Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey (2024) s01e02 Episode Script
Umbrella of Suspicion
1
[announcer] It's the trial
we may never see.
John and Patsy Ramsey stand charged
with the murder of JonBenét Ramsey,
in a courtroom drama more compelling
than any fiction could ever be.
[audience clapping]
Hi, welcome to the program.
[reporter] The investigation
into the awful death of
[sighs] I remember one day coming in
and kind of plopping down on the sofa,
and just, you know, clicking on the TV.
And the Geraldo Rivera Show
was in progress.
[Geraldo Rivera] It is entirely possible
that this murder mystery
will never be solved
and that no one will ever be tried
for the terrible crime
committed against that lovely child.
Except for today.
Except for the mock trial
we are about to stage for you,
right here in our studio.
And I'm just sitting there on the sofa
going, "They're talking about us."
Our six-man and woman jury of volunteers
will be asked
at the end of this presentation
whether they think
it is more or less likely
that one or both of these parents
committed this dreadful act.
[man] Your Honor,
ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
Who dressed up this child
in a sexually provocative pose
with high heels, lipstick,
uh, suggestive dances going on?
I mean, this is the baggage
they bring to this case.
You must do justice here.
I didn't know who these people were.
They didn't know who we were.
[announcer] Now, Raoul Felder,
the plaintiff's attorney,
continues his case
with a well-known expert in child abuse.
How did they know anything about anything?
What did you study
in preparation for your testimony today?
Twenty-three hours of tapes of JonBenét,
uh, during the time
that she was in the beauty pageants.
[Raoul Felder] And do any highlights
from the tapes you've studied
stand out in your mind?
[woman] On December 23rd,
JonBenét is dressed as a little elf
doing a show for senior citizens.
Rockin' around the Christmas tree
Have a happy holiday ♪
Everyone's dancing merrily
In a new old-fashioned way ♪
She picks up a saxophone,
and for the next minute and a half,
she masturbates with it.
[Rockin' Around
The Christmas Tree continues]
- [man] What's the significance?
- That child's been sexually stimulated.
At six years of age,
you're not going to put a saxophone
between your legs
and rub it back and forth.
That's right on the tape before
I don't know why nobody picked it up.
I couldn't believe it.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
It's sick!
For someone to even remotely allude
to something so horrible
just nauseates me.
We, the jury, find Patsy Ramsey liable
for the wrongful death of JonBenét Ramsey.
[audience clapping]
And I just came unglued.
I just
I went to bed for about two days
because I just was mortified.
[Geraldo Rivera] We understand
anything is possible under the sun.
To the best of our knowledge, however,
there is no real evidence in this case
that points in any direction
other than straight into the faces
of John and/or Patsy Ramsey.
[theme music playing]
[theme music fades]
- [Aunt Pam] Where's Burke?
- [JonBenét Ramsey] Hi, Aunt Pam.
[piano plays]
- [Aunt Pam] There's Burke.
- [Burke Ramsey] Hello. Are you crazy?
- Bull's eye.
- [JonBenét Ramsey] Hello.
[Aunt Pam] Burke, have you
been sailing and swimming?
- [Burke Ramsey] Yeah.
- [JonBenét Ramsey] Yoo-hoo. Hello.
- [Patsy Ramsey] JonBenét.
- [Aunt Pam] Oh, hello.
[reporter] It's been exactly 14 days now
since little JonBenét Ramsey
was found dead
in the basement of her home.
[reporter 2] Boulder Police say
no one has been ruled out as a suspect,
including family members.
[intriguing music playing]
[Bob Whitson] Within the first week
after the murder,
the decision was made we would only have
a small group of people
who would be what I call
the ongoing investigative team.
So I wasn't involved
with the ongoing Ramsey investigation.
Detective Tom Trujillo
is the lead investigator on this case.
I'm Detective Steve Thomas,
we're not going to take questions.
[Paula Woodward] Steve Thomas
was a dedicated cop.
He was very, very involved in the case.
But he was in the narcotics unit.
He had no experience
on any type of homicide case.
[dramatic sting]
[Carol McKinley] He was very passionate.
He had his opinions.
And he was he was very adamant
about those opinions.
[Bob Whitson] The detectives were just
telling me, "Yeah, the Ramseys did it."
"We know they did it."
So I had no reason to disagree with them.
I thought, "They know what they're doing."
But years later, after I retired
from the police department,
I found out all this other information,
and I started questioning
if the Ramseys did it or didn't do it.
[suspenseful music playing]
There was a civil lawsuit
a few years after the murder.
[attorney] Please state your full name.
My full name
is William Stephen Walton Thomas.
[Bob Whitson] The attorney for the Ramseys
asked Detective Steve Thomas,
was there a plan
from the Boulder Police Department
to release information to the news media
to say that the Ramseys were involved
with their daughter's murder.
[attorney] Was there any strategy on
the part of the Boulder Police Department
to try to put pressure
on the Ramseys through the public?
I believe there were discussions
with the FBI, yes,
about, uh, um, how to exert, uh, some
public pressure on people
who were not cooperating, yes.
[attorney] Were they also thinking
that they might use the media
to apply pressure
so that there might be a possibility
that one of the parents might confess
involvement in the crime?
- Was that ever discussed?
- That may have been, uh, some motivation.
[attorney] Do you believe, from
your recollections, that was discussed?
[music continues]
I wouldn't disagree with it.
[John Ramsey] Their strategy to solve
the case was basically sweat us out.
It's like the old movies, where, you know,
they set the suspect down at a table
and grill him for 18 hours,
and he finally signs the confession
just to get out of there.
But they used the media to do it.
A series of stories were told
about the case that were lies.
[John San Agustin]
There was a narrative that started
by the Boulder Police Department
that it was done by somebody
inside of the home
because there was a lack
of footwear impressions in the snow.
No footprints in the snow,
therefore no intruder.
Well, there's a reason why there was no
footprints in the snow. There was no snow.
[intriguing music playing]
[John San Agustin] There's a slight
dusting you can see
on the front end of the house.
But if you look at the backside
of the home, there's no snow.
The police fed a lot of information
that they wanted out there
to a guy named Charlie Brennan.
[Charlie Brennan] I was given information
by a source I trusted
that police took note of the fact
when they got there that they didn't see
footprints in the snow.
And they considered that
to be significant.
Is that Charlie Brennan saying
that that's significant? No.
I'm reporting the police latched onto that
and made an observation
and felt it was important.
[Paula Woodward] They took these little
bits of information, twisted them around,
and then gave it
to these few media reporters
who said, "Hey, I'll go with it.
I'll go with it on one source."
[Julie Hayden] I have a police report
that says,
"No footprints were found in the snow."
I'm not sure how I would run down that.
I mean, uh, short of being an investigator
myself, which you couldn't do.
You know, you couldn't, as a reporter
It's not that you take it as gospel,
that's what you have to work with.
[Carol McKinley] The Ramseys
weren't talking.
Their attorneys weren't talking.
I mean, it was up to us,
and it was our responsibility
that if the police told us something,
we should try to confirm it
and try to reconfirm it,
and always use the old rule,
two sources, right?
And usually I would find two sources.
They were usually investigative sources.
[music continues]
[Michael Tracey] A really
powerful story that was told
was that John Ramsey had piloted his jet
back to Atlanta
with JonBenét's coffin on board.
[Paula Woodward] I remember
saying to my husband,
"What kind of person is he?"
How could he do this,
when he's got to be so distraught
over the terrible way his daughter died
and the fact that she was murdered?
How could he fly his plane to Atlanta?
I said, "That doesn't make sense."
And my husband was going,
"No, it doesn't."
It wasn't true.
John was not piloting a jet.
John Ramsey didn't have a jet.
[music continues]
[Charlie Brennan] When I reported
that John Ramsey had piloted his own plane
back to Atlanta for the funeral,
that was inaccurate.
It came from a from a source
that I thoroughly trusted
and had given me other solid information.
That information was wrong.
My source was wrong in that case,
and that was a mistake.
[Paula Woodward] One of the things
that's really important to realize
during all of this dishonesty
that's being leaked
is that, on January 15th,
the DNA results came back
from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
[tense music playing]
DNA results often leak in murder cases.
Yet, when the one piece of evidence
that clears them,
or at least clears their DNA,
comes back, there's not a leak about it.
[lawyer] She does not want
to answer any questions.
[reporter] Patsy Ramsey's attorney has
kept her from talking with investigators,
but not from giving handwriting samples.
[Paula Woodward] Very early on,
there was massive police leaking
that Patsy Ramsey had written
the ransom note.
[reporter] According to a report,
investigators have found similarities
between Patsy Ramsey's handwriting
and the writing used in the ransom note.
[Bob Whitson] At least four experts,
and two of them from the Secret Service,
looked at the handwriting and said,
"Patsy Ramsey did not write the note."
[attorney] No evidence that Patsy Ramsey
executed any of the questioned material
appearing on the ransom note.
Was that Mr. Dusick's conclusion?
Uh, am among other things.
[attorney] And he was a document analyst
for the United States Secret Service?
Right.
[Paula Woodward] They didn't like
the answer, so they leaked information
saying she did write it.
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter 2] If you were an investigator
trying to put together a case,
what you might make
of what we do know about the the note?
One of the things that's been brought out
is that the $118,000 figure,
which seemed rather peculiar to people,
it wasn't a good round number at the time,
now is reportedly the amount
of, uh, Mr. Ramsey,
the father's, uh, bonus for the year.
[Paula Woodward] The amount of the ransom
was $118,000, which is really bizarre.
It turns out
that that ransom amount requested
was similar to John Ramsey's
bonus amount, 118,700-some dollars.
It immediately leaked to the newspapers
with the impression,
"Hey, they wrote the ransom note
and used this amount of money."
Which is kind of silly
when you think about it.
[Bob Whitson] If this intruder came in
and had waited in the house
and went to Mr. Ramsey's office,
he could have gone through the papers.
I was told that apparently it was listed
in in documents that were there.
[music swells, then fades]
[reporter] Two people who haven't
been cleared are JonBenét's parents,
who remain in seclusion.
[reporter 2] Police continue
to send out signals
the parents of JonBenét
are prime suspects,
particularly John Ramsey.
[tense music playing]
[Carol McKinley] At the beginning,
not many people
were on the Ramseys-didn't-do-it side.
