Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [249]
The commander also suggested that if the motion was denied, the DA could dismiss the charges and jeopardy would not be attached. The DA would have lost nothing, and the police could continue the investigation, or Hunter could take the case to a grand jury. Beckner was suggesting something known as a motion in limine. If the court ruled Foster’s evidence inadmissible, the DA could petition the court to dismiss the charges, a perfectly routine procedure.
Hunter told Beckner he wouldn’t want to handle it that way. He considered linguistics a good investigative tool, but he did not think it would be deemed admissible in a Colorado court.* Also, Foster had never testified in a criminal trial. They could use linguistics testimony with the grand jury, Hunter assured Beckner, since the rules of admissibility were much broader—even hearsay evidence could be heard by a grand jury. The DA told the commander he would send him Colorado’s evidentiary rules concerning scientific evidence. The two men agreed to wait for Donald Foster’s written report.
However, Beckner seemed deflated the next day when he told Hofstrom they “might not have it.” Hofstrom told Hunter he saw a grand jury request coming.
John Ramsey knew there was no position for him at Lockheed Martin in the Atlanta area and that time was running out on his contract, so he looked into the ever-expanding computer business. Computers were becoming smaller and faster, but programming hadn’t changed much.
In early January Ramsey traveled to Spain, to meet with José Martin, cofounder of Jaleo Software and Communicacion Integral Consultores, which controlled the rights to a program that integrated editing and high-end compositing for TV. CBC, CNN, Spain’s TVE, Australia’s Channels 9 and 7, and Germany’s and Argentina’s networks were all using the Jaleo program. In the coming months, Ramsey and his Spanish partners agreed that Ramsey would head Jaleo Technologies in the United States and sell the firm’s products through dealers in Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Glen Stine, a close friend of the Ramseys, who was vice president for budget and finance at CU, would leave his job in Boulder and move his family to Atlanta to join Ramsey’s new company.
A day after Ramsey left for his first meeting with his future partners in Spain, Craig Lewis of the Globe was tipped off to the trip. He followed the family, tailing them around Madrid. He witnessed Patsy crying before a painting in the Prado museum that resembled JonBenét. When Lewis discovered that Spain might not have an extradition treaty with the United States, he found the hook for his Globe story. The headline read RAMSEYS FLEE TO SPAIN. The story said that the Globe had learned the family had plans to flee the country before a grand jury forced testimony from their son, Burke.
PARENTS TURN IN CLOTHES
More than a year after JonBenét Ramsey was murdered, her parents have turned over to Boulder police the clothing they were wearing the night before their 6-year-old daughter was found dead in their home.
Two months after police finally made the request, they received two shirts, a pair of pants and a sweater this week from John and Patsy Ramsey, according to sources. Authorities sought the clothing to compare with fibers found in the case, sources said.
Police have also requested additional interviews with John and Patsy Ramsey and to talk more with their son, Burke, now 11.
—Marilyn Robinson
The Denver Post, January 29, 1998
When the police inspected the clothes they had received—and there were more items than were reported in the press—they noticed that a red blouse of Patsy’s looked brand-new, as if it had just come off the rack. The detectives were also interested in Patsy’s red-and-black checkerboard-design jacket. Four fibers had been found attached to