Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [301]
Smit’s had already received a phone call from Sherry Keene-Osborn of Newsweek. She also asked for permission to print his letter. Smit said no. Keene-Osborn then drove all the way from Denver to Colorado Springs, where Smit lived on the west side of town, just below majestic Pikes Peak, on a tree-lined street right out of Norman Rockwell’s America. Beside the door to his lovingly maintained duplex hung a wooden shingle: “The Smits—Founded 1958.”
“This is the greatest case I ever worked,” Smit told the Newsweek reporter. “For a detective it’s a real puzzle—a whodunit.” Keene-Osborn talked the retired detective into giving her an unsigned copy of his resignation letter. She sensed that by the time she arrived at his door, Smit’s attitude was, Why quit if nobody is going to know the reasons behind it? When Newsweek decided not to print it in the magazine, she shared the letter with the AP, which released it on September 25, the same day that Newsweek put it up on its Web site.*
Sept. 20, 1998
Dear Alex:
It is with great reluctance and regret that I submit this letter of resignation. Even though I want to continue to participate in the official investigation and assist in finding the killer of JonBenet, I find that I cannot in good conscience be a part of the persecution of innocent people.
When we first met I told you that my style of approaching an investigation is from the concept of not working a particular theory, but working the case.
Alex, even though I have been unable to actively investigate, I have been in a position to collect, record and analyze every piece of information given to your office in the course of this investigation. At this point of the investigation “the case” tells me that John and Patsy Ramsey did not kill their daughter, that a very dangerous killer is still out there and no one is actively looking for him.
The Boulder Police Department has many fine and dedicated men and women who also want justice for JonBenet. They are just going in the wrong direction and have been since day one of the investigation. The case tells me that there is substantial, credible evidence of an intruder and lack of evidence that the parents are involved. If this is true, they too are tragic victims whose misery has been compounded by a misdirected and flawed investigation, unsubstantiated leaks, rumors and accusations.
Alex, you are in such a difficult position. The media and peer pressure are incredible. You are inundated with conflicting facts and information, and “expert” opinions. And now you have an old detective telling you that the Ramseys did not do it and to wait and investigate this case more thoroughly before a very tragic mistake would be made. What a double travesty it could be; an innocent person indicted, and a vicious killer on the loose to prey on another innocent child and no one to stop him.
Shoes, shoes, the victim’s shoes, who will stand in the victim’s shoes?
Good Luck to you and your fine office and may God bless you in the awesome decisions you must soon make.
Sincerely
[signed]
Detective Lou Smit
When Bill Wise read Smit’s letter, he saw it as an invitation to a defense attorney to call Smit as a star witness. Wise could not understand what evidence of an intruder Smit was talking about, but of course he wasn’t a detective. Still, it was one thing to say that there was insufficient evidence to go after the Ramseys. It was quite another to conclude that the parents couldn’t have done it. That really astounded Wise.
When Tom Haney read the letter, he thought the intruder theory had gotten the best of Smit and that the veteran detective had lost his objectivity. Haney knew that in every case, there was something that didn’t fit. In this case, it was the tone of the ransom note, the strands of a spiderweb partially attached to the open