And most people thought that John Ramsey
had killed his own daughter,
maybe molested his daughter
and killed her.
[music continues]
[Julie Hayden] The law enforcement sources
I talked to
believed that there had been
some sort of sexual abuse of JonBenét,
chronic sexual abuse,
not just that it occurred that night.
I had sources who talked to me.
There were pictures of JonBenét that were
on her dad's desk and things like that.
And at the time, I think they were
considered sexualized pictures.
There was a lot of eyebrows raised.
They just thought those were odd pictures
that a father would have
of a six-year-old in his office.
[Michael Tracey] The logic seemed to be,
she's in the pageants.
Her parents have put her in the pageants.
She's kind of sexualized.
John Ramsey's her dad.
Therefore, John Ramsey
is sexually abusing her.
It's It's impossible to connect the dots.
But a lot of people did connect the dots.
[Paula Woodward] The police, did they ask
about sexual abuse of JonBenét?
- Yes, of course they did.
- What did you tell them?
I told them absolutely, categorically, no.
There was absolutely no evidence,
either physical or historical.
[Paula Woodward] When I interviewed
JonBenét's pediatrician,
he told me, no, she's never had
any sexual abuse in her life.
He would have lost his medical license
if he ever lied about that.
[Dr. Francesco Beuf] There was never
any hint whatsoever of sexual abuse.
Uh, I didn't see any any hint
of emotional abuse or physical abuse.
She was a very much loved child.
[Michael Tracey] The tabloids were crucial
in pushing the narrative
about sexual abuse.
It was just everywhere.
And it was great for the tabloids.
They sold a lot of copies.
They were untrue, unfounded,
but that didn't matter.
It was a good story.
One of the reasons
I became involved in this case
was not because of the crime itself.
It was because of the way
the media dealt with the crime.
A lot of my work and research has been
about the decline of journalistic values.
I thought the media coverage of JonBenét
was a pitch perfect example of that.
A documentary on British
television about the Ramsey case.
With us in Denver, Michael Tracey,
creator of Who Killed JonBenét,
a documentary professor
at University of Colorado.
[Michael Tracey] I called Brian Morgan,
who's John Ramsey's attorney,
and I said, "I want to make a documentary
about your clients' experience."
[music fades]
We then did five days
of interviews with them.
Are you ready?
And that was a fascinating experience.
At the heart of all the media coverage,
overwhelmingly, is a very basic argument
that JonBenét was a sexually abused child.
First, what is your general reaction
to that large allegation?
Well, it's it's disgusting
to even have to respond to that.
It's absolutely false. False, all of it.
[Patsy Ramsey] People make this stuff up.
I mean, they just make it up.
There is no one
that they have to be held accountable to.
I mean, it's just false.
It's a lie.
I don't know how else to say it.
And then it just it just snowballs.
"I heard, he heard, she heard,"
and they just build on it. It's
[news anchor] The latest interview in
the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation
belongs to a former Miss America,
a woman who hid her own story
of child abuse for decades.
One of the things that the police did,
uh, in that effort
to basically convict us
in the court of public opinion,
they brought in a woman
named Marilyn Van Derbur.
[reporter] Marilyn Van Derbur Atler,
who was a victim of incest by her father,
says Boulder Police wanted to talk to her.
They asked me every question
that you would ask me.
I don't know who she was.
Still, I couldn't I wouldn't recognize
her if she walked in the door.
[interviewer] Was your home,
like JonBenét's home,
the public image at least,
a loving father?
- Oh, my, yes. Oh, yes.
- [interviewer] A well-known father?
And so the inference in the interview was,
"Yeah, I've seen this. I've
I've experienced sexual abuse as a child."
"This looks to me like sexual abuse
by the parents."
And, of course, that was absolute false.
[suspenseful music playing]
They even alleged
that perhaps my daughter, Beth
who had just graduated from college, was
working and was killed in a car accident
might have been sexually abused.
[reporter] Investigators
in the JonBenét Ramsey murder
are now looking into the death
of her 22-year-old half-sister.
[reporter 2] JonBenét's
22-year-old half-sister Elizabeth
was killed in a car crash five years ago.
It was like, "Oh, my God.
How low could you go?"
[Michael Tracey] When we made
our first documentary,
we went to great lengths to say,
"Is there any evidence of sexual abuse?"
We talked with friends,
we talked with family. Melinda, um
Nothing.
[Melinda Ramsey] You know,
I'm I'm John Ramsey's daughter. Um
[voice braking] I grew up with him.
He raised me.
And I saw him raise JonBenét.
And I don't understand
why they don't believe me
that he's the most caring father
in the world.
He has never, ever abused us in any way.
And I just wish I could say
something to convince them.
[music fades]
[attorney] You know, you're looking to see
if there was any pathology in this family
on either John Ramsey's part
or Patsy Ramsey's part, right?
We did.
And you didn't find any, did you?
[Steve Thomas] I don't think, to answer
your question, that there was anything,
uh, remarkable or outstanding
as far as what you're inquiring about.
[attorney] Illegal drug use
would be pathology.
Child abuse would be pathology.
Domestic violence
would be pathology, right?
- Yes.
- [attorney] Didn't find anything
with respect to this family, did you, sir?
Drug use, child abuse, or spousal abuse,
uh, not that I'm aware of.
[dramatic music playing]
[John Ramsey] We were being prosecuted
in the court of public opinion.
And, of course, by that time,
we were pretty much convicted.
Gallup, the poll people,
did a poll at some point in that period.
Seventy percent of those polled felt
that the family killed their daughter.
The parents killed their daughter.
[Paula Woodward] People hated the Ramseys,
they hated them.
And it was because of the information
that had come out about them
that was incorrect.
[intriguing music playing]
[John Ramsey] We were followed
by the media.
We'd stay with friends,
and within a day or two,
the house would just be
surrounded by cameras
and and people banging
on the door and the windows.
What really got us off the floor
was we realized we had other children
that needed us now
to be more strong than ever.
Burke particularly.
He'd lost his sibling.
They were pals and
A horrible thing for a nine-year-old kid
to be exposed to.
[Patsy Ramsey] We had tried to shield
Burke as much as possible
over the months and weeks
[suspenseful music playing]
keeping him away
from any kind of television or newspaper.
We went out shopping for school supplies,
and we had the paper and pencils
and all the little supplies
in our shopping buggy,
and headed for the checkout,
and, you know, bam!
[dramatic sting]
Right there at eye level, his eye level,
he couldn't help but see them.
So I just I put my arm around him,
and I said, "Honey,
they're all lies."
I said, "They're ugly, ugly stories."
And I said, "You just have to
pretend like you don't see them."
[John Andrew Ramsey]
It's just simply not fair to him.
Um, you know, you look back at pictures
of nine-year-old Burke.
I mean, it's just absolutely absurd
to think, "Oh, yeah, he's
he could've, you know, killed his sister
and and delivered this level of
violence." I mean, it's just just crazy.
[tense music playing]
I want to say something to the person
or persons that committed this crime.
The list of suspects narrows.
[music fades]
Soon there will be
no one on the list but you.
[Julie Hayden] When law enforcement
would talk sort of formally or officially,
they gave every indication that, um,
that they were close to solving it.
[Alex Hunter] We will see that justice
is served in this case
and that you pay for what you did.
And we have no doubt
that that will happen.
The complicating factor
that the law enforcement sources had,
they told me, is that, okay,
so if you think that the Ramseys did it,
right, which one did what?
They felt it was one person who did this.
It wasn't something, like,
where both parents were involved.
[attorney] At what point in time
did you say
[bangs table]
"I think Patsy Ramsey
killed her daughter"?
There was not a defining moment
in which the, uh, bell rang,
and I noted the the date and time.
Uh, early in 1997,
it it became more and more apparent to me
that, uh, that's where the, uh,
abundance of evidence was leading.
[John San Agustin] One of the initial
theories developed by Boulder Police
was that Patsy Ramsey, in a fit of rage,
killed her daughter
because she had soiled the bed.
[suspenseful music playing]
"In my hypothesis,
an approaching 40th birthday,
the busy holiday season,
an exhausting Christmas Day,
and an argument with JonBenét
had left Patsy frazzled."
"Patsy would not be the first mother
to lose control in such a situation."
"One of the doctors we consulted cited
toileting issues as a textbook example
of causing a parental rage."
"So in my hypothesis,
there was some sort of explosive encounter
in the child's bathroom
sometime prior
to one o'clock in the morning."
"I believe JonBenét was slammed
against a hard surface
such as the edge of a tub,
inflicting a mortal head wound."
[John San Agustin] Detective Steve Thomas
said Mrs. Ramsey became upset
because JonBenét was wetting the bed,
and, in a fit of rage, uh, lost control
and supposedly, uh, hit JonBenét
and then staged a scene.
[Steve Thomas] "As I pictured the scene,
her dilemma was that
the police would assume the obvious."
"Patsy needed a diversion
and planned the way
she thought a kidnapping should look."
"In my hypothesis, she took the next step,
looking for the closest available items
in desperation."
"Only feet away was her paint tote."
"She grabbed a paintbrush and broke it
to fashion the garrote with some cord."
"In my scenario,
she choked JonBenét from behind
with a grip
on her broken paintbrush handle,
pulling the ligature."
"Throughout the coming hours,
Patsy worked on her staging,
such as placing the ransom note
where she'd find it the next morning."
[Bob Whitson] The evidence
does not match that at all.
First of all,
we know that JonBenét was alive
while she was being tortured
in the moments before her death.
We know this because she had hemorrhaging
in her eyes, hemorrhaging in her heart.
That was consistent with being strangled.
So if you believe
that Patsy Ramsey did this,
she would have had to do all these things
while JonBenét was alive.
This wasn't staging.
She was alive when this was being done.
[attorney] Well,
did all the experts agree that
JonBenét Ramsey was alive
at the time of the injury to her vagina?
Uh, again, I don't know
what experts you're referring to.
[attorney] I'm talking about
the acute vaginal trauma
she suffered at the time of her murder.
The agreement was unanimous
that she was alive at the time
that that vaginal trauma was inflicted.
True?
Yes, I believe that's correct.
[attorney] So Patsy Ramsey, theoretically,
had JonBenét Ramsey there
pulling at this garrote around her neck,
scratching at it,
and you still believe that the garrote
would've been placed there
by Patsy Ramsey to stage the crime?
