ah... she wanted a pristine gardens."
Clemente- "Really?"
Scott- "Yeah, I remember I was thinking to myself, 'okay'. Seemed like a pretty good job. I could
use my own hours."
Clemente- "So, how frequently did you see John?"
Scott- "Not very frequently at all. Once a season? Maybe?"
Clemente- "Did yu ever run into the kids?"
Scott- "Yeah. Not Burke so much, but um.. JonBenet would come out and she would often I don't know
be playing relatively close to where I would be working. One of the biggest things that stands out
was when I would be raking the leaves."
Clemente- "Oh yeah?"
Scott- "In the fall. You know I'd have all these leaves in a pile and she wanted to jump in them.
I remember her referencing it reminded her of time she spent with her dad. Yeah."
Clemente- "So she didn't mind you know getting dirty or messing up her hair?"
Scott- "No she didn't mind. She seemed like a normal kid. Who just likes to play and misses her
father. I I remember that so yeah..."
Clemente- "Because everybody's image of her is sort of dressed and made up to the max."
Scott- "I don't know too much about pageantry but I would think it demanded a lot of discipline and
you know focus on just certain talents that she had to hone in and get right. I did remember seeing her
practicing the violin."
Clemente- "Oh really?"
Scott- "And Patsy was out talking to me and then I think she went back and checked in and said 'hey
you have to keep practicing don't put that down."
Clemente- "Oh really.. and with respect to Burke, did he ever come out to play outside? Did you ever see
him?"
Scott- " What I remember is he stuck to himself. He seemed a little more introverted. She was more engaging
and outgoing than him."
Clemente- "And so, your first impression of Patsy? What was she like when you first met her?"
Scott- "Oh she was very pleasant. Really nice."
Clemente- "Did she ever come out and.."
Scott- "She came out once and a while and we would talk about whatever and you know. One of the things I
remember was uh.. when they announced the O.J. verdict. I was at their house."
Clemente- "You were outside working on the garden?"
Scott- "Patsy came out and told me that O.J. was declared innocent."
Clemente- "Really?"
Scott- "I just remember she came out and started talking to me about it and.."
Clemente- "Patsy?"
Scott- "Yeah. She thought O.J. got away with murder. She didn't like that one bit. You know she
did say, 'you can get away with murder in this country.'"


Laura and Clemente are driving in the SUV talking.
Laura- "Speaking to people who know the family. Getting an understanding of who they were. What was
going on prior is so important."
Clemente- "We're going to go now to see Patsy's friend, she was a photographer."
Laura- "Like the family portraits. She seemed to be pretty close with Patsy."


Laura and Clemente are interviewing Judith Phillips their photographer and friend, 1996.


