Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [220]
—Jeff Shapiro
It wasn’t long afterward that Shapiro found Melody Stanton, the Ramseys’ neighbor who had heard the scream the night JonBenét was killed. Unaware of how important her memory of that night was to the police, she told Shapiro what she’d told the police on December 26. Also buried in his Globe story was the fact that Stanton’s husband had heard a crashing sound—the sound of metal on concrete—sometime after the scream. This suggested that someone—possibly an intruder—had left the house. The story, which made headlines, was a scoop for Shapiro. His editor brought him back from banishment after the Hunter fiasco. Stanton was inundated by the media, however. Like Fleet White, she abhorred the intrusion and eventually moved. She would become a reluctant witness for the police.
Several months later, Steve Thomas talked to Shapiro again, despite Koby’s warning. Thomas told him that Dr. Henry Lee thought the blow to JonBenét’s head had been an accident. For Shapiro, that was a letdown. If the girl’s death turned out to be an accident, how could anyone ever explain all the pain it had caused the families, the authorities, the people of Boulder, and the nation at large? “At least when this is over, you’ll go on to the next big story,” Thomas told him. “Once this is over, I’m back to some local robbery case.”
On October 8, Hunter and Koby met again. This time the chief told the DA that the next day he would announce not just Mark Beckner’s replacement of John Eller but also the withdrawal of his officers from the war room. This didn’t surprise Hunter. He hadn’t seen the police detectives in their joint room for months. Koby said he would tell the media that the relationship between their departments would continue along more traditional lines. Hunter asked the chief not to make both announcements at the same time, because it would appear as if they were no longer working together in the search for JonBenét’s killer. Koby heard him out but rejected his suggestion.
It was evident to Hunter from the way the chief referred to Eller that he was devastated by his decision to replace the commander. Hunter, who had always blamed Eller for the failure in communication with Hofstrom, said he hoped that his deputy and Mark Beckner would find a way to cooperate. Koby said he’d spoken to some of his detectives and was sure the animosity would be put aside. Hunter thought this was naïve, but he understood that it was what Koby wanted to believe.
Notwithstanding Koby’s hopes, Eller’s removal would be generally perceived as a victory for Hunter. Still, Hunter hoped it would become clear eventually that what had prevailed was the broader approach to the investigation that his office had advocated from the start.
SUPERVISOR OF JONBENÉT INQUIRY IS REMOVED FROM CASE
The head of the Boulder Police detective bureau [John Eller] was removed from his role as supervisor of the murder investigation.
An internal affairs investigation into Eller was triggered by what department officials characterized as a “serious allegation of misconduct” leveled by Sgt. Larry Mason. In June, Mason filed a notice of intent to sue Eller.
Marc Colin, a lawyer representing Mason…declined to say whether Eller’s removal from the case…and Mason’s lawsuit threat might all be linked.
—Charlie Brennan and Kevin McCullen
Rocky Mountain News, October 10, 1997
On Friday morning, October 10, Koby appeared before the press for the first time since his joint conference with Hunter on February 13, eight months earlier. Koby announced that Eller was out and Beckner was in and that he was adding three detectives to the case—Kim Stewart, Carey Weinheimer, and Michael Everett, who had been involved in the investigation earlier.
“I am relocating the investigation back to the Public Safety Building,” Koby announced, “…where the staff of the district attorney are available to advise us but are not involved in the day-to-day investigation of the case.”
Then the chief addressed his department’s relationship