Is that what your testimony is?
Uh, if that's what you're telling me,
I won't dispute. That's what happened.
[attorney] Well, do you believe
that's what happened?
Uh, no, I've offered a hypothesis
that I believe was consistent, uh,
with the evidence as I knew it,
uh, that, uh, possibly what happened.
I have five children.
They all wet their beds, I'm sure,
when they were little. That's no big deal.
It's just part of little kids.
Um
Patsy had just recovered
from stage four ovarian cancer.
She was grateful to be alive.
Do you think
that her child wetting her bed
would be a big deal? No.
She was happy to be alive and to have
some more time with her children.
So it's just nonsense.
It didn't pass the the sanity test.
But yet that was their premise,
that she wet her bed, Patsy went crazy,
killed her, and we made
the whole kidnapping thing up.
[suspenseful music playing]
For months now, the nation
has been hanging on every detail
surrounding JonBenét Ramsey's death.
And tonight there's more information,
not about the case.
There appears to be a major rift
between the Boulder Police
and the prosecutor.
[John San Agustin] One thing to note here
that's important is
there was a lack of respect
from the Boulder Police Department
towards the Boulder
district attorney's office.
[Alex Hunter] Some Boulder Police people
thought they knew who did it.
And some of my people were convinced
that it was an intruder that did it.
So that you had a split.
[Michael Tracey] Relations between
the district attorney and police
by the spring of '97 had really got sour.
And Alex Hunter, the district attorney,
wanted an experienced eyes
and ears for him.
And Alex hired Detective Lou Smit.
[tape clicks]
[intriguing music playing]
[Lou Smit] This is Lou Smit.
Today is March the 9th, 1997.
And I'm on my way to Boulder, Colorado,
to talk with Alex Hunter,
who is the district attorney.
I do feel very strongly
that the killer of JonBenét Ramsey
should be caught and
and made to pay for what he or she
has done to this little girl.
Initially, I got involved
with the JonBenét Ramsey case,
uh, because of my good friend and mentor,
uh, Lou Smit being involved.
Lou, for me, has always been
one of those guys
that's a law enforcement legend.
He was an exceptional person.
He's an exceptional detective.
[man] Captain Smit has worked on
a number of high profile cases
and has investigated
more than 150 homicides.
He had an impeccable reputation and
is highly respected by police officers,
prosecutors, and judges
throughout the state of Colorado.
[Carol McKinley] He had solved
another case in Colorado Springs,
where a little girl
had been taken from her home
from a single fingerprint on a window.
[Lou Smit] Many times
things are as they seem.
I'm not saying it's a kidnapping
or a kind of a botched plan
for a kidnapping.
Maybe even family related in some way.
But all I'm saying is that, uh,
things just, uh, don't feel good
as far as it being completely the family.
But I do know this, that that little girl
had to mean an awful lot to them.
And
she did mean something in this world.
I just hope I can be of some use in
bringing that killer
or killers to justice.
So at the time, I was an employee
of a local sheriff's office,
and, uh, Lou Smit
was actually my commander.
He said, "Hey, I need you to come on board
and help me organize
and figure out
what's going on in this case."
[intriguing music playing]
Lou is is one of those guys
He's He's, uh
He was a Sherlock Holmes of his time.
And, you know, when he looked at this,
I mean, obviously one of the first things
you're gonna do is look over the body.
[Lou Smit] Now,
what I'd like to show you is
what I think
is one of the most important clues
left behind by the killer.
Stun gun.
[clicks]
There's marks on JonBenét.
Those are marks on her back.
[click]
Those are marks on her face.
And they're the same distance apart.
The marks on her face and the marks
on the back are the same distance apart.
And if you look,
they're slightly rectangular in shape.
Something made those marks.
[Kurt Pillard] Lou did a number of tests
determining that they were Air Taser marks
from a stun gun.
[dramatic sting]
[tense music playing]
[clicking rapidly]
[John San Agustin] He actually
did a test using a pig,
because our the pig skin
is the closest to the human skin.
And they found that the injuries
from the stun gun
looked very similar to the injuries
from what was on JonBenét's face and back.
[Lou Smit] The thing with the Taser,
I think that that's what was used
to incapacitate her when she was in bed.
Uh, that would be the easiest way
with making very little noise,
and then he could carry her down
and do whatever he wanted to do with her.
[Julie Hayden] The law enforcement sources
that I had,
at least to me, never indicated that
they put much of any kind of importance
on whether a stun gun was or wasn't used.
[John San Agustin] Boulder PD thought
the stun gun marks for her face and back
were created
from laying on some train tracks.
If anything, they've been doing nothing
but dismissing the stun gun.
[attorney] What did Boulder police
conclude caused these marks
found on JonBenét Ramsey's back?
What was believed to be stun gun marks
may have been a patterned object,
if I recall correctly,
or, uh, I think,
another explanation was, uh uh
on her back, uh, lying
on, uh, some sort of object.
Stun gunning, like, that
that never sat well with Lou.
Like, why?
Why would a mom or dad
stun gun their daughter multiple times?
To take her to the basement?
[tape clicks, whirs]
[Lou Smit] I'm gonna show you
JonBenét's bedroom.
When the police come in that morning,
the very first picture they take
is of that bed right there.
And that's early in the morning.
This is what JonBenét's bed looked like.
[clicking]
If you look real carefully, you can see
where somebody
has pulled off the bed here.
See how it looks like it pulls
and then stops right there.
Almost as if she's stun gunned
while she's sleeping
and pulled from the bed.
There's another thing.
Steve Thomas says that, you know,
Patsy Ramsey came in, and she wet the bed.
Now, if you'll notice
real close down here,
there's a lot of things.
Number one, the bed is not wet.
[attorney] Were they wet?
- When?
- [attorney] That morning.
- I don't
- [attorney] Did you ask?
Did you ask any of the officers
there, "Hey, by the way,
were the sheets on JonBenét's bed wet?"
Did you ask that question to anybody?
I did not.
[Lou Smit] And people say that maybe
Patsy Ramsey changed the bedding.
But there's all kinds of fibers and hairs
and stuff in the bedding already there.
So if it was washed,
it wouldn't be in there like that.
So this bedding had been on there
for a little while.
There's a little guest bedroom there
that's right next to JonBenét's room.
This rope was found in the guest bedroom.
It's not the Ramseys'.
[suspenseful music playing]
Nobody in the Ramsey family
can identify it.
It is a possibility that the that the
intruder could've taken that in with him,
also to use as binding,
and just left it up there.
[music fades]
[Carol McKinley] When they brought
Lou Smit in, people were open-minded.
But then police started realizing
that he was starting to believe
that the Ramseys were innocent.
That was not what they thought.
It was, uh They felt like he was
going down the wrong road.
They called him a delusional old man,
that they felt like
he was, uh, just a bumbling guy
who was trying to make a name for himself
by presenting a different theory.
Lou was far from being
a delusional old man.
He's the kind of detective
that everyone would want
in their community.
[Lou Smit] I went to bed fairly late
last night, I and I tossed and turned. I
I really feel that the investigation
is going down the wrong track.
That open window in the basement
has really been bothering me.
It is open.
That's where the body is found.
I believe our killer may have entered
that way and may have exited that way.
[reporter] There's a lot of attention
focused on this window right over here.
- Can you talk about that?
- I can't. I'm sorry.
[tense music playing]
[Lou Smit] Now, this is where I think
the killer actually got in at some point.
And, uh, there is a gas grill here, and
then there's a south door to the house.
Right behind this gas grill is a grate.
And you put the grate up, you're looking
straight down into the window.
There's three windows there.
The center one was the one that was open.
These photographs tell a story,
and they tell a great story,
because look at this photograph
real closely. Now.
And you're going to see foliage,
that green foliage,
under the leading edge of that grate.
Don't grow that way. The grate has to be
picked up and put down in order for that.
[intriguing percussive music playing]
[Kurt Pillard] Lou Smit
was seen several times,
uh, entering in and out of of this window
because Boulder Police didn't think
that it was possible.
I think at the time,
Lou was about 66, uh, years old,
and, uh, he wanted to prove
that it was possible
and, uh, did it quite easily.
[Lou Smit] If you remember,
there was a suitcase
that was right underneath this window.
And on top of the suitcase
was a very small,
tiny, pea-sized piece of glass,
and a faint impression
of possibly a footprint on the suitcase.
[intriguing music playing]
A lot of people say, well,
you know, who would go
into a house where the parents are
and hide in the house,
wait for the parents?
And, uh, who would do that?
It takes a special
kind of a person to do that.
[tense music playing]
[John Ramsey] I firmly believe
that, uh, we left for
Took the kids, went to some friends' house
for dinner Christmas night.
I think I don't remember when we left.
Maybe six, six-ish.
Got home by 9:30, probably.
I believe the killer came into our home
while we were gone
and, uh, waited until we were asleep.
I think that's for sure.
[unsettling music playing]
[Bob Whitson] It's important to know
that we had cases in Boulder
where suspects went into residence
in the middle of the night
and either attempted a sex assault
or completed, uh, sex assaults,
uh, both before and after the Ramsey case.
[Charlie Brennan] In September of '97,
about nine months after JonBenét's death,
there was an incident
in another nice neighborhood in Boulder,
not that far from the Ramseys' home.
[John San Agustin] A little girl
was assaulted in her home
when her mom was sleeping
in a master bedroom,
her dad was gone away, uh, for business.
[victim's father] My feeling is
he got into the house while they were out
and hid inside the house.
[John San Agustin]
Sometime in the late hours,
Mom hears a noise going on.
And she grabbed, I believe, pepper spray
and went down the hall.
And there was, in fact, an intruder
in her daughter's bedroom
preparing to molest her.
And that woman succeeded
in chasing that intruder out of the house
using her pepper spray.
[unsettling music continues]
That person has never been identified.
It subsequently came to light
that that girl had attended
the same dance studio as JonBenét.
Are the two cases connected? I don't know.
The police, in their wisdom, said, "Well,
it's not the same
because that child wasn't murdered."
"JonBenét was murdered."
If I were a novice detective,
I'd say those are
pretty similar methods of a killer.
Are they right? Are they wrong?
Was their conclusion shaded
by the accusation [chuckles]
that they have been focused solely
on, uh, a different theory of the case?
I don't know.
[boy] You want a piece?
