With respect to the location of the RN when the police arrived, there are conflicting stories.
In the 1998 LE interview, JR claims he handed the RN immediately to Officer French, however the account in STs book and in the Bonita Papers indicates that the RN was left on the floor for the police to see, where JR claimed to have initially read it.
LOU SMIT: Just try to take it in slow steps. You know what you did with the officer and how you proceeded then; (INAUDIBLE)?
JOHN RAMSEY: We were standing in the hallway. We were handing him the note trying to explain and convince him that we had a problem. And at some point he asked us all to go into this room here and stay there.
LOU SMIT: That's the solarium?
JOHN RAMSEY: Right. The Fernies and the Whites were arriving at sometime between - I think he got there first. But at some point he kind of shepherded us all in there and asked us all to stay there. (INAUDIBLE)
LOU SMIT: What did you do with the note?
JOHN RAMSEY: I gave it to him. I think at that point he kept it. I mean I don't remember him giving it back to me. I do remember later we had, I think they made copies but we had it spread out on the table back here just trying to figure out what we could figure out.
"Another tech saw the ransom note on the bottom step of the spiral staircase and photographed it there. But the photograph lied. The note had traveled from the stairs, possibly into Patsy's hands, then had been spread out on the hallway floor where John Ramsey and the police had read it, and French had put it back on the stairs. The photograph, which was supposed to show exactly where evidence had been discovered, was inaccurate."
JonBenet:
Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation,
Steve Thomas, page 20
Officer Rick French was dispatched to 755 15th Street in Boulder at approximately 5:52 a.m. on the report of a possible kidnapping. He was met at the door by the distraught Patsy and by John who told him that their six-year-old daughter was missing and their nine-year-old son was asleep upstairs. Patsy, hysterical and apparently confused about the sequence of the mornings events, told officer French that she went into JonBenets bedroom at approximately 5:45 a.m. that morning to wake her up for the trip and saw that she was not in bed. As she was coming down the spiral staircase she found the note stating that her daughter had been kidnapped. John then lead French through the house and pointed out a three page handwritten note which still lay on the hallway floor next to the kitchen.
-Bonita Papers
And finally, here is the depiction from the movie, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtNGUD3jqcs
In terms of who handled the note and when (not that I believe any of this happened) the Ramseys don't seem to be forthcoming with a consistent story to say the least.
1997 LE interview with Patsy:
PR: . . .from my bathroom. Um, I started down the spiral stairs and when I got nearly to the bottom I saw these three pieces of paper, like notebook size paper, on, on the run of the stairs and uh, I went on down and turned around and started reading, reading it.
And I uh, screamed for John. He was up in our bedroom still and he came running down and uh, I told him that there was a note that said she had been kidnapped. And uh, uh, I think he, he said, I said, What should I do. What should I do, or something and he said, Call the police, and I think somewhere, I remember I said something about, you know, check Burke or something and I think he ran back and checked burke and I ran back down the stairs and then he came downstairs. He was just in his underwear and he uh, took the note and I remember him being down hunched on the floor read, with all three pages out like that reading it and uh, and he said, Call 911 or Call the police, or something and then I did.
TT: Okay. You pick up the note and start to read it, um, go back upstairs to JonBenets room? Is that correct?
PR: Well, I dont remember if I picked it or, or just leaned over and read it. I cant remember. I dont think I picked it up cause I remember just then bounding up the stairs toward her room.
TT: Okay. Patsy, do you recall who moved the note from the bottom of the stairs down to where John could read it with the good lighting.
PR: I think he did. I, I (inaudible)
. . .
ST: Okay. When you came down the stairs the first time did you touch the note that time?
PR: I dont recall dong that but
ST: Okay.
PR:
I may have.
ST: Do you recall uh, did the note go back upstairs with you when you went up to check JonBenets room?
PR: I dont remember exactly, but I dont think so. I think I just, you know, pounced up the stairs as fast as I could. I dont, I dont think I took it with me.
ST: Do you recall moving the note from the stairs to its eventual position where John read it on the floor?
PR: I, I dont recall moving it. No.
ST: Do you ever recall touching the note?
PR: Um, not specifically, but I may have. I mean there, later on that morning there were, the note was on the coffee table and I remember, in the TV room, and we were talking about did anybody recognize the handwriting, so I may have touched it then
ST: Okay.
PR:
but I just cant remember.
ST: So certainly your fingerprints may very well be on the note and, and, and explained that way?
PR: Right. I, I, mean I may have touched it you know.
TT: Okay. And the note was on, the note was on the floor and John was reading it when you called the police. Is that right?
PR: When I was calling the police. Yeah, he, it was on the floor there in that back hall.
TT: Okay. And you dont recall who laid the note down there.
PR: Right.
ST: Patsy, did you write the note?
PR: No, I did not write the note.
ST: Is there any reason, Patsy, that your blatted print of your hand will be on that paper when it tests?
PR: I did not write the note and I dont, whats blatted?
ST: This portion of your hand.
PR: I dont know. I mean, if I picked it up or touched it, it may be on there, but I did not write the note.
1997 LE interview with John:
JR: Well, Id gotten up at a little before the alarm went off, 5:30 a.m., 5:25 a.m. and went and took a shower; was getting dressed and uh, heard Patsy screaming, and I ran downstairs and I think probably intercepted her maybe in the landing there, the second floor landing I dont remember exactly; but, ah she showed me the note and uh, . . .