Judith- "Well I first met the Ramsey's um in Atlanta. And we were more social friends."
Laura- "Right."
Judith- In Boulder we became even closer friends because we were on a softball team together.
Moms Gone Bad. Of all things, that's the name of our team. They had lots of friends. Lots and lots
of friends from Boulder. They were both really good hosts. You always felt really welcomed when you
walked through the door. I mean Patsy was fun to be around. She was a show girl. So her clothing,
her home, she is a girl that never compromised."
Clemente- "Did your daughter play with JonBenet?"
Judith- "Even though my daughter was Burke's age, she ended up playing with JonBenet. Because
Burke was kind of 'oh girls *rolls eyes*' you know. There was one time when my daughter was playing
with JonBenet and they went up to her room and my daughter inquired about all the awards that were
on display. She goes 'What's that for JonBenet?' and she goes' Oh I'm in the pageant system', but she
didn't make a big deal out of it. And she said 'But they really belong more to my mom. They're more
my mom's trophies than they are mine.' I remember one particular Christmas party, that's the first
time JonBenet came down with a beautiful dress. And..Bleach blonde hair. I was shocked! and I took Patsy
aside and said, 'you're not dying her hair are you?' and she said, 'ohh nooo. Judith that's from the summer sun
in Charlevoix, Michigan.'"
Clemente- "You think that was...?"
Judith- "Oh noo! Are you kidding?"
Clemente- "I..you were there.."
Judith- "I was there. It was, you're lying to me. It bothered me that she had to lie to me. Why didn't she just
tell me the truth?"
Clemente- "Can you tell us about when you saw Patsy after JonBenet's death?"
Judith- "She was not the same person that I had ever known. She looked exhausted. And she kept repeating over
and over again, 'Who could've killed my baby? Who could've done this?"
Laura- "Was there any interaction you had with Patsy or the family after that?"
Judith- "No. That was it. I was cut off. We were told in our circle of friends in Boulder, 'Do not talk
to reporters. Do not talk to the police."
Clemente- "Told by who?"
Judith- "I was called by one of the friends in the circle of friends."
Clemente- "What did that make you think?"
Judith- "I was surprised. My first thought was if there was anything that I knew that could help with
the investigation, I'm not going to be silent. I felt the duty to the memory of JonBenet. I loved her
very much. (starts crying) You're going to make me cry. Um. I opened my doors up to reporters and then
talked to the police twice and uh they just cut me off as a friend. They felt that I had betrayed them.
You know at the time I didn't understand but in hindsight its because I told the ...you know I didn't obey
what all the other friends did."
Clemente- "How did you feel though when you saw them actually doing the opposite? That they went on CNN."
Judith- "I felt that they were hypocrites. And when Patsy said 'hold your babies close to you there's a
murderer in town', it frightened my daughter so much that she couldn't sleep in her own bedroom for
several months."
Clemente- "What did you think about that?"
Judith- "I thought it was bogus."
Clemente- "Really?"
Judith- "Yeah. In fact Patsy asked a favor of me to go to the mayor. I knew the mayor because I had
photographed her. Patsy said, 'Please ask for protection for my family.' So I went to the mayor's
office and I said, 'Patsy wants protection.' And she said 'there's no murderer out there.'"


Snippet from Mayor Durgin, CNN.com, January 3, 1997- "People in Boulder have no need to fear that
there is someone wandering the streets looking for someone to attack."


Laura- "How does it make you feel now, when you think 20 years have passed?"
Judith- "I feel angry. I feel angry that that little girl, still after all these years, (crying)
has not gotten justice. And I don't believe she ever will."


((((It's refreshing to actually see someone truly cry for JonBenet. People do care. You can tell Judith does.))))


Clemente and Laura talking in the SUV.
Clemente- "Although, the statistics say, if a child of that age is killed within their own home,
it is most likely a family member that did it. The fact is, the brutality of this particular attack
says the exact opposite. This is a very bizarre dichotomy. It fights itself right from the beginning."

 

[PositiveLight]

(9)

Laura and Clemente enter the Carnegie Branch Library.


Clemente- "Another critically important part of any murder investigation is understanding how a person
was killed."
Laura and Clemente look through an accordion type folder for JonBenet's autopsy.
Laura- 'Ramsey,1996, JonBenet"
Clemente- "Look at this."
Laura - "Yeah the autopsy."


Timeline
December 27, 1996- JonBenet Autopsy.
August 13, 1997- Full autopsy report released to the public.


Clemente- "The cause of death of this six year old female is asphyxia by strangulation associated with
craniocerebral trauma. During the original autopsy, the medical examiner though that the cause of death
was asphyxiation by strangulation due to the rope tied around her neck. This is the kind of thing
we are going to have to ask Werner Spitz about. Because that word "associated with" is very general.
and is it before, is it after.."
Laura- "Were they both fatal? I mean you know I guess only Werner can tell us that."


