patsy - i did not kill my daughter you. i did not write the ransom note. and i don't know who did either of thosethings someone was in our home the night indecember twenty-fifth and murdered our daughter while we slept. the district attorney and his topprosecutor to police chiefs and a large number ofcops although so at odds on some points that they almost came to blows all agreed on one thing: that probablecause existed to arrest patsy ramsey in
connection with the death of herdaughter there was someone who is not amember of our family in our home that night took jonbenetfrom her bed in an murdered her. i found a ransom note i found my daughter missing from herbedroom and several hours later our daughter wasfound dead in her home it's my belief that whoever wrote theransom note
probably had something to do with hermurder. we know for a fact that there was a... a deliberate and thought out effort on the behalf for the police atthe at the direction of the fbi to publiclyassassinate our character and discredit us and bring massivepressure on patsy i in hopes that one of us would confess
or break and turn the other one in. john - i remember the kids bounding into ourroom that morning excited to open theirpresents our normal tradition is that i go downstairs turn on the christmastree lights i brought a bicycle out of the garage thati had as a surprise for patsy the kids came down we open presentsjonbenet wanted me to take movies but my battery was dead. we had breakfast.
christmas breakfast. at some point i went out to the airportto pre-pack some gifts in the airplane check it out get itready for an early morning departure i remember kids being in and out of the house when i was there. neighborhood kids. i remember jonbenet asking me to... help a ride a bike around the corner,round the block.
her new bike she had gotten for christmas. we....we're gonna go to the whites. that evening for dinner. we went to the whites house with had family and relatives. friends i guess, we were perhaps the only friends there. for christmas... dinner. john – i did not kill my daughter, jonbenet.
we left... patsy want to drop two gifts off at the walkers and the stein's. which we did on the way home. we pulled in the driveway into thegarage. jonbenet... was asleep in the back of the car. i carried her upstairs and put her to bed. darnay – ahhhh, was that the last time you saw jonbenet alive? john – yes it was.
john - well i got up. was showering. getting prepared for a trip. that we were leaving on early that morning. i hard patsy scream. i ran downstairs. she told me that jonbenet was missing. ther was a ransom note. she asked me what should we would? i said call the police.
sometime during that frantic... ...period we checked on burk. he appeared to be asleep to us. and i focused all the energy i couldfocus on getting my daughter back. a uniformed officer arrives... ...reasonably quickly. i think it was french... was the first one there. officer frenchhe spoke to me. i told me my daughter had beenkidnapped he said, "do you think she might have just runaway?"and "i said, for heaven's sake she's only six years old."
no. i don't. he asked us all to... patsy and i, to stay in the sunroom. justa small room off our living room. other people arrived the police arrived. they asked to useour cell phones because there's were dead. they asked us to do a number of things. they inquired us to leave that room. i remember telling, i believe it was linda arnt, that ithought all the doors were locked.
and i didn't understand how someone could have gotten in, of course i learned later that ...one of the doors was found wide open. john – oh, they asked... "was anyone angry with you at work?" was anyone around you acting peculiar.... ...recently in the last few days. anyone you could think? ...that would do such a thing. i know thatin terms of people that... ...were angry with me at work i mentionjeff merrick
who we had terminated. due to performance and he was extremelyangry.... ...to the point of making threats. in the past six months prior to that. patsy made me aware of linda hoffman pews strange behavior justprior to. but you need to ask patsy about that. i have a vague recollection of tellingof telling lynda arnt that i found an open window. with broken glass but i perhaps a brokenneck last myself...
...months earlier. she told me to go throughthe house and look for anything go through thehouse thoroughly as i recall and look for anything itseems out of place. and so my intent was to do it... ...thoroughly. i went back... ...into the training room. showedfleet the broken window. i explained to him that i might havebroken it myself... ...months ago. showed him the suitcase that i saw...
...under the window which i thought wasvery out of place we we, ahhh...looked for any large pieces of brokenglass. and then i got up. and went to the cellar room. opened the door... ...and found jonbenet. i saw a white blanket and iknew immediately and found jonbenet. darnay hoffman - when you found the white blanket what did you do?
i took the tape off from her mouth i trieduntie the... ...the cord was wrapped around her arms and i kissed her and talk talker. darnay - did you do anything then? after that. john - i realized that ahhhh..... she wasn't just asleep that this was... ...not good. patsy – i found a ransom note
i found my daughter missing from her bedroom. and several hours later our daughter wasfound... ...dead in her home. darnay - and you don't feel it was a member ofyour own family is that correct? patsy - no, sir. it was not a member ofmy family. darnay - ok. darnay - mrs. ramsey i'm going to show you a document.
