Trial by suspicion

Here on earth, justice for Jon Benet’s murderer is not yet in sight. Nearly three years after the bright and beautiful 6-year-old was found bludgeoned and strangled the day after Christmas in her family’s home in Boulder, Col., the case remains America’s most famous and frustrating unsolved crime. On Oct. 13 a Boulder grand jury wrapped up a 13-month inquiry, during which it examined 30,000 pages of testimony and evidence, by ending its term without an indictment, essentially bringing the $ 2 million investigation back to square one. ‘We are no closer to resolution today than we were on Dec. 26, 1996,’ says Graig Silverman, a noted Denver defense attorney who has followed the case closely. ‘It’s all a tremendous mystery.’

At the center of that mystery are John and Patsy Ramsey, the enigmatic and embattled parents of Jon Benet. Authorities have long considered both of them leading suspects in their daughter’s murder, and much of the key evidence- from a ransom note written on paper belonging to the Ramseys to the duct tape used to gag Jon Benet, which reportedly contained fibers consistent with clothing worn by Patsy that evening – has brought them under suspicion. But there is also other, more ambiguous evidence, such as DNA found on Jon Benet’s underwear. ‘The DNA is contaminated; it could belong to anyone,’ says famed pathologist Dr. Henry Lee, who testified for the defense at O.J. Simpson’s criminal trial and who consulted with Boulder prosecutors only days before the grand jury’s decision. Meanwhile, the case against the Ramseys, entirely circumstantial, would most likely not hold up in court. ‘If you look at each piece of evidence, does it tell you who did it? No,’ says Lee. ‘There is no handwriting expert who will definitely say that the ransom note was prepared by someone. They say they have a feeling who wrote it, but you can’t go to court saying ‘I have a feeling.’’

Alex Hunter, the Boulder district attorney in charge of the case, was quick to note that his investigation is continuing, and that John Ramsey, 55, and Patsy, 42, are still suspects. (Colorado Gov. Bill Owens has said he may appoint a special prosecutor but that his decision may be weeks away.) The big question, though, is whether any future investigation will be able to overcome the devastating errors committed by police immediately following the murder- chief among them, allowing John Ramsey to carry his daughter’s body from the basement and cover it with a blanket, thus forever contaminating the crime scene.

Whether or not they ever face prosecution, John and Patsy seem certain to remain under a cloud of suspicion. ‘The Ramsey family lives a nightmare,’ they said in a statement following the grand jury’s decision, their only public comment on the verdict so far. ‘There has been no end to the public lynching and speculation which marred this case from the beginning.’

Still, since leaving Boulder six months after the murder and buying a home in the Atlanta area, the Ramseys and their 12- year- old son, Burke, have quietly resumed many of the activities they enjoyed before Jon Benet’s death. ‘They go to church and they have dinner parties and they boat and they visit and they vacation,’ says Patsy’s mother, Nedra Paugh. ‘They just go on. What else can they do? But, you know, their hearts are gone.’

It wasn’t that long ago that life for the Ramseys seemed close to ideal. John was the CEO of a thriving computer equipment distributor, Access Graphics; his wife, Patsy, was a charming socialite and a former Miss West Virginia. Married in 1980, they had two children, Burke and Jon Benet, and settled into a 15- room faux-Tudor home in Boulder. By the age of 5, Jon Benet was competing in beauty pageants, donning elaborate costumes and heavy makeup to win the title of Little Miss Colorado. The Ramseys have insisted that the pageants were a minor part of their daughter’s life, but dozens of provocative photos of the young beauty queen have undoubtedly fueled public fascination with the case. ‘It suggests some kind of weird sexualization of this child,’ says criminal lawyer Scott Turow, author of several bestselling legal thrillers. ‘That seems like evidence that something was wrong in that household.’

Something was indeed wrong early on the morning of Dec. 25, 1996, when Patsy Ramsey frantically called police to report her daughter missing. Later that day, at the suggestion of a detective – and before police had thoroughly combed the house- John searched his home and emerged from a basement room carrying Jon Benet’s body, a cord attached to a wooden handle wrapped around her neck. Not securing the crime scene proved to be a critical blunder. ‘It was as if the police were attempting to do everything possible to handicap the prosecution,’ says Denver defense attorney Scott Robinson. The Ramseys were also not interviewed separately right after the crime- a mistake many believe was made in deference to their obvious affluence. ‘If these were working class people, they would be in jail by now,’ says Jeff Merrick, a former friend of John Ramsey’s who claims John named him as a suspect to police.

Instead, the investigation has dragged on for years with no smoking gun in sight. Since the murder, the Ramseys have, for the most part, doggedly avoided the public eye. Their friends say they have remained generally upbeat. ‘Burke is always around, so they can’t have their jaws on the ground all the time,’ says Patsy’s close friend Linda McClean. ‘There’s this young boy who has a life to live.’ Burke, 9 years old at the time of the murder, is now a seventh- grader in an exclusive private school in Atlanta. ‘He’s like all 12- year-olds,’ says his grandmother Nedra. ‘He has a laptop, one of the very best money can buy, and he wants to be on that computer all the time. He’s an excellent student.’

The Ramseys, who have been staying in the Atlanta area while their cream- colored brick mansion in the same city is renovated, regularly attend services at the Evangelical church of the Apostles. This summer, the family stayed with friends in Charlevoix, a pictureresque resort community where they once owned a summer home.

Harsh reality intervened in early October, when the Jon Benet grand jury was nearing the end of its term. Regardless of their guilt or innocence, the Ramseys seem trapped in a state of limbo, perpetual suspects unlikely to be either charged or cleared. As the three- year anniversary of Jon Benet’s murder approaches- and as officials remain stumped as to how to bring the case to any kind of resolution- the Ramseys are bracing for another difficult holiday season. ‘Christmas has no meaning to us anymore,’says Patsy’s mother, Nedra. ‘We exchange gifts, but we’re quiet. It’s not like it used to be.’

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20