Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [298]
Kane had been given complete autonomy in preparing the case for the grand jury. He held daily meetings with Hunter, but if they came to an impasse, Kane had the last word. Nevertheless, the final decision—whether or not to sign a true bill, also known as an indictment—would be for Hunter, the elected official, to make.* By then Kane’s job would be done.
Kane, Levin, and Morrissey were not new kids on the block. On many occasions, Kane had taken cases that seemed to have no answers and developed new evidence. He had acquired his reputation by going before grand juries, getting indictments, and then convincing a trial jury that the grand jury had been right in its findings. Kane got convictions.
While the three prosecutors reviewed the evidence, they handed out assignments to the Boulder PD, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office. Some interview subjects still hadn’t provided saliva for DNA testing or had their palm prints taken. Tom Haney and Steve Ainsworth did some work, and so did Gosage, Harmer, and Everett.
On Sunday, September 13, Kane, Levin, and Harmer went to see Linda Hoffmann-Pugh at her home in Fort Lupton. Hoffmann-Pugh was worried that they were going to subpoena her for the grand jury. Instead, they brought with them books of photographs. For three hours, Hoffmann-Pugh was asked about the photographs, taken inside the Ramseys’ house shortly after the murder, depicting furniture, clothing, and household objects. Did this garment have these stains on them? Was this ever used by JonBenét for sleepwear? Did JonBenét ever wear this shirt inside out? Did she sleep in this? What about this shirt and the thermal underwear found on the bed?
By the time they were through, Hoffmann-Pugh wondered why she hadn’t been asked these questions before. Everyone knew she had been the Ramseys’ full-time housekeeper for a year and a half. She had last cleaned the house on December 23, just two days before JonBenét was murdered.
Michael Kane did most of the talking, and everyone took notes.
First, Hoffmann-Pugh was asked about JonBenét’s bedroom. The photos showed everything from her beds to her bedding, her TV, her videotapes, and her shoes. She was asked about the many hair ties scattered on the floor at the foot of the bed and in front of the closet. Hoffmann-Pugh said that wasn’t normal. The ties were usually kept in a basket in the bathroom. Maybe one or two would be lying on the bathroom counter, but they were never on the floor, or even in the bedroom. Then there was an open drawer. The housekeeper confirmed that it was the drawer where JonBenét’s panties were kept. A new pair of underwear might have been put on JonBenét that evening, or maybe the drawer was left open from the morning. They wanted to know which shampoos were used on JonBenét’s hair and where she bathed. She was always bathed in Patsy’s tub on the third floor, Hoffmann-Pugh told them. Burke was also bathed in Patsy’s tub, but lately he had taken baths in his father’s bathroom. She knew for sure, because his Legos were always at the bottom of the tub when she drained the water. Then there was a photo of the decorative curtain treatment on the wall just behind JonBenét’s bed. One of the ties was undone. Could JonBenét have hidden behind the drape? The housekeeper didn’t think there was enough space, but JonBenét could have drawn the fabric around her for protection. Had JonBenét tried to protect herself from someone or from something like a stun gun? Linda Hoffmann-Pugh asked herself.
They also showed her a picture of JonBenét’s white thermal blanket which had many urine and brown-colored stains on it. Some of them looked like dried blood. Then they showed her a picture of JonBenét’s bed, which looked strange to her. Looking at the comforter, you couldn’t tell that the blanket beneath it had been pulled off. The bed looked barely disturbed. Hoffmann-Pugh knew that to pull the blanket off, you had to first remove the comforter, other-wise it would get messed up. But in the photo, it was neat. Maybe the white