[news anchor] In Boulder, Colorado,
the sensational and unsolved murder
of a young beauty pageant queen
is back in the news
under the heading
"Starting Over One Year Later."
I've never been this popular before, guys.
[news anchor] But the new man in charge
of the JonBenét Ramsey case
still couldn't say police are
any closer to solving the grisly crime.
We have not yet
submitted a case for prosecution,
nor have we prepared an arrest warrant.
[bells tolling]
[news anchor] Beckner confirmed
John and Patsy Ramsey
remain under the umbrella of suspicion.
[Julie Hayden] By this point,
it's been a long time, right?
And I think there was a general sense of,
you know, why is this still not solved?
[reporter] Last year, Hunter spent
$128,000 on the investigation,
and $51,000 so far this year.
Hunter's latest expenditure is $60,000
to pay a grand jury specialist,
a person who will advise investigators
about whether a secret panel
should see JonBenét Ramsey's case.
[Michael Kane] When I got involved
in the case, they were going nowhere
because there had been
such a rift that had developed
between the district attorney's office,
uh, prosecutors,
and the police department.
[reporter] Kane's background
is impressive.
He currently works
for the state of Pennsylvania
and used to be a prosecutor in Denver.
His specialty? Grand juries.
That's why he's joining
the Ramsey investigation,
to help DA Alex Hunter
should a secret panel
investigate the murder.
[Michael Kane] My first day on the job,
it was a big presentation
that the police department gave.
[reporter 2] How long do you think
this is expected to take?
Uh, we've got the whole day scheduled,
and we don't know.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Charlie Brennan] Over two days,
Steve Thomas and other detectives
put forward everything they had.
[reporter 3] Detective Steve Thomas
ran a list of reasons
why the Ramseys were under suspicion,
including, "The behavior
of John and Patsy Ramsey
was not in keeping with a kidnapping,
but more like the way
people would respond after a death."
[intriguing music playing]
[Charlie Brennan] They felt
that they had put forward enough
to perhaps trigger the filing of charges
or, at the very least,
convening of a grand jury.
[Michael Kane] It's going to be, at this
point, a process of sifting through that
and really making a decision
about, uh, w the strength
of a case against anybody
or whether there's a need to go further.
[intriguing music ends]
After it was all over, we all met,
and Alex Hunter said, "What do you think?"
And I said, "Well you don't have a you
don't have a chargeable case right now."
And it was It was like some people
in that room were shocked.
And then that's when, all of a sudden
[chuckles]I get this letter handed to me
that came into the office
from Steve Thomas.
Turmoil once again in
the long and deeply troubled investigation
of JonBenét Ramsey's murder.
ABC News has learned that one
of the lead detectives in the case
has resigned in protest,
firing off a blistering letter
that attacks the district attorney.
Steve Thomas' resignation was big news.
After 20 months,
a growing number
are going public about their concerns,
their frustration over what happened
in this home December 26th of 1996.
[Charlie Brennan] Governor Roy Romer
summoned all the key players
down to the governor's office in Denver
to say, "What's going on here?" [chuckles]
[music fades]
It was pressure from the governor's office
which ultimately persuaded Alex Hunter,
"Okay, we're gonna do a grand jury."
[clicks]
[intriguing music playing]
[Lou Smit] It appears as though
that letter did, somehow,
influence the the direction
that this investigation is going to take.
I have no doubt in my mind
that because of this,
that, uh, the Ramseys will be indicted.
Especially with the atmosphere
and the poisoned well
of false information against the Ramseys.
Clearly there's evidence of an intruder,
I say this over and over and over again.
Nobody wants to listen.
And, uh, as a result of that,
there's a very good chance that uh,
tragedy could again strike this family.
[click]
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter] Amid a buzz of activity outside
the Boulder County Justice Center,
people jockeyed for parking space
amid tangled traffic and tight security.
With the media circus tailing them,
the 12 Boulder County residents
who make up the JonBenét Ramsey grand jury
arrived early morning
to do their civic duty.
[John Ramsey] When the grand jury
was in process,
we fully expected
and were prepared to be indicted.
The saying is, "You can indict
a sandwich in front of a grand jury."
It's a one-sided argument.
[Paula Woodward] In a regular criminal
trial, you have your 12 jurors here,
and then you have two tables, one
for the defense, one for the prosecution.
But in a grand jury, it's different.
There is no defense.
The goal is to get
an indictment for murder.
Don't worry
about any counter thoughts or defense.
[reporter 2] Michael Kane,
Bruce Levin, and Mitch Morrissey
arrived bright and early too.
They are the prosecutors specially
brought in to present the case.
I'll never forget.
I pulled up in my car the first day.
Can't comment.
And I was surrounded by cameras.
[reporter 3] Leading the team
is grand jury specialist Mike Kane.
[Michael Kane] We asked ourselves
every day, how could a person do this?
Well, we've seen cases
where people who are,
you know, look like
the all-American family,
turn around and do something horrendous
because something triggered something
on a particular date.
[John Ramsey] My impression of Mike Kane
was he was out to get us
just like any other
other police department.
He was He was in their camp.
[reporter 4] Mitch Morrissey comes
by way of the Denver County DA,
where he's considered an expert
on the use of DNA evidence.
I have seen cases where, no matter
how they presented themself publicly,
no matter how wealthy they were,
no matter how, you know,
the family seemed to be a cohesive unit,
the parents did it.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 5] There may be strategic
reasons why John and Patsy Ramsey
have not been called
to testify before the grand jury.
We offered to testify to the grand jury.
They wouldn't let us.
[reporter 5] Prosecutors may fear
the Ramseys could charm the grand jury
if they testified in person.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Lou Smit] Well, today is quite a day.
It's September 22nd, 1998.
This is going to be my last official day
in this investigation.
Because of the grand jury, Lou resigned.
Regretfully, he resigned.
[Kurt Pillard] He would have no part
in trying to convict an innocent couple.
And that's how strongly
he felt about this case.
[Lou Smit] This grand jury is a farce.
The police are going to submit
a manufactured version of the case,
sugar-coated and spoon-fed
to this grand jury.
Mike Kane is going to do this.
My intentions at this time are to try,
in every way that I can,
to testify before the grand jury,
because I really think it's important
that they do hear this information.
Lou Smit fought
to get into that grand jury
to show the other side.
[Lou Smit] I did get a
a, uh letter from Michael Kane
that I my request to testify
before the grand jury was denied.
The letter from Michael Kane also stated
that I could not even repeat
that I had been contacted
by this letter in any way,
and so they're trying
to silence me completely.
That's absolute garbage. Absolute garbage.
[chuckling] I didn't take any steps
to keep Lou Smit out of the grand jury.
And to try to portray it that, you know
And I know it's been portrayed in books
and people, like, making statements that,
you know, I I was like,
"God, no, I can't I can't have
the grand jury hearing."
That is just absolute garbage.
An attorney threatened to sue
to get him in front of the grand jury,
and he finally was allowed.
[Lou Smit] I was never treated so unfairly
or so badly in 40 years of law enforcement
where everything I said was attacked.
And I've never felt so humiliated.
In fact, when I was at the grand jury,
I remember turning to Alex Hunter,
who was sitting there, and I said, "Alex,
there is no way that the defendants
are not going to be indicted on this."
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] Like detectives tracing
the path of a killer,
the grand jurors, who've been studying
the murder of JonBenét Ramsey,
took their investigation
from the courtroom
to the crime scene today.
When we started the the grand jury,
we thought, you know,
that would be helpful
for them to see the house.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mitch Morrissey] This was an old house
that had been added onto
and had kind of
a rabbit warren-type feel to it.
You know, it'd be difficult to navigate
this house if you didn't know this house.
[music continues]
[Michael Kane] To get to the second floor
where her room was,
it wouldn't have been intuitive
of how to get there.
And then to find your way from there
down into the basement
really was not intuitive,
especially in the middle of the night
when no lights are on.
[music continues]
So I'm not saying
that that that sealed the deal
that it had to be somebody on the inside
versus somebody from the outside,
but it certainly was a factor.
[reporter] With questions about unmatched
DNA found in JonBenét's underwear,
it's not clear how much time
prosecutors will need
before the grand jury probe is finished.
[Mitch Morrissey] Everybody bringing me in
kind of thought, "Okay, there's this DNA,
but it's really not that big a deal
in this case."
And actually, it became
the big deal in the case.
[click]
We had a DNA profile that had come out
of the little girl's underpants.
[click]
This was in the crotch, mixed with blood
that clearly came when she was penetrated
by a broken paintbrush.
And that penetration caused her to bleed
and mix with this DNA.
We knew it was male,
but we knew it wasn't sperm.
It could've been saliva.
It could have been
some other form of bodily fluid.
It could be a large,
significant amount of skin cells.
None of the family members match.
And then basically all of the criminals
that are in the national DNA database
were compared.
None of them match.
So you have this dilemma that was created.
[Michael Kane] Without having a match,
we can't say, "A killer left this,
and he's out there somewhere,"
because it wasn't anybody
who was in the house.
You just can't say that.
The problem is we never found the male
that left that DNA.
[John Ramsey] They tried to go to China
to the underwear factory
where JonBenét's underwear was made
[click]
and see if they could find a white male
working in the factory,
take his DNA,
match it to the unidentified DNA
and therefore explain away why that DNA
was there and who it belonged to.
We went so far as to find out
the whole manufacturing, uh, chain.
[John Ramsey] They tried desperately
to find a match
that was an innocent explanation.
That was the mentality.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] After more than a year
of looking over evidence
and hearing testimony,
the grand jury has now made its decision.
[chatter]
[Carol McKinley] There was gonna
be an announcement,
so, I'm telling you,
the parking lot across
from the Boulder County Justice Center
was packed with satellite trucks,
television cameras,
reporters standing on boxes.
It was almost like leading up
to a Super Bowl.
[John Ramsey] We were ready
to go be arrested.
We've signed papers to have Burke
under guardianship of my brother.
We're pretty much ready
to go to jail and be tried.
[chatter]
the district attorney,
Alex Hunter, are now talking live
about what the grand jury has decided.
[man] Down in front, please.
Down in front.
Excuse me.
[man 2] Speak up!
[woman] Shout, please!
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[woman with radio] Tell 'em
something's happening.
All right.
[dramatic sting]
[dramatic music continues]
[music fades]
[announcer] It's the trial
we may never see.