Back at the War Room Round Table


Dr. Werner Spitz- Reviewed the JFK autopsy April, 1975;
Clemente- "We've brought Dr. Spitz in who is an incredibly experienced forensic pathologist. His experience
goes back all the way to the JFK assassination. AND he was involved in the initial investigation brought
in by the Boulder Police Department."
Dr. Spitz- "Look I've seen some 60,000 cases, so if I don't, I don't know everything, but this case...It
made an impression on me. The Boulder Police Department called my office and asked would I agree to
come to Boulder. You know as a forensic pathologist I want to have first hand information. Where is what
in the house."
Clemente- "I think we all feel the same way. We totally agree."
Dr. Spitz- "But we did not get permission to get in."
Clemente- "Who wouldn't let you in?"
Dr. Spitz- "I believe the family. The police had to get permission from them. They told the police,
'no dice. He's not coming to this house.' They did not want me in the house.. MAYBE... may just be..
That I would figure something out that nobody else knows."
Clemente- "But then you reviewed the autopsy findings and the injuries and the sequencing. Can you tell
us a little about that?"
Dr. Spitz- "Well she had a blow to the head, on the right side. The bone underneath that area showed a
perfectly rectangular defect. I didn't know at the time what caused this."
Clemente- "Okay."
Dr. Spitz- "But then I looked at the photographs and saw a 3 mag flashlight sitting on the kitchen counter.
And I said well I have to check whether that may have been the cause."
Clemente- "And did you do experiments?"
Dr. Spitz- "I did. I'll show you what I did. This is what I had an artist draw for me. This is how the
flashlight fits to perfection approximately half an inch through the bone."


(Dr. Spitz shows everyone at the round table the artist's drawing.)


Now at the Ramsey House Reconstruction site.
Laura Richards, Jim Clemente, and Dr. Werner Spitz are walking through the site.


Laura- "So Dr. Spitz this is the house that you didn't get to go and see. We're now in the kitchen."
Clemente- "The phone that Patsy actually made the 911 call."
Dr. Spitz- "It's uncanny."
Laura- "There's a lot of the detail that we have here, the flashlight."
Dr. Spitz- "The flashlight."
Clemente- "You've been thinking about this case for 20 years right? What does that make you feel?"
Dr. Spitz- "Well it makes me feel eery. I relive this you know. Because this answers questions
that I had at one time and they never materialized."
Laura- "That must feel frustrating for you as well not being allowed in."
Dr. Spitz- "Ah yeah. They made me wonder what is being put away what is being hidden? And why?"
Laura- "Right. "


Back in the War Room.
Laura- "Do you believe she was alive when she was struck on the head?"
Dr. Spitz- "Oh yes."
Laura- "And she was also alive when she was choked, strangled?"
Dr. Spitz- "Please understand this. When a very severe injury to the brain occurs, because
the heart has its own ability to produce contractions, to cause a false impression of life
existing."
Clemente- "So she was virtually dead when the garrote was applied. So asphyxiation was not the way
she actually passed away."
Dr. Spitz- "Yes. That is my advantage as a forensic pathologist. They did not know that. So they
applied a mechanism of death that at face value you say oh sure she was strangled. And then of course
she has a blow to the head. So which is it? Well it's very simple when I explain to you that
yes she was strangled to make believe that was the cause of death. She ALREADY WAS BRAIN DEAD."
Clemente- "There's a few more injuries that we need to talk about. The neck injuries and the ligatures
because I think this is also kind of really important. The fact that her hands were tied in this way,
with a slip knot. Was it 15 or 18 inches between?"
Laura- "15 1/2."
Clemente Dr. Spitz and Laura work with the cord, trying to place it on Jim's wrists.
Clemente- "So this is where the next knot should be. Put this around. So you see this? The rope is
actually over her sweater. (showing the crime scene photo of JonBenet's hands above her head). It's not
on her wrists."
Dr. Spitz- "That's why she doesn't have any marks."
Clemente- "She doesn't have any marks. Can you help me with that? (Laura is slipping the second loop
around Jim's right hand)"
Laura- "And it's very unusual for it to be over clothing."
Clemente- "So (holding his bound hands above his head) if she's not unconscious, why doesn't she just
do this? (slips his hands out of the binding)"
Laura- "Or she also has duct tape on her mouth."
Dr. Spitz- "Yeah but if she's dead."
Clemente- "Yeah so what does that tell you? This was staging."
Dr. Spitz- "You're totally correct."
Clemente- "So, let's look at the garrote."
Dr. Spitz- "Why does anybody need this contraption? Why do you need the stick? You can just put that
around your hand and do the same thing with the other hand. (Holding the paintbrush handle) Totally
unnecessary. When you break into a house, isn't time of the essence? You want to come in, do your
killing, and leave. So why do you need this?"
Laura- "It just complicates things. You spend more time there and it leaves evidence."
Dr. Spitz- "It leaves evidence around. You don't need that."
Laura- "Yeah and the knot's interesting. Cause it does look to me like it's quite complicated."
Dr. Spitz- "It is. Or somebody who knows how to make knots. So this is a common knot for a sailor.
The way I looked upon it is this by itself, without anything else, would have told me this is a
make believe type scene. Why do you need any garrote, when a hand of an adult can squeeze a child like
that?"
Back at the round table in the War Room.

