Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [277]
Later in the afternoon, Beckner met privately with Hunter and Hofstrom to argue his position. He pointed out that it was important for the grand jury to subpoena the Ramseys’ credit card and telephone records before they were interviewed. In their April interviews they had said that they had never bought duct tape or cord. Maybe the records would show otherwise. “Get the hard evidence and confront them with it,” Beckner said. Hofstrom replied that they would go ahead without the records. The interviews with the Ramseys were more important. Beckner said he would tell his officers.
“Look, we’ve done all we can do. It’s no longer our case,” Beckner told his assembled detectives an hour later. “Go back and resume your lives. Make your summer vacation plans. And don’t worry about this case anymore.”
The officers were distraught. Some of them felt that Beckner didn’t want to challenge Hunter because he was concentrating on becoming chief and believed that a street fight with the DA wouldn’t help his cause.
“If this isn’t our case,” Gosage said to Thomas, “then there is no case.” Another officer told a friend that he felt as if he’d handed over his baby to a stranger and wasn’t even allowed to change its diaper anymore.
Beckner assigned Tom Wickman, the case officer, to be the liaison with Kane and the DA’s office. Later, he would be sworn in as primary grand jury investigator.
On Tuesday, June 9, as agreed, Pete Hofstrom and Dan Schuler traveled to Atlanta to interview Burke Ramsey. In preparation, they consulted the FBI and the Boulder detectives and reviewed the videotape of Burke’s January 8, 1997, interview. The interviews were to be conducted at a local district attorney’s office and videotaped. On three consecutive days, June 10, 11, and 12, for two hours each day, JonBenét’s brother would be questioned by Schuler, a police officer with a gift for talking to kids, a cop who didn’t like guns and never carried one.
In Atlanta, attorney Jim Jenkins had obtained written consent from Patsy and John and made sure they understood that they would not be allowed near the interview room. John Ramsey had previously told the attorney that he wanted to cooperate fully with Hunter’s staff and supply them with everything they needed.
Jenkins knew it was inappropriate to prepare Burke for the sessions. For his part, Jenkins didn’t want to know what Burke had to say, and he had never attempted to discuss the events of December 25 and 26 with the boy. Jenkins told him only one thing: “The people who are coming are trying to solve the murder of your sister, and you need to help them.” Then he added, “The conversations are going to be serious.” The last thing Burke wanted to do, now that school was out, was to sit in a room for three days. Nevertheless, he said OK. Jenkins told the child he’d be nearby if he needed any help.
When Hofstrom and Schuler arrived, Jenkins could see that they didn’t have an agenda, that they were only interested in factual and accurate information. Hofstrom still wasn’t committed to one theory or another. He and Jenkins watched the sessions from another room on a video monitor. Patsy, who had brought her son, stayed elsewhere in the building.
Burke was polite and bright, but it was understandably difficult for him, because he didn’t want to talk about the death of his sister. Like any child, he was defensive, which indicated that he wanted to forget the past. Within a short period of time, however, he developed a rapport with Schuler, who sensed that Burke was adjusting to the loss of his sister, had made new friends, and was doing well in school.
Each day the videotapes were taken to