Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [135]
Ainsworth soon discovered that Raburn had been jailed in Boulder during the previous month. He had stolen some batteries and spent several weeks in the Boulder County Jail. Ainsworth immediately found his fingerprint cards and a list of local contacts. Next stop was the Marine Park Apartments in Boulder, Raburn’s last known address. That night Ainsworth visited Raburn’s mother, Caroline, at her home in nearby Broomfield. He had also contacted the Boulder halfway house where Raburn had stayed; Kristen Weiss and Lynn Essig, employees at a bar where Raburn hung out; and Kevin Johnson, the manager of Rafferty’s Restaurant, where Raburn had worked as a short-order cook in 1995 before going to prison. Meanwhile, Smit hit the bars, clubs, and restaurants where Raburn was a customer or had sought work. Within a few days, Smit received samples of Raburn’s handwriting from the Department of Corrections. A week later, Ainsworth discovered that a friend of Raburn’s lived on 17th Street, only a few blocks from the Ramseys’ house.
The detectives, who were unable to find Raburn, pieced together a picture of his movements. His mother told the police that after her son returned to Boulder on December 20, he got his job back at Rafferty’s.
Raburn was off from work on December 24, and Rafferty’s was closed Christmas Day. According to his mother, with whom he was living, he spent Christmas night watching TV with her and his brother. Mrs. Raburn didn’t remember if she turned on the house alarm, which she normally did before going to sleep. But she said that Kevin didn’t have the access code. The police learned that a week after JonBenét’s murder, Raburn lost his job at Rafferty’s. He began working nights at Juanita’s, another restaurant.
Raburn was suspect not only because of the $118,000 coincidence but because, from the night of the murder through the first week in January, his whereabouts could not be confirmed. And now he seemed to have vanished.
FAMILY GETS OWN DNA EXPERT
Forensic scientist Moses Schanfield has been tapped by attorneys for the parents of JonBenét Ramsey to possibly monitor additional DNA testing in the investigation of the 6-year-old’s murder.
The legal teams hired by John and Patsy Ramsey haven’t decided whether to take up an offer from prosecutors allowing them to monitor the testing. But if they do, Schanfield would be on hand to observe.
—Marilyn Robinson and Mary George
The Denver Post, March 21, 1997
Mary Lou Jedamus and Grace Morlock had been called to the Ramsey home by the police as victim advocates when the kidnapping of JonBenét was first reported. They tried to comfort the parents, and they listened to what the couple said. The detectives thought the advocates might know something that would aid the investigation. On March 21 and 25, Detectives Harmer and Hickman interviewed Jedamus and Morlock at police headquarters.
The Ramseys probably didn’t know that their conversations with the advocates were not confidential or privileged by law.* Jedamus and Morlock were obligated to tell the detectives everything they could remember, since they worked for—and were partly compensated by—the police department.
Although victim advocates are not investigators, the police needed to know what the advocates remembered. They recalled that Detective Arndt had been businesslike and sympathetic. Compassionate might be too strong a word. She seemed to consider every possibility, and she was not adversarial. None of the officers had been antagonistic. No one had said, “Why did you do this?”
Morlock remembered that John Ramsey had cried but had tried to control his emotions even when he was so distraught that he could barely speak. He may have said, “If only the dog had been in the house.” The advocates had also heard Patsy say, “Whoever left the note knew that I always come down those stairs in the morning.” Morlock told the detectives she had seen