Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [20]
The police wanted to know if she’d ever seen any inappropriate behavior between the Ramseys and JonBenét—anything abusive. Griffin said she hadn’t. She had never even seen them discipline their children, she claimed. Pam told Mason that these were parents who didn’t demand respect from their kids—it was they who respected their children. That was the best way she could describe the relationship. And then there was all the love in JonBenét’s eyes when she spoke to her father. Everything he said was important to her, Griffin said. Mason then asked for information about child beauty pageants. JonBenét had won several, Griffin said. On the previous Sunday, December 22, she had performed at the Southwest Plaza as a pageant winner. Was JonBenét forced into the pageants, Mason wanted to know. Not that Griffin could see.
Then Kristine was interviewed. She gave much the same answers.
In 1995, four of us parents thought we could start a public elementary school that would work the way schools should. We wrote a 140-page proposal and got a lot of articles published in the local newspaper. We called it a focus school.
It took a marketing effort to convince parents to sign their kids up for a school that didn’t have a building, didn’t have teachers, didn’t have physical materials to show. You have to remember that these kids are precious.
At one organizing meeting in someone’s home, a man sat back and listened, listened carefully, and asked a few questions. Then he said thank you and left. That’s how I met John Ramsey.
In the fall of 1995, High Peaks Elementary, our school, opened. Patsy enrolled Burke in the third grade. Hers was the first southern voice I’d heard in a long time—there aren’t many southerners in Boulder. She was very overdressed for our little city. Her hair was always done, and she always wore city outfits and hats. Of course I didn’t know then that she was recovering from chemotherapy and that her hair was still growing back.
High Peaks depended on volunteers for survival, and Patsy volunteered all the time. It wasn’t long before we got to know each other. Nothing stopped Patsy from doing what needed to be done. John wasn’t active at school. He traveled a great deal. He looked just like an ordinary guy. He could be in a room and never be noticed.
Around Valentine’s Day of 1996, my daughter, Megan, met JonBenét for the first time. They were both in preschool. I remember the first time I saw them together—they looked so cute playing on the monkey bars.
That August, JonBenét entered kindergarten and Patsy kept volunteering. At the same time she was heading up an event for the University Women’s Club. JonBenét seemed resentful that her father traveled so much. Not really angry, just sad. She really liked him a lot.
Our kids started playing together, and they became close friends. JonBenét would come to our house to play, and I would drive Megan over there. Megan also really liked Burke. He was into computer games. That’s how I got to see more of Patsy—twenty minutes here, thirty minutes there.
One day Megan told me she wanted to enter a beauty pageant. She’d learned about them from JonBenét. She liked the clothes, and she had been impressed by the crowns. I had to explain that everybody makes choices and that pageants were not something we were choosing to do. As soon as I told her that JonBenét had to sing and dance in front of a whole bunch of people during the competition, Megan’s desire disappeared.
Patsy was very positive about pageants. She’d talk about the skills they give you—the poise, the self-confidence, and can-do attitude that stay with you for life.
The Ramseys lived a very lavish life. They went to the Olympics. Took vacations in Michigan and traveled all over. I wondered what JonBenét’s life would be like when she grew up.
The day before Christmas, JonBenét was at our house playing with