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Investigators 'excited' about new test results

Associated Press

The lead investigator in the JonBenét Ramsey slaying investigation said he is "excited" about recent test results on evidence taken from the girl's home, but would not comment on the findings.

"We were excited about it," Boulder Detective Cmdr. Mark Beckner said Wednesday. "They were some significant results."

Beckner first mentioned the test results Tuesday in comments to reporters after police wrapped up two days of evidence presentation to prosecutors and consultants.

He said police received "good results on an analysis we've been waiting on." On Wednesday, he said the results were from tests on evidence taken from the little girl's house.

JonBenét, 6, was found Dec. 26, 1996, beaten and strangled in the basement of her parents home. No one has been arrested in the case.

Beckner said it's not unusual that police had just received test results.

"We have 1,058 pieces of evidence," Beckner said. "Five hundred pieces of that have been tested. When you're testing that much evidence, it takes a long time to get through it."

More testing is possible, he said.

"There is still more work that needs to be done on this evidence and other evidence," Beckner said. "As you're doing your analysis, you often times come up with more things that can or need to be done."

Police want District Attorney Alex Hunter to take the case to a grand jury. After this week's presentation, Hunter said he's leaning that way.

June 4, 1998

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Ramsey clothing offers clue

Pen in home used in ransom note, report says

Camera staff and wire reportr

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Police have new evidence in the JonBenét Ramsey slaying investigation from tests on clothes belonging to the little girl's parents, a television network reported Friday.
Fox Television quoted sources as saying an examination of clothes worn by John and Patsy Ramsey on the eve of the 6-year-old's killing is giving investigators new hope of solving the case.
Although police have never named them as suspects, JonBenét's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, remain under suspicion.
The former Little Miss Colorado was found beaten and strangled in the family's home on Dec. 26, 1996.
Both parents have vehemently maintained their innocence.
Neither Leslie Aaholm, Boulder city spokeswoman, nor Suzanne Laurion, spokeswoman for the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, would comment on the report Friday.
Boulder police asked the Ramseys to turn over the clothes they were wearing Dec. 25, 1996. The family complied with the request in January of this year.
According to an affidavit filed to secure a search warrant for the Ramseys' 15th Street home, Boulder County Coroner John Meyer found "numerous traces of a dark fiber" on JonBenét's vaginal and pubic areas.
Meyer also found dark fibers and dark hair on the outside of JonBenét's shirt, according to the affidavit.
Boulder police Cmdr. Mark Beckner, the lead investigator, told reporters earlier this month that there had been an important development in the case.
He refused to discuss it further, except to say it was "exciting." The test results had only become available a few days earlier.
Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter, who met with police for two days last week to discuss whether the case should go to a grand jury, agreed the new evidence was important.
He also said he was leaning toward giving the case to a grand jury, which could compel the Ramseys to testify.
Fox also reported laboratory tests confirmed that a Sharpie pen found in the Ramsey home was used to write the ransom note Patsy Ramsey said she found the day the child's body was discovered in the basement of the family's home.
Earlier tests confirmed the note was written on a notepad the family had used. An analysis of the handwriting on the note has proved inconclusive.

June 13, 1998

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Forensic chemist ready to testify
Ramsey grand jury to reconvene this week to hear from CBI expert

By Matt Sebastian
Camera Staff Writer

The grand jury investigating the unsolved slaying of JonBenét Ramsey, after taking a week off, is expected to reconvene Tuesday and hear testimony from a Colorado Bureau of Investigation forensic chemist.

Deborah Chavez, an investigator assigned to the CBI crime lab, on Friday said she has been asked by the Boulder County District Attorney's Office to appear before the grand jury this week.

"Last I was told it was Tuesday," Chavez said, noting she has not been subpoenaed.

Citing the secrecy of the month-old inquest, Chavez would not discuss any details of her upcoming grand jury appearance, nor would she address her duties at CBI.

Chavez, the wife of University of Colorado journalism professor Ray Chavez, would only identify herself as a forensic chemist.

But judging by the grand jury's recent focus on the 2½-page ransom note left at the crime scene, prosecutors might be planning to ask Chavez about the chemical breakdown of the ink on the note.

Her colleague Chet Ubowski, the agent-in-charge of the CBI lab and the bureau's handwriting expert, was seen leaving the grand jury courtroom with prosecutors after the panel's last meeting on Oct. 15.

It's believed Ubowski spent the day testifying to his analysis of the ransom note found at the Ramsey home early Dec. 26, 1996.

Eight hours after the discovery of the note, John Ramsey found the beaten and strangled body of his 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét, in a basement storeroom.

According to a search warrant affidavit, Ubowski determined in early 1997 that John Ramsey didn't pen the note, but that there were "indications" Patsy Ramsey might have been the author.

The Ramseys have denied any involvement in their daughter's murder.

Speaking hypothetically about the CBI's work on the Ramsey case, inspector Pete Mang told the Daily Camera last December that investigators could try and compare ink on the ransom note to the ink of various pens collected as evidence.

