LEGAL pundits say the JonBenet Ramsey case is dead in the water – but for those who have fallen under the infamous “umbrella of suspicion,” the saga won’t be over until the killer is brought to justice.
“As long as there’s an open investigation – and it will stay open – these people will have this cloud hanging over their heads,” notes Denver lawyer Andrew Cohen.
In the three years since the 6-year-old beauty queen was found beaten, strangled and possibly sexually abused in the basement of her Colorado home, cops have investigated a parade of relatives and acquaintances.
For a few, the glare of the spotlight has been especially harsh. In the words of Larry Pozner, president of the National Association of Defense Lawyers, they have visited “one of the levels of hell.”
To date, John and Patsy Ramsey, the enigmatic parents of the slain youngster, have repeatedly been publicly named as suspects by authorities.
Others, like 12-year-old Burke Ramsey and family friends Bill and Janet McReynolds, have been the targets of fevered public speculation.
Then there is the possibility – and it’s a possibility that sharply divided the bickering investigative team – that JonBenet’s killer is a total stranger.
With the evidence inconclusive or compromised, legal experts hold out little hope police will ever close the case.
“It’s less likely now than it was a couple of years ago,” says Cohen. “It will only get solved if some new piece of evidence emerges.”
Here’s how the case stacks up against some of the would-be suspects: JOHN AND PATSY RAMSEYMUCH of the mountain of evidence collected in the JonBenet Ramsey case leads nowhere – but several key pieces point toward the millionaire entrepreneur and the former Miss West Virginia.
The “ransom” note Patsy says she found on a back stairwell early on the morning of Dec. 26, 1996, has raised the most serious questions about the Ramseys’ innocence.
The three-page letter – purporting to be from a “small foreign faction” – was written on a legal pad found in the house with a pen that Patsy favored.
It demanded $118,000 for JonBenet’s safe return, the same amount of money John Ramsey had received as his last bonus, and mentioned a Navy base in the Philippines where he was once stationed.
Police compared the letter to handwriting samples from dozens of people – and they were unable to rule out Patsy as the author after examining at least five examples of her penmanship.
Other evidence also has links to Patsy: the paintbrush handle used in the garrote that killed JonBenet came from her art kit, and fibers found on the duct tape over the little girl’s mouth could be from her clothing.
Beyond the physical evidence, the couple’s behavior in the early hours and days of the investigation was disturbing to some observers.
John Ramsey found his dead daughter in a rarely used basement room that police had overlooked. He then ripped the duct tape off her mouth and carried her upstairs, contaminating the crime scene.
The Ramseys retained criminal lawyers within 48 hours and swiftly hired a slick spokesman. The day after they buried their daughter, they went on CNN to proclaim their innocence, but it was four months before they sat down for a formal interview with police.
But what about motive? Why would a doting parent kill the little girl? Why would the other parent help cover up the crime? Amateur sleuths have offered up answers ranging from bed-wetting to incest.
Some speculated that Patsy, demanding perfection from the pint-sized pageant winner, flew into a rage when JonBenet wet her bed one time too many.
Forensic expert Cyril Wecht, who wrote a book on the case, believes John probably killed his daughter by accident during a sex game and Patsy helped him make it look like an intruder was the culprit.
“Parents do horrible things to their children, but to understand this case you have to take the notion out of your head that they set out to kill this 6-year-old girl,” Wecht said last year. MYSTERY INTRUDERFROM the get-go, the Ramseys pointed the finger at a deranged child murderer. “A killer is on the loose,” they warned in their first statement after the slaying.
At least some of the forensic evidence collected by cops appears to back them up – because none of it has been linked to anyone questioned in the case.
DNA material found in JonBenet’s underwear, believed to be a trace of semen, reportedly did not match samples provided by any family members or friends.
Palm prints left on the ransom note and a basement door, and an imprint from a hiking shoe found near her body, could not be matched to the Ramseys or their pals.
Opponents of the intruder theory point to the fact that there was no obvious sign of forced entry at the Ramsey house, but others say there was plenty of opportunity for a killer to sneak in.
Ground-floor windows and at least one door were not locked the night of the killing; a blue suitcase propped up below a basement window could have been used by someone climbing out; and a mysterious pry mark was found on the doorjamb of the kitchen door.
Detectives probing the intruder theory have investigated sex offenders as far away as California and looked into the surreal world of kiddie pageants – but a credible suspect has yet to emerge. BURKE RAMSEYFOR some of the armchair detectives convinced the murder was an inside job, the united front presented by John and Patsy Ramsey meant only one thing – they were covering up for their son.
Supporters of this theory pointed out that Burke, then 9, was the only person other than his parents in the home the night his sister was killed, and his prized Swiss Army knife was found in the basement.
The scenario took on added weight when it was revealed that Burke was at the center of a major discrepancy in the Ramseys’ account of what happened.
The couple initially told police the boy was sleeping when the ransom note was discovered, but his voice later was heard on an enhanced tape of Patsy’s 911 call to police.
The whispers about Burke erupted into screaming headlines last May when the supermarket tabloid Star reported that he was the “prime suspect” in the slaying.
The tab claimed that authorities were so convinced Burke’s pent-up jealousy had boiled over into deadly rage they launched secret plea negotiations with his parents.
But less than a month later, Star retracted its explosive report after prosecutors said Burke, who has his own lawyer, was not considered a suspect. BILL & JANET McREYNOLDSTHREE months after JonBenet was killed, detectives took a hard second look at the Boulder couple.
Bill McReynolds, a retired journalism professor, had been at the Ramsey home two nights before the murder, playing Santa Claus at a Christmas party. His wife had joined him there.
But that wasn’t what piqued police interest. Instead, they were puzzled by two bizarre parallels between the McReynolds’ lives and the grisly death of Little Miss Colorado.
On Dec. 26, 1974 – 22 years to the day before JonBenet was murdered – the couple’s 9-year-old daughter had been abducted by a sex predator.
It was an odd coincidence, one that cops might not have given a second thought if not for another strange twist.
In 1976, Janet McReynolds had written an award-winning play about the sexual assault, torture and murder of a girl whose body was found in a basement.
The revelations prompted police to call husband and wife in for new interviews and handwriting and hair samples.
Though they have never been publicly cleared, they do have an alibi. Both say they were home sleeping when JonBenet drew her last breaths.