 

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(10)
Clemente- "Okay. So the ultimate conclusion is, the garrote isn't actually what caused the death?"
Dr. Spitz- "Correct."
Clemente- "The blow to the head did."
Dr. Spitz- "Correct."
Dr. Henry Lee- "I just want to play a devil's advocate."
Clemente- "Yeah sure that's what we are here for. To discuss it."
Dr. Lee- "We should find tissue and blood on the flashlight. And Also should have broken hairs.
This area (referring to the wider end of the flashlight) we should have trace evidence...blood...
hair... tissue. That's why I suggested for them to do some DNA...and try to find tissue and blood.
Apparently they did not find anything."
Dr. Spitz- "The skin is extremely elastic. So it would go with the impact and not hold on to the
impact."
Clemente- "So the blow to her head was strong enough to break her skull but not strong enough to
break the skin."
Dr. Spitz- "The skull may break but the skin may not. So I've seen that so many times."
Clemente- "Right. So then that can explain why this was not a bloody crime scene."
Dr. Spitz- "There would not have been any blood. Not from that anyway."
Dr. Lee- "It could be the flashlight. I'm not saying it's not the flashlight. But anything similar
to that shape, that width, with force can cause that, so I agree with you totally. The cause of the
death is brain injury by blunt object."
Clemente- "we need to determine whether or not that flashlight could've made the fracture in the skull
of JonBenet Ramsey and whether or not it took a tremendous amount of force to create that kind of
fracture."
Dr. Lee- "We don't have the complete picture."


(commercial)


Graphic warning-


A news snippet from December 26, 1996 Boulder, Colorado
"A vital piece of missing evidence has reportedly been found in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case.
Time magazine is reporting police in Boulder Colorado have found a flashlight that may have been
used in JonBenet's murder."


Fitzgerald- "I'd like to think if I was one of the first investigators on the scene and all of a sudden
there's a big 15 in or so mag light in the middle. I'd at least want to say 'hey who does that
belong to?'"
Laura- "This flashlight was never claimed I believe by anyone living at the address or by the police."
Kolar- "None of the officers claimed it was their's. It was my understanding that it was a gift
given to them and it was kept in the kitchen drawer."
Clemente- "And that is presumptively how it got in the house."


Clemente narrates "The reason why we want to do impact tests is to determine whether or not that
flashlight could have made the fracture in the skull of JonBenet Ramsey. And whether or not it took
a tremendous amount of force to create that kind of fracture."


Dr. Spitz- "On the right side of the head, there was an impact, the flashlight hit in the back of
the head somewhere around on the right side but towards the back where I'm showing here with my
finger."
Laura- "right."
Dr. Spitz- "The brain was bruised along the entire right side. Where the brain was bruised, energy
wave went through the entire brain from the right side all over. This is called a concussive impact.
That caused a concussion to the brain. In this case, a fatal concussion. The fracture to the skull
preserved the appearance, the dimensions of the flashlight that was on the counter in the kitchen.
Forensic Pathologists always look for patterns, because a pattern opens the door to what type
of instrument was used. But one thing is important. There was not a drop of blood on the outside.
Why was there not a drop of blood? Because there is an elasticity to the skin so this is all blunt
(referring to the wider end of the flashlight).Nothing here will cut the skin. When the flashlight came
down, the flashlight went in for about half an inch, the skin was pushed in and broke the bone
and did not cause any damage to the skin."
Laura- "Is there anyway we can replicate that?"
Dr. Spitz- "Remember that a human skull is an involved structure. Where there's a solid bone very thin
in a six year old maybe a 1/16th of an inch in thickness, then there is a layer of spongy
bone marrow, then there is another layer of so.."


