Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [139]
Just then a lady came up to me. “Who are you? Who are you?” she repeated pointedly.
“Jeffrey. I’m new in the church,” I answered. I could tell she sensed something was up.
“I’m looking for a last name,” she insisted.
“Shapiro.”
“Shapiro?”
“You know, like the lawyer,” I replied.
“The lawyer?”
“Like Robert Shapiro. He represented O. J. Simpson,” I answered.
“Jeffrey, are you a member of this church?”
“I’m actually Jewish, but I’ve told Father Hoverstock that I want to learn about Christianity.” I had to walk away from her. She continued to stare at me until I left the church.
I wrote a story about that Sunday—“The Ramseys’ Private Hell”—but it was never published.
—Jeff Shapiro
JonBenét’s medical records were important to the investigation since there might be evidence of child molestation or physical abuse in the files of her pediatrician, Dr. Francesco Beuf. During the first days of January, the Ramseys and their attorneys met with the doctor. Having reviewed his records, he guaranteed them that there was no indication of sexual abuse.
Three weeks after JonBenét was murdered, William Gray, a Ramsey family attorney, released a letter to the press saying that “pediatric consultations showed no history of child abuse.” On February 14, the same day that a partial autopsy report was released, Dr. Beuf was interviewed by Paula Woodward on KUSA, Channel 9. He said, “There was never any hint whatsoever of sexual abuse” and “I didn’t see any hint of emotional abuse or physical abuse.”
Without the Ramseys’ consent, the physician could not release JonBenét’s medical history, which was protected by Colorado law. On February 10, Detective Harmer obtained a signed release from Patsy and John allowing her to speak to Dr. Beuf’s nursing staff. The next day Harmer talked to Barbara Frey and later interviewed Judy Klingensmith, a nurse who had last seen JonBenét in mid-November 1996.
On March 25 Detective Harmer was allowed to interview Dr. Beuf and summarized the dead child’s medical history:
JonBenét was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta. Beuf became her doctor when the Ramseys moved to Boulder in late 1991. On December 6, 1991, he treated JonBenét for a fever, cough, and wheezing. Over the next ten months, she had the usual colds and coughs of a toddler. By the time JonBenét was two and a half years old, she had developed a history of coughs accompanied by low-grade fever.
In July 1993, Patsy Ramsey was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was just one month short of JonBenét’s third birthday. The child, who went to stay with her grandmother Nedra, regressed in her toilet training and eating habits. Suzanne Savage, a baby-sitter, began to help Nedra care for JonBenét.
At three years and one month, JonBenét was brought to see the doctor. Her buttocks were chafed red from diarrhea, as was her vaginal area.
Two months later, JonBenét was back in the doctor’s office with a cough and a stuffed nose. She was sleeping poorly, was grouchy from fatigue, and had bad breath. She appeared to have chronic sinusitis. At the end of 1993, JonBenét, at age three, was still drinking from a bottle, and Patsy and John were having problems weaning her.
On October 5, 1994, when JonBenét showed up at the doctor’s office for a checkup, she had a scar on her left cheek. She’d been hit accidentally by a golf club when the family was in Charlevoix. A week later a plastic surgeon in Denver was consulted. There was no injury to her cheekbone, nothing to worry about. Beuf was told that she was getting along with her brothers and older sister. But she was wearing Pull-Ups at night because she sometimes wet the bed. That same day Patsy filled out a developmental questionnaire. She said there were no aspects of JonBenét’s behavior or sex education she needed to discuss. JonBenét was four years and three months old.
At Alfalfa’s food market on May 8, 1995, JonBen