Read Online JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation by Steve Thomas - Free Book Online
Authors: Steve Thomas
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the original warrant. The detectives felt the long delay was again due to difficulty in getting the DA’s office to sign off on what should have been a routine search warrant addendum.
Among the items police now sought were the possible bludgeon that caused the head wound and any dark fabric that might account for the fibers found on the body. A red clay brick that appeared to have fibers stuck to it was retrieved from the living room fireplace, and a golf club with a blond hair on it was found in the backyard. They were also looking for traces of semen, and in the victim’s bedroom, ultraviolet light showed stains on the bed and surrounding carpet. The mattress was wrapped in plastic.
Detectives going through the house noted cobwebs in the tracks of various windows and found some windows painted closed. Dust and debris had gathered on other sills, giving no indication of forced entry. Some curious pry marks were found on a back door, but more and more, except for the broken window in the basement, it looked as though the big house had been locked up tight the night before.
A New International Version Study Bible was photographed on the desk of John Ramsey, open to the pages of Psalms 35 and 36. There was no way to know it at the time, but those verses were to play a critical role in the unfolding case. Beside the Bible was a greeting card JonBenét had made for her father, on which she had printed, “The best gift I can give is me.”
While the house search went on, other cops fanned out to canvass the neighborhood and conduct more interviews. A resident directly to the south reported that the light was off in the southeast corner sunroom of the Ramsey home and thought that odd because it was the only time she was aware in the past few years that it did not burn all night. A neighbor to the north would say that the butler kitchen lights were on around midnight and considered that unusual since it was the first time he had noticed that light being on in the Ramsey home. A third neighbor, to the west, said that her dogs, who barked at anyone walking in the alley, just as they did when the police officer came to question her, made no noise Wednesday night. It was impossible to make a 100 percent sweep because some people were away on holiday vacations, other houses had caretakers, and some just stood empty.
Additional interviews filled in small pieces of the Ramsey puzzle. An acquaintance said that JonBenét was rebelling against appearing in the child beauty contests. She was being pushed into the pageants by her mother and grandmother, said the witness. Someone else, who knew the family through the school JonBenét attended, said the girl so routinely presented gifts to her teachers on holidays that Patsy was asked to be more discreet because the feelings of other students were being hurt.
In-depth interviews were held with three important figures—former nanny Suzanne Savage, Ramsey’s personal pilot Mike Archuleta, and the housekeeper, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh.
Savage, a religious person who had spent eighteen months on a mission for her church, had no idea that she was among the first people the Ramseys had mentioned as a possible murder suspect. She had worked as a nanny and done some light housekeeping for the family from 1992 until 1994, when the children were small, but had not worked there full-time for three years.
Savage told police that she seldom stayed overnight at the Ramsey home but had occasionally slept in JonBenét’s bed and still had a house key. The Ramseys, she said, were very careful about locking their doors.
JonBenét usually slept with her door open in those days, said the nanny. This contrasted with Patsy’s earlier statements that the door had been closed when she reached the room and found it empty the previous morning.
Savage had only complimentary things to say about the Ramseys and the kids. You could make Burke behave by telling him no, she said, but sometimes JonBenét had
Among the items police now sought were the possible bludgeon that caused the head wound and any dark fabric that might account for the fibers found on the body. A red clay brick that appeared to have fibers stuck to it was retrieved from the living room fireplace, and a golf club with a blond hair on it was found in the backyard. They were also looking for traces of semen, and in the victim’s bedroom, ultraviolet light showed stains on the bed and surrounding carpet. The mattress was wrapped in plastic.
Detectives going through the house noted cobwebs in the tracks of various windows and found some windows painted closed. Dust and debris had gathered on other sills, giving no indication of forced entry. Some curious pry marks were found on a back door, but more and more, except for the broken window in the basement, it looked as though the big house had been locked up tight the night before.
A New International Version Study Bible was photographed on the desk of John Ramsey, open to the pages of Psalms 35 and 36. There was no way to know it at the time, but those verses were to play a critical role in the unfolding case. Beside the Bible was a greeting card JonBenét had made for her father, on which she had printed, “The best gift I can give is me.”
While the house search went on, other cops fanned out to canvass the neighborhood and conduct more interviews. A resident directly to the south reported that the light was off in the southeast corner sunroom of the Ramsey home and thought that odd because it was the only time she was aware in the past few years that it did not burn all night. A neighbor to the north would say that the butler kitchen lights were on around midnight and considered that unusual since it was the first time he had noticed that light being on in the Ramsey home. A third neighbor, to the west, said that her dogs, who barked at anyone walking in the alley, just as they did when the police officer came to question her, made no noise Wednesday night. It was impossible to make a 100 percent sweep because some people were away on holiday vacations, other houses had caretakers, and some just stood empty.
Additional interviews filled in small pieces of the Ramsey puzzle. An acquaintance said that JonBenét was rebelling against appearing in the child beauty contests. She was being pushed into the pageants by her mother and grandmother, said the witness. Someone else, who knew the family through the school JonBenét attended, said the girl so routinely presented gifts to her teachers on holidays that Patsy was asked to be more discreet because the feelings of other students were being hurt.
In-depth interviews were held with three important figures—former nanny Suzanne Savage, Ramsey’s personal pilot Mike Archuleta, and the housekeeper, Linda Hoffmann-Pugh.
Savage, a religious person who had spent eighteen months on a mission for her church, had no idea that she was among the first people the Ramseys had mentioned as a possible murder suspect. She had worked as a nanny and done some light housekeeping for the family from 1992 until 1994, when the children were small, but had not worked there full-time for three years.
Savage told police that she seldom stayed overnight at the Ramsey home but had occasionally slept in JonBenét’s bed and still had a house key. The Ramseys, she said, were very careful about locking their doors.
JonBenét usually slept with her door open in those days, said the nanny. This contrasted with Patsy’s earlier statements that the door had been closed when she reached the room and found it empty the previous morning.
Savage had only complimentary things to say about the Ramseys and the kids. You could make Burke behave by telling him no, she said, but sometimes JonBenét had
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