John and Patsy Ramsey stand charged
with the murder of JonBenét Ramsey,
in a courtroom drama more compelling
than any fiction could ever be.
[audience clapping]
Hi, welcome to the program.
[reporter] The investigation
into the awful death of
[sighs] I remember one day coming in
and kind of plopping down on the sofa,
and just, you know, clicking on the TV.
And the Geraldo Rivera Show
was in progress.
[Geraldo Rivera] It is entirely possible
that this murder mystery
will never be solved
and that no one will ever be tried
for the terrible crime
committed against that lovely child.
Except for today.
Except for the mock trial
we are about to stage for you,
right here in our studio.
And I'm just sitting there on the sofa
going, "They're talking about us."
Our six-man and woman jury of volunteers
will be asked
at the end of this presentation
whether they think
it is more or less likely
that one or both of these parents
committed this dreadful act.
[man] Your Honor,
ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
Who dressed up this child
in a sexually provocative pose
with high heels, lipstick,
uh, suggestive dances going on?
I mean, this is the baggage
they bring to this case.
You must do justice here.
I didn't know who these people were.
They didn't know who we were.
[announcer] Now, Raoul Felder,
the plaintiff's attorney,
continues his case
with a well-known expert in child abuse.
How did they know anything about anything?
What did you study
in preparation for your testimony today?
Twenty-three hours of tapes of JonBenét,
uh, during the time
that she was in the beauty pageants.
[Raoul Felder] And do any highlights
from the tapes you've studied
stand out in your mind?
[woman] On December 23rd,
JonBenét is dressed as a little elf
doing a show for senior citizens.
Rockin' around the Christmas tree
Have a happy holiday ♪
Everyone's dancing merrily
In a new old-fashioned way ♪
She picks up a saxophone,
and for the next minute and a half,
she masturbates with it.
[Rockin' Around
The Christmas Tree continues]
- [man] What's the significance?
- That child's been sexually stimulated.
At six years of age,
you're not going to put a saxophone
between your legs
and rub it back and forth.
That's right on the tape before
I don't know why nobody picked it up.
I couldn't believe it.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
It's sick!
For someone to even remotely allude
to something so horrible
just nauseates me.
We, the jury, find Patsy Ramsey liable
for the wrongful death of JonBenét Ramsey.
[audience clapping]
And I just came unglued.
I just
I went to bed for about two days
because I just was mortified.
[Geraldo Rivera] We understand
anything is possible under the sun.
To the best of our knowledge, however,
there is no real evidence in this case
that points in any direction
other than straight into the faces
of John and/or Patsy Ramsey.
[theme music playing]
[theme music fades]
- [Aunt Pam] Where's Burke?
- [JonBenét Ramsey] Hi, Aunt Pam.
[piano plays]
- [Aunt Pam] There's Burke.
- [Burke Ramsey] Hello. Are you crazy?
- Bull's eye.
- [JonBenét Ramsey] Hello.
[Aunt Pam] Burke, have you
been sailing and swimming?
- [Burke Ramsey] Yeah.
- [JonBenét Ramsey] Yoo-hoo. Hello.
- [Patsy Ramsey] JonBenét.
- [Aunt Pam] Oh, hello.
[reporter] It's been exactly 14 days now
since little JonBenét Ramsey
was found dead
in the basement of her home.
[reporter 2] Boulder Police say
no one has been ruled out as a suspect,
including family members.
[intriguing music playing]
[Bob Whitson] Within the first week
after the murder,
the decision was made we would only have
a small group of people
who would be what I call
the ongoing investigative team.
So I wasn't involved
with the ongoing Ramsey investigation.
Detective Tom Trujillo
is the lead investigator on this case.
I'm Detective Steve Thomas,
we're not going to take questions.
[Paula Woodward] Steve Thomas
was a dedicated cop.
He was very, very involved in the case.
But he was in the narcotics unit.
He had no experience
on any type of homicide case.
[dramatic sting]
[Carol McKinley] He was very passionate.
He had his opinions.
And he was he was very adamant
about those opinions.
[Bob Whitson] The detectives were just
telling me, "Yeah, the Ramseys did it."
"We know they did it."
So I had no reason to disagree with them.
I thought, "They know what they're doing."
But years later, after I retired
from the police department,
I found out all this other information,
and I started questioning
if the Ramseys did it or didn't do it.
[suspenseful music playing]
There was a civil lawsuit
a few years after the murder.
[attorney] Please state your full name.
My full name
is William Stephen Walton Thomas.
[Bob Whitson] The attorney for the Ramseys
asked Detective Steve Thomas,
was there a plan
from the Boulder Police Department
to release information to the news media
to say that the Ramseys were involved
with their daughter's murder.
[attorney] Was there any strategy on
the part of the Boulder Police Department
to try to put pressure
on the Ramseys through the public?
I believe there were discussions
with the FBI, yes,
about, uh, um, how to exert, uh, some
public pressure on people
who were not cooperating, yes.
[attorney] Were they also thinking
that they might use the media
to apply pressure
so that there might be a possibility
that one of the parents might confess
involvement in the crime?
- Was that ever discussed?
- That may have been, uh, some motivation.
[attorney] Do you believe, from
your recollections, that was discussed?
[music continues]
I wouldn't disagree with it.
[John Ramsey] Their strategy to solve
the case was basically sweat us out.
It's like the old movies, where, you know,
they set the suspect down at a table
and grill him for 18 hours,
and he finally signs the confession
just to get out of there.
But they used the media to do it.
A series of stories were told
about the case that were lies.
[John San Agustin]
There was a narrative that started
by the Boulder Police Department
that it was done by somebody
inside of the home
because there was a lack
of footwear impressions in the snow.
No footprints in the snow,
therefore no intruder.
Well, there's a reason why there was no
footprints in the snow. There was no snow.
[intriguing music playing]
[John San Agustin] There's a slight
dusting you can see
on the front end of the house.
But if you look at the backside
of the home, there's no snow.
The police fed a lot of information
that they wanted out there
to a guy named Charlie Brennan.
[Charlie Brennan] I was given information
by a source I trusted
that police took note of the fact
when they got there that they didn't see
footprints in the snow.
And they considered that
to be significant.
Is that Charlie Brennan saying
that that's significant? No.
I'm reporting the police latched onto that
and made an observation
and felt it was important.
[Paula Woodward] They took these little
bits of information, twisted them around,
and then gave it
to these few media reporters
who said, "Hey, I'll go with it.
I'll go with it on one source."
[Julie Hayden] I have a police report
that says,
"No footprints were found in the snow."
I'm not sure how I would run down that.
I mean, uh, short of being an investigator
myself, which you couldn't do.
You know, you couldn't, as a reporter
It's not that you take it as gospel,
that's what you have to work with.
[Carol McKinley] The Ramseys
weren't talking.
Their attorneys weren't talking.
I mean, it was up to us,
and it was our responsibility
that if the police told us something,
we should try to confirm it
and try to reconfirm it,
and always use the old rule,
two sources, right?
And usually I would find two sources.
They were usually investigative sources.
[music continues]
[Michael Tracey] A really
powerful story that was told
was that John Ramsey had piloted his jet
back to Atlanta
with JonBenét's coffin on board.
[Paula Woodward] I remember
saying to my husband,
"What kind of person is he?"
How could he do this,
when he's got to be so distraught
over the terrible way his daughter died
and the fact that she was murdered?
How could he fly his plane to Atlanta?
I said, "That doesn't make sense."
And my husband was going,
"No, it doesn't."
It wasn't true.
John was not piloting a jet.
John Ramsey didn't have a jet.
[music continues]
[Charlie Brennan] When I reported
that John Ramsey had piloted his own plane
back to Atlanta for the funeral,
that was inaccurate.
It came from a from a source
that I thoroughly trusted
and had given me other solid information.
That information was wrong.
My source was wrong in that case,
and that was a mistake.
[Paula Woodward] One of the things
that's really important to realize
during all of this dishonesty
that's being leaked
is that, on January 15th,
the DNA results came back
from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
[tense music playing]
DNA results often leak in murder cases.
Yet, when the one piece of evidence
that clears them,
or at least clears their DNA,
comes back, there's not a leak about it.
[lawyer] She does not want
to answer any questions.
[reporter] Patsy Ramsey's attorney has
kept her from talking with investigators,
but not from giving handwriting samples.
[Paula Woodward] Very early on,
there was massive police leaking
that Patsy Ramsey had written
the ransom note.
[reporter] According to a report,
investigators have found similarities
between Patsy Ramsey's handwriting
and the writing used in the ransom note.
[Bob Whitson] At least four experts,
and two of them from the Secret Service,
looked at the handwriting and said,
"Patsy Ramsey did not write the note."
[attorney] No evidence that Patsy Ramsey
executed any of the questioned material
appearing on the ransom note.
Was that Mr. Dusick's conclusion?
Uh, am among other things.
[attorney] And he was a document analyst
for the United States Secret Service?
Right.
[Paula Woodward] They didn't like
the answer, so they leaked information
saying she did write it.
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter 2] If you were an investigator
trying to put together a case,
what you might make
of what we do know about the the note?
One of the things that's been brought out
is that the $118,000 figure,
which seemed rather peculiar to people,
it wasn't a good round number at the time,
now is reportedly the amount
of, uh, Mr. Ramsey,
the father's, uh, bonus for the year.
[Paula Woodward] The amount of the ransom
was $118,000, which is really bizarre.
It turns out
that that ransom amount requested
was similar to John Ramsey's
bonus amount, 118,700-some dollars.
It immediately leaked to the newspapers
with the impression,
"Hey, they wrote the ransom note
and used this amount of money."
Which is kind of silly
when you think about it.
[Bob Whitson] If this intruder came in
and had waited in the house
and went to Mr. Ramsey's office,
he could have gone through the papers.
I was told that apparently it was listed
in in documents that were there.
[music swells, then fades]
[reporter] Two people who haven't
been cleared are JonBenét's parents,
who remain in seclusion.
[reporter 2] Police continue
to send out signals
the parents of JonBenét
are prime suspects,
particularly John Ramsey.
[tense music playing]
[Carol McKinley] At the beginning,
not many people
were on the Ramseys-didn't-do-it side.
And most people thought that John Ramsey
had killed his own daughter,
maybe molested his daughter
and killed her.
