Let’s put this confusion (and sometimes misconception) to rest once and for all. The only thing relating to this incident that is in public domain is the interviews with Patsy Ramsey. The police know more, but all we know about it is what they asked her and what answers she gave. So let’s look at what was said.
Patsy Ramsey BPD Interview - April 30, 1997:
TT: Okay. What about any injuries, any major injuries, any major injuries to JonBenet?
PR: She, Burke hit her in the face with a gulf (sic) club one time, and the leg…
TT: Ay (sic) stitches or anything like that?
PR: No, it was just kind of a skin abrasion, she had a little scar, a little teensy little scar there, but it just kind of squashed the skin up and something to stitch it. She had a black eye, and…
TT: The 25th, during the day of the 25th, do you recall seeing any injuries on JonBenet? Any scratches, abrasions, cuts, bruises, or anything like that?
PR: I don’t remember, but she was always getting bruised, you know. Kids just, I don’t remember anything.
TT: Nothing major…
PR: Nothing…
TT: Nothing that you would have to use aspirin or ice, or anything like that?
PR: No.
Notice what Tom Trujillo (TT) is doing here. He asks a question and doesn’t let her finish what she’s saying before he fires another question. This is an interrogation technique. The purpose is to get the interviewee in the frame of mind to answer questions without thinking about the answer before giving it. They begin answering quickly without thinking it out and not concentrating on what they give as an answer as much because they are anticipating and concentrating on listening for the next question.
Notice also the mistakes in transcription. Sometimes what is actually said is not written correctly. The stenographer is simply entering phonetic sounds and the transcriber might not catch what is intended to be said (e.g., “gulf club” instead of “golf club”
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
-- and might even leave out a letter here or there (e.g., “Ay” should be “Any”
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So using this interrogation technique, Trujillo asks Patsy about any injuries or illnesses. Patsy starts listing them, but before she can finish he asks another question. The facial injury and the leg injury are not related and did not occur at the same time. What Trujillo is really trying to do is set Patsy up so he can get her to answer about any injuries she might have already had prior to her being killed. IOW, they were trying to find out which of the injuries found during the autopsy might have already been there and not related to her death.
Patsy Ramsey BDA interview - June 23, 1998:
24 THOMAS HANEY: Okay. There was
25 mention while we are talking about that, there
0294
1 was mention of a situation where he apparently
2 hit JonBenet with a golf club up at Charlevoix?
3 PATSY RAMSEY: Yes.
4 THOMAS HANEY: Could you tell us
5 about that?
6 PATSY RAMSEY: He was taking a
7 practice swing, he was just a little guy, he (sic) was
8 two or three, or two and a half, and he was --
9 it was our first summer there, how young they
10 were there.
11 THOMAS HANEY: About what year
12 would that have been?
13 PATSY RAMSEY: That was '93, I
14 believe. And he, you know, he was out there
15 with his little Whiffle ball, golf balls, and
16 she walked up behind and he kind of clipped her
17 right on the cheek. And she screamed bloody
18 murder.
19 And I jumped down off the porch and
20 grabbed her and, you know, slammed ice on it. I
21 thought he got her in the eye, and went down
22 there to the emergency room and, you know, the
23 doctor looked and it was just, you know, that
24 socket around your eye, protects your eye there,
25 so she had a good old black eye for a while.
0295
1 She had a little, I don't remember which eye it
2 was, little abrasion. I took her to a plastic
3 surgeon just to see if there was anything to do
4 to help there. He said it will go away. You
5 know.
6 THOMAS HANEY: So that was just an
7 accidental --
8 PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah. You know, he
9 wasn't used to looking around and she walked
10 right up behind him, so --
11 THOMAS HANEY: Okay.
12 TRIP DeMUTH: And who was the
13 doctor?
14 PATSY RAMSEY: Oh, somebody there
15 at the emergency room in Charlevoix.
The incident in Charlevoix happened the first summer they spent there after they bought the property. That was in 1993
*. Burke was born January 27, 1987. In the summer of 1993, Burke was 6-1/2 years old. JonBenet was born August 6, 1990. Summer of 1993, JonBenet was either 2 or 3 years old (depending on the month). The transcriber left off the “s” in the word “she”. Big mistake because it changes what Patsy actually said and it created this confusion which keeps on coming up time after time on the forums. This is what that passage should read:
6 PATSY RAMSEY: He was taking a
7 practice swing, he was just a little guy, she was
8 two or three, or two and a half, and he was --
9 it was our first summer there, how young they
10 were there.
11 THOMAS HANEY: About what year
12 would that have been?
13 PATSY RAMSEY: That was '93.
No one will ever know the exact circumstances about how this happened; but I really don’t think so much attention should be given it. Kids have accidents. It doesn’t mean Burke deliberately hit his sister, and I don’t really think he did -- at least, not in 1993.
*As Fides noted above, Steve Thomas wrote in IRMI that this incident happened in 1994. I think this was his mistake because he says nothing more about it than that. Patsy has references in her mind to when it happened (first summer after buying it, and the ages of the kids). In DOI, they said they bought the property in 1992, so their first summer spent there was in 1993. That is when I think this incident actually happened.