Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [111]
On December 25, Scott went to the apartment of his girlfriend, Ann Preston, at around 10:30 P.M. and stayed until just after midnight, then went home alone. There was nobody to confirm his alibi for the rest of the night. Arndt asked him for a handwriting sample, and two weeks later he gave the police blood, saliva, and hair samples as well. Only then did he feel he was a suspect.
The Ramseys’ street, 15th Street, was the nicest street in the neighborhood, better than 14th, better than 16th or even 13th. But 7th, 8th, and 6th were pretty nice too.
But the Ramseys’ home could have been anyplace. From the property you couldn’t really see the mountains, not even the Flatirons. As far as I could tell, never being on the top floors of the house, it didn’t seem to have any views. The house didn’t even have a front porch.
Unlike so many homes on the street, it didn’t have a driveway out front. The Ramseys approached their home through an alley that ran behind the house. I never saw them enter through the front door—always through that alley and the side door off the patio. The alley was just wide enough for one car. It was all beat up, lined with trash cans. There was pavement in some places, gravel in others. I don’t think they realized what an eyesore it was when they moved in.
I took it upon myself to trim the other side of the passageway. It could never be an elegant approach. It was not what I thought the Ramseys would want to see every day.
—Brian Scott
Late on the afternoon of February 25, Bill Wise walked into Alex Hunter’s office and told him that two journalists, Dan Glick of Newsweek and Charlie Brennan of the Rocky Mountain News, wanted to see him as soon as possible about something they had uncovered. The reporters told Hunter that on December 26, 1974, Bill McReynolds’s nine-year-old daughter, Jill, had been kidnapped with a friend, who was then sexually assaulted. Jill was released unharmed. In addition, the reporters had discovered that McReynolds’s wife, Janet, had written a play called Hey, Rube, which was about the murder of a young girl that took place in a basement. It was based on the 1965 torture killing of Sylvia Likens in Indiana. Hunter immediately called John Eller and told him these details.
The next day, at police headquarters, Detectives Thomas and Gosage interviewed Janet McReynolds about her play and her daughter’s kidnapping, details she and her husband had failed to mention in their previous interviews. A few days later, the detectives interviewed the McReynoldses’ son Tristan, who had first met Patsy when he delivered a gingerbread house to the Ramseys from his bakery. Once she’d come into the bakery to inquire about his father’s health. Tristan had been in Detroit with his girlfriend between December 24 and 26. The alibi of Jessie, the McReynoldses’ other son, was also verified.
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It was becoming clear to Pete Hofstrom and the Ramseys’ attorneys that the CBI was not going to allow an outsider to observe its work. Carl Whiteside interpreted the law his way and would not budge. Toward the end of February, as Whiteside had suggested, the police sent some of the DNA evidence to Cellmark Diagnostics. The Maryland lab was not governed by Colorado law, and officials there would allow the Ramseys’ representatives to observe their testing procedures if Hunter’s office approved. On February 25, deputy DA Trip DeMuth wrote a letter to the lab approving observation by a Ramsey representative. Once testing began, it would take a minimum of six weeks before the results would be available.
WHAT’S ALEX HUNTER SAYING?
Thursday’s weekly update press conference in Boulder, featuring District Attorney Alex Hunter, could have been titled: “Mr. Plea Bargain Meets Mr. Evidence.”
The solemn D.A., who looks like he hasn’t heard a good joke since New Year’s, Thursday proclaimed himself as Mr. Evidence.
The declaration must have come as a surprise to other prosecutors and to attorneys and judges throughout Colorado, where Hunter has a reputation as a prosecutor