Interesting piece on 48 Hours last night about the Jon Bonet Ramsey murder in 1996.  Eight years ago this Christmas, 2004.  This week.  Interesting in the Chinese sense. 

 

The show was predicated upon the following: a dedicated team of "investigators" has selflessly been working on the case.  Two of them were initially hired by the Ramseys, but apparently are no longer so employed.  So….out of the goodness of their hearts?  Is an “investigator” a cop, or trained as a cop, or is the term more reflective of “therapist?”  It’s Boulder.  We need to ask.

 

These investigators believe the Boulder Police bollixed the whole thing and continue to do so.  Hard to argue.  They've also latched on to the DNA evidence beneath Jon Bonet's nails and on her clothing, which is of an unknown male, which clear the parents of the physical crime.  We should have known that as soon as the lab reported it.  At first blush, the presentation was rather convincing.  But then, a bunch of other questions arose, equally annoying and disturbing.

 

First, we all know there are any number of addicts who lust - seemingly the right word - all over this case and cases like it in disturbing manner.  Every bit as disturbing as some of the odd ducks last night who created 'shrines' to Jon Bonet.  One of them had stolen a lawn decoration from the Ramsey home that year: a candy cane.  "Investigators" think one was taken the night of the murder.  In any case, this person is not connected by the DNA evidence.  So......why was he part of the show?  Because he's strange. 

 

Strange.  And not a little creepy.  No doubt.

 

Current theory is that there were two men, experienced burglars and rapists, who did this sort of thing, and the Ramseys were just one more plus the $118k ransom note aspect.  Thrill kill for profit.  And, indeed, the show says there were something like 30 registered sex offender/burglar types living around the Ramsey neighborhood these “investigators” found.  That sounds awful, given the expensive district, but ‘around’ includes The Hill, where any number of cheap housing units exist and where the lower classes of single men would exist, and where people out of jail first go in Boulder.  I lived there once.  So, it’s not so surprising or scary.  Most are harmless.

 

Already I have trouble with some of this 48 Hours.  The way the term "investigator" sometimes seems to refer to police or authorized investigators from the DA or defense, and sometimes just to, well, others like these unattached investigators who are working for no fee.  Odd in itself, what?  Why do they want to conceal who they actually mean by using the term “investigator?”

 

They do bring up interesting items I didn’t know.  There was a reasonable suspect who'd done and said things appropriate to attract attention to himself who died of a gunshot wound two days after the event, possibly scared by press announcements of a closing noose.  Oddly "investigators" initially said that he'd shot himself in the head, but apparently this right handed man shot himself from the left to the right side in the middle thorax.  The gun ended up near his right hand, though.  48 Hours made a big deal about how strange this was if a suicide.  It is.

 

Such a bizarre place to kill yourself quickly, and then the police lied about where the wound was - very odd - apparently to imply a more believable suicide.  Perhaps because they didn’t want to list it as a murder on the stats or because it bothered the investigation into Ramsey’s death?  Valid queries.  The current investigators say it’s a murder, probably by the partner in Jon Bonet’s slaying trying to shut him up.  Plausible. 

 

But the things that make it strange for a suicide also make it strange for a murder.  Of course, a struggle, gun goes off, but no evidence of that, one supposes.  And that’s all we can do, suppose.  Despite what CSI programs imply, it isn’t like there’s time and money to take all evidence from a crime scene, and they apparently didn’t.  This shooting victim’s boots, which match an imprint at the Ramsey murder, are said by the Boulder Police to be the wrong size but they haven’t turned them over to the DA’s office despite a request.  That also is very strange.  What do they have to say about it and, if anything, why do they say it?  What are the connections between the dead man and other suspects for his partner?  But DNA clears the supposed ‘suicide,’ so …….there isn’t really a connection, yet.

 

Still.  Yes, this guy should have been investigated, police shouldn’t have lied about a likely murder (although…..is it?), but so far there is absolutely no evidence that this man had thing one to do with Jon Bonet Ramsey.  Unless the police lied about the boot.  Could be.  They lied at least once about this case.

 

Nine months after Jon Bonet, a man was discovered twenty feet from a Boulder parent’s bed with his hand over her child’s mouth and telling her she’d be dead if she said anything.  He’d apparently been hiding in the house when the woman and child returned.  Then, they turned on the burglar alarm.  Too late.  (Question: when the house is empty, the alarm is off?  When inhabited, only then it’s on?  Huh?)  Still, this is powerful evidence that the Ramsey murder wasn’t unique absent the Christmas aspect.  And the police didn’t request a crime scene artist to try and capture the woman’s memory while it was fresh.  They didn’t request it at all.  Odd.

 

The implication that this was done by the surviving partner of the Ramsey case is not weak, but no evidence either.  Both young kids had taken dance lessons at Dance West on 16^th and Pearl, now gone.  They make a big deal on 48 Hours that there was a public balcony where people – apparently any people – could just walk in and watch children dance.  That’s creepy.  But the fact is it was creepy then and nobody apparently thought it so, or said anything about strange men, or restricted access.

 

The show made a big deal over a Mr. Oliva, who is a strange and scary man with an obvious fixation on the Ramsey kid and who is currently in jail, hooray, on other charges.  But DNA clears him as well, at least for the individual who Ramsey scratched. 

 

And then there is the problem of the Ramseys themselves. 

 

They talked through the time, apparently not concerned, when they expected a ransom call in the presence of the police.  The sudden and quite odd police decision to search the house for the child, the even odder decision not to search the house off the bat and treat kidnapping as a capital offense (because, you know, it is) with sufficient manpower, and John Ramsey’s immediate finding of his daughter.  Then, Patsy Ramsey’s very strange take that subsequent appearances were an opportunity for photo shoots, the lack of any anger or emotion at all in the Ramsey press statements, or a convincing approximation of those emotions on this show despite effort.  The timing and the presentation of defense attorneys…. 

 

I am prejudiced against all stage parents, and I hate children’s theater, and I would love to think the Ramsey’s are guilty because, you know, it would be poetic and all that.  I think the routines we saw on television with that kid were obscene, and the whole thing of Little Miss Colorado or anything like it is creepy and awful.  But I have to admit there’s no evidence for them, either, despite statistics that suggest virtually all crimes of this sort are by family members.

 

Probably not this one, it now seems.  There is the rope, and the garrote, and entrance by window, and the viciousness – for its own sake – of the crime.  To take a child who knows Mommy and Daddy are so close and enjoy killing her after, I guess, raping her on Christmas or the day after in her own home. 

 

What the hell……..

 

{too many typos, edited January 2, 2005}