Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [86]
The Ramseys had been staying at their friend Jay’s house since returning from JonBenét’s burial, and the media had been relentless, constantly shooting photographs through the windows of his home from a dirt berm nearby.
Lee Frank, a soundman working that day for NBC News, and his cameraman had been standing on the berm that morning, waiting to see if the Ramseys would come out. When they saw Elowsky’s BMW back out of the driveway, they returned to their van parked in a lot behind the berm. Just then Elowsky pulled into the lot, got out of his car, and started screaming and cursing. He was wielding a baseball bat. Frank took refuge in a nearby engineering firm and called 911. His cameraman ran in the opposite direction. A moment later, two men left the engineering firm and Elowsky mistook them for the men from NBC. One of the men, after seeing Elowsky with a bat, picked up a pipe and went after him. Elowsky ran back to his car and buckled on his fanny pack, which held a gun, just as the Boulder police responded to Frank’s 911 call. Elowsky was immediately apprehended.
Now, sitting in the patrol car, he still didn’t understand that he had gone after the wrong men. The man with the pipe said Elowsky had threatened him and his friend with a gun. He wanted Elowsky jailed.
Sheriff’s procedure required Kevin Parker to talk to those inside Elowsky’s house to find out what had preceded the incident. Since the Ramseys were involved, Parker’s captain told him to call Pete Hofstrom in the DA’s office.
The officers would have to speak to Patsy Ramsey, who, according to Elowsky, was at home in his house. Hofstrom reached Patrick Burke, Patsy’s attorney, in his car. As it turned out, Burke had just left Elowsky’s home with Patsy. Burke explained the situation to Patsy, and she said that she would talk. The Boulder police had wanted to talk to the Ramseys for weeks, and now Patsy was coming in to speak to the sheriff’s department. Kevin Parker knew he had a hot potato on his hands.
Since January 3, John, Patsy, and Burke Ramsey and Don Paugh and his daughter Pam had all been living in Jay Elowsky’s home. Nedra and her daughter Polly would also come and go. Elowsky didn’t mind giving his life over to his friends. At a time when the Ramseys were unable even to set foot in a market to do their own grocery shopping, he offered them the full use of his large home and spent hours talking to John and Patsy.
John told Jay about selecting JonBenét’s casket and about how he’d wept when his brother had asked him to choose the color. When they were alone, Jay held John in his arms. They talked about God and how He would provide for them and how God was caring for JonBenét even now. Jay would repeat again and again that the promise of her life had not been lost with her death.
Sometimes members of St. John’s stopped by and brought food, and on most days Rev. Hoverstock visited. One day Patsy saw someone on a TV talk show say that she should be arrested. The studio audience cheered. Patsy cried.
Jay tried hard to cheer up his friends. Once in a while he would open the door and holler out to Patsy and John, “Honey, I’m home!”
Now, Patsy entered the Justice Center by the backdoor with her attorney. She was wearing sunglasses, a sweatshirt, and jeans and was obviously trying to avoid looking like the well-groomed Patsy Ramsey familiar to TV viewers. Jeff Hendry, a sheriff’s sergeant working with Parker, thought that nobody would recognize her if she walked down the street in those clothes. To Hendry, she didn’t look like a former beauty queen.
Hofstrom, Patsy, Hendry, Parker, and Patrick Burke were all squeezed into Hofstrom’s modest office, which was neutral territory for this high-profile witness. Parker sat on one side of Hofstrom’s desk, and Patsy took a guest chair on the other side. Her lawyer, Burke, sat on the edge of the credenza.
With her sunglasses off, Patsy looked drawn and medicated, Parker thought. He knew that Patsy had lived in Atlanta, but she didn’t know that he was from Marietta. He began by telling her what had happened: