RICK’S BLOG: COULD THE JONBENET MURDER CASE BE ANY MORE SCREWED UP?

BY RICK GRANT rickgrant01@comcast.net Posted 9/7/2006

District Attorney Mary Lacy’s incredible blunder spending mega-bucks bringing a delusional Mark Karr back to Colorado in business class, which included a champagne dinner, is another stupid mistake in a long list of police and DA’s incompetence involving this now ice cold case. In the beginning, just after the crime, the Boulder detectives let countless people tread through the crime scene, which was never properly secured. Never has a police force so blatantly ignored the basic rules of securing evidence. They were modern Keystone Cops.

More significantly, the police never throughly searched the house to find the body of JonBenet. It was only after over an hour that her body was found by her father, John Ramsey, who tampered with the crime scene by picking JonBenet up and carrying her upstairs. Clearly, the Boulder police bungled the case from the very start. Then, even when they had foreign DNA and a boot print from the scene that did not match anyone in the household or any of the relatives, the police focused on the Ramseys, hounding them unmercifully. It was as if the police were trying to frame the Ramseys by making the evidence point to them.

When the contingent of investigators from the DA’s office picked up Karr in Thailand with a media circus surrounding them, it quickly became apparent from Karr’s bizarre "confession" that he was a nut job. His relatives quickly notified the Boulder police that Karr was with them that Christmas. Even Karr’s parents’ neighbor said he saw Karr there that Christmas. Before Karr even got on the plane to travel back to the States, his story was falling apart. Yet, there he was enjoying every minute of his fifteen minutes of fame. I theorized he wanted to leave Thailand, but he couldn’t afford the plane ticket so he became a JonBenet murder suspect and got a free ride back to the States.

The question on everyone’s lips during this sorry episode was: Why the hell didn’t the DA, Mary Lacy get his DNA and compare it with the evidence sample before she had him sent back in style? Oh she had some lame excuse that he refused to give it in Thailand. Well, get a warrant and hold him down and take it- is what anyone with half a brain would have done. He was already in jail for having sex with an underage girl. They could have left him there while the test was completed. But nooo, Karr was obviously getting-off on the attention was treated like Mick Jagger on vacation. At that point, savvy observers, including me, were saying, "Ah yes, I know his DNA will not match?" And it didn’t. It was yet another embarrassing blow to the case that already had a long history of the police and DA’s screw-ups.

Patsy died in June thinking that this may be the guy. After her reoccurring struggles with cancer, the endless tabloid stories, and living under suspicion for all those years because of police stupidity, one could only feel grief for her loss and sorry for John. The evidence should have cleared the Ramsey years ago, but they were harassed by the Boulder police and media.
Indeed, this case is a classic example of what not to do in a murder investigation. By now, with this latest drama and the Karr fiasco, the case is so tainted by police and the DA’s misconduct, it may never be solved. Boulder DA, Mary Tracy should be fired for her role in this "Karr is Crazier Than A Mad Hatter" production starring the Boulder DA stooges.

Of course, now the case is back to square one–in the deep freeze. JonBenet's spirit cries out for justice. This little girl’s case deserves a blue ribbon panel of investigators to start from scratch on the case and find the real killer–not some creepy pedophile who fantasizes that he and JonBenet were in love. Now Boulder, Colorado will forever be known as the home of the dumbest police force and DA in America.