Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [309]
On September 13, just days before the one year anniversary of the beginning of the grand jury’s deliberations, former detective Linda Arndt broke ranks with her fellow officers and appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America. She told her side of what had happened in the Ramsey house during the first hours of the investigation. After pronouncing JonBenét dead, and while kneeling next to the child’s body, she and John Ramsey, just inches apart, had a non-verbal exchange, Arndt said. At that moment, looking at Ramsey, Arndt knew what had happened. Her fear was so great that she tucked her gun close to her and counted out the eighteen bullets in her weapon, not knowing if everyone in the house would still be alive when her fellow officers arrived. To some watching her appearance, it seemed that the murder of JonBenét had irrevocably changed her life. Steve Thomas disagreed with Arndt on many issues, especially who killed JonBenét. He was sure it was not John Ramsey as Arndt indicated. Thomas told a friend, “I’m sure Patsy did it, but the case against her can’t be proven to twelve jurors beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Lou Smit stood firm. The evidence, and his experience, told him that John and Patsy Ramsey couldn’t have killed JonBenét. If they did, then nothing made sense.
What neither Thomas, Smit, Hunter, Eller, Hofstrom, nor anyone else connected with the investigation could explain was the use of the noose on JonBenét. The garroting did not connect to any other element of the crime. The FBI had no record of a young child being strangled with one, let alone by a parent.
After JonBenét’s skull was fractured she would have slipped into unconsciousness quickly. It would have been just as easy to end her life by smothering or strangling her by hand. There was no explanation why anyone would even think of making a noose—which takes time—slip it around her neck, and use it to kill her.
Death by this method is gruesome and horrifying. It does not come quickly. The person pulling the cord and tightening the noose little by little around JonBenét’s neck would not even have been able to look away. He or she would have had to eventually look into the child’s face, to be sure that she was dead.
It was so merciless to that child who had once asked, “Do roses know their thorns can hurt?”
11
If someone is ever charged with JonBenét’s murder and the case comes to trial, only then will a jury have the right to pass judgment. We should not consider John or Patsy Ramsey anything less than innocent unless and until a guilty verdict is pronounced on one or both of them by twelve of their fellow citizens. I know it is hard to maintain that level of objectivity when confronted with the facts of a six-year-old’s death, an exceptionally beautiful and charming six-year-old. The urge to blame someone is deep-seated. But we are obliged to remember the presumption of innocence. For, whoever may ultimately be charged with JonBenét’s death is absolutely entitled to a fair chance for an impartial trail—the startling notion, rooted in English common law, that holds every man and woman equal, and equally innocent, before the bar of justice.
CHARACTER LIST
Steve Ainsworth—Boulder County Sheriff’s Detective assigned to assist District Attorney Alex Hunter in the investigation.
Kit Andre—Dance instructor hired by Patsy Ramsey to teach JonBenét a dance number.
Mike Archuleta—The private pilot who had been scheduled to fly the Ramsey family to Michigan the morning of Dec. 26, 1996.
Ellis Armistead—Private investigator hired by the Ramseys’ lawyers.
Linda Arndt—First Boulder Police Detective to arrive at the Ramsey home after JonBenét was discovered missing.
Richard Baer—Denver attorney and advisor on the case to the Boulder Police.
Joe Barnhill—A Ramsey neighbor who knew the family well and attended their Christmas party December 23, 1996.
Mark Beckner—Boulder Police Commander who replaced Tom Koby as chief.
Dr. Francesco Beuf—JonBenét’s pediatrician since she was one year old.
Richard Bjelkovig