CHAPTER 9

LONE ON-SCENE DETECTIVE’S FIRST REPORT

Portion of Boulder Detective Linda Arndt’s police report about events of December 26, 1996.

CHRONOLOGY

JANUARY 8, 1997

Detective Arndt’s police report is dated thirteen days after JonBenét’s body was found. The significance of this is that the three largest police departments in Colorado—Denver, Colorado Springs and Aurora—dictate violent crime reports must be turned in within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of the investigator’s observations.

“Each department or agency has a method which they use for written documentation of the crime scene. There [sic] investigator/technician should follow his/her departments assigned procedures for written documentation. The importance of sharing information can never be over-looked.”1

The Boulder Police Department referred me to its Policies and Procedures online report which was under the name of its new police chief who took office in July of 2014. Under the Written Reports Section, reports must be turned in at the “end of the work day” unless supervisory approval is needed. So BPD’s policy as of 2014 would be the twenty-four- to forty-eight-hour rule.

“WHERE’S HER REPORT? What’s she going to say?”

That was overheard in Boulder, where a group of cops had gathered with media close by. They were describing the thirteen days it was taking for the lone Boulder police detective who had been in the Ramsey home when JonBenét’s body was found to turn in her report. Once it was in the system, that report actually reiterated some continuing errors and created new ones. Bob Grant, then Adams County District Attorney has said he wouldn’t have factored in the information from this report because it had taken so long for the detective to file it, but he would have included reports from each day as long they were turned in the day the observations were made.

Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant was one of four metro-Denver district attorneys who would later assist the Boulder DA in the Ramsey investigation. Grant and the other DAs were asked to help by then Governor Roy Romer in 1998. Grant said he was alarmed when looking at evidence in the case because of “recall” reports that were filed and considered part of the chain of evidence by the Boulder Police Department.

“I was disturbed during the Boulder Police Department presentation of the case when I determined to reject the ‘recall’ reports provided by the police department,” Grant said. “These were reports written after the fact by officers, sometimes a month later. I didn’t consider ‘recall’ reports as valid. An officer should be writing reports the day of his/her investigation.”

Detective Arndt’s report was regarded by District Attorney Grant to be a “recall” report. Yet her report was still considered by the Boulder Police Department to be a viable part of the case file. This meant that, if there was a trial, her report and testimony would be part of it. It would give future defense attorneys information that could be considered to raise reasonable doubt because of the time it had taken for the report to be filed and because of the questions the report raised.

Arndt began her report by writing about the phone call she’d received asking her to respond to the Ramsey home. After receiving the call, she wrote, she went to the Boulder Police Department and met with the officer who had collected the original ransom note from the scene.

According to homicide detectives, Arndt’s first priority should have been to report to the scene, but she and Detective Fred Patterson did not follow this protocol. At the police department, Arndt asked for copies of the note and got a tape recorder. After leaving the police department, she and Detective Patterson met with Sergeant Paul Reichenbach, the overnight watch supervisor, behind a small shopping center. The two detectives then proceeded to the Ramsey home.

Portions of Detective Arndt’s January 8, 1997 report contain errors, some of which are noted below. (Sixteen pages from Arndt’s report are contained in the Documents section of this book.)

Errors or misperceptions in the report include:

• Regarding the ransom note: “No police or law enforcement were to be notified, otherwise JonBenét would be ‘decapitated.’”

The word in the actual ransom note was “beheaded.” The wording needed to be exact since the report would become part of the record of the case.

• “Det. Patterson and I sealed the entrance to JonBenét’s room at approx. 1030 hours [10:30 a.m.].”

The sealing of JonBenét’s bedroom at this time would not have been possible if Detective Patterson had left with Commander-Sergeant Whitson for a 10 a.m. meeting with the FBI at the Boulder Police Department. Furthermore, Whitson’s report stated that he was present with Detective Arndt and Detective Patterson when JonBenét’s bedroom was sealed with crime scene tape at approximately 9:30 a.m. And finally, Patterson left with Whitson at 9:45 a.m., so the sealing of the room had to have happened before 9:45 a.m.

