09-10-2017, 11:47 PM
Quote:1998-02-06: Ramseys' trip to Spain strictly business Friend (Jim Marino) says - February 6, 1998
Ramseys' trip to Spain strictly business, friend says
By Lisa Levitt Ryckman
Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
February 6, 1998
John Ramsey went to Spain recently to investigate a possible business venture, not to scout locations for a new home, a longtime friend said Thursday.
Ramsey, now a consultant for Lockheed Martin Corp. in Atlanta, traveled to Spain with his wife, Patsy, to check out a software company that produces a video software package, Jim Marino said.
"He is not looking to move to Spain. He was looking at the possibility of buying the rights to distribute the software in the U.S.,'' said Marino, who has been a Ramsey friend and business associate for more than 20 years.
Speculation that the Ramseys were planning to move overseas began after a reporter for a supermarket weekly followed them on a recent trip to Spain. Rumors spread that the Ramseys wanted to flee to Spain to avoid extradition if they were ever charged in the murder of their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet.
"That sounds like a ridiculous proposition, because we do have an extradition treaty with Spain,'' said Curt Bradley, a University of Colorado professor of international law.
"That treaty certainly covers murder.''
The Ramseys have insisted they are innocent in the Dec. 26, 1996, death of JonBenet, whose battered body was found in the basement of the family's Boulder mini-mansion by her father. Police have said the Ramseys remain under an "umbrella of suspicion.'' No arrests have been made and no charges brought in the 14-month-old investigation.
Ramsey attorneys have said the couple and their 11-year-old son, Burke, have no plans to leave Atlanta, where they moved last summer and are surrounded by family and close friends.
Ramsey became a Lockheed consultant after the company traded his Boulder-based Access Graphics to a division of General Electric Co. in a $2.8 billion stock swap in November. Ramsey, who built Access into a $1 billion company, also has been investigating other business opportunities, Marino said.
"John's a hands-on guy. He went out and looked at (the software company) on his own,'' Marino said.said of the Spain trip. "It's not a done deal. It's just something he's interested in.''