08-05-2017, 03:16 PM
Quote: 1999-09-22: Rocky Mountain News: Ramsey grand jury to hear new witnesses
http://insidedenver.com/extra/ramsey/0922jury1.shtml
Ramsey grand jury to hear new witnesses
Parents of slain girl not subpoenaed to testify
By Charlie Brennan
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
September 22, 1999
BOULDER -- The JonBenet Ramsey grand jury will hear from new witnesses when it returns to work Thursday, according to a source close to the case.
And they're not John and Patsy Ramsey.
The parents of 6-year-old JonBenet, considered suspects in their child's Christmas night 1996 slaying, still have not been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury probing her murder, the source said.
The Ramseys, who now live in Atlanta with their 12-year-old son, Burke, have steadfastly maintained their innocence.
The grand jury's 18-month term expires Oct. 20. Exactly who will testify is unclear.
Burke Ramsey is the only family member known to have testified before the eight-man, four-woman panel. His testimony came just prior to the grand jury's May 25 meeting, which was followed by a layoff lasting all summer.
The list of those not yet called as witnesses contains another surprise.
A former executive at Access Graphics, the $1 billion Boulder computer software firm where John Ramsey worked as president and chief executive in 1996, said no one from that company has appeared.
"I don't know anybody from Access who has been called," said the executive who stays in touch with past and present company officials.
A 21/2-page ransom note Patsy Ramsey said she found in the house Dec. 26, 1996, when JonBenet was discovered missing suggested a possible business connection in the murder.
The note said the culprits represented "a small foreign faction" who told John Ramsey "we respect your business, but not the country that it serves."
Former FBI criminal profiler John Douglas, hired by the Ramseys, also concluded the crime was likely committed by someone outside the family, and possibly by someone with a business-related grudge against John Ramsey.
Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney who has followed the case closely, said the fact that apparently, few people -- if any -- from John Ramsey's former business have testified, could be telling.
"It means either the Boulder police have exhausted, independently of the grand jury, every slimly related lead, or the grand jury -- for whatever reason -- has focused elsewhere in the search for JonBenet's killer," said Robinson.
"The police, in general, have long had the Ramseys as their principle and apparently sole suspects. But even with that in mind, it would be beneficial to any eventual prosecution to rule out business jealousy or business-related anger as a potential motivation for the murder of JonBenet."
Robinson said the fact that more witnesses are scheduled to appear before the panel, which resumes its meetings Thursday after a four-month break, shoots down one popular theory.
"This suggests that the jury has not been spending the last few weeks working out the bugs on a report, in lieu of indictment -- which had been a plausible explanation for the hiatus," said Robinson, "and that they have not yet decided what to do. They want to make sure that no voice goes unheard before reaching a determination."
Those who have not yet appeared include former Ramsey neighbor Melody Stanton. Stanton, who has since moved out of Boulder, lived across the street from the Ramseys and told police she heard a child's scream not long after falling asleep Christmas night.
Her comments to police about the scream have been the subject of much analysis for what that scream might say about the possible time of death, and for what it might say about where, in the Ramseys' expansive home, the killing might have taken place.
Authorities have never specified a time of death in the case. The Ramseys told police they put JonBenet to bed shortly after arriving home from a party shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Christmas night.
Among those witnesses who might still be scheduled could be some of the same case investigators who passed through the courtroom in the grand jury's first days last fall.
Former prosecutor Dave Heckenbach, who ran grand juries for the Denver district attorney's office from 1986 to 1992, pointed out that as recently as early summer, some of those detectives were still actively interviewing witnesses and seeking additional evidence.
"If they've done a lot of work, between the last time they met and now, the grand jury would have to meet a few times -- or have one megasession, depending on how much work the police have done in the interim."
Grand Jury witnesses
Some of the people known to have testified before the Ramsey grand jury:
Mike Archuleta -- Private pilot who was scheduled to fly the Ramseys to their Michigan vacation home the day after Christmas 1996.
Linda Arndt -- Now-retired Boulder Police detective, the first investigator on the scene.
Dr. Francesco Beuf -- JonBenet's pediatrician.
Debbie Chavez -- Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensics expert.
John Douglas -- Former FBI criminal profiler hired by the Ramseys.
Michael Everett -- Among the first Boulder Police detectives assigned to the case.
John and Barbara Fernie -- Friends of the Ramseys who were summoned to the home after JonBenet was discovered missing.
Richard French -- One of the first Boulder patrol officers on the scene. He searched the house shortly after arriving, without locating JonBenet's body.
Ron Gosage -- Boulder Police detective working the case from its first days.
Pam Griffin -- Ramsey family friend and seamstress who assisted with JonBenet's beauty pageant costumes.
Jane Harmer -- Boulder Police detective involved in the case from the beginning.
George Herrera -- CBI fingerprints expert.
Linda Hoffmann-Pugh -- Ramseys' housekeeper at the time of JonBenet's death.
The Rev. Rol Hoverstock -- Minister from the Ramseys' church, summoned to the home in the first hours of JonBenet's disappearance.
Larry Mason -- Boulder Police sergeant removed from the case in its second week when he was wrongly accused of leaking information to the press.
Dr. John Meyer -- Boulder County coroner; he performed the autopsy on JonBenet.
Fred Patterson -- Boulder Police detective, among the first on the scene.
Carol Piirto -- Burke Ramsey's third-grade teacher.
Merv Pugh -- The husband of Linda Hoffmann-Pugh; he had done some work at the home a month before the murder.
Burke Ramsey -- JonBenet's brother, now 12, the only person other than her parents known to be in the house at the time she disappeared.
Lou Smit -- Retired Colorado Springs homicide detective who worked on the case for the district attorney's office.
Tom Trujillo -- A Boulder Police detective on the case since its earliest days.
Chet Ubowski -- Colorado Bureau of Investigation handwriting analyst who concluded that Patsy Ramsey may have written the ransom note linked to JonBenet's murder.
Barry Weiss -- Among the first Boulder patrol officers at the Ramsey home.
Fleet and Priscilla White -- Ramsey friends called to the house the morning of JonBenet's disappearance. Fleet was in the basement with John Ramsey when the child's body was found.
Tom Wickman -- The Boulder police detective sergeant who has supervised the investigation since the early days.
September 22, 1999