Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [127]
The announcement about the Ramsey children marked the first time in the 10-week investigation that police have removed any name from the list of suspects.
Pat Korten, the Ramsey media consultant, posted on his Web site: “The Ramsey family is grateful that police have announced that John Andrew and Melinda are not suspects in the case.”
Other developments in the case…The former lead detective [Larry Mason] in the case was cleared of allegations that he leaked information to the media.
—Elliott Zaret
Daily Camera, March 7, 1997
Although Eller had pushed the FBI out of the day-by-day investigation on the afternoon JonBenét’s body was found, the Bureau’s forensics labs had been analyzing the evidence for the police since January 19, and its Child Abduction and Serial Killer Unit (CASKU) was evaluating and profiling the crime scene.
On March 7, Special Agent Gregory Bishea of the FBI’s Chemistry Unit completed his initial examination of the black duct tape, including the yarn/scrim count and the percentage of calcium filler in the adhesive. With this data, the FBI and the police hoped to discover where the tape had been manufactured and when it was distributed. Previously, microscopic fiber trace evidence had been lifted by the FBI from the duct tape, and the source of the fiber was also being investigated.
The efforts of CASKU were not scientifically precise, but its work was important nonetheless. Its profilers studied the physical evidence and all the known circumstances of homicides in order to provide a probable portrait of the perpetrator.
JonBenét was at home in bed on Christmas night in an affluent neighborhood while her parents were supposedly sleeping, which by the profilers’ standards put her at extremely low risk of encountering a stranger who intended harm. Her risk for murder by a stranger was also low because she hardly ever interacted with strangers, her circle of playmates and friends was constant, and she hardly ever played on the street unsupervised. Several of her parents’ friends told police that JonBenét was always with a known adult.
Appearing in child beauty pageants, however, increased JonBenét’s potential risk for meeting death at the hands of a stranger. Pageants exposed her to more potential suspects, including known pedophiles. Even though JonBenét had been found dead at home, the pageant connection couldn’t be ignored. Had some stranger been attracted to her?
Pedophiles are persuasive by nature; they use attention, affection, and gifts to seduce a child, usually over an extended period. Force and violence are rarely involved, and the molester is not usually a stranger to the victim.
But if a stranger had murdered JonBenét in her home, he took a big risk that family members might wake and discover him.
The FBI believed that JonBenét’s vaginal trauma was not consistent with a history of sexual abuse, and they had turned up no evidence of any other type of abuse. The sexual violation of JonBenét, whether pre- or postmortem, did not appear to have been committed for the perpetrator’s gratification. The penetration, which caused minor genital trauma, was more likely part of a staged crime scene, intended to mislead the police.
Kidnappings are almost always committed for money or sex. Rarely can another motive be found. The FBI concluded that if the duct tape over JonBenét’s mouth had been used to silence her during an attempted abduction, the kidnapper would have taken her out of the house immediately. There would have been no reason to stay where the kidnapper could be discovered at any moment. Instead, they theorized, the duct tape too was probably used as part of a cover-up, along with the loosely tied cord found around JonBenét’s right wrist. Whether the duct tape had been placed on JonBenét’s mouth before or after her death could be determined by an examination of the body and tape. Skin trauma would be evident if she had been alive when the tape was applied. Applying the tape after her