Ramsey News-2
Presented By
Bonnie M. Wells
Web site special:
DA Backed Intruder Theory For Years
Mary Keenan's Top Suspect In JonBenet
Slaying Was Man Who Played Santa
By Charlie Brennan
Rocky Mountain News
April 25, 2003
BOULDER -
District Attorney Mary Keenan went public April 7 with her belief that evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey case points to an intruder as the killer - not Patsy Ramsey.
But sources familiar with Keenan and the case say this isn't a new view for Boulder's top prosecutor. Keenan, in fact, has supported the intruder theory for nearly five years, dating to the summer of 1998, according to the sources.
Keenan's prime suspect was Bill McReynolds, who played Santa Claus at a Ramsey holiday party two nights before the Christmas 1996 murder of the 6-year-old beauty princess, the sources said.
"She was real hot on him" as a suspect, said one source.
"I would say she was real excited about it." Said another source close to the investigation, "She was hard-charging on Bill McReynolds. I'm basing this on my own conversations with her. She was convinced that McReynolds did it."
The circumstances that made McReynolds and his wife suspects were first closely examined in a story in the Rocky Mountain News that appeared March 2, 1997. The retired University of Colorado journalism professor and his wife, who were never charged with a crime and steadfastly denied any involvement, subsequently moved to Mashpee, Mass., in part to escape the glare of publicity.
McReynolds died there Sept. 2 after suffering a heart attack. The sources who said Keenan was once interested in McReynolds have not discussed the Ramsey case with her recently, and don't know her current thinking.
Keenan declined to be interviewed. Since her election to succeed longtime Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter in November 2000, Keenan has refused to answer reporters' questions on the controversial investigation, instead addressing it through prepared statements.
Keenan originally agreed to be interviewed by the News on the condition that the Ramsey case would not be a topic of questioning. But, upon learning that a reporter was contacting people close to her, and that the questions touched on perhaps Colorado's most notorious unsolved slaying, Keenan canceled the interview.
"I just can't be part of that," Keenan said.
Keenan is not alone. Despite the passage of time, several of those closest to the case have grown, if anything, increasingly reluctant to be quoted on any aspect of the beleaguered murder probe.
That is largely due to the success of Atlanta attorney L. Lin Wood, who represents JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. He has won dismissals of libel and slander cases against his clients as well as out-of-court settlements in cases they have brought against others.
It was a Wood victory - the March 31 decision by U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes dismissing a libel and slander suit against the Ramseys by Boulder journalist Chris Wolf - that triggered Keenan's April 7 statement.
Wolf had argued that the Ramseys slandered and libeled him in a book they co-authored by naming him as a suspect. Wolf contended they knew this to be false, because, he argued, they knew that JonBenet was killed by her mother.
Wolf and his attorney, Darnay Hoffman, fell far short of making a convincing case that Patsy Ramsey killed her daughter, Carnes ruled in a 93-page opinion. Keenan followed that opinion with her own statement.
"I agree with the Court's conclusion that 'the weight of the evidence is more consistent with the theory that an intruder murdered JonBenet than it is with a theory that Mrs. Ramsey did so,' " Keenan's statement read.
Keenan refused to elaborate, but Wood gave several interviews saying that her statement was a turning point in the case.
"This means that the nightmare that John and Patsy Ramsey have lived with, of being falsely accused of the murder of their daughter, is finally over," Wood said.
Keenan, Wood added, "knows every piece of evidence." He called her "the voice of authority" concerning the Ramsey murder and praised both Keenan and Carnes as courageous fact-finders. He declined to comment for this story.
It's not only law enforcement sources who say Keenan has long been a proponent of the intruder theory. A Boulder man who who has occasionally written on the case as a freelancer and has made a close study of JonBenet's murder remembers a conversation with Keenan during a chance encounter at a Boulder neighborhood grocery.
"Her basis for believing the Ramseys are innocent, as she explained it to me, is that the Ramseys don't have a history of being abusive parents that would be apt to kill their child," said Frank Coffman, who knew Keenan from volunteering on her 2000 campaign for district attorney.
Coffman said, "At least from what she told me about it, she was basing her opinion on the Ramseys' innocence on the fact that they don't fit the profile of murdering parents. This would have been the summer of 2000 that I talked to her."
Keenan - who joined the Boulder prosecutors' office in 1983 - was far from a silent bystander in the early stages of the investigation. Over the course of three days from June 22 to June 24 in 1998 - following a major presentation by Boulder detectives to the district attorney's office but before Hunter's announcement that he would take the case to the grand jury - the Ramseys submitted to a second round of interrogations. Keenan made an impression on investigators at that time.