i'd like you to look at it and take you timeand i want to ask you... ...if you recognize ...the photograph? can you identify any ofthe individuals in the photograph? just jonbenet. okay. i'm, i would like you to now look atthe handwriting below the photograph. patsy - mmmhmmm.... darnay - do you recognize the hand writing? patsy - mmmmmmm....
not particularly. darnay - alright. do you, so uhmmm...you say not particularly youdon't recognize this is as being... ...you're handwriting? is that correct? i don't remember writing it. is that what you mean? i mean, i don't know i may have...i... darnay - alright but do do you recognize thehandwriting is being your handwriting? patsy - no. darnay - now we're gonna go to another exhibit do you recognize any of the handwriting as... ...being your handwriting?
patsy - not particularly. darnay - so you can say with anydegree of certainty that that was your handwriting. darnay – mrs. ramsey what i'm showing you is… ...a series of letters. and i'm not identifyingtheir source i'm just simply showing you... a series of letters. i'd like you to look at them carefully. darnay – can you know without knowing... ...the source or where these layers arefrom? identify any of them?
patsy – no, sir. darnay - i'd like you look at the letter b and tell me if the those b's look at all... ...similar to you patsy - well they're both... ...lower case b's. darnay – is there anything about the bees that... ...that to you look similar beside the factthat their lower case. darnay - the way they're drawn? pasty - no. notparticularly.
darnay - ok. i'm gonna ask you then to look tothe letter above the letter... ...that we've identified as be and whatlooks like it could be a g. and i would ask you to look at the g. patsy - mmmhmmm. darnay - and i'm gonna ask you whether or not yousee any similarities between... ...the g's and what the similarities are. patsy - well their both lower case g. they're both more the same size than the b's are. darnay - what about the way in which the thatlooks like would be described as a tail...
...with the g. is there any similarity with respect to that? patsy - it, it swings to the left. darnay - right. do they look similar details tothe g? patsy - somewhat. i mean... a g, you make a g with the tail to the left. patsy - is that what you mean? one's squigley and one is smoother.
i'd say the most similar in size. the one on the right is more… shaky it looks like. darnay - and what about the one on the left? patsy - t's not a shaky in the one on the right has a lil... ...swoop up on the tail and one on the leftdoes not. patsy - the one on the left has a... ...thicker circle... ...of part of the g.
and the one on the right. darnay - k. the next object or letters look like theymight be 'o's, the letter o. please, point out any similarities ordissimilarities that you see. patsy - i don't think they look a thing alike. one is large one is small. one is really heavy. and...
...and feathered, kind of, and one is... ...smoother. any other similarities or does similarities, .before i move on that you'd like to... patsy – they both have a...an opening in the middle. darnay – we're you aware that there was a part in the ransom note where you were told not to contact the authorities? patsy - i...i think i read that later. darnay - did you think there might be... a chance that if you called a group ofpeople over to the house that was being observed that the
kidnappers might in fact see that youdisobeyed a condition of their ransom note. patasy - well, that just didn't go through my mind at that time. darnay - whose idea was it to to call all thepeople that eventually arrived your friends or whatever.that came afterwards. patty – oh, i did that. darnay - k. is there..can you tell me why did that? patsy - it just seemed instinctive. it was just kinda very... ...stressful time and i... ...was...call on friends.
darnay - had you read the ransom note by that time? patsy - i don't think i had read all of it, no. darnay - mr. ramsy, i'm going to ask you tolook at... ...the document that's been mark plaintiff's exhibit 16 for identification. and i'm going to ask you if yourecognize this document? john - yes. i believe i do. darnay - could you identify it please? john - well, it appears to be a copy of the ransom note that we found in our home. darnay - does it look substantially like theransom note that you saw that morning?
john - yeah, i think so. darnay - ok. now, i mister ramsey i'm gonna ask you to... ...once again look at it and i'm gonna askyou... ...if in looking at it whether or not... ...you see any similarity between yourwife's hand writing... ...and the hand writing in the ransom? youpersonally? john - absolutely not. darnay - none at all? john - no.
darnay - not even a little bit? john - not even a little bit. darnay - alright. now, mr ramsey... john - patsy writes very neatly. darnay - mmmmhmmm. john - she's a feminine writer. john - there's misspellings in the note. john - she graduated at the top over her class. john - she doesn't misspell words like businesses and possession.
darnay - do you think the... ...ransom note writer was trying todisguise their identity? john - i've been told that, that was the intent but there are parts of it that... ...where that's broken down. i don't know which parts, but... darnay - do you think that maybe some other misspelling may have been... ...an attempt by whoever waswriting this note to... ...disguise their identity? john - i don't think sobecause i think they tried to be very
...articulate to the best to their abilityand ah.... ...the misspelling, misspellings were because didn't know how to spell those words. darnay - with respect to the sloppiness at the handwriting do you think it's possible that thehandwriting... ...the person who wrote this hand writing was trying to make their handwriting... ...look sloppy a normal? john - i, i don't know. i....it's very sloppy hand writing. i would agree with that. darnay - mr ramsey, were you ever told that mrs ramsy...