[music continues]
[Julie Hayden] The law enforcement sources
I talked to
believed that there had been
some sort of sexual abuse of JonBenét,
chronic sexual abuse,
not just that it occurred that night.
I had sources who talked to me.
There were pictures of JonBenét that were
on her dad's desk and things like that.
And at the time, I think they were
considered sexualized pictures.
There was a lot of eyebrows raised.
They just thought those were odd pictures
that a father would have
of a six-year-old in his office.
[Michael Tracey] The logic seemed to be,
she's in the pageants.
Her parents have put her in the pageants.
She's kind of sexualized.
John Ramsey's her dad.
Therefore, John Ramsey
is sexually abusing her.
It's It's impossible to connect the dots.
But a lot of people did connect the dots.
[Paula Woodward] The police, did they ask
about sexual abuse of JonBenét?
- Yes, of course they did.
- What did you tell them?
I told them absolutely, categorically, no.
There was absolutely no evidence,
either physical or historical.
[Paula Woodward] When I interviewed
JonBenét's pediatrician,
he told me, no, she's never had
any sexual abuse in her life.
He would have lost his medical license
if he ever lied about that.
[Dr. Francesco Beuf] There was never
any hint whatsoever of sexual abuse.
Uh, I didn't see any any hint
of emotional abuse or physical abuse.
She was a very much loved child.
[Michael Tracey] The tabloids were crucial
in pushing the narrative
about sexual abuse.
It was just everywhere.
And it was great for the tabloids.
They sold a lot of copies.
They were untrue, unfounded,
but that didn't matter.
It was a good story.
One of the reasons
I became involved in this case
was not because of the crime itself.
It was because of the way
the media dealt with the crime.
A lot of my work and research has been
about the decline of journalistic values.
I thought the media coverage of JonBenét
was a pitch perfect example of that.
A documentary on British
television about the Ramsey case.
With us in Denver, Michael Tracey,
creator of Who Killed JonBenét,
a documentary professor
at University of Colorado.
[Michael Tracey] I called Brian Morgan,
who's John Ramsey's attorney,
and I said, "I want to make a documentary
about your clients' experience."
[music fades]
We then did five days
of interviews with them.
Are you ready?
And that was a fascinating experience.
At the heart of all the media coverage,
overwhelmingly, is a very basic argument
that JonBenét was a sexually abused child.
First, what is your general reaction
to that large allegation?
Well, it's it's disgusting
to even have to respond to that.
It's absolutely false. False, all of it.
[Patsy Ramsey] People make this stuff up.
I mean, they just make it up.
There is no one
that they have to be held accountable to.
I mean, it's just false.
It's a lie.
I don't know how else to say it.
And then it just it just snowballs.
"I heard, he heard, she heard,"
and they just build on it. It's
[news anchor] The latest interview in
the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation
belongs to a former Miss America,
a woman who hid her own story
of child abuse for decades.
One of the things that the police did,
uh, in that effort
to basically convict us
in the court of public opinion,
they brought in a woman
named Marilyn Van Derbur.
[reporter] Marilyn Van Derbur Atler,
who was a victim of incest by her father,
says Boulder Police wanted to talk to her.
They asked me every question
that you would ask me.
I don't know who she was.
Still, I couldn't I wouldn't recognize
her if she walked in the door.
[interviewer] Was your home,
like JonBenét's home,
the public image at least,
a loving father?
- Oh, my, yes. Oh, yes.
- [interviewer] A well-known father?
And so the inference in the interview was,
"Yeah, I've seen this. I've
I've experienced sexual abuse as a child."
"This looks to me like sexual abuse
by the parents."
And, of course, that was absolute false.
[suspenseful music playing]
They even alleged
that perhaps my daughter, Beth
who had just graduated from college, was
working and was killed in a car accident
might have been sexually abused.
[reporter] Investigators
in the JonBenét Ramsey murder
are now looking into the death
of her 22-year-old half-sister.
[reporter 2] JonBenét's
22-year-old half-sister Elizabeth
was killed in a car crash five years ago.
It was like, "Oh, my God.
How low could you go?"
[Michael Tracey] When we made
our first documentary,
we went to great lengths to say,
"Is there any evidence of sexual abuse?"
We talked with friends,
we talked with family. Melinda, um
Nothing.
[Melinda Ramsey] You know,
I'm I'm John Ramsey's daughter. Um
[voice braking] I grew up with him.
He raised me.
And I saw him raise JonBenét.
And I don't understand
why they don't believe me
that he's the most caring father
in the world.
He has never, ever abused us in any way.
And I just wish I could say
something to convince them.
[music fades]
[attorney] You know, you're looking to see
if there was any pathology in this family
on either John Ramsey's part
or Patsy Ramsey's part, right?
We did.
And you didn't find any, did you?
[Steve Thomas] I don't think, to answer
your question, that there was anything,
uh, remarkable or outstanding
as far as what you're inquiring about.
[attorney] Illegal drug use
would be pathology.
Child abuse would be pathology.
Domestic violence
would be pathology, right?
- Yes.
- [attorney] Didn't find anything
with respect to this family, did you, sir?
Drug use, child abuse, or spousal abuse,
uh, not that I'm aware of.
[dramatic music playing]
[John Ramsey] We were being prosecuted
in the court of public opinion.
And, of course, by that time,
we were pretty much convicted.
Gallup, the poll people,
did a poll at some point in that period.
Seventy percent of those polled felt
that the family killed their daughter.
The parents killed their daughter.
[Paula Woodward] People hated the Ramseys,
they hated them.
And it was because of the information
that had come out about them
that was incorrect.
[intriguing music playing]
[John Ramsey] We were followed
by the media.
We'd stay with friends,
and within a day or two,
the house would just be
surrounded by cameras
and and people banging
on the door and the windows.
What really got us off the floor
was we realized we had other children
that needed us now
to be more strong than ever.
Burke particularly.
He'd lost his sibling.
They were pals and
A horrible thing for a nine-year-old kid
to be exposed to.
[Patsy Ramsey] We had tried to shield
Burke as much as possible
over the months and weeks
[suspenseful music playing]
keeping him away
from any kind of television or newspaper.
We went out shopping for school supplies,
and we had the paper and pencils
and all the little supplies
in our shopping buggy,
and headed for the checkout,
and, you know, bam!
[dramatic sting]
Right there at eye level, his eye level,
he couldn't help but see them.
So I just I put my arm around him,
and I said, "Honey,
they're all lies."
I said, "They're ugly, ugly stories."
And I said, "You just have to
pretend like you don't see them."
[John Andrew Ramsey]
It's just simply not fair to him.
Um, you know, you look back at pictures
of nine-year-old Burke.
I mean, it's just absolutely absurd
to think, "Oh, yeah, he's
he could've, you know, killed his sister
and and delivered this level of
violence." I mean, it's just just crazy.
[tense music playing]
I want to say something to the person
or persons that committed this crime.
The list of suspects narrows.
[music fades]
Soon there will be
no one on the list but you.
[Julie Hayden] When law enforcement
would talk sort of formally or officially,
they gave every indication that, um,
that they were close to solving it.
[Alex Hunter] We will see that justice
is served in this case
and that you pay for what you did.
And we have no doubt
that that will happen.
The complicating factor
that the law enforcement sources had,
they told me, is that, okay,
so if you think that the Ramseys did it,
right, which one did what?
They felt it was one person who did this.
It wasn't something, like,
where both parents were involved.
[attorney] At what point in time
did you say
[bangs table]
"I think Patsy Ramsey
killed her daughter"?
There was not a defining moment
in which the, uh, bell rang,
and I noted the the date and time.
Uh, early in 1997,
it it became more and more apparent to me
that, uh, that's where the, uh,
abundance of evidence was leading.
[John San Agustin] One of the initial
theories developed by Boulder Police
was that Patsy Ramsey, in a fit of rage,
killed her daughter
because she had soiled the bed.
[suspenseful music playing]
"In my hypothesis,
an approaching 40th birthday,
the busy holiday season,
an exhausting Christmas Day,
and an argument with JonBenét
had left Patsy frazzled."
"Patsy would not be the first mother
to lose control in such a situation."
"One of the doctors we consulted cited
toileting issues as a textbook example
of causing a parental rage."
"So in my hypothesis,
there was some sort of explosive encounter
in the child's bathroom
sometime prior
to one o'clock in the morning."
"I believe JonBenét was slammed
against a hard surface
such as the edge of a tub,
inflicting a mortal head wound."
[John San Agustin] Detective Steve Thomas
said Mrs. Ramsey became upset
because JonBenét was wetting the bed,
and, in a fit of rage, uh, lost control
and supposedly, uh, hit JonBenét
and then staged a scene.
[Steve Thomas] "As I pictured the scene,
her dilemma was that
the police would assume the obvious."
"Patsy needed a diversion
and planned the way
she thought a kidnapping should look."
"In my hypothesis, she took the next step,
looking for the closest available items
in desperation."
"Only feet away was her paint tote."
"She grabbed a paintbrush and broke it
to fashion the garrote with some cord."
"In my scenario,
she choked JonBenét from behind
with a grip
on her broken paintbrush handle,
pulling the ligature."
"Throughout the coming hours,
Patsy worked on her staging,
such as placing the ransom note
where she'd find it the next morning."
[Bob Whitson] The evidence
does not match that at all.
First of all,
we know that JonBenét was alive
while she was being tortured
in the moments before her death.
We know this because she had hemorrhaging
in her eyes, hemorrhaging in her heart.
That was consistent with being strangled.
So if you believe
that Patsy Ramsey did this,
she would have had to do all these things
while JonBenét was alive.
This wasn't staging.
She was alive when this was being done.
[attorney] Well,
did all the experts agree that
JonBenét Ramsey was alive
at the time of the injury to her vagina?
Uh, again, I don't know
what experts you're referring to.
[attorney] I'm talking about
the acute vaginal trauma
she suffered at the time of her murder.
The agreement was unanimous
that she was alive at the time
that that vaginal trauma was inflicted.
True?
Yes, I believe that's correct.
[attorney] So Patsy Ramsey, theoretically,
had JonBenét Ramsey there
pulling at this garrote around her neck,
scratching at it,
and you still believe that the garrote
would've been placed there
by Patsy Ramsey to stage the crime?
Is that what your testimony is?
