Only hours after Patsy Ramsey's death from cancer over the weekend, news outlets across the nation began discussing the impact the death of JonBenét Ramsey's mother might have on the "investigation" in Boulder. For those of us involved in the case since it first started, we know there is no real investigation taking place. The notion that District Attorney Mary Lacy is committed to this case is wishful thinking at best.
After discovering minuscule samples of unknown DNA in JonBenét's underpants, Lacy publicly stated in 2003 that she believed there was more evidence pointing toward an intruder than the parents. The DNA samples were sent to the FBI national databank where the agency has failed to come up with a match.
Waiting for the FBI to come up with a match and having one or two investigators periodically review case files has become the substance of this so-called "investigation."
There were no active prosecutorial efforts to re-interview the Ramseys with professionally trained investigators. The Boulder Police Department has not been invited to actively participate in the case since it turned its case over to Lacy in December 2002.
There's really nothing happening at all. The notion that a real investigation is taking place is an illusion, according to law-enforcement officials I've talked to in Boulder and in other agencies.
It was apparent that JonBenét's chances of getting justice mostly dissolved when former Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter stepped down as the county's chief prosecutor.
Although some of the detectives investigating the case became frustrated with Hunter for not filing charges early on, most of us who knew him believed in him and felt he did his best. At the very least, Hunter kept the case active and expressed a genuine concern for seeing it come to a resolution.
I cannot say that I have the same level of faith or confidence in the current prosecutorial leadership. Frankly, it almost seems like the Ramsey case has become the pariah of Boulder law enforcement.
No one wants to get too deeply involved in what some detectives once called "the vortex case" because it dragged on and on and left a devastating wake of ruined careers and reputations in its path.
Very few officials want the case to resurface but, conversely, many people would consider it an outrage if JonBenét's case was abandoned.
That leaves Lacy with only one viable, "politically correct" strategy, and that's precisely what she's done by leaving the case "open."
That means that tens of thousands of pages of case reports sit on shelves inside the Boulder District Attorney's office. Occasionally, an investigator or two makes a phone call or visits someone to follow up on an old report. For those of us who would like to see JonBenét get justice, it's a dim glimmer of hope that one day something will actually happen.
But I think we know better.
Now that JonBenét's mother has passed away, people suspicious of her involvement may feel an investigation into JonBenét's death is moot. Those who think she was killed by an intruder must concede a renewed investigation would be a little late, at best.
Nonetheless, Lacy should decide whether or not her office is going to actively engage in the Ramsey case again and she should be clear about her decision. JonBenét and her family deserve better than this, and so do many of the detectives and prosecutors who toiled over her case in hopes of seeing her avenged.
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro ([email protected]) is a reporter who has written about the JonBenét Ramsey case for several news outlets during the past 10 years.
Originally Published in the Denver Post - June 27, 2006
