Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [56]
—Barbara Kostanick
Bill McReynolds, who had been Santa at the Ramseys’ Christmas party for three years, was placed on the list of suspects the day after the murder. Patsy and John told the police that he was close to their daughter.
The police learned that McReynolds had arrived at about 5:00 P.M. for the Christmas party the Ramseys gave on December 23. Christmas was a big production for the family. There were decorated artificial trees in every room on every floor, and the living room tree was covered with magnolias. The previous year, JonBenét had taken McReynolds on a tour of the house—to her bedroom and even down to the basement, to show him where the family kept their Christmas trees. She showed him her scrapbooks and called McReynolds “old Sam.”
This year McReynolds, still frail from the open-heart surgery he’d had a few months earlier, brought his wife, Janet, along. He mixed with the guests, read little poems about each of the children, gave them their gifts, and spoke with most of the guests. An hour and a half later, he and his wife left the party.
On January 3, Detectives Pat Wyton and Nathan Vasquez interviewed McReynolds. He told the officers that on Christmas Day, his daughter Jo and her children had come to visit at their cabin near Nederland, in the mountains twenty miles west of Boulder. Later that day, Janet’s daughter, Vicky, her husband, Al, and their daughter, Willow, arrived. A number of friends stopped by as the day went on, McReynolds said. Then he and his wife went to bed at about 10:00 P.M. They confirmed each other’s story that neither of them had left the house that night. The next morning, December 26, they rose about 8:00 A.M., they said, and stayed home all day. Without some independent corroboration, Bill and Janet McReynolds remained suspects.
In the early evening of January 6, neighbors gathered at 789 15th Street, the home of Patrick and Mary Vann, who lived three houses away from the Ramseys. They were meeting to discuss the implications of JonBenét’s murder for their neighborhood.
The Vanns had been away in Texas on a holiday visit when JonBenét was murdered and had returned on December 27. Mary Vann knew Patsy reasonably well. They had met through various charities in which they were both active, such as the University Women’s Club. Over the years, the two couples had met at a few parties. The Vanns’ yard was the furthest point on the block where JonBenét was allowed to play alone. Patrick Vann used to see JonBenét rollerblade up to their house and then circle back home.
Mayor Leslie Durgin, who worked with Mary Vann at Chautauqua Park, had suggested that police chief Tom Koby be invited to this gathering of neighbors.
“Do we have cause to be anxious?” they asked him.
“There is no murderer loose,” Koby said. “I am fairly confident of that.” He updated the twenty or so guests on the investigation but never said directly that the Ramseys might be involved. Before Koby left, he invited anyone who might have questions in the future to contact him directly.
Pat Vann felt the chief had calmed everyone. Nevertheless, the next day Vann called a Denver burglar alarm company and had a system installed in the house and on its perimeter.
ROWAN & BLEWITT
INCORPORATED
Memorandum
To: The news media
Fr: Pat Korten
John and Patsy Ramsey have cooperated extensively with the police and other law enforcement authorities from the very beginning of their investigation, and this cooperation will continue. Written answers to all of the written questions submitted by the Boulder Police Department have been delivered to them this afternoon.
ANOTHER GRIEVING DAD CRITICIZES RAMSEYS’ ‘DEFENSE’ CONDUCT
CALIFORNIA MAN RAPS HIRING OF PUBLICIST, CNN INTERVIEW
The grieving father in another high-profile murder case said Monday that he disagrees with how John and Patricia “Patsy” Ramsey have handled