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“With the best of intentions, we have created a monster in the minds of patrol officers and convinced them that community-oriented policing” was an obstacle to doing their jobs.

—Karen Auge

The Denver Post, June 15, 1998

John and Patsy’s attorneys were now talking to Hunter’s staff about scheduling their interviews. The city of Broomfield’s police headquarters was chosen as the location. Simultaneous interviews could be conducted there without John and Patsy ever seeing each other in the large facility. It was important that the Ramseys not be able to consult with each other—or each other’s attorneys—during the day’s questioning. Hofstrom told the couple’s attorneys that the interviews would take at least three days and maybe longer. The Ramseys chose to arrive at the Jefferson County Airport, which was close to Broomfield and where a private plane could land without attracting undue attention.

Beckner and Wickman weren’t told the dates and location, presumably for fear of a leak to the media. Nevertheless, the detectives could sense the interviews were imminent from the flurry of activity in the DA’s office. The detectives were furious at being shut out, because they thought they were the only ones familiar enough with the case to interview the Ramseys properly. When Wickman raised the issue of the interviews, one deputy DA said, “This ain’t your ball game anymore.”

In the battle zone, Michael Kane emerged as the figure the detectives could communicate with. He had talked to a number of them privately and had managed to avoid offending them, even when he told them that they hadn’t yet run everything into the ground. Kane understood that somewhere, deep in the recesses of some detective’s brain, might lie the key to this case. For their part, when talking to Kane, the detectives understood that there was still work to be done.

Soon there would be a new list of tasks. Kane wanted to revisit Janet and Bill McReynolds, who, according to Trip DeMuth, hadn’t been properly cleared. Lou Smit wanted Randy Simons, Chris Wolf, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, and her husband to be looked at again. There were still interviews to be done with Patsy’s family in Atlanta. Kane needed foot soldiers. Hofstrom and DeMuth wanted to rehire Steve Ainsworth from the sheriff’s department, and he was ready to come back, to spend weekends and nights if need be, but his wife was less enthusiastic. Hunter thought of asking for help from the Colorado Springs Police Department, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, or even the CU police. It irritated Bill Wise that the Boulder PD hadn’t asked for extra help earlier. If they had, he felt, they wouldn’t be months behind now.

It had become clear to Hunter as a result of the presentation how little he really knew about the case. He began to work on weekends.

Preparing for the interviews with the Ramseys, Kane and Hunter knew they would need balanced teams of interrogators and decided that Patsy and John would each be questioned by a team made up of one investigator and one lawyer. Lou Smit and Michael Kane would handle John, while Trip DeMuth and Tom Haney would take on Patsy.

Haney, a veteran detective, had conducted interviews in the front seats of police cars, while standing on corners, even while standing over dead bodies—but this case troubled him. Soon after he arrived to work for Hunter in late April, he realized that no one theory of the murder accounted for all the evidence. Whenever the puzzle seemed to be complete, there were always more than a few pieces left on the table.

Now, preparing for the new interviews, Haney studied the Ramseys’ CNN interview of January 1, 1997; the transcripts of the police department’s April 30, 1997 questioning, and the Ramseys’ May 1, 1997, press conference in Boulder. As he reviewed them, something struck him about Patsy. Her answers were never satisfactory. A new question always emerged after she had responded to a query. Haney kept that in mind as he prepared. For his interviews, he decided to work from