Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [216]
The newly released documents supported early press reports, which had stated that though there were urine and possibly blood stains on JonBenét’s underpants and long johns, there was no corresponding fluid on her pubic area. Apparently the child’s body had been wiped clean, leaving some smeared blood. The substance used to wipe JonBenét clean still had not been identified.
The warrants confirmed that fragments of a green substance, consistent with the decorative Christmas garland found on the spiral staircase, were found entwined in JonBenét’s hair, which suggested that she might not have been awake but asleep, wounded, or already unconscious when she was carried down the stairs. The second addendum to the search warrant noted that when Sgt. Whitson first arrived at the Ramsey house, he noticed what seemed to be a pry mark on the door jamb. The damaged area “appeared to have been less weathered than the surrounding surfaces on the door and door jamb,” the document said.
The Ramseys’ attorneys were quick to point out in a press statement that the documents contained nothing to incriminate their clients. Hal Haddon said it was “significant” that people close to the investigation had not leaked information that was exculpatory to the Ramsey family, such as the pry mark. He also provided the media with a photograph of the door jamb, which the police had seen on December 26, and said, “The material released today demonstrates substantial evidence of an intruder.”
The next day, the Rocky Mountain News published the 5 x 8 inch photograph alongside a story that quoted Haddon as saying that important evidence of an intruder had been withheld from the public.
The Ramseys’ former housekeeper, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, was surprised to see both the picture and Haddon’s statement. The photograph showed the spot where a protective metal plate on the door jamb had fallen off months before the murder. She had seen the plate become looser until one day it fell off, revealing the same marks that she now saw in the photograph. Hoffmann-Pugh had taken the plate to Patsy, who wasn’t concerned enough to have it replaced. The detached plate had sat on a shelf in the hallway near the kitchen. Now Hoffmann-Pugh wondered if the police had discovered it and made the connection.
After the Quantico meetings, Sheriff Epp felt that Hunter no longer needed Steve Ainsworth. The DA had never been allowed to give him free rein and assign him to interview a string of witnesses. He had done a good job for Hunter, but now Epp wanted his detective back.
The six months he’d spent on loan to the DA’s office had been both fascinating and frustrating to Ainsworth. Some of his fellow sheriff’s deputies had told him he was wasting his time looking for an alternate suspect. Ainsworth would reply, “Maybe so, but that’s a door you’re going to have to close sooner or later, so you might as well get it done now.” Like Hunter, he believed that every possibility had to be investigated.
The Boulder police had a different attitude. In the first forty-eight hours after JonBenét’s death, only about 25 percent of the neighbors had been home. Now the other 75 percent would have to be interviewed. “We don’t need to do that,” one detective told Ainsworth. “We know what happened. The Ramseys did it.” That was the typical response of Eller’s detectives when it was suggested that they investigate a new lead.
Ainsworth felt the only real piece of evidence against the Ramseys was that they were home when their daughter died. But there was evidence that pointed away from the Ramseys—for example, the broken glass on the suitcase under the basement window, the scuff mark on the wall—although nothing indicated a specific person.