Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [303]
In Foster’s letter to Patsy, he had written, “I know you are innocent—know it absolutely and unequivocally. I will stake my professional reputation on it, indeed my faith in my humanity.” He also said that his analysis of the note [at the time] “leads me to believe you did not write it and the police are wasting their time by trying to prove that you did.” Even though Foster’s spring 1997 conclusions were based only on the fragments of the ransom note that were available at the time, there was a powerful contradiction between his conclusion at the time and what he said in 1998.
“Did you think the Ramseys were going to forget about his letter?” Wise said to a reporter when word of it leaked. In his final report, Foster used strong language to state that Patsy Ramsey had written the ransom note. In the letter to Patsy claiming he was sure she didn’t write it, Foster had used almost the same language.
The 20/20 broadcast also caused problems for the prosecution. Hunter had so far been able to isolate Kane, Levin, and Morrissey from the media. In fact, his entire office had been avoiding the press and there were no leaks from the grand jury room. But now 20/20 had put the case in the news again. This, combined with Lou Smit’s resignation, discouraged the prosecutors. The grand jurors had to be advised again not to read the papers or watch TV—not forbidden, simply advised. They were told that their decisions should be based only on what they heard in the courtroom, no matter how difficult it might be to block out what they heard or read elsewhere.
The following week, Detective Arndt told the grand jury that behavior was the key to finding the killer of JonBenét. She painstakingly told how each of the Ramseys conducted themselves after she arrived on the morning of December 26. John Ramsey’s actions, in her opinion, were not consistent with someone whose daughter had been kidnapped. Arndt would later characterize his demeanor as cordial. After JonBenét’s body was discovered, Ramsey scared her, she said. Then Arndt gave the grand jury an emotional account of being left alone in the Ramsey house that morning for over two hours, one law enforcement officer with the near-impossible task of supervising the distraught Ramseys and their equally distraught friends. She emphasized that her urgent calls for assistance had gone unanswered. The prosecutors were furious; it was obvious that she was attacking the investigation. Within days the grand jury was told that their job was not to investigate the investigation. On March 18, 1999, Arndt resigned from the Boulder PD.
On the afternoon of Friday, October 16, Randy Simons, who had photographed JonBenét in June 1996 and whose photographs had subsequently appeared on many magazine covers throughout the world, was found walking naked along a residential street in Genoa, Colorado, a town of two hundred residents on the eastern plains, where he lived. Approached by a sheriff’s deputy, Simons blurted out, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.” The sheriff, who had no idea who Simons was, hadn’t even mentioned the subject.
Simons was taken into custody and then transferred to University Hospital in Denver. No charges were filed. When the story was reported, the Ramseys’ investigators immediately interviewed Simons at the hospital. It would be a week before the Boulder police arrived to talk to the photographer. Even though Simons didn’t have a good alibi for the evening of JonBenét’s murder, this incident didn’t provide any new information and he was released.
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By October 27,1998, the grand jury had been sitting for five weeks, had met