Because the Ramseys distrusted Boulder police - who they believed were fixated on them as suspects - John Ramsey was interrogated by veteran El Paso County homicide investigator Lou Smit and grand jury specialist Michael Kane, while Patsy was grilled by Denver district attorney's investigator Tom Haney and Boulder prosecutor Trip DeMuth.
All interviews were videotaped and every few hours, completed tapes were transported from the Broomfield Police Department - where the interviews were conducted to avoid media attention - to Boulder, where they were studied by Boulder detectives and prosecutors, including then-Deputy District Attorney Keenan.
One source involved in those sessions recalls being told by colleagues that Keenan chided Haney for being too tough on Patsy Ramsey.
"Mary really had her nose in it, and thought that the Ramseys were being really pushed around," said another key law enforcement source.
Former Boulder police Detective Steve Thomas, who quit the department in 1998, wrote a book detailing his theory that Patsy Ramsey hit JonBenet in a flash of anger over bed-wetting. He eventually reached an out-of-court settlement after they sued him for his comments.
In one section of his book, he wrote: "Alex Hunter said that he thought Patsy Ramsey was involved. That was more than offset by comments from his staff. Deputy DA Mary Keenan said the body language of John and Patsy wasn't suggestive of deception, and that men were not in a position to judge Patsy Ramsey's demeanor."
Thomas wrote that Hunter's office was splitting into two camps. "A tentative plan was being drafted to assign three detectives to prosecutor Mike Kane to pursue the 'Ramsey theory,' and three more to Deputy DA Mary Keenan to go after the 'Intruder Theory.'
Keenan, my sources said, was intent on entering the case by breaking it wide open and arresting the real killer." Thomas could not be reached for further comment about Keenan's role.
Keenan is well-respected in Boulder as a strong victims' advocate. She established the Boulder County Sexual Assault Team, led sex offense prosecutions for Hunter's office and is co-founder of the Blue Sky Bridge Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization specializing in helping children who are victims of sexual abuse and their families.
One of the Ramsey-case veterans who spoke about Keenan only on the condition of anonymity said that her background appeared to affect her attitudes toward the Ramsey case.
"Right after the (June 1998) interviews, she went in and sat down and spent two hours talking to the Ramseys about their suspicions about Santa Claus," the source said.
"It was clear she thought this woman (Patsy Ramsey) was a victim. She is a very pro-woman prosecutor. Her whole life revolves around believing what women say. I think she is so empathetic she couldn't stand to watch someone, in her mind, being victimized."
Brennanc@RockyMountainNews.com or (303) 892-2742
{** Note by BMW / I had no idea that Bill McReynolds had died until I read the above article. I am quite saddened by this fact, because, as I see it, it is but one more door slammed in the face of truth and justice.
I can only wonder if anyone ever looked at that damned harp McReynolds claimed he owned, and upon which he carved the names of the dead children he had known. That gives me the creeps.
And I continue to wonder who abducted his own daughter and one of her friends, 22 years to the day of JonBenet's murder, and why no one was ever arrested ..... and why neither "woman" has ever came forward and spoke about the abduction and sexual violation of the friend.
But I guess, most of all, I wonder if McReynolds' ashes were scattered upon the mountain, after being mixed with the vial of glitter that JonBenet gave him, and that seemed so very important to him.
I don't wonder about the heart attack he had. It was predicted long ago .... on the hand of a child.
On the first page of Ramsey News I stated that I felt an urgency to get this information posted .... not knowing who would read it, or why I felt this urgency. I'm beginning to understand why.
This may be "out of line" ...well, probably not for me!! ... but I have a spiritual message for John Ramsey.
I saw a story on tv the other day about a company in North Carolina called SAS. I don't recall the owners name, but it is owned and operated by one man ... one very fair and honest man. There is no board of directors, no stocks, no bs to contend with and the company provides all kinds of benefits for the employees as well as day care, many social activities, etc.
"You find it ..... you go John ..... there is a place there waiting for you."
And to attorney Lin Wood, I'd like to say "Thank You." Not because I am involved in the Ramsey case in any way that is important, but because you stood by their sides when the rest of the world walked away. I know how it feels to be abandoned by collegues and friends, and to be called names that have never fit, but be unable to do anything about it.
Isn't it strange that Patsy is from "Wood" County West Virginia .... and the attorney that would ultimately lead her through a nightmare is named "Wood?"
