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“Well, I don’t know that for sure, but that’s certainly a possibility,” Bynum replied. “I don’t think that that house is one that is too difficult to describe, at least in terms of getting in and around the house.”

Sawyer pressed Bynum about the evidence of the intruder that he’d alluded to earlier. “There’s no fiber sample, there’s no DNA,” she said. “There’s no sign of forced entry.”

“Well, you know a lot more about the evidence, apparently, than I do,” Bynum replied. “I don’t think it’s known what there is or is not. I think that there are things in terms of the actions of this individual in that house, the note that was left, that really have been kept very, very secret from the public.” Bynum refused to elaborate about the details, however, to support his position that there was an intruder. Sawyer told her audience that over two thousand people had visited the Ramseys’ house the previous Christmas for Boulder’s holiday season tour of homes.

Another question raised by the case, said Sawyer, was whether JonBenét had been sexually abused. She presented Dr. Francesco Beuf, JonBenét’s pediatrician, on the telephone. He had reviewed his medical records, the doctor said, and told the ABC audience that there was no history of sexual abuse.

Sawyer’s broadcast marked the first time a network TV show had mentioned the possibility of an intruder.

Alex Hunter and Suzanne Laurion had different opinions about how the DA’s office should respond in the wake of the Vanity Fair article. Laurion wanted the DA to stop talking to the press, including The New Yorker and Chuck Green of The Denver Post. She told Hunter that his involvement with the media would backfire. All he could think about, however, was how to restore his credibility. For the time being, he told Laurion, he’d follow his instincts. He approached Sherry Keene-Osborn to do a profile of him for Newsweek. The magazine declined her suggestion, so she prepared a profile of the DA for the Colorado Statesman instead.

By now the media frenzy surrounding Princess Diana’s death was subsiding, and Ann Bardach was making the rounds of the talk shows to promote her article. One afternoon, Hunter assembled all fifty-five members of his staff and ordered pizza and soda for them. Everyone had felt the impact of Bardach’s story, with its strong criticism of the DA’s office. They should not take the broadsides personally, Hunter told them. Don’t feel beleaguered, he said, and urged everyone to get on with the important work they were doing and to be proud of their efforts.

Hunter asked for questions, and for the first time, Pete Hofstrom talked about the case. Clearly, he was hurt. Bardach’s accusations against him had been particularly unfair, considering Hofstrom’s dedication and commitment to his work. Hunter’s pep talk had come not a moment too soon. Nothing was more symbolic of his staff’s feelings of persecution than Pete Hofstrom’s having taken a day off from work—the first in twenty-three years.

To:

Alex Hunter

Fr:

Suzanne Laurion

Let’s use the Vanity Fair article as a model: Would we have been better off granting a second interview to Annie Bardach refuting some of the ludicrous crap she cooked up? If so…and if we truly have nothing to hide…then maybe we adjust our interview policy. In addition to okaying interviews to those reporters who call us with scoops, we also okay interviews to those reporters who provide convincing evidence that they’re about to challenge our office’s credibility.

In Quantico, the police had been told that they still had a lot more work to do. It wasn’t that they had done a bad job, but there were many tasks still to be completed before the case could be considered ready for presentation to the DA’s office.

The detectives accepted the fact that they would have to get back to work: More than 180 videotapes from the Ramseys’ home had to be viewed. Books from the Ramseys’ shelves had to be examined and, in some cases, read. Pathologists had to be consulted to determine if JonBenét’s vaginal injury had taken