...could not be eliminated from any... ...of the hand writing investigation beingdone... ...by the colorado bureau of investigationdid anybody ever tell you that? john - i was told that... ...it was... ...virtually....ah..... ...certain that she did not write the note. but, that there were some similarities... ...which exist in all of our hand writingbecause we've all been taught the same.
and that's how we communicate is with thewritten language in english but that's because of these fewsimilarities... ...ahhh... she could not be absolutely eliminated. but it was highly improbable... ...that she wrote the note. and that in fact... ...there were more dis-similarities inher writing... ...than a number of other people that had been looked at. darnay - right. do you know if your handwriting was... ...examined by the law enforcement? john - far as i know, it was.
darnay - do you know whether or not you were eliminated as the author of the note? john - i was told that...ah..... ...on a scale of one to five, patsy.... ...was placed at 4.5 in terms ofprobability in other words... ...it was a very low probability. mine wasa 5. darnay - i'm going to ask you if you recognize without naming anybody any other figures... ...in that particular document? john - i think irecognize two. darnay - ok. now, i'm going to i ask you to look at the...
...handwriting beneath the document and i'm going to ask you... ...if you recognize that handwriting? john - i do not. darnay - could it be your wife's handwriting? john - i don't recognize it doesn't look likepatsy's writing. it's, it's sloppy, its ahh.... irregular. i would not look at that and say that'spatsy's handwriting. darnay - thank you. now, i'm going to hand you... ...plaintiff's exhibit number 2 that wasmarked for identification yesterday and...
...i'm going to ask you... ...to please look at that. darnay - now, i'm gonna ask you if you canidentify without naming... ...the individuals in those photographs. any of them? john - yes. darnay - now i'm going to ask you to look at the handwriting and tell me if you can... ...recognize handwriting? darnay - could that be your wife's hand writing?
john - i doubt it very seriously. darnay - tell me why you don't think it's your wife's hand writing? john - it doesn't look like your handwriting. it's, it's a....sloppy. it's ahhh..... just doesn't look like your handwriting. john - no, i do not base my opinion on... ...the reports that i've heard from others. ibase my opinion on... ...that i know my wife. i would stake my life on the fact...
...that she did not murder child. she did not... ...fake i all this nonsense. and she did not write this bizarre note. that's what i stake my belief mr hoffman. darnay - so, it's not based on anythingempirical? such as... john - the empirical information... ...supports that belief. totally. darnay - alright. i'm just, wanting to determine whether you'refamiliar with the empirical information... ...that supports it.
darnay - i'm trying to distinguish between the belief in your wife... ...which is understandable. and a belief that comes from actuallyhaving... ...looked to forensic evidence the youpersonally have had an opportunity to... ...to to view. in light of the fact that you have... ...admitted that you have not physically seen... ...ahhh...the handwriting ports themselves. but may be relying on a, summaries from... ...the people around you.
why are you so certain... ...that mrs ramsey is not the ransom notewriter? john - because i know my wife. i know how much she loved jonbenet. i know how much you valued life. shevalued... ...every day that she lived and lived everyday... ...to its fullest as if it were a gift fromgod. are you aware that there are handwritingexperts... ...i that are working on behalf of chris wolfe? who have concluded...
...the patsy ramsey is as one of them said... ..."without doubt the ransom note writer". john -they're wrong. and probably made probably a serious career limiting... ...decision if that in fact is theirstatement. darnay - probably like on... john - that's something... ...that neither the cbi, the fbi the secretservice or the... ...top experts this country have ever said in fact quite the contrary.
darnay - how do you know that mr. ramsey? that they said... john - i've heard statements from the police. i've heard statements from the district attorney. i've heard the results... ...of what we consider and most peoplewould consider the top handwriting... ...experts, in linguistic experts in the country. all of which... ...have said... ...highly improbable... ...that patsy wrote the note.
darnay - yet, you've never actually seen any of these reports? john - i've never read any the reports i've never physically... ...been given to me. john - i think pats he was very clear that... ...she did identify handwriting that sherecognized as hers. darnay - and quite frankly, she may where he will have been telling the truth. lin wood - what might be interesting... john - quite frankly, she was telling the truth mr. hoffman. patsy - we are not afraid to face even our most vile...