Yeah, it's strange .... but right up my alley .... and there is something else "up my alley, and up Lin Woods' alley, if and when he's ready .... for details see...
The Hootin' Honey
Christmas 2003
DNA Evidence Found In Ramsey Murder Case:
ATLANTA, Dec. 27 (UPI) --
Fresh evidence in the Jon Benet Ramsey case could lead to a suspect seven years after the young beauty queen's slaying at her parents' Boulder, Colo. home.
DNA found in a blood stain on the 6-year-old's underwear has been turned over to the FBI to try and match, CNN reported Saturday.
"The DNA was never pursued by the Boulder PD in terms of tying to get it into any state or national databank," Atlanta attorney L. Lyn Wood told CNN.
Earlier tests showed the sample was from a male who was unrelated to the Ramseys, Wood said.
Wood said Boulder police did not pursue the lead and instead focused on the Ramsey family as suspects.
"They actually spent money and time trying to come up with an innocent explanation for the presence of that DNA," he said. "Any objective investigation into this child's murder would have focused on DNA."
All that's left for me to say is "Thank you Lord. It's been a long road, and it's not finished yet, but I believe I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and for this I am truly thankful." / Bonnie
2004 update: I understand that John Ramsey is running for congress. I wish him the very best and hope and pray he wins. It's about time we got some people in offices around this nation that have "been through the mill." Perhaps they will help "change the damned mill," before it devours all of us!
Bonnie
June 24th, 2006
It's been several years since Mary Keenan became the district attorney in Boulder, Colorado. In the beginning I'd hoped that she would be the person that would 'close the umbrella of suspicion' that Patsy Ramsey had been living under since the murder of her child. But, as with everything else in this nation, no action ever came, no indictments, no charges against anyone, no changes in attitude, nothing.
Patsy Ramsey had been fighting ovarian cancer at the time that JonBenet was murdered, and although it was in remission at that precise time, I thought the stress would bring it back with a vengence ..... since I believe stress is the single largest contributing factor to cancer [just my opinion folks]. And I wasn't entirely wrong, as a couple of years ago I learned that the cancer had in fact returned and Patsy was once again fighting for her life. Meanwhile, the horrible comments and accusations continued against her just as if she had already been tried and convicted.
It caused me to do some serious thinking about our 'system.' I recalled the O.J. Simpson case - the man was found 'not guilty' in a criminal trial, and yet, in a civil suit he was held 'financially' responsible. I said then, and I say now, this is insanity. Why bother with criminal trails and juries if their findings are to be ignored? Why not just let everyone sue everyone else and make all the attorney's happy [and rich] at once?
Well, Patsy Ramsey died this morning [June 24th, 2006] of cancer, so now the 'speculation' can start all over again, and this time they can bash a dead person who can no longer defend themselves.
It will provide ammunition for the gunners and print for the writers of our nation, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone finally makes a decision in the case at some point in the near future. I've been watching this for years. They wait until the 'accused' dies, and then all of a sudden, wow - it wasn't them after all! How sad. How incredably sad.
That's how it was in the Lisa Burkhammer case here in Ohio. Lisa's father lived under that damned umbrella of suspicion - an umbrella that was flug wide open by a lawman, I might add, - and he lived under it until the day he died. Only after the man went to his grave did they solve Lisa's case, and guess what, it wasn't her father at all. He didn't kill her. He hadn't forced her to run away from home, or any of the vicious gossip that had been spread around about the man. It was all lies.
They said his final words were for Lisa. I never knew him, and I never knew Patsy Ramsey, but way back in the beginning of both cases I said 'they' were wrong. I also said 'they' were wrong about O.J. Simpson too --- and I stand firmly on my own words to this day. O.J. didn't kill Nicole; Mr. Burkhammer had nothing to do with his daughter's murder; and Patsy and/or John Ramsey did not murder their daughter.
My deepest sympathy to John Ramsey, and a prayer for all concerned:
May the liars of this world be trodden under the feet of the accused until their words are broken into shattered pieces that fall like shrapnel to cut them as deeply as they have cut their victims:
May God grant Patsy's spirit the freedom and ability to bring forth the truth and the evidence to reveal the killer of her child, regardless of where he is, or who he is. / Amen.
Don't scoff folks -- I've seen it work before. It will work again, and when it does, I'll be back to tell everyone about it.
Bonnie
Bonnie M. Wells
Ramsey Interviews &
Cooperation With Police; dates, times, etc. Johnni-B
In Their Own Words - JonBenet
Ramsey News-1
December Story Page
Pure Coincidence / Homepage
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