ST: Did she show the note on the second floor landing?
JR: I dont remember, uh it seems like I came downstairs, but I think she was running up and I was running down, I think, as best as I can remember, the note was still down on the first floor.
ST: Go ahead Tom.
TT: Telling me you shaved, showered, cleaned up, youre out of the shower by the time I hear Patsy scream. Which set of stairs is the note, front of back did you run down?
JR: Back,
TT: OK. Is that kind of normal, the set of stairs you guys use to go up and down?
JR: Yeah.
TT: OK. You run down stairs and about where was Patsy at when she was running up the stairs?
JR: Well, I dont remember exactly, but I think she was kind of either coming up the spiral staircase or was up fully. I just kind of remember, kind of meeting her.
TT: Actually why dont I just talk to you and Ill go back and try to get some of the things we missed. Kind of talk to you just like you did on the 25th. You guys meet on the landing, what happened after that?
JR: Well Im, its a lot of screaming going on around that, but we saw the note and read the first part. Ah, I think I might have run upstairs to look in JonBenets room. At one point I laid it on the floor and spread it out so I could read it real fast without having to sit and read it. At some point we checked Burke, I think I checked Burke. Patsy asked what should we do, and I said call the police, and she called 911.
TT: Patsy called 911 (inaudible).
JR: Yeah. It was, I remember she was on the phone, I was, I think that was when I was looking at the note again, which was on the floor and I was in the back hallway.
TT: What happened after Patsy called the police?
JR: Well, I think she called the Fernies and the Whites and just screamed at them to come over.
TT: OK. What happened after that?
JR: Ah, well, it wasnt very long before the uniformed officer showed up. And I met him, I remember talking to him in the hallway, the front hallway. And I said our daughters missing and I remember him saying did she run away, and I said she was only six years old. And at one point, I dont remember if I had the note in my hand or Patsy brought it, but I showed him the note. And then some other people started to arrive.
TT: OK. You talking about the front hallway, kind of there right there at the living room entrance?
JR: Uh-huh.
TT: Is that where you showed him the note also?
JR: Thats my recollection, yeah.
1998 LE interview with John:
23 JOHN RAMSEY: You know, Patsy is hysterical.
24 I don't remember exactly what she said. I believe
25 that it was like, (They have JonBenet,̃ and she
0132
1 gave me this note?
2 LOU SMIT: Where were you at that time?
3 JOHN RAMSEY: I think I was either landing
4 here or I had gone partially down the stairs. It
5 was somewhere in this area.
6 LOU SMIT: You would have been on the second
7 floor then?
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, I think. But it seems
9 to me that somewhere here on the second floor,
10 partially down the stairs.
11 LOU SMIT: She had the note in her hand?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: As I recall, I remember I spread
13 it out on the floor just kind to absorb everything
14 quickly.
15 LOU SMIT: Tell me how you spread that out.
16 I mean, do you remember how the pages were like,
17 three --
18 JOHN RAMSEY: Well there were three together and I
19 just kind of spread them out. I think there were
20 three pages. I spread them out next to each other
21 so I could look at the whole thing instantly.
22 LOU SMIT: Okay.
7 LOU SMIT: Are you standing reading the
8 (INAUDIBLE)?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: No, I kind of got on my knees,
10 because I had them on the floor.
11 LOU SMIT: How were you dressed?
12 JOHN RAMSEY: I think I had underwear on; I
13 had a shirt on. I don't think I had on my shirt
14 shirt. It was just an underwear thing.
15 LOU SMIT: How long did it take you?
16 JOHN RAMSEY: Moments, I guess. I don't know.
17 I think I ran upstairs to look at her room. I
18 think Patsy said -- I don't know if she checked on
19 Burke. I don't know if she checked on Burke. I
20 remember running around a lot.
21 LOU SMIT: Let's think back just a little bit,
22 John, because sometimes that's important. The
23 sequence of things.
24 First of all, I notice that you need glasses
25 read. How was it that you could read that note?
0134
1 JOHN RAMSEY: It was fairly large print,
2 as I recall. But I can read, if I have to.
3 LOU SMIT: What was the lighting like there?
4 JOHN RAMSEY: Seems to me it was -- I don't
5 remember it being dark out. But the light was
6 good.
18 LOU SMIT: How much of a time period
19 that call was made and the police officer arrived?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: It wasn't very long. Five
21 or ten minutes, maybe. Yeah. I remember I came in
22 and I came back and let him in the hallway. I
23 said, (My daughter's been kidnapped. Here's a
24 note.̃ And he said, (Are you sure she just didn't
25 run away?̃ and I said, (For God sake, she's only
0141
1 six years old.̃ And I sort of had to convince that
2 we really had a problem here.
3 JOHN RAMSEY: But, he was good, he was pretty
4 good on the uptake.
5 LOU SMIT: Just try to take it in slow steps.
6 You know what you did with the officer and how you
7 proceeded then; (INAUDIBLE)?
8 JOHN RAMSEY: We were standing in the hallway.
9 We were handing him the note trying to explain and
10 convince him that we had a problem. And at some
11 point he asked us all to go into this room here
12 and stay there.
13 LOU SMIT: That's the solarium?