But, Mang cautioned, while such analysis can demonstrate whether a particular pen may have been used, such a conclusion would not be definitive. Unlike humans and their fingerprints, not every pen carries a unique ink.

October 24, 1998

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Ramsey kin to give DNA

The samples will be compared to evidence in JonBenét's murder

By Charlie Brennan and Lisa Levitt Ryckman
Scripps Howard News Service

Police will collect DNA samples and palm prints from five relatives of slain child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey in the Atlanta area next week.

The samples will be compared to evidence gathered in the investigation of her murder, which marks its two-year anniversary Dec. 26.

Police want to know the source of a palm print found in the basement of the Ramseys' Boulder home, a stain on the girl's underwear and tissue scraped from beneath her fingernails, according to sources close to the case.

Boulder Detective Ron Gosage called JonBenét's maternal grandparents, Don and Nedra Paugh, of Roswell, Ga., last week to schedule the tests, a source said.

Family members had no objection to the samples, which will be taken by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the source said.

Pam Paugh, JonBenét's aunt, said she is among the five relatives who will provide mouth swabs and palm prints. She said the other four are Don and Nedra Paugh, Polly Paugh Davis and Polly's husband, Grant Davis.

None of the five are known to have been in Colorado on Christmas night in 1996, when the murder took place.

The 6-year-old was found beaten and strangled in the basement, hours after her mother reported finding a ransom note.

Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, are under suspicion in an ongoing grand jury investigation, but vow they are innocent.

John Ramsey, in a Sept. 28 letter that urged the killer to surrender, wrote: "We have been told that the authorities have your DNA. They will know it is you."

Pam Paugh said it was her understanding that the DNA evidence that will be compared to the DNA from the five relatives "is not the DNA found under her fingernails.

"This is co-mingled DNA — JonBenét's mixed with someone else's," Pam Paugh said. "They have already tested it against John, Patsy and (son) Burke's DNA, and it doesn't match theirs."

Paugh criticized investigators for waiting two years to take samples and prints from other family members.

"Why weren't they running tests on everyone at the same time?" she said. "And they say they've done a complete and thorough investigation. I say not."

No new requests have been made of John Andrew Ramsey and Melissa Ramsey, the two adult children from John Ramsey's first marriage, or Burke Ramsey, said Jim Jenkins, their Atlanta lawyer.

He said he thinks the new evidence might be needed to exclude the relatives as suspects. It was likely generated by the grand jury probe, he said.

"This type of request is very routine for this kind of investigation, and a wise thing to do," said Jenkins.

"John Andrew and Melinda have complied with requests like that, and would continue to do so," he said.

The Ramsey grand jury last met on Tuesday. It's not expected to reconvene until next year.

December 4, 1998

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Another DNA sample taken in JonBenét Ramsey case

Daughter of former housekeeper has mouth swabbed for DNA

Camera staff and wire

Boulder police, still trying to match unidentified DNA found on JonBenét Ramsey's body, last week took a mouth swab from the 13-year-old daughter of the Ramseys' former housekeeper.

Linda Hoffmann-Pugh on Tuesday said police took a saliva sample Jan. 10 from her daughter, Ariana.

Hoffmann-Pugh said Detective Jane Harmer told her that Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter ordered the DNA sample collected.

Prosecutors are presenting evidence to a Boulder County grand jury investigating the Christmas 1996 slaying. The panel, which was convened in mid-September, met again Tuesday, although it's not known whether the jurors heard from witnesses.

There remain two unidentified DNA samples in the case: One is dried fluid from two sources found in the 6-year-old victim's underwear. The second was taken from beneath JonBenét's fingernails.

Hoffmann-Pugh, a Fort Lupton resident, believes her daughter's DNA was collected so she could be excluded as a suspect. Police have done that with dozens of family acquaintances, most recently swabbing the mouths of several Ramsey relatives in Georgia.

What puzzles Hoffmann-Pugh is the timing.

"I don't know why they couldn't have done this two years ago," Hoffmann-Pugh said. Previously, she said, police had only taken her daughter's fingerprints.

Suzanne Laurion, a spokeswoman for Hunter's office, declined to comment.

Earlier this month, Hoffmann-Pugh said she and her husband, Mervin Pugh, were scheduled to testify before the end of January. On Tuesday, she declined to say whether they have done so.

"They told me I'm not allowed to say whether I have or haven't," she said.

Hoffmann-Pugh said she and her daughter cleaned the Ramsey's Boulder home before a Dec. 23 Christmas party. The mother and daughter also attended the party.

Ariana and JonBenét spent a substantial amount of time together that day, Hoffmann-Pugh said.

"They were putting on make-up that day," she recalled.

It was two nights later that JonBenét was murdered sometime during the night. Her beaten and strangled body was found in the family's basement the afternoon of Dec. 26.

The former Little Miss Colorado's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, remain under suspicion, although they vehemently maintain their innocence.

