Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [160]
When Patsy’s interview was over, it was John Ramsey’s turn. Dressed casually, he sat down, crossed his legs, and put his hands in his lap. He was at ease. His attorney, Bryan Morgan, sat next to him.
The detectives took Ramsey through his previous statements. When they questioned him about putting JonBenét to bed and reading to her, he said that she had been asleep and that Rick French was mistaken—he hadn’t said, “I put her to bed and read her a book.” What he had said was, “I put her to bed and then I read a book.” Ramsey also told the detectives that Burke had slept through the events of that morning until he was awakened for the short ride to the Whites’.
John Ramsey said that he had gone down to the basement at around 10:00 A.M. that morning. It was the first the police had heard about this. None of Detective Arndt’s reports indicated that Ramsey had visited the basement before the body was found. Ramsey now told the detectives for the first time about his finding the broken window open, which had surprised him. Taken aback by the revelation of Ramsey’s visit to the basement, Thomas asked him why he didn’t report what he found to Detective Arndt since someone could have entered through the window. Ramsey said he didn’t know why. He just didn’t know, he said a second time. When asked if he also went into the boiler room and checked the wine cellar, he replied that he didn’t go into that area of the basement.
Ramsey was asked to tell the detectives how he had found JonBenét’s body. He said that after he opened the door and as he was still reaching for the light switch, he saw to his left the white blanket and his daughter’s hands protruding. Then he screamed and went inside. He didn’t remember exactly when the light was turned on. He wasn’t sure he saw the blanket while the room was still dark.
“When you opened the door, did you see the blanket and JonBenét before or after you turned on the light?” Ramsey was asked again. He said he didn’t remember. He didn’t remember turning on the light. He just didn’t remember. He didn’t indicate whether he’d stepped into the room before seeing his daughter on the floor. It had all happened so quickly, he said.
Then Thomas told Ramsey that Fleet White had been in the basement early that morning and had opened the wine cellar door but seen nothing in the room. Ramsey was surprised. He said he had no knowledge about White being in the basement earlier that morning. How did he explain the fact that White opened the door to the wine cellar, looked in, and didn’t see the blanket and the body, whereas he had seen them both almost immediately? I just don’t know, Ramsey said. I can’t explain it.
By now the police had asked Vahe Christianian, the co-owner of Mike’s Camera in Boulder, to measure the ambient and reflected light inside the wine cellar with its door open and the lights out, to verify what could and could not be seen during a quick glance inside the room. The test showed that there was not enough light to see anything in the dark unless the viewer had spent time getting accustomed to the darkness or his eyes adapted quickly to the surroundings.
However, there was a possible explanation. JonBenét’s body was inside the room and to the left. It might not have been visible to White standing just at the threshold and blocking reflected light from entering the room. Yet if someone stood 5 to 10 inches inside the threshold, more reflected light would have entered. Then, looking directly to the left, the person might have seen the white blanket in the dark room. Maybe there was enough reflected light from just outside the door.
The detectives asked Ramsey why, just minutes after finding JonBenét’s body, he had called his pilot to have his private plane take him and his family out of state that afternoon. Ramsey said that he had wanted to get back to Atlanta—where he and his family would be safe. Reminded that he had made the phone call within twenty minutes of