Layering shown on a picture
1.)Scalp
2.)Periosteum
3.)Skull bone
4.)Dura Mater
5.)Subarachnoid space
6.)Brain


Clemente- "But we can do a representation of that."
Dr. Spitz- "okay. You want to do it?"
Clemente- "Sure. I'll try it."
Clemente swings down the flashlight onto a thin piece of wood with a loud bang.
Clemente and Dr. Spitz examine the piece of wood.
Clemente- "So that's just like this diagram that you have (referring to the artist drawing from earlier)
Dr. Spitz- "That's exactly like that. See the main thing about this one is that it's totally
rectangular. The head of the flashlight easily falls into that defect leaving no space. I've seen
a lot of different kinds of injuries. This instrument here (the flashlight) can be an amazing
weapon."
Laura- "So would it take tremendous strength to do this?"
Dr. Spitz- "No. Because this is a heavy object with three batteries in it. The skull of a
6 year old, we call them eggshell skulls."
Clemente- "Got it."
Laura- "So you don't need much force I mean after that..."
Dr. Spitz- "You don't need such huge amount of force. No that is a mistake. It could be
an adult, It could be a child that did it."


Snippet from John and Patsy Ramsey, The Death of Innocence, pg. 363 "The tremendous blow to
JonBenet's head would have required the strength of a man."


A skull is on a pillar type object being measured for correct height. They are preparing to do
a reconstruction of the blow to the head.


Clemente- "okay so this would be exactly how tall JonBenet was.."
Laura- "Right. It's 3 foot 11 (inches.) So Dr. Spitz we have a skull but with pigskin over
the top of it to act sort of like the scalp to see what it looks like if somebody hits it with
a flashlight. We're trying to sort of simulate this as closely as we can as sort of a scientific
experiment but this is quite hard to do. But we do need to do this just to see what it looks like."


(The skull with the 'pigskin scalp' also has a blonde wig with long hair.)


Dr. Spitz- "Okay."
Clemente- "Because there's so much controversy about whether or not a child is actually capable
of creating the defect in the skull we thought it would be good if we brought in a child who is
about 10 years old to actually do the demonstration."
Dr. Spitz- "Sure."
Laura speaking to the 10 year old boy directly, "We're going to ask you to strike the skull, where
do you think Dr. Spitz? Round about here?"
Dr. Spitz points out the location.
Laura speaking to the boy, "Round about there."
Boy- "okay" (he does not appear to be afraid to do this by the way.)
Clemente- "Are you ready?"
Boy- "Yup"
Laura- "Okay"
The Boy strikes the skull with the flashlight.
Clemente removes the wig and peels back the pigskin.
Clemente- "Let's take it off here. We're just going to peel this back and you can see how
its broken. It's very similar to the type of break we saw on JonBenet."
(side by side comparison of test skull and autopsy skull)


Back in the War Room at the round table.
Dr. Spitz- "The impact of the demonstration was a convincing confirmation of the association
of the flashlight with that injury in the head."
Dr. Lee- "For any injury, it's velocity. Velocity squared times the mass gives you the energy.
This is a lot of energy."
Dr. Spitz- "There was, in my view, no doubt that this flashlight or one exactly like it, caused
that injury."
Laura- "And it didn't take tremendous strength to do that either."
Dr. Spitz- "It did not."

 

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(11)
(commercial)


Snippet of the CNN interview with Patsy saying the "keep your babies close to you" comment.


Laura- "Within days of JonBenet's body being found, the Ramsey's speak to CNN before they've
even given interviews to the Boulder Police Department."


