Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [82]
Two days after meeting with Dilson, Detective Thomas asked Dilson how he could get in touch with Wolf. That same day, at 11:00 A.M., Wolf was stopped for a traffic infraction by the Boulder police after he left Dilson’s home and just as he entered the city limits. The officer took him to the Boulder police headquarters to be interviewed by Thomas and Gosage, and not the sheriff’s department. By the time Wolf was in the small windowless room with the detectives, he was agitated and uncooperative.
I don’t remember being out Christmas night. The first I remember of the Ramsey case was reading about it in the Daily Camera on December 27. I never heard of JonBenét. I’ve written for the Business Report all these years and never heard of Access Graphics, and I had no connection to anyone connected with the murder.
I learned about the sexual abuse of children through a family member who had experience dealing with the subject. That’s why I followed the story. When the Ramseys said on CNN that they wanted to get on with their lives, I thought it was awfully soon for them to be making that kind of statement. I didn’t have much sympathy for them.
Then one morning, I was driving from Lyons to Boulder and I was stopped by the police just after I passed the intersection where Highway 36 goes left and Broadway goes right. The cop car was just waiting for me. When she came up to me, she already knew my license was suspended for a traffic ticket in June of ’96. I sat there not saying much. She said I had to come down to the police department to get everything straightened out. It sounded a little fishy.
I got mad when she cuffed me. For a speeding ticket?
I told her she should be looking for the killer of JonBenét and not pulling me over for speeding. Next thing I knew, I was sitting in an interrogation room with two detectives.
Thomas and Gosage tried to calm me down, but I was mad. I just went on and on about my suspended license.
“You do this for us, we’ll do this for you,” was Thomas’s pitch. Otherwise I’d be in jail. Thomas was the negotiator, Gosage the tough guy.
Thomas pulled out a couple of sheets of paper with typewritten words on them, a blank line underneath each word. The first one was Mr. Ramsey. Then it hit me. I knew exactly what was going on. I just said, “No.”
I shoved the paper back at them.
Thomas left the room, and Gosage started playing thug with me. He threatened and tried to intimidate me. “If you don’t have anything to do with this crime,” Gosage said, “what are you afraid of?” It was like he was going to arrest me for murder.
Thomas came back with a Polaroid camera. That’s when I turned to the wall, turned my back to him. He never photographed me. Someone cuffed me again, twisted my wrists, and I yelled at the top of my lungs. “We’re going to book you for obstruction of a police investigation,” one of the detectives said. Next thing, they were taking me to jail. My wrists hurt for a while.
I just pretty much went through the process. I was given a ticket for driving without a license, and an hour later I was out.
A few weeks later, I went to get a copy of my police report and Thomas invited me in. I sat across the table from him and John Eller. “We have no interest in you,” Eller said. I could tell he felt it was his responsibility to say that.
“Did someone give you my name?” I asked.
“Yes, someone did.”
I didn’t want to know who. I just wanted to get the cops out of my face.
—Chris Wolf
Chris Wolf would remain a police suspect. Soon he would join the Ramseys’ list of suspects.
Meanwhile, the Ramseys’ attorneys went on the offensive to counter the public’s growing perception that John and Patsy were involved in the death of their daughter.
John Douglas, a former FBI criminal profiler, who now worked for the Ramseys, appeared on NBC’s Dateline. His 1995 book Mind Hunter recounted some of the more famous cases he had handled, and it brought him national attention as an authority on profiling. His appearance on Dateline was timed to coincide with the publication of