JonBenet case adrift after mom's death

By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News

One of the country's foremost forensic investigators on Sunday expressed pessimism about the fate of the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation in the wake of her mother's death.

"If she had a secret, then that secret is going to be gone forever, and it's going to be extremely difficult," said Dr. Henry Lee, chief emeritus of the Connecticut State Police forensic laboratory. He has consulted on the Ramsey case and countless other high-profile crimes.

"But on the other hand, if she did share a secret with anybody else, it may be easier now for that person to talk."

Patsy Ramsey, 49, succumbed to ovarian cancer early Saturday at her father's home in Roswell, Ga.

The family's lawyer, Lin Wood, was emphatic that she had no secrets to share.

"Patsy Ramsey was not involved in the death of her daughter," Wood said. "There was never going to be any sort of death-bed confession to a crime she did not commit."

Perceptions that Ramsey might have had anything further to say about JonBenet's murder in the mother's final days is galling to Wood, who won several victories for JonBenet's parents in civil litigation stemming from coverage of the case. He has championed their innocence during much of the past 10 years.

"It's another example of some of the injustices inflicted on the family over the years," said Wood.

The Ramseys eventually submitted to three separate sets of interrogations with law enforcement personnel, and in 2000 they hired respected California-based polygrapher Edward Gelb. He said the results of their tests showed they did not kill their daughter and did not know who did.

Wood maintained that, in recent years, "Things really did turn (in the Ramseys' favor), in view of the evidence in the case."

He cited specifically an unidentified male DNA sample recovered from JonBenet's panties that is now entered in the FBI's Combined DNA Index System national database.

That sample matches no member of the family, and so far has also not been linked to any known offender in the system.

But Lee is among the investigators who have reviewed evidence in the case and who downplay the DNA's significance.

"My personal opinion is that the DNA evidence in this case does not really shed any light," said Lee.

He cited the small size of the samples as a problem, and he contended that it is not definitively known that the DNA - which does not come from semen - is even that of the killer.

"We don't know how it got there, if it's from somebody's handling, or a secondary transfer - there's lots of possibilities," said Lee.

But the presence of the DNA and the failure to establish its origin, Lee said, is characteristic of the case that has frustrated innumerable investigators and specialists since JonBenet's beaten and strangled body was found in the basement of her family's home the afternoon of Dec. 26, 1996.

"Everything in this case is just so difficult, to have so many competing hypotheses," Lee said. "Every hypothesis that shows a negative also shows some positive."

Lee acknowledged that the Ramsey probe was plagued by mishandling of evidence at the crime scene - John Ramsey, for example, was allowed to find and recover his daughter's body, and carry it upstairs to his home's first level. Detective Linda Arndt moved the body a second time. There is nothing even the best sleuths can do to reverse such realities, said Lee.

By the time he was brought in on the case several months into it, Lee said, "The rice was already cooked."

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner ceded control of the Ramsey investigation in December 2002 to Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy, and Lacy has been extremely cautious in her public remarks on the case.

On Saturday, she said this was not the time to discuss the investigation's status. On Sunday, she did not return calls seeking comment.

Patsy Ramsey's passing coincided with the exhibition of some of her recent paintings at an arts fair in the Ramseys' adopted home of Charlevoix, Mich., with sales to benefit the Patsy P. Ramsey Ovarian Cancer Foundation.

She was to have been there to promote sales. But her trip was canceled, as her health failed in recent weeks, keeping her at her father's Georgia home.

John Haggard, a friend, had dinner in Charlevoix with John Ramsey about 10 days ago.

Ramsey didn't indicate that night that his wife's death might be imminent, said Haggard.

"No, no, he was very optimistic," Haggard recalled. "She had had a little turn-around, but he was very optimistic that she was a strong young lady and she was going to beat it again."

Haggard bought three of Patsy Ramsey's works on Sunday. He said much of her art depicted familiar Charlevoix sites such as a landmark lighthouse and the recently decommissioned World War II-vintage U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Acacia.

Upon hearing Lee's speculation on whether Patsy Ramsey had any secrets to share as she faced her end, Haggard was terse.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about," Haggard said. "I'm not going to answer that. She was too much of a classy lady (for me) to even address that."