War Room-
Clemente- "So we have the first interview that the Ramsey's did on January 1st on CNN."
Laura- "It was probably the most important because it was right after the start. Within
days after their daughter being found murdered and they invite the media in and I think
it's really interesting what they actually said at that press conference as well. It's not
just about them being proactive, it's the content of what they said."
Clemente- "Right. And they have not sat down with the police department to separate interviews
in order to rule them out as suspects in this crime, yet they're sitting down with CNN. We would like
to get your insights into what their behavior tells you. and the words that are coming out of their
mouths."


Clemente narrates "with the help of Jim Fitzgerald doing forensic linguistic analyst and Stan Burke
doing statement analysis, we're going to take media appearances that the Ramsey's have made over the
years the same way we deconstructed the ransom letter."


CNN interviewer" Why did you decide you wanted to talk now?"
Patsy- "We have to find out who did this."
John- "Not because we're angry, but because we've got to go on.. (pause)"


Laura- "Someone's broken into your home. Someone has killed and abused your child."
Stan Burke- "You're gonna be angry. And you're gonna want to find out who did it. And you are gonna
wanna see punishment. That's the natural response."


Laura- "Fitz and Stan are incredibly unique in their expertise. Jim Fitzgerald analyzes and dissects
language choice. Stan Burke looks at things like the content of a statement and how much of it is
potentially misleading."


CNN Interviewer- "Are you fully convinced that your daughter was kidnapped by some outsiders outside
your family or circle of friends?"
Patsy- "(shaking her head no)"
John- "Yes."


Fitzgerald- "Shaking her head no."
John Ramsey- "It's just so hard to know.."
Clemente- "Shaking her head no and then when John says yes she changes her head to a nod up and down."
S. Burke- "What I find interesting here Jim, He said Yes. That's an answer to that question. (replays the question
and answer of CNN interview) Does he say anything else?"


John Ramsey- "It's just so hard to know but our family is a loving family it's a gentle family.."
S. Burke- Why throw that in there? It's not necessary. You have your answer Yes. But he wants to make sure
the listener or the viewer hears 'we are a loving and gentle family'. That's the message being sent here."
Clemente- "Gentle."
Back to John Ramsey- "For our grief to resolve itself we now have to find out why this happened."
Clemente- "I mean why is it the 'Why" that's important?"
Laura- "Its a very odd turn of phrase isn't it?"
Back to John Ramsey- "We cannot go on until we know why."
Fitzgerald- "This is probably a very honest question John and Patsy Ramsey are asking themselves. It's
very likely they know who did it and they may still be trying to figure out why did this happen."
Laura- "It's like an unconscious utterance in a way isn't it?"
Fitzgerald- "Absolutely."
S. Burke- "It's almost like he's jumped past that conclusion of who did it and now he flips it over and 'Why?"
Patsy Ramsey- "There is a killer on the loose."
John Ramsey- "Absolutely."
Patsy Ramsey- "I don't know who it is, I don't know if it's a he or a she, but if I were a resident of
Boulder I would tell my friends to keep your babies close to you there's someone out there."


Elliot Zaret reporter, Boulder Daily Camera, 1996 being interviewed by Clemente and Laura.
Clemente- "Well let me ask you this.John Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey got on national TV and is there
anything they said that struck you as odd?"
Zaret- "Oh. The whole thing was odd at that time."
Clemente- "And how did that effect the community here?"
Zaret- "I don't think people believed her."
Clemente- "What did you know about the Ramsey's as a family. What was known in the community about them
at that point?"
Zaret- "Very little. It's not like O.J. Simpson. They weren't famous people. Yeah they had money. He had
a successful company but they weren't nationally famous. So there was no compelling reason why this should have
become the big sensation that it was. But, it was the week after Christmas, before New Years. There's no
news. It a very quiet time for national news. And that was when the 24 hour news cycle was still pretty
young. The idea of how do you fill in this 24 hour gaps where nothings happening for a whole week, drove
a lot of what happened next. Which is there were these videos of this little girl in the pageants with the
makeup on dancing like almost seductively in a way that almost seemed to the regional morays to be wrong.
And sexual in a way that a 6 year old should not be. Growing up in the North East, pageants were not common.
In the deep South, in Georgia where they are from, that's a normal thing for little girls to do."
Laura- "It sounds like there was a media circus very early on."
Zaret- "Within days. It was every national newspaper, national news magazine, 3 networks and every tabloid."
Laura- "And I was thinking about post O.J. I mean that context at the time was probably quite important in this
particular case."
Zaret- "Absolutely.I thought at the time that that had an influence potentially on what the police and
District Attorney were doing. Especially I think more the D.A. that they didn't want to fall into some of the
same pitfalls that the prosecutors in Los Angeles had. Being burned in court. Because the police didn't dot
all the I's and cross the T's."


