The first development came several weeks ago when Boulder police surprisingly closed their investigation without finding the killer (meaning they couldn't browbeat Patsy into confessing to a crime she didn't commit). Only silence in Boulder.
Then came another stunning development (and another communitywide yawn): District Attorney Mary Keenan announced that she was taking over the investigation, an action that is virtually unprecedented for a DA's office anywhere. In doing so, Keenan said she is all but removing the parents from beneath Police Chief Mark Beckner's rusting "umbrella of suspicion." For years, the only named people put under that umbrella were John and Patsy, even though there are clearly other suspects.
Keenan also made it known that she is sending the case in a new direction. Her team, which includes Colorado Springs detective Lou Smit, is now aggressively pursuing Smit's intruder theory: that it was probably a pedophile who got into the house and brutally strangled, clubbed and sexually assaulted JonBenet, not a mother upset with a daughter for wetting her bed (the police theory).
No excitement. No atta-girls. Just criticism that Keenan shouldn't be letting the Ramseys off the hook until it is proven that somebody else did it. Moreover, goes the criticism, how can Keenan prosecute the Ramseys if evidence turns up that nails them? In my book, people should be saying, "Hooray for Mary. What she's doing really takes guts." And, "Isn't it the job of honorable prosecutors to clear suspects when the evidence isn't there or points elsewhere?"
Funny that Chief Beckner was never criticized for doing the reverse, of trying everything he could (including manipulating the media into an anti-Ramsey frenzy) to make the parents look guilty long before and long after a grand jury couldn't find the evidence to indict them in 1999.
And what about the so-called evidence? After 76 months of intense police scrutiny, the only solid evidence against the parents is that they were in the house when JonBenet was slain. That's it! The foreign DNA found in JonBenet's panties is not theirs. Nothing in the Ramseys' family history suggests even a hint of violent behavior or abuse. JonBenet's pediatrician will tell you he saw only loving care. The consensus of six handwriting experts is that Patsy probably did not write the three-page ransom note (which would take some doing for anyone - let alone a distraught mother - after committing such a horribly gruesome murder).
Then came the third remarkable development and the third disappointing, "so-what" response from Boulder and elsewhere.
A fresh, unbiased pair of eyes examined in detail the Ramsey case - the eyes belonging to veteran Federal District Judge Julie Carnes of Georgia. In a libel suit, where the plaintiff (another suspect) had to prove that Patsy was the killer in order to collect damages, Judge Carnes issued a powerfully worded 93-page opinion defending the Ramseys' innocence and supporting Smit's intruder theory.
Instead of sighs of relief for the Ramseys, Boulderites reacted as if nothing had happened. After all, didn't the media report that the judge had not seen all the evidence? Believe me, Judge Carnes had seen enough, especially evidence offered by Smit, to clearly spot the injustice and stupidity of a police investigation that should have been refocused long ago.
And don't forget that Mary Keenan has seen all the evidence several times over. In a statement April 7, Keenan praised Carnes' opinion as "thoughtful and well-reasoned." She added, "I agree with the court's conclusion."
Isn't it interesting that it has taken the courage of two women to point the male-dominated investigation in a new direction? It's noteworthy, I think, that both are mothers. While each knows that mothers are capable of killing their children, they obviously can see that it requires a wild stretch of the imagination to conclude that a woman with no violent behavior in her background could have done what some perverted animal did to JonBenet - savagely strangle her, brutally clobber her on the head and, as Judge Carnes said in her report, jam the handle of a paint brush into her vagina.
Then, for an encore, sit down and calmly write what is perhaps the longest ransom note in the history of kidnappings.
Isn't it time, Mr. and Mrs. Boulder, to quit turning your backs on the Ramseys and to show a friendly face of compassion? At the very least, can't you be grateful that a new investigation with new leadership is under way? One that you can trust?