Recent reports indicate Ramsey family friends John and Barbara Fernie already testified before the panel. There has been some dispute, though, as to whether that happened before the five-week holiday break or in early January when the grand jury returned to work.

The Fernies were in the Ramsey home the day JonBenét's body was found. When a detective asked John Ramsey to search the home, he and friend Fleet White descended into the basement while John Fernie went upstairs.

The grand jury will meet again Thursday.

January 20, 1999

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Source: DNA sample sought

Four Boulder detectives in Atlanta in connection with JonBenét murder case

By Charlie Brennan
Scripps Howard News Service

Detectives investigating JonBenét Ramsey's murder are in Georgia to get a DNA sample from at least one person who had not previously provided one, said a source close to the case.

"I know that it has been requested. It is in the works," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"They're cleaning up loose ends," the source added. "I assume they're not here to enjoy our fine spring weather, because it's 32 degrees today."

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents assisted Boulder police in December by collecting DNA samples from several Ramsey relatives in Georgia.

And in January, former Ramsey housekeeper Linda Hoffmann-Pugh of Fort Lupton said a mouth swab had been taken from her 13-year-old daughter, who had often accompanied her to the Ramsey home in Boulder before JonBenét was killed there.

Thursday's revelation indicated that unmatched DNA remains an issue in the investigation.

"Obviously, that's a problem, in this case," said the source. "I'd be looking for it, too, if I were them."

JonBenét, who was found beaten and strangled in her parents' basement Dec. 26, 1996, had a mixed biological stain in the underwear she was wearing when she was killed.

One component was the child's blood, but the second has not been revealed and has not been matched to anyone in the case through DNA analysis.

Also, DNA found under a fingernail has not been linked to anyone.

The source who confirmed the latest DNA request was nevertheless mystified as to why four Boulder detectives — including Detective Sgt. Tom Wickman, the case supervisor — had made the trip.

"It doesn't seem like it would take four of them to do that," the source said. "A couple of phone calls and one quick visit should be enough."

The unmatched DNA is not the only loose end in the 26-month-long investigation.

Police still hope to identify sources for a Hi-Tec shoe print found near JonBenét's body, a pubic hear found on a blanket over her body and a palm print on the door to the small basement room where her body was found.

Boulder police officials have confirmed the detectives' presence in Atlanta but wouldn't say when they arrived, when they will leave or why they were there.

JonBenét's death has been the subject of a Boulder County Grand Jury investigation launched Sept. 15. Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who moved to Atlanta, remain suspects in the case, but maintain they are innocent.

March 5, 1999

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Forensic expert called again

DA asks Henry Lee to consult on Ramsey case

By Christopher Anderson
Camera Staff Writer

Renowned forensic expert Henry Lee will be returning to Colorado to meet with Boulder County District Attorney's officials to discuss the JonBenét Ramsey homicide investigation, which a grand jury has been reviewing for seven months.

Lee, the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Safety and former consultant for the O.J. Simpson murder defense team, reportedly will be in the Boulder area later this week, marking at least his third trip here in connection with the Ramsey case.

Lee, who is working as a consultant to District Attorney Alex Hunter on the Ramsey case, said Tuesday from his Connecticut office that he did not know exactly when the meeting would be or what the prosecutors wanted from him. He did say the prosecutors had called the meeting.

Hunter's spokeswoman, Suzanne Laurion, declined comment on Lee's visit other than to say a meeting has been scheduled.

"We were hoping this would be a private meeting," she said.

In March, Lee met with Hunter in Connecticut as part of a crimes-against children symposium held at the University of New Haven.

When Lee met with prosecutors in February 1998 at a private room at the Denver International Airport, he said he believed the case had a 50-50 chance of being solved. He also attended a case presentation in Boulder in June 1998.

When asked Tuesday what he thought of the case, Lee said he has consulted with Hunter on crime scene photos and laboratory work in the past but couldn't comment on the case at this point because he hasn't been kept appraised of the day-to-day developments of the case.

"I really don't have the whole picture about the case," Lee said. "It is not going to be fair to them to make a comment."

It is not known whether Lee will be called to testify before the grand jury.

The grand jury investigating the Ramsey case met again Tuesday, but it is not known what was discussed.

Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant, who has also consulted with Hunter on the case, said it his belief the grand jury would be entering into its deliberative phase later this month. The grand jury, which has been convened for almost a year, can meet until April 22 before the district attorney must request an extension.

Grant said an extension is not unlikely since prosecutors would want to remove any "artificial" perceptions by jury members that they are under a time constraint to make a decision.

Unlike trial juries, a grand jury can come back after deliberations and ask to see more evidence or more witnesses.

Laurion said Tuesday a decision on whether to ask for an extension might not be made until the last day. Hunter has given indications it is being considered.

Six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in her family's basement Dec. 26, 1996.

Her parents John and Patsy Ramsey have been the focus of the investigation, although they maintain they are innocent.

It is not known whether the Ramseys have testified or will be called before the grand jury.

April 7, 1999