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.
French noted that Patsy, dressed in a red turtle sweater and black pants, was pacing back and forth, but eventually settled in an overstuffed chair in the sitting room located at the southeast of the main floor. Patsy stared at French her eyes riveted him, but tried to conceal her actions with her fingers splayed over her eyes.
French did a quick inspection of the interior of the house and found all the doors locked, including the door leading from JonBenets bedroom to the second floor balcony. There were no signs of the missing child. French inspected the basement during this search, but was not able to open one room in the basement on the south end of the house because of a top latch. John told Officer French that too had personally checked for unlocked doors and windows John said he found the house locked up as it had been left the night before.
When asked about the security alarm system, John told French that it had not been engaged for several years. While the remodeling of the residence was still in process, JonBenet, then only a toddler, had dragged a small bench over to the key pad to the system and began hitting the keys. The interior alarm was so deafening that they couldn't even hear to telephone the security company to notify them that it was a false alarm.
Almost immediately police cars and sirens were heard coming down the street. Since the Ramseys had not used the system since they had moved into the new house, they didn't know the code to shut it off. Because of this mishap and a couple of subsequent false alarms, they had decided not to activate the system.
After his cursory inspection of the house, French took a statement from John regarding the events of the prior evening. John related that the family had arrived home around 9:00 p.m., that Burke and Patsy had gone immediately to bed, and that he had read to JonBenet for a few minutes before he went to bed. Apparently the morning's stress had also confused John, as the sequence of events he related to French about the prior evening would differ at his later official statement.
Arriving almost immediately after the first officers on scene were John and Barbara Fernie, close friends of both John and Patsy. They were soon joined by Fleet and Priscilla White, with whom the Ramsey family had spent the evening of Christmas day just hours before the disappearance of their daughter. Patsy confirmed that she had called both the Whites and the Ferniest after notifying the police. Bill and Heather Cox, guests staying at the Whites home, also appeared. Barbara Fernie called the Ramseys pastor, Rev. Rol Haberstock from St. Johns Presbyterian Church, and asked him to come.
According to the family friends, the hysterical Patsy was alternating between noncoherent praying to God and Jesus and screaming, " They have my baby. At one point Patsy screamed at John, You have to give them the money and get out baby back. John, attempting to comfort his wife, responded, Well get her back. She'll be okay."
Within minutes of arriving at the Ramsey home, Fleet decided to look around the house. His own daughter had been missing a few months ago, and after the police were called they found her hiding under her bed. Fleet was hoping that JonBenet too was just hiding somewhere in the house. Since everyone had been told by the police officers not to go upstairs, Fleet went town to the basement. He noticed that the lights were on. He found a small piece of glass from a broken window in a room used for model trains. In checking the latch for the window he discovered that it was unlocked, but closed. Fleet also noticed a blue suitcase was sitting underneath the window. He continued with his search by opening every cupboard and door. He opened the door to the wine cellar, reached inside, but could not find the light switch and could not see inside the room. The wind cellar is completely formed by cement and has no windows. Finding no evidence of anyone entering or leaving from the basement area and no trace of JonBenet, Fleet went back upstairs.
Patrol Sgt. Reichenbach, responding to the call to go to the 15th Street address, passed a time and temperature sign in a mall parking lot on his way to the Ramsey home. The temperature in Boulder that morning was 9 degrees. A light dusting of snow lay sprinkled on the ground, mostly visible on the neighborhood lawns. Upon his arrival at the residence Reichenbach conducted a brief inspection of the outside of the premises. In addition to the newly fallen snow, portions of the yard were covered with one or two inches of crusty snow from a prior snowfall. He noted that no footprints were visible in the new snow that adhered to the grass and pavement areas surrounding the house nor in the old snow still remaining
