Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [104]
The MC was a guy in drag—tiara, fluffy fur around his collar. Talked in a southern accent and did a monologue on Patsy—the Patsy Paugh Experience, from birth to the present. The family must have coached him. Lots of in-jokes and innuendo that I didn’t understand. Then at midnight we were back on the bus. Patsy opened her presents on the way back. Everyone else was dropped off along the way, and Patsy and John were left alone on the bus.
That was probably the last time I saw JonBenét alive. Early that evening, before we left Patsy and John’s home, both kids got on the bus to say hello to their grandparents and their aunts and uncles.
—Judith Phillips
Writer: I understand you were out of town when JonBenét was murdered.
Judith Phillips: I was in Chicago over the holidays.
Writer: What did you think when you heard she’d died?
Judith Phillips: I wasn’t surprised that it happened. We’re all given chances to learn significant lessons in our lives, and if we don’t complete that learning process, we will be given that same lesson again—in spades. The death of Beth and then Patsy’s illness affected John and Patsy temporarily, brought them some growth, but they went back to their old routines. They haven’t changed their behavior. If you don’t learn the lesson the first time, it comes back worse the second time, and maybe the third time. It’s always bigger.
JONBENÉT ALL OVER THE WEB
About 1,000 miles east of Boulder, a computer in Kenosha County, Wis., is linked to other computers around the country to bring breaking information to the JonBenét Ramsey Homicide Web Sites—perhaps the world’s most inclusive page on the young beauty-queen’s murder.
The World Wide Web site, created by Ken Polzin Jr., a sheriff’s department detective and city alderman, brings a mass of information to one locale:
Users can peruse stories and timelines on the case.
Video and audio clips are available to those with appropriate software.
A photo gallery brings who’s who images to the screen.
And a variety of news organizations are a click away from followers who prefer unmoderated views on the murder mystery.
—Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post, February 17, 1997
On February 17, Alex Hunter’s office filed a motion in Boulder County court to prevent the search warrants obtained by the police from being made public until the investigation was complete and charges were filed. Also filed was a fourteen-page brief supporting the motion. It stated, “The owners of the property subject to these searches have not been eliminated from suspicion.”
This was the first time any law enforcement official had gone on record to say that the Ramseys were suspects in their daughter’s death.
In their opposing briefs, attorneys for the media did not sway Judge MacDonald from supporting the DA’s position. “There is a substantial likelihood that disclosure of investigatory information at this initial stage of the investigation would compromise the integrity of the people’s investigation,” MacDonald ruled six days later. The warrants, affidavits, and inventory would be sealed for another ninety days or until an arrest was made. Included in the protective order was the phrase “other documents.” This referred to a list of the people who had traps and taps placed on their telephones by the police.
e-mail Mon, 17 Feb 1997 14:32:28—0700 (MST)
From: Hal Bruff, Dean of the CU Law School
To: Criminal Law Faculty
Alex Hunter has suggested to me that a Ramsey trial might provide a unique opportunity for the Law School to study a trial in depth as it unfolds, draw conclusions about the criminal justice system, and produce an archive of teaching materials. He would cooperate fully; of course we cannot know now whether a defense team would do so. Whaddaya think?
On February 19, Boulder County’s police