• “At approx. 1035 hours [10:35 a.m.] all BPD officers, detectives, and victim advocates cleared the Ramsey residence. The only persons remaining in the residence were: John Ramsey, Patsy Ramsey, [five family friends] and myself.”

According to various other police reports, the home was cleared of all law enforcement personnel by 10 a.m., not 10:35 a.m. Arndt also failed to mention the continued presence of the Victim Advocates, who remained in the home at varying times that morning.

• “At an unknown time between approx. 1040 hours [10:40 a.m.] and 1200 hours [12:00 p.m.] John Ramsey left the house and picked up the family’s mail. I was not present when John left. I did witness John Ramsey opening his mail in the kitchen.”

No one saw John leave his home that morning except when he walked his son to a friend’s car accompanied by Patsy and a police officer. He didn’t leave the house to get the mail; it was delivered through a mail slot next to the front door. He’d hoped there might be a clue in the mail.

The Ramsey family’s minister said that he “never, during the time that he was in the house, saw John Ramsey leave the first floor of the house.” John has said he felt he needed to be “glued” to the home in case he got a ransom call. At the time he went to the third floor with binoculars to search the neighborhood, the pastor had not arrived yet.

• “John’s adult children from another marriage, John Andrew and Melinda, had taken the family’s private plane from Atlanta and had flown to Minneapolis, MN. John Ramsey, Patsy, JonBenét and Burke were going to fly to Minneapolis, MN and meet with John Andrew and Melinda.”

That information was wrong. John Andrew, Melinda and Melinda’s boyfriend had flown commercially from Atlanta to Minneapolis in order to meet the rest of the family there on the morning of December 26. John, Patsy, Burke, JonBenét and a private pilot had planned to fly in the Ramseys’ private twin-engine plane from Jefferson County Airport near Boulder to Minneapolis to pick up the older children in Minnesota and then go on to Michigan so the family could enjoy a late Christmas celebration there.

• “After officers had been dispatched to this call, all further communication was done by telephone rather than radio traffic.”

That contradicts Commander-Sergeant Bob Whitson’s statement that he heard Det. Arndt and her partner over the police radio just before they reported to the scene after the 911 call. Whitson has recalled thinking at the time it was a bad idea for the detectives to be talking by radio when a kidnapper could be monitoring them.

• “The first officer on the scene was Ofc. Rick French. Ofc. French had told Sgt. Reichenbach that something didn’t seem right.”

There are no available police reports or excerpt records from either Officer French or Sergeant Reichenbach, the second officer on the scene, that support this statement. If Arndt herself did not hear Officer French say this, then this statement is considered “hearsay.” Arndt did not add any information or perspective to this statement in her report. Furthermore, according to available records, neither Officer French nor Sergeant Reichenbach reported this statement in their own reports or in later debriefings.

• “John told me that he personally checked all of the doors and all of the windows in the home this morning. All of the doors and windows were locked.”

Again, basic yet critical information related to whether the doors and windows in the Ramsey home were locked or unlocked was not gathered by initial responders. This statement parrots what Officer French’s report said and reveals that Arndt also failed in those critical first few hours to check any, much less all, of the possible points of entry into the house.

• “John told me no interior lights were on when he went to bed. I asked John which exterior lights were on when he went to bed … John told me that he didn’t know if any exterior lights were on.”

This statement contradicts what the Ramseys stated as recorded in the JonBenét Ramsey Murder Book Index: “John and Patsy Ramsey went to bed and left some of the first floor lights on as well as one more lights [sic] on the landing on the second floor and JonBenét’s bathroom light was also left on.” (BPD Report #90-10, Source.)2

Furthermore, a neighbor “who lives immediately south of the Ramsey’s [sic] residence, got up to use the restroom and saw that the light in the southeast corner of the house, which had been left on every night for the past five years, was out.” (BPD Report #1-1196.)

