We'll never resolve whether or not the scream actually happened. With the conflicting information about Mrs. Stanton's recollection, all we can do is guess. I don't
know that it happened, but I choose to believe it did and that Mrs. Stanton
did hear it for the following reasons:
I can understand her vacillation given the circumstances. She says she heard it, it woke her up, and that she listened for five to ten minutes afterwards to see if she heard anything else. Then she said she went back to sleep, thinking that the parents of whoever it was she heard had taken care whatever was the reason for the scream. It wasn't until much later (several days?) that police began canvassing the neighborhood asking questions. When she was told about the death of JonBenet, she said she was in such disbelief that she didn't make a connection between that and the sound she had heard during the night several days prior. It wasn't until later when she thought about it (perhaps even during the conversation) while talking to a neighbor that she made the connection. She told her neighbor (Diane Brumfitt), who then told BPD. When police contacted her, she told them about what she heard. I can imagine that every resident in the area was contacted by at least several reporters trying to get any information they could get to scoop a story before anyone else in the press. We can only imagine what it must have been like to anyone who lived nearby. So it's not at all surprising to me that she would try to back out of saying she heard it. And we only know second or third hand accounts of what she said. So her
not wanting to be involved or connected to the case makes me think she did not come up with the story to try and get attention. Just the opposite -- she tried to avoid it. She and her husband even moved away shortly afterwards.
Another reason I believe her original account is that it fits with what we
do know about the circumstances (TOD, possible area of house it happened, her description of what it sounded like, etc.).
But regardless of our opinion, investigators put enough belief into it to conduct experiments (done at night to try and replicate conditions) to see if sound could be heard at the Stanton residence but not on the fourth floor of the Ramsey hellhole. I found one link that still works (
you have to read it though without paying any attention to Smit's blather about what he "envisions"):
http://web.dailycamera.com/extra/ramsey/1998/09jobene.html[FONT=helvetica,arial,sans][SIZE=-1]"A source close to the family said auditory tests performed by police during a second search of the home in the summer of 1997 determined that sound travels more easily from the basement out to the street than it does up through the home's four levels."
[/SIZE][/FONT]
One more thing... I said in another post that Melody Stanton had died. I may have been wrong about that. Since
DeeDee questioned it, I had to check my sources, and I found where I believe she may now live. (I have a phone number too, but I wouldn't dare call and bother her if it is indeed her.)