Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [194]
“My guess is the child had her head whacked against something and then was still alive and strangled,” said Dr. Robert Kirschner, a retired deputy chief medical examiner for Cook County, Illinois.
Dr. Ronald Wright, formerly the medical examiner for the Fort Lauderdale area, stated flatly that it was clear the girl’s vagina had been penetrated. He also believed that she’d probably been struck by a blunt object, such as a baseball bat or heavy flashlight. He too took issue with Krugman’s interpretation. “Somebody’s injured her vagina. And she’s tied up. Doesn’t that make it involuntary sexual battery?” Wright asked.
The Ramseys’ attorneys released a statement on behalf of John and Patsy Ramsey: “We have not had the opportunity to review the autopsy report, but credible experts who have, confirm what we have been saying all along—that there is no evidence of abuse or molestation prior to the night of her murder.”
Two days after the release of the autopsy report, Tom Kelley, representing the Daily Camera, was in court seeking the police search warrants. On July 16, district court judge Daniel Hale heard arguments.
Kelley told the court that it was clear the investigation had stalled and the release of some information might encourage a witness to come forward. He pointed out that some of the material he wanted had already been provided to the Ramseys by the police, such as a copy of the ransom note and certain early police reports.
Two days later, Judge Hale upheld Judge MacDonald’s previous ruling. The search warrants, affidavits, and inventories would remain sealed.
Having hired his own investigation team before the police were ready to present the case to him, Alex Hunter had put himself squarely in the action. At first Koby didn’t mind Hunter’s attempt to involve himself in the case, because it took some of the heat off the police. To some of Hunter’s colleagues, however, the DA’s frequent public appearances seemed forced. It was obvious that Hunter had nothing concrete to offer, and some reporters were saying that he’d let himself be swept up into the circus. Metro DA Bob Grant, a member of Hunter’s prosecution task force, knew it would take time for Hunter to gain some perspective and get down to planning a potential prosecution.
By mid-July that process had begun. Hunter started to dissect the police investigation—not to criticize it, but rather to consider what he would face in court.
Hunter could not ignore the possibility that someone other than John and Patsy would be charged, and in that case he would have to rehabilitate the Ramseys—show the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that they hadn’t murdered their daughter.
Bob Grant said that the Ramseys would be the focus of any trial, whether or not they were charged. Anyone defending a third party would point an accusatory finger at JonBenét’s parents. The police detectives might even be called as hostile defense witnesses. But if the Ramseys were charged, evidence pointing to a third party would be the core of the defense case.
In a shooting by police in Longmont in 1989, Hunter had unsealed police reports and displayed them in the public library. “Tell me what you think,” he had asked the public. Their comments had helped him decide to take the case to a grand jury, and ultimately the police officers were exonerated. According to Grant, Hunter thrived on public input and community approval.
But the Ramsey case was different, Grant told Hunter. The DA couldn’t walk down the Pearl Street Mall and ask Boulderites what they thought. He had to set his own agenda and adhere to it.
On July 23, the Ramseys’ attorneys faxed the media the text of some full-page ads they planned to publish in the Daily Camera. “An Open Letter from John and Patsy Ramsey” addressed anyone who could help identify the killer. The text of the ad outlined a general profile of the killer—someone, the Ramseys said, who was no stranger to their family or home. The killer, they noted, would have