Perfect Murder, Perfect Town - Lawrence Schiller [89]
John and Mike stepped up and said, “We’ll loan you the money. We’ll invest in you for a portion of the business.” And I was able to open a new place at the foot of the Pearl Street Mall.
That was a relief. I’m not alone now. I’d been making decisions alone for nine years, standing or falling by them. Now I have partners. We have a game plan. We’re going to sink or swim together.
And by then I had my religion. That was one common bond between John Ramsey and myself.
After JonBenét died, the Ramseys stayed in my home for almost eight weeks. It was a difficult time for all of us.
—Jay Elowsky
INTERVIEW SITE AT ISSUE
Boulder police have declined to meet with the parents of JonBenét Ramsey unless they come to police headquarters, which they will not do, Ramsey family spokesman Pat Korten said.
“Are we willing to negotiate the terms of such an arrangement? Of course we are, and we always have been,” he added. “While we’re happy to talk, we’re not going to come to police headquarters.”
—Kerri S. Smith and Mary George
The Denver Post, February 11, 1997
When The Denver Post reported that negotiations were taking place for the Ramseys to be interviewed, John Eller immediately told Pete Hofstrom that he suspected leaks to the media were coming from the DA’s staff. The cord tied loosely around JonBenét’s right wrist, the near-perfect match of Ramsey’s bonus to the ransom amount demanded, the inclusion of the acronym SBTC in the ransom note, and the fact that the killer seemed to have wiped JonBenét’s body with a cloth—all this confidential information had ended up in print. The police, Eller insisted, hadn’t leaked anything.
When the press heard about Eller’s accusations, they weren’t surprised. In mid-January, Charlie Brennan of the Rocky Mountain News had discovered from an Access Graphics employee that people close to Ramsey were being asked to give handwriting samples containing the acronym SBTC. It was significant because when Ramsey was in the military, he was stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines. Some investigators thought that SBTC might be a reference to Subic Bay Training Center, although that was not the name the facility was known by.
Still, Brennan had a hunch that the ransom note might contain the acronym, and he asked Hunter’s office for a confirmation before publishing the story. A member of the DA’s staff confirmed the fact. By John Eller’s standards, that was a leak.
COPS ASK RAMSEY ‘SANTA’ FOR HAIR SAMPLE
Bill McReynolds, a former University of Colorado professor who portrayed Santa Claus at a party in John and Patricia Ramsey’s Boulder home December 23, said detectives visited him Friday and collected “non-testimonial evidence” for testing.
“I’ve told them from the beginning that I would cooperate with them in any way possible,” McReynolds said. “I know they don’t think I’m a serious suspect.”
—Charlie Brennan
Rocky Mountain News, February 12, 1997
On February 12, Detectives Thomas and Gosage began an investigation into the death of John Ramsey’s oldest daughter, Beth. She had died in a car accident near Chicago in 1992, and the death had changed Ramsey’s life in many ways. Immediately afterward, he immersed himself in books on how to deal with the loss of a child. He turned introspective. To many of his friends and associates, the change in him was noticeable.
The police wanted to find out if there had been a history of child or sexual abuse involving Beth. They were convinced that what Beth had confided to her girlfriends would give them insight into John Ramsey’s conduct with JonBenét. The detectives began by interviewing Natalie Geroli, who had been Beth’s closest friend. Two days later they saw her former teacher Elizabeth Bouis before visiting two more of her friends, Laura Foster and Lanie Bartlett. By February 21, Thomas and Gosage had completed a four-state trip and had also interviewed Tim Farrell and Marty Desantis, who were acquaintances of Beth. In the end, the detectives found no indication of inappropriate conduct by Ramsey toward Beth.
The investigation into Beth Ramsey was