Why the continued denial of the issue of fecal smearing? It doesn’t prove who did it -- it doesn’t prove someone didn’t do it. It’s just a fact about this case that requires investigators to consider its meaning.
So, what evidence is there of it? There is circumstantial evidence, witness accounts, and photographic evidence. Additionally, Patsy was questioned about it in police interviews.
I posted this a few years ago. For those who didn’t see it or have forgotten, I’ll reprint it here in hopes we can put this denial to rest (my comments are in green):Patsy Ramsey BDA interview - June 23, 1998 (emphasis mine):
14 TOM HANEY: Skip ahead to 242. (Inaudible).
15 TRIP DEMUTH: Look at all those pictures,
16 242, 43 and 44 and 45 together.
17 PATSY RAMSEY: This is the little bathroom in
18 the basement.
19 TOM HANEY: Anything out of place or unusual
20 in those photos?
21 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, the bathroom we hadn't
22 utilized very much. These little Christmas decorations
23 were left over from -- I had put those there when we
24 had the home tour two years earlier, because the
25 volunteers used this area and I had a bathroom
0408
1 available.
2 TRIP DEMUTH: That photo 244 was shut, is
3 that how you left them?
4 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, that, yes. I would have
5 left that. I left it like that.
6 Now this, I don't know what that is -- why
7 that would be there.
8 TRIP DEMUTH: Pointing to like tissue.
9 PATSY RAMSEY: It is like tissue something,
10 because I remember I specifically asked Linda some time
11 in the not-so-distant future to go down and clean that
12 bathroom because I think one of the boys had used the
13 bathroom and not flushed it. It was kind of yucko, so
14 she had gone down there. So I don't know if that is
15 her cleaning rag she left there or what.
She “specifically asked Linda to go down and clean that bathroom because (she thought) one of the boys had used the bathroom and not flushed it.” Really? If it was simply an unflushed toilet, she would send the housekeeper down to “clean that bathroom” rather than simply telling Burke to go flush it? And what is it they see in the photo that they’re discussing here? Referred to as “tissue” or possibly a “cleaning rag”, it must be a pile of tissue or toilet paper left somewhere in the room where it doesn’t belong (on the floor?). Why would it be in its apparent location instead of in the toilet?
16 TOM HANEY: Do you know for a fact that she
17 did clean it, could she have been in there since?
18 PATSY RAMSEY: No. I don't remember that too
19 much about that bathroom.
20 TOM HANEY: When you were present she wasn't
21 in there?
22 PATSY RAMSEY: No. The door was usually
23 closed because that -- that door opens right when you
24 came down those steps. (Inaudible). There are a bunch
25 of smears on here.
0409
1 TRIP DEMUTH: Pointing to 205.
2 PATSY RAMSEY: Right.
3 TOM HANEY: Do you recall seeing anything
4 like that there before seeing that?
5 PATSY RAMSEY: No, because I had that whole
6 downstairs painted, I mean cleaned.
Obviously they’re talking about some sort of “smears” on the wall in this area because Patsy says she had “had that whole downstairs painted, I mean cleaned.” I don’t know whether it was actually painted or simply cleaned, but whatever “smears” they discuss here shouldn’t have been there on the wall if either was done.
7 TRIP DEMUTH: When was that?
8 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, 1994, before that home
9 tour, Christmas home tour.
10 TRIP DEMUTH: Who used that bathroom?
11 PATSY RAMSEY: The boys. You know, Burke and
12 Evan were down there playing with the trains. They
13 would go in there and use it.
14 TRIP DEMUTH: What do you mean that they had
15 not flushed that toilet, what do you mean by that?
16 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, I think someone had gone
17 to the potty and hadn't flushed it. It was there for
18 several days.
19 TOM HANEY: Are we talking urine?
20 PATSY RAMSEY: I don't know. It was just
21 reported to me. It was, mom, the bathroom is pretty
22 yucky, and Linda took care of it is the way I think it
23 went.
24 TRIP DEMUTH: How common was it for Evan and
25 Burke to not flush?
0410
1 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, Burke is pretty well
2 trained, because that is one of my big pet peeves, but
3 Evan I don't know about.
IOW, “Not MY son. He’d never do such a thing.”
4 TRIP DEMUTH: What does that mean, Patsy,
5 when you say you don't know about?
6 PATSY RAMSEY: I don't know whether he
7 flushes regularly.
8 TRIP DEMUTH: That could imply, I don't know
9 about him because he doesn't flush, or I wanted to
10 clear that up.
11 PATSY RAMSEY: I don't know. I would believe
12 it was Evan that used it and didn't flush rather than
13 my son. I would like to believe that.
Again, “It was not MY son.”
14 TRIP DEMUTH: Was it a more than one-time
15 occasion in this bathroom down there?
16 PATSY RAMSEY: I just remember that one.
17 TRIP DEMUTH: When was that? It doesn't have
18 to be precise, I mean how long before Christmas?
19 PATSY RAMSEY: I don't know. I don't know
20 exactly. I just remember it happening.
21 TRIP DEMUTH: Right before Christmas?
22 PATSY RAMSEY: I just can't remember. I just
23 remember the event that there was a dirty bathroom bowl
24 and obviously the boys were down there using it and not
25 flushing.
0411
1 TRIP DEMUTH: Do you know, did Linda clean it
2 up, do you know?
3 PATSY RAMSEY: I -- I am sure she did, but I
4 didn't go down there and double check it.
5 TOM HANEY: Is she usually pretty confident
6 if you give her something?
7 PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah.
8 TRIP DEMUTH: Had you been in this bathroom
9 at all prior to Christmas of '96?
10 PATSY RAMSEY: No. I hadn't been in there.
11 You can tell I haven't been in there since '94.
I’m not sure on the above questioning, but it seems like here DeMuth is trying to pin Patsy down on when the toilet bowl was cleaned last prior to JonBenet’s death. It could be that they are trying to establish a time frame for when something found in the toilet bowl (blood maybe?) would have to have been deposited.
12 TOM HANEY: Anything else? The tissue of
13 some kind.
14 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh.
15 TOM HANEY: 246 now.
16 PATSY RAMSEY: (Inaudible). Is that the hall
17 from here? No.
18 TRIP DEMUTH: That is a closer picture of the
19 wall.
20 PATSY RAMSEY: Oh, is it? Okay. It looks
21 dirty to me, that close up.
Photo #246 seems to be a close-up of a smear (or smears) on the wall. Why else would the CSIs have taken a close-up of the smears on the wall if it was only a spot of dirt on the wall? They’re (IMO) trying to get Patsy to admit what she knows it to be: smeared feces.
Before the lawsuits were filed, there were interviews with the participants available about the CBS docuseries. In one of them, they said they had used peanut butter to re-create the smears in the bathroom. Before the series was shown (as we all know), one hour of the original was cut out before airing. This “re-creation” was not aired. As for the amount, decide for yourself. Was it "a tiny amount (i.e. a square millimeter)?" The following is one of the CS photos of the basement bathroom wall:
If you re-read this line of questioning (without seeing Burke as guilty of killing his sister)--
This line of questioning seems to indicate they may have been concerned about Burke (and any other child) being subjected to anal sex.
The bathroom might indicate a problem, by the child, trying to deal with the aftermath.