...opponent and of which i consider thenational enquirer... ...to be one of the most vile. darnay - mmmm... patsy - and... you know, we have faced steve thomas. we have faced the national enquirer. we have... ...nothing to hide and i'm facing youtoday, mr hoffman. katie couric - as we've been reporting thisweek for the first time. patsy ramsey answered questions... ...under oath about murder herdaughter, jonbenet. john and patsy ramsey are being sued by a man they say "represented...
...too many unanswered questions in jonbenet's death". it's been nearly five years since thelittle girl was murdered and no arrests... ....have been made. lin wood is the lawyer for the ramsey family mr wood, good morning. lin - good morning, katie. katie - why was this the first time that patsy ramsey... ...answered questions under oath that seems awfully strange to people since this... ...investigation has been going on foralmost five years. lin - there was never a request that she...
...testify under oath to be interviewedunder oath. that would not be routine... ...police procedure. det steve thomas - i believe she committed the murder i told smitt and proceeded to lay out what i... ...thought it happened. in my hypothesis an approaching fortiethbirthday the busy holiday season... ...an exhausting xmas day an argument with jonbenet... ...had left patsy frazzled. her beautifuldaughter whom she frequently dressed... ...almost as a twin had rebelled againstwearing the same outfit as her mother. when they came home john ramsey helped...
...burke put together a christmas toy. jonbenet who had not eaten much at the white's party was hungry. her mother let her have some pineappleand then the kids were put to bed. john ramsey read to his little girl. then hewent to bed. patsy stayed up to prepare... ...for the trip to michigan the nextmorning. a trip she admittedly do notparticularly want to make. later, jonbenet awakened after wetting her bed as indicated by the plastic sheets the... ...urine stains, the pull-up diaper packagehanging halfway out of a cabinet. and the balled up turtleneck found in thebathroom.
i concluded that the little girl hadwarned the red turtleneck to bed... ...as her mother originally said and thatit was stripped of twenty got wet. as i told smitt i never believed thatthe child was sexually abused for the... ...gratification if the offender. but the vaginal trauma was some sort ofcorporal punishment. the dark fibers found in her pubic region could have come from the violent wiping of a wet child. patsy probably yanked out the diaperpackaging in cleaning up jonbenet. patsy would not be the first mother to losecontrol in such a situation. one other doctors we consulted citedtoileting issues is a textbook example...
...of causing a parental rage. so on my hypothesis there was some sortof explosive encounter in the... ...child's bathroom. sometime prior to 1 o'clock in themorning. the time suggested by the... ...digestion rate of the pineapple found inthe child's stomach. i believe jonbenet was slammed against ahard surface such as the edge in the tub. inflicting a moral head wound. she wasunconscious but her heart was still beating. patsy would not have known that jonbenet was still alive because the child... ...already appeared to be dead.
the massive head trauma would haveeventually killed her. it was the critical moment what she hadeither call for help her find an... ...alternative explanation for herdaughter's death. it was accidental in the sense that thesituation had developed without motive... ...or premeditation. she could have call for help but chose not to an emergency room doctor probably would have questioned the "accident" and call the police. still little would've happened to patsyin boulder. but i believe panic over took her. john and burke continue to sleep while patsy moved...
...the body of jonbenet down to the basement... ...and hid her in the little room. as ipictured the scene... ...her dilema was that the police wouldassume the obvious, if a six-year-old child... ...was found dead in a private home.... ...without any satisfactory explanation. patsy needed a diversion... ...and plan the way she thought a kidnapping should look. she returned upstairs to the... ...kitchen and grabbed her tablet and felttip and flipping to the middle of the tablet. and started a ransom note drafting onethat ended on page 25.
for some reason she discarded thatone and ripped pages 17... ...through 25 from the tablet. police never found those pages. on page 26 she began the "mr and mrs, i" then abandoned that false start. at some point she drafted the longransom note. by doing so she created the... ...government's best piece of evidence. she then faced the major problem of whatto do with the body. leaving the house carried the risk of johnor burke awakening at the sounds... ...and possibly being seen by a passer byor a neighbor.
leaving the body in the distant almostinaccessible basement room was the best option. as i envisioned it patsy returned to thebasement, a woman caught up in panic... ...where she could have... ...seen perhaps by detecting a fateheartbeat or sound or slight movement... ...that although completely unconsciousjonbenet was not dead. others might argue that patsy did notknow the child was still alive. in my hypothesis she took the next steplooking for the closest... ...available items in desperation. only feet away was her paint tote.
she grabbed a paintbrush in broke it tofashion the garrett with some cord. she then, then she looped the cord aroundthe girl's neck. in my scenario she choked jonbenet frombehind with the grip on a broken paint brush handle... ...pulling the ligature. jonbenet, still unconscious would have never felt it. there are only four ways to die. suicide, natural, accidental or homicide. this accident my opinion had just becomea murder. then the staging continued to...