News snippet- " Four months after their daughter was murdered, the parents of JonBenet Ramsey have submitted
to interviews with police. Patricia and John Ramsey met separately with Boulder detectives for more than 8 hours.
JonBenet's body was discovered in the family home December 26, 1996 but the Ramsey's had not agreed to
formal interviews with police until now."


Timeline-
April 30, 1997- Ramsey's interviewed by Boulder Police.
May 1, 1997- Ramsey's hold press conference.


Back to analyzing the tv interviews.
John Ramsey- "We've been anxious to do this for some time and I can tell you um..why it's taken us so long
we felt a from the beginning an obligation to talk with the Boulder Authorities and let them do their formal
interrogation of Patsy and I and I think you should know that has been successfully accomplished
yesterday.."
S. Burke- "Stop right there. Why is that such an accomplishment to go and talk to the police about the
possible resolution of your daughter's homicide?"
Fitzgerald- "120 days after it happened."
S. Burke- "Why is that a successful accomplishment?"
John Ramsey- "To those of you who may want to ask, let me address very directly, I did not kill my
daughter JonBenet. JonBenet and I had a very close relationship. I will miss her dearly for the rest of my life."
Patsy Ramsey- " I'm appalled that anyone would think that John or I would be involved in such a hideous, heinous
crime. But let me assure you that I did not kill JonBenet. I did not have anything to do with it. I loved
that child with my whole of my heart and soul."
Fitzgerald- "This last 30-60 seconds snippet that we just watched, they are very convincing quite frankly
to me in those basic declarative statements. I hadn't seen John or Patsy be as adamant about any statement but
these two."
Laura- "And they do come across I have to say, very well. You know in terms of the posturing the way they
present themselves."


Press conference question- "What does it do to you to hear that someone close to you may have done this
to your daughter? "
John Ramsey- "It as a person, I think it makes you much more guarded. Umm. we Umm. felt we lived in a safe
community and still do.."
Fitzgerald- "Compare this statement that he's making right now hemming and hawing and hemming and hawing to
what he said about 4 minutes ago 'I did not kill my daughter' Patsy 'I did not murder my daughter' now
all of a sudden he's not even answering the question and the nonseqitors(sp) he's throwing out there, he
can't even put in codes and sentences. And what I find in situations such as this is not just important
what is said, it can also be just as important if not more so what is not said."


(The End of Part 1)

 

[YouWho]

PositiveLight: Thank you. :great: :great: :great:

 

[PositiveLight]

They didn't see through Casey Anthony

This is very true. So sad!!!

 

[PositiveLight]

Catching up....



Didn't they also have a fireplace? Wonder if that was checked?

Ohhh also great theory! I believe i saw one in the parents bedroom. So, I'd think there were more in other rooms. Need to go back through crime scene photos. But! Either of these could have been an excellent way of getting rid of evidence before they called 911.

 

[PositiveLight]

Maybe because of her toilet training issues?

Bingo. I think this was the main reason. They won't allow a child who is not potty trained to go to kindergarten.

 

[PositiveLight]

Sorry. It was even harder to read when it said, "Which is the biggest dummy?" So I settled simply for "Two dummies."

hahahaha love it!