Uh, if that's what you're telling me,
I won't dispute. That's what happened.
[attorney] Well, do you believe
that's what happened?
Uh, no, I've offered a hypothesis
that I believe was consistent, uh,
with the evidence as I knew it,
uh, that, uh, possibly what happened.
I have five children.
They all wet their beds, I'm sure,
when they were little. That's no big deal.
It's just part of little kids.
Um
Patsy had just recovered
from stage four ovarian cancer.
She was grateful to be alive.
Do you think
that her child wetting her bed
would be a big deal? No.
She was happy to be alive and to have
some more time with her children.
So it's just nonsense.
It didn't pass the the sanity test.
But yet that was their premise,
that she wet her bed, Patsy went crazy,
killed her, and we made
the whole kidnapping thing up.
[suspenseful music playing]
For months now, the nation
has been hanging on every detail
surrounding JonBenét Ramsey's death.
And tonight there's more information,
not about the case.
There appears to be a major rift
between the Boulder Police
and the prosecutor.
[John San Agustin] One thing to note here
that's important is
there was a lack of respect
from the Boulder Police Department
towards the Boulder
district attorney's office.
[Alex Hunter] Some Boulder Police people
thought they knew who did it.
And some of my people were convinced
that it was an intruder that did it.
So that you had a split.
[Michael Tracey] Relations between
the district attorney and police
by the spring of '97 had really got sour.
And Alex Hunter, the district attorney,
wanted an experienced eyes
and ears for him.
And Alex hired Detective Lou Smit.
[tape clicks]
[intriguing music playing]
[Lou Smit] This is Lou Smit.
Today is March the 9th, 1997.
And I'm on my way to Boulder, Colorado,
to talk with Alex Hunter,
who is the district attorney.
I do feel very strongly
that the killer of JonBenét Ramsey
should be caught and
and made to pay for what he or she
has done to this little girl.
Initially, I got involved
with the JonBenét Ramsey case,
uh, because of my good friend and mentor,
uh, Lou Smit being involved.
Lou, for me, has always been
one of those guys
that's a law enforcement legend.
He was an exceptional person.
He's an exceptional detective.
[man] Captain Smit has worked on
a number of high profile cases
and has investigated
more than 150 homicides.
He had an impeccable reputation and
is highly respected by police officers,
prosecutors, and judges
throughout the state of Colorado.
[Carol McKinley] He had solved
another case in Colorado Springs,
where a little girl
had been taken from her home
from a single fingerprint on a window.
[Lou Smit] Many times
things are as they seem.
I'm not saying it's a kidnapping
or a kind of a botched plan
for a kidnapping.
Maybe even family related in some way.
But all I'm saying is that, uh,
things just, uh, don't feel good
as far as it being completely the family.
But I do know this, that that little girl
had to mean an awful lot to them.
And
she did mean something in this world.
I just hope I can be of some use in
bringing that killer
or killers to justice.
So at the time, I was an employee
of a local sheriff's office,
and, uh, Lou Smit
was actually my commander.
He said, "Hey, I need you to come on board
and help me organize
and figure out
what's going on in this case."
[intriguing music playing]
Lou is is one of those guys
He's He's, uh
He was a Sherlock Holmes of his time.
And, you know, when he looked at this,
I mean, obviously one of the first things
you're gonna do is look over the body.
[Lou Smit] Now,
what I'd like to show you is
what I think
is one of the most important clues
left behind by the killer.
Stun gun.
[clicks]
There's marks on JonBenét.
Those are marks on her back.
[click]
Those are marks on her face.
And they're the same distance apart.
The marks on her face and the marks
on the back are the same distance apart.
And if you look,
they're slightly rectangular in shape.
Something made those marks.
[Kurt Pillard] Lou did a number of tests
determining that they were Air Taser marks
from a stun gun.
[dramatic sting]
[tense music playing]
[clicking rapidly]
[John San Agustin] He actually
did a test using a pig,
because our the pig skin
is the closest to the human skin.
And they found that the injuries
from the stun gun
looked very similar to the injuries
from what was on JonBenét's face and back.
[Lou Smit] The thing with the Taser,
I think that that's what was used
to incapacitate her when she was in bed.
Uh, that would be the easiest way
with making very little noise,
and then he could carry her down
and do whatever he wanted to do with her.
[Julie Hayden] The law enforcement sources
that I had,
at least to me, never indicated that
they put much of any kind of importance
on whether a stun gun was or wasn't used.
[John San Agustin] Boulder PD thought
the stun gun marks for her face and back
were created
from laying on some train tracks.
If anything, they've been doing nothing
but dismissing the stun gun.
[attorney] What did Boulder police
conclude caused these marks
found on JonBenét Ramsey's back?
What was believed to be stun gun marks
may have been a patterned object,
if I recall correctly,
or, uh, I think,
another explanation was, uh uh
on her back, uh, lying
on, uh, some sort of object.
Stun gunning, like, that
that never sat well with Lou.
Like, why?
Why would a mom or dad
stun gun their daughter multiple times?
To take her to the basement?
[tape clicks, whirs]
[Lou Smit] I'm gonna show you
JonBenét's bedroom.
When the police come in that morning,
the very first picture they take
is of that bed right there.
And that's early in the morning.
This is what JonBenét's bed looked like.
[clicking]
If you look real carefully, you can see
where somebody
has pulled off the bed here.
See how it looks like it pulls
and then stops right there.
Almost as if she's stun gunned
while she's sleeping
and pulled from the bed.
There's another thing.
Steve Thomas says that, you know,
Patsy Ramsey came in, and she wet the bed.
Now, if you'll notice
real close down here,
there's a lot of things.
Number one, the bed is not wet.
[attorney] Were they wet?
- When?
- [attorney] That morning.
- I don't
- [attorney] Did you ask?
Did you ask any of the officers
there, "Hey, by the way,
were the sheets on JonBenét's bed wet?"
Did you ask that question to anybody?
I did not.
[Lou Smit] And people say that maybe
Patsy Ramsey changed the bedding.
But there's all kinds of fibers and hairs
and stuff in the bedding already there.
So if it was washed,
it wouldn't be in there like that.
So this bedding had been on there
for a little while.
There's a little guest bedroom there
that's right next to JonBenét's room.
This rope was found in the guest bedroom.
It's not the Ramseys'.
[suspenseful music playing]
Nobody in the Ramsey family
can identify it.
It is a possibility that the that the
intruder could've taken that in with him,
also to use as binding,
and just left it up there.
[music fades]
[Carol McKinley] When they brought
Lou Smit in, people were open-minded.
But then police started realizing
that he was starting to believe
that the Ramseys were innocent.
That was not what they thought.
It was, uh They felt like he was
going down the wrong road.
They called him a delusional old man,
that they felt like
he was, uh, just a bumbling guy
who was trying to make a name for himself
by presenting a different theory.
Lou was far from being
a delusional old man.
He's the kind of detective
that everyone would want
in their community.
[Lou Smit] I went to bed fairly late
last night, I and I tossed and turned. I
I really feel that the investigation
is going down the wrong track.
That open window in the basement
has really been bothering me.
It is open.
That's where the body is found.
I believe our killer may have entered
that way and may have exited that way.
[reporter] There's a lot of attention
focused on this window right over here.
- Can you talk about that?
- I can't. I'm sorry.
[tense music playing]
[Lou Smit] Now, this is where I think
the killer actually got in at some point.
And, uh, there is a gas grill here, and
then there's a south door to the house.
Right behind this gas grill is a grate.
And you put the grate up, you're looking
straight down into the window.
There's three windows there.
The center one was the one that was open.
These photographs tell a story,
and they tell a great story,
because look at this photograph
real closely. Now.
And you're going to see foliage,
that green foliage,
under the leading edge of that grate.
Don't grow that way. The grate has to be
picked up and put down in order for that.
[intriguing percussive music playing]
[Kurt Pillard] Lou Smit
was seen several times,
uh, entering in and out of of this window
because Boulder Police didn't think
that it was possible.
I think at the time,
Lou was about 66, uh, years old,
and, uh, he wanted to prove
that it was possible
and, uh, did it quite easily.
[Lou Smit] If you remember,
there was a suitcase
that was right underneath this window.
And on top of the suitcase
was a very small,
tiny, pea-sized piece of glass,
and a faint impression
of possibly a footprint on the suitcase.
[intriguing music playing]
A lot of people say, well,
you know, who would go
into a house where the parents are
and hide in the house,
wait for the parents?
And, uh, who would do that?
It takes a special
kind of a person to do that.
[tense music playing]
[John Ramsey] I firmly believe
that, uh, we left for
Took the kids, went to some friends' house
for dinner Christmas night.
I think I don't remember when we left.
Maybe six, six-ish.
Got home by 9:30, probably.
I believe the killer came into our home
while we were gone
and, uh, waited until we were asleep.
I think that's for sure.
[unsettling music playing]
[Bob Whitson] It's important to know
that we had cases in Boulder
where suspects went into residence
in the middle of the night
and either attempted a sex assault
or completed, uh, sex assaults,
uh, both before and after the Ramsey case.
[Charlie Brennan] In September of '97,
about nine months after JonBenét's death,
there was an incident
in another nice neighborhood in Boulder,
not that far from the Ramseys' home.
[John San Agustin] A little girl
was assaulted in her home
when her mom was sleeping
in a master bedroom,
her dad was gone away, uh, for business.
[victim's father] My feeling is
he got into the house while they were out
and hid inside the house.
[John San Agustin]
Sometime in the late hours,
Mom hears a noise going on.
And she grabbed, I believe, pepper spray
and went down the hall.
And there was, in fact, an intruder
in her daughter's bedroom
preparing to molest her.
And that woman succeeded
in chasing that intruder out of the house
using her pepper spray.
[unsettling music continues]
That person has never been identified.
It subsequently came to light
that that girl had attended
the same dance studio as JonBenét.
Are the two cases connected? I don't know.
The police, in their wisdom, said, "Well,
it's not the same
because that child wasn't murdered."
"JonBenét was murdered."
If I were a novice detective,
I'd say those are
pretty similar methods of a killer.
Are they right? Are they wrong?
Was their conclusion shaded
by the accusation [chuckles]
that they have been focused solely
on, uh, a different theory of the case?
I don't know.
[boy] You want a piece?
