Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [168]
The Ramseys renewed their advertising campaign and again offered a $100,000 reward for the arrest and indictment of the killer of their daughter. Clearly implied in the move was that they would no longer wait for the police to solve the crime.
The advertisement, which appeared in the Daily Camera on Sunday, May 11, sought help in locating “an adult male approaching young children in Boulder in late 1996.” On Friday, May 9, a reporter for the Associated Press heard that the advertisement would refer to a suspect and asked Hunter’s office for a statement, since this was the first time a description—no matter how sketchy—had been published. Suzanne Laurion responded in what the AP journalist considered her professorial voice: “Why would we have a comment? It’s not our ad.” This led the reporter to believe that the lead had been uncovered by the Ramseys’ investigators and that the DA’s office had nothing to do with the ad. On May 10, the day before the ad was to be published, Alex Hunter bumped into Bryan Morgan at a children’s soccer game. The attorney for the Ramseys told the DA that his deputy, Trip DeMuth, had approved the ad. This put the DA’s office in a precarious position. Now not only was Hunter’s staff consulting with the Ramseys, they were acknowledging leads the police were investigating and giving them more credibility than was warranted. When Hunter confronted him, DeMuth apologized to his furious boss, but it was too late. By Monday, the day after the ad appeared, the Ramseys were publicly thanking Alex Hunter for acknowledging the involvement of his office in the ad campaign. Now the public knew for sure that the Ramseys had developed a dialogue with the DA’s office while they kept the police at arm’s length.
Within hours of the Ramseys’ appearance before the media on May 1, several of the tabloids sent new reporters to Boulder hoping to get interviews with the couple or their friends. Ken Harrell, a Globe writer from Florida, was one of the first to arrive. On May 11, the same day the Ramseys’ advertisement appeared in the Daily Camera, Ken Harrell and Jeff Shapiro went to services at St. John’s. Ken, an Episcopalian, even took along his Bible.
Unknown to Harrell, Steve Thomas was in church that day too, and seated next to him. Thomas, of course, didn’t know Harrell. The two men shook hands when the congregation took the Peace.
When the service was over, Rev. Hoverstock asked Shapiro to step into his office. Harrell waited outside.
When I went into Rol’s office, he said, “People are saying things about you. I just want to know the truth. Don’t bullshit me. They say you’re undercover, that you’re working on the case.”
I lied through my teeth.
He said, “Jeff, don’t say these things. It’s not going to serve your purposes.” If I wanted to clear my name, he said, all I had to do was let him take a copy of my driver’s license and he’d show it to the police.
“Do you feel comfortable with that?” he asked.
I gave him my license and he copied it.
Then I left, and Hoverstock asked to see Harrell.
—Jeff Shapiro
After Jeff left Hoverstock’s office, I met with Father Rol privately. I told him I worked for the Globe and that I believed the Ramseys were involved in the death of their child. Then I asked, “Have they asked you for confession?”
For a moment he didn’t answer. Then he said, “I have no respect for what you do for a living. You lie about everything.”
“No we don’t, Father. We don’t lie,” I replied.
I could see this strong man biting his lower lip. For a moment I thought he might throw me out of his office.
“As a forgiver of sins, the church is a house for all sinners,” I said. “So I should be one of the first welcomed into your congregation.” He remained silent and I continued. “You should not turn your nose up at any of God’s children.” He still did not respond.
“Don’t you feel that if the Ramseys