...make it look like a kidnapping. patsy tied the girl's wrists and front.not in the back. for otherwise the arms would not havebeen in the overhead position. but, with a 15 inch length of cordbetween the wrists... ...and the knot tied loosely over theclothing, there was no way such a binding ...would have restrained a live child. it was a symbolic act to make it appearthat the child had been bound. patsy took considerable time with herdaughter... ...wrapping her carefully in the blanketleaving her with a favorite pink nightgown.
as the fbi had told us a stranger wouldnot have taken such care. so i told lou, i thought that throughout thecoming hours... ...patsy worked on our staging such asplacing the ransom note where she would... ...be sure to find it the next morning. she placed the tablet on the countertopright beside the stairs and put the pen in the cup. while going through the drawers and underthe counter top... ...while going through the drawersunder the countertop where the tape... ...where the tablet been, she found rolls oftape. she placed the strip from a roll of ducttape across jonbenet's mouth.
there was bloody mucus under the tape ina perfect setup that child's lip prints... ...which did not indicate a time impressionor resistance. i theorize that patsy... ...trying to cover her tracks took theremaining cord tape... ...and the first ransome note out of the house that night perhaps dropping them in a nearby storm sewer... ...or among the christmas debris inwrappings in a neighbor's trash can. she was running out of time. thehousehold was scheduled to wake up... ...early to fly to michigan and in herhaste patsy ramsey did not change... ...clothes a vital mistake.
with the clock ticking and hearing herhusband moving around upstairs... ...she stepped over the edge. the way i envisioned it... ...patsy screamed in john ramsey coming out the shower... ...responded totally unaware of what hadoccurred. burke awakened by the noise... ...shortly before six o'clock in themorning... ...came down to find out what had happened. and was sent back to bed as his mother... ...talked to the 911 emergency dispatcher.
patsy ramsey open the door to officerrick french about 5:55 a.m. on the... ...morning of december 26 1996. wearing a red turtleneck sweater andblack pants... ...the same thing she had worn to a party the night before. her hair was done. her makeup was on. in my opinion she had never been to bed.the diversion work for seven hours... ...as the boulder police thought they weredealing with a kidnapping john ramsey in my hypothetical scenario... ...probably first grew suspicious whilereading the ransom note that morning.
which was why he was unusually quiet. hemust have seen as wife's writing... ...mannerisms all over it everything, but her signature. but wherewas his daughter? he said in his police interview that hewent down to the basement when detective... ...ardnt noticed him missing. i suggested that ramsey found jonbenet at that time and was faced with the dilemma of his life. in the next few hours hisbehavior changed markedly as he... ...desperately considered his few options. submit to the authorities. or try tocontrol the situation.
he had already lost one child, beth andnow jonbenet was gone too. now, patsy was possibly in jeopardy. the stress increase steadily during the... ...morning for patsy in my theory. knew that no kidnapper was going to callby 10 o'clock. and after john found the... ...body he knew that too. so when detective linda ardnt told them tosearch the house... ...he used the opportunity and made abeeline for the basement. then tormented as he might be, he choseto protect his wife.
within a few hours the first of hismany lawyers was in motion. the private investigators a day later. that's the way i see it i said to lou smitt. that's how evidence, that's how the evidence fits to me. she made mistakes and that's how wesolve crimes, right? i reminded him his own favorite saying, murders are usually what they seem. gov. bill owens - if i could speak to john and patsy ramsey i'd tell them to quit hiding behind their attorneys. quit hiding behind their pr firm. come back to colorado. work with us to find the killers in this case.
no matter where that trail may lead. darnay - mrs ramsey... ...did you write the ransom note that was... ...discovered by yourself... ...on december 26, 1996? at your home? patsy - no, sir. i did not. a federal judge says there's no evidence that parents from jonbenet ramsey... ...killed their 6-year-old daughter. that's why she dismissed a lawsuit against them this week.
the us district court judge alsocriticized police and the fbi... ...for which he said was a mediacampaign aimed at making the ramsey's... ...look guilty. a lawsuit was brought by ajournalist whom... ...the ramsy's describe as a suspect in their book. the judge said the ramsey defamed him... ...but to win the case he had to prove theykilled their child.