[news anchor] In Boulder, Colorado,
the sensational and unsolved murder
of a young beauty pageant queen
is back in the news
under the heading
"Starting Over One Year Later."
I've never been this popular before, guys.
[news anchor] But the new man in charge
of the JonBenét Ramsey case
still couldn't say police are
any closer to solving the grisly crime.
We have not yet
submitted a case for prosecution,
nor have we prepared an arrest warrant.
[bells tolling]
[news anchor] Beckner confirmed
John and Patsy Ramsey
remain under the umbrella of suspicion.
[Julie Hayden] By this point,
it's been a long time, right?
And I think there was a general sense of,
you know, why is this still not solved?
[reporter] Last year, Hunter spent
$128,000 on the investigation,
and $51,000 so far this year.
Hunter's latest expenditure is $60,000
to pay a grand jury specialist,
a person who will advise investigators
about whether a secret panel
should see JonBenét Ramsey's case.
[Michael Kane] When I got involved
in the case, they were going nowhere
because there had been
such a rift that had developed
between the district attorney's office,
uh, prosecutors,
and the police department.
[reporter] Kane's background
is impressive.
He currently works
for the state of Pennsylvania
and used to be a prosecutor in Denver.
His specialty? Grand juries.
That's why he's joining
the Ramsey investigation,
to help DA Alex Hunter
should a secret panel
investigate the murder.
[Michael Kane] My first day on the job,
it was a big presentation
that the police department gave.
[reporter 2] How long do you think
this is expected to take?
Uh, we've got the whole day scheduled,
and we don't know.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Charlie Brennan] Over two days,
Steve Thomas and other detectives
put forward everything they had.
[reporter 3] Detective Steve Thomas
ran a list of reasons
why the Ramseys were under suspicion,
including, "The behavior
of John and Patsy Ramsey
was not in keeping with a kidnapping,
but more like the way
people would respond after a death."
[intriguing music playing]
[Charlie Brennan] They felt
that they had put forward enough
to perhaps trigger the filing of charges
or, at the very least,
convening of a grand jury.
[Michael Kane] It's going to be, at this
point, a process of sifting through that
and really making a decision
about, uh, w the strength
of a case against anybody
or whether there's a need to go further.
[intriguing music ends]
After it was all over, we all met,
and Alex Hunter said, "What do you think?"
And I said, "Well you don't have a you
don't have a chargeable case right now."
And it was It was like some people
in that room were shocked.
And then that's when, all of a sudden
[chuckles]I get this letter handed to me
that came into the office
from Steve Thomas.
Turmoil once again in
the long and deeply troubled investigation
of JonBenét Ramsey's murder.
ABC News has learned that one
of the lead detectives in the case
has resigned in protest,
firing off a blistering letter
that attacks the district attorney.
Steve Thomas' resignation was big news.
After 20 months,
a growing number
are going public about their concerns,
their frustration over what happened
in this home December 26th of 1996.
[Charlie Brennan] Governor Roy Romer
summoned all the key players
down to the governor's office in Denver
to say, "What's going on here?" [chuckles]
[music fades]
It was pressure from the governor's office
which ultimately persuaded Alex Hunter,
"Okay, we're gonna do a grand jury."
[clicks]
[intriguing music playing]
[Lou Smit] It appears as though
that letter did, somehow,
influence the the direction
that this investigation is going to take.
I have no doubt in my mind
that because of this,
that, uh, the Ramseys will be indicted.
Especially with the atmosphere
and the poisoned well
of false information against the Ramseys.
Clearly there's evidence of an intruder,
I say this over and over and over again.
Nobody wants to listen.
And, uh, as a result of that,
there's a very good chance that uh,
tragedy could again strike this family.
[click]
[suspenseful music playing]
[reporter] Amid a buzz of activity outside
the Boulder County Justice Center,
people jockeyed for parking space
amid tangled traffic and tight security.
With the media circus tailing them,
the 12 Boulder County residents
who make up the JonBenét Ramsey grand jury
arrived early morning
to do their civic duty.
[John Ramsey] When the grand jury
was in process,
we fully expected
and were prepared to be indicted.
The saying is, "You can indict
a sandwich in front of a grand jury."
It's a one-sided argument.
[Paula Woodward] In a regular criminal
trial, you have your 12 jurors here,
and then you have two tables, one
for the defense, one for the prosecution.
But in a grand jury, it's different.
There is no defense.
The goal is to get
an indictment for murder.
Don't worry
about any counter thoughts or defense.
[reporter 2] Michael Kane,
Bruce Levin, and Mitch Morrissey
arrived bright and early too.
They are the prosecutors specially
brought in to present the case.
I'll never forget.
I pulled up in my car the first day.
Can't comment.
And I was surrounded by cameras.
[reporter 3] Leading the team
is grand jury specialist Mike Kane.
[Michael Kane] We asked ourselves
every day, how could a person do this?
Well, we've seen cases
where people who are,
you know, look like
the all-American family,
turn around and do something horrendous
because something triggered something
on a particular date.
[John Ramsey] My impression of Mike Kane
was he was out to get us
just like any other
other police department.
He was He was in their camp.
[reporter 4] Mitch Morrissey comes
by way of the Denver County DA,
where he's considered an expert
on the use of DNA evidence.
I have seen cases where, no matter
how they presented themself publicly,
no matter how wealthy they were,
no matter how, you know,
the family seemed to be a cohesive unit,
the parents did it.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter 5] There may be strategic
reasons why John and Patsy Ramsey
have not been called
to testify before the grand jury.
We offered to testify to the grand jury.
They wouldn't let us.
[reporter 5] Prosecutors may fear
the Ramseys could charm the grand jury
if they testified in person.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Lou Smit] Well, today is quite a day.
It's September 22nd, 1998.
This is going to be my last official day
in this investigation.
Because of the grand jury, Lou resigned.
Regretfully, he resigned.
[Kurt Pillard] He would have no part
in trying to convict an innocent couple.
And that's how strongly
he felt about this case.
[Lou Smit] This grand jury is a farce.
The police are going to submit
a manufactured version of the case,
sugar-coated and spoon-fed
to this grand jury.
Mike Kane is going to do this.
My intentions at this time are to try,
in every way that I can,
to testify before the grand jury,
because I really think it's important
that they do hear this information.
Lou Smit fought
to get into that grand jury
to show the other side.
[Lou Smit] I did get a
a, uh letter from Michael Kane
that I my request to testify
before the grand jury was denied.
The letter from Michael Kane also stated
that I could not even repeat
that I had been contacted
by this letter in any way,
and so they're trying
to silence me completely.
That's absolute garbage. Absolute garbage.
[chuckling] I didn't take any steps
to keep Lou Smit out of the grand jury.
And to try to portray it that, you know
And I know it's been portrayed in books
and people, like, making statements that,
you know, I I was like,
"God, no, I can't I can't have
the grand jury hearing."
That is just absolute garbage.
An attorney threatened to sue
to get him in front of the grand jury,
and he finally was allowed.
[Lou Smit] I was never treated so unfairly
or so badly in 40 years of law enforcement
where everything I said was attacked.
And I've never felt so humiliated.
In fact, when I was at the grand jury,
I remember turning to Alex Hunter,
who was sitting there, and I said, "Alex,
there is no way that the defendants
are not going to be indicted on this."
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] Like detectives tracing
the path of a killer,
the grand jurors, who've been studying
the murder of JonBenét Ramsey,
took their investigation
from the courtroom
to the crime scene today.
When we started the the grand jury,
we thought, you know,
that would be helpful
for them to see the house.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Mitch Morrissey] This was an old house
that had been added onto
and had kind of
a rabbit warren-type feel to it.
You know, it'd be difficult to navigate
this house if you didn't know this house.
[music continues]
[Michael Kane] To get to the second floor
where her room was,
it wouldn't have been intuitive
of how to get there.
And then to find your way from there
down into the basement
really was not intuitive,
especially in the middle of the night
when no lights are on.
[music continues]
So I'm not saying
that that that sealed the deal
that it had to be somebody on the inside
versus somebody from the outside,
but it certainly was a factor.
[reporter] With questions about unmatched
DNA found in JonBenét's underwear,
it's not clear how much time
prosecutors will need
before the grand jury probe is finished.
[Mitch Morrissey] Everybody bringing me in
kind of thought, "Okay, there's this DNA,
but it's really not that big a deal
in this case."
And actually, it became
the big deal in the case.
[click]
We had a DNA profile that had come out
of the little girl's underpants.
[click]
This was in the crotch, mixed with blood
that clearly came when she was penetrated
by a broken paintbrush.
And that penetration caused her to bleed
and mix with this DNA.
We knew it was male,
but we knew it wasn't sperm.
It could've been saliva.
It could have been
some other form of bodily fluid.
It could be a large,
significant amount of skin cells.
None of the family members match.
And then basically all of the criminals
that are in the national DNA database
were compared.
None of them match.
So you have this dilemma that was created.
[Michael Kane] Without having a match,
we can't say, "A killer left this,
and he's out there somewhere,"
because it wasn't anybody
who was in the house.
You just can't say that.
The problem is we never found the male
that left that DNA.
[John Ramsey] They tried to go to China
to the underwear factory
where JonBenét's underwear was made
[click]
and see if they could find a white male
working in the factory,
take his DNA,
match it to the unidentified DNA
and therefore explain away why that DNA
was there and who it belonged to.
We went so far as to find out
the whole manufacturing, uh, chain.
[John Ramsey] They tried desperately
to find a match
that was an innocent explanation.
That was the mentality.
[dramatic music playing]
[reporter] After more than a year
of looking over evidence
and hearing testimony,
the grand jury has now made its decision.
[chatter]
[Carol McKinley] There was gonna
be an announcement,
so, I'm telling you,
the parking lot across
from the Boulder County Justice Center
was packed with satellite trucks,
television cameras,
reporters standing on boxes.
It was almost like leading up
to a Super Bowl.
[John Ramsey] We were ready
to go be arrested.
We've signed papers to have Burke
under guardianship of my brother.
We're pretty much ready
to go to jail and be tried.
[chatter]
the district attorney,
Alex Hunter, are now talking live
about what the grand jury has decided.
[man] Down in front, please.
Down in front.
Excuse me.
[man 2] Speak up!
[woman] Shout, please!
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[woman with radio] Tell 'em
something's happening.
All right.
[dramatic sting]
[dramatic music continues]
[music fades]