Another neighbor, who lived just north of the Ramsey home, told police investigators that at midnight between December 25 and 26, he “looked out his kitchen window at the Ramsey residence and observed the upper kitchen lights were on and dimmed low.” He added that “this was the first time that he had seen these particular lights illuminated in the five years that he’d lived next door to the Ramseys. He said these lights are located in the ceiling above the kitchen window.” (BPD Report #1-99.)

• “John told me that Patsy and Burke immediately went to bed. John had read a book to JonBenét, tucked her into bed, then John went to bed.”

This contradicts what Patsy and John told police in their interrogations. They said Patsy put the sleeping JonBenét to bed and John stayed up and worked with Burke on a new toy for a little while before putting his son to bed and then turning in himself.

Also in this report, Detective Arndt described what happened after she suggested to John and his friend that they search the house, even though this suggestion went against most violent-crime investigation protocols. Only the police should have searched the home or been involved in crime collection.

• “I suggested to [John’s friend] that he and John Ramsey check the house ‘from top to bottom’ excluding JonBenét’s bedroom. I suggested to [friend] that John Ramsey check to see if anything belonging to JonBenét had been taken or left behind.”

• “After I had spoken to John he immediately went to the basement door.” … “The time was approximately 1300 hours [1:00 p.m.].” Again, John was accompanied by his friend, but Arndt did not accompany the two men.

• Within five minutes, Arndt stated, she heard “some type of shout or scream before I saw [John’s friend]. I saw [John’s friend] grab the phone in the den, dial 2 to 3 numbers, then hang up the phone. [John’s friend] then ran back towards the basement door. Yelled for someone to call for an ambulance.”

• Arndt described what happened next in this way: “I was standing in the hallway, facing the door to the basement, when I saw John Ramsey coming up the final three or four stairs. John was carrying a young girl in his arms. The young girl had long blonde hair. John Ramsey was carrying the young girl in front of him, using both of his arms to hold her around her waist area. The young girl’s head was above John Ramsey’s head while he was carrying her. From a distance of approx. 3 feet, as John was walking up the stairs, I was able to make the following observations to this young girl: both of her arms were raised above her head and were motionless; her lips appeared blue; her body appeared to have rigor mortis; there was a white string attached to her right wrist; there was a bright red mark, approx. the size of a quarter, at the front of her neck; the lower portion of her neck and the right side of her face appeared to have livor rigor mortis. I told John to place the young girl’s body on the rug just inside the front doorway. John did as he was instructed. The young girl was JonBenét. JonBenét appeared to have been dead for a period of time. I touched JonBenét’s neck in an attempt to locate any sign that she was alive. JonBenét’s skin was cool to the touch. There was dried mucus from one of JonBenét’s nostrils. My face was within inches of JonBenét’s face. I detected an odor of decay. John Ramsey asked me if JonBenét was alive. I don’t remember the specific words John Ramsey used. I told John Ramsey that his daughter was dead. John Ramsey moaned. I told John Ramsey to go back to the den, where the other persons in the house were congregated.”

Ramsey doesn’t remember why he carried his daughter upright instead of horizontally; possibly, he’s said, it was instinct because her body was stiff from rigor mortis and wouldn’t have fit through the storage room door or the basement door to the main floor.

• “… After John Ramsey left I picked up JonBenét and carried her into the living room. I laid JonBenét on the rug located inside the living room … Shortly after I had moved JonBenét into the living room I heard a loud guttural moan and wail coming from the den area of the house. The noise sounded as though it was made by a woman. John Ramsey came into the living room area approx. 1 to 2 minutes after I had sent him back to the den. As John entered the room he asked me if he could cover up JonBenét. John grabbed a throw blanket that was lying on a chair located immediately inside the living room. John placed this blanket over JonBenét’s body before I had a chance to speak. I adjusted the blanket on JonBenét’s body so that her clothing was covered from her neck down. I also covered the neck area of JonBenét. I had covered the wound on JonBenét’s neck with her long sleeved shirt before John Ramsey arrived in the living room. I told John Ramsey he could say good-bye to his daughter, but he could not move her body, touch her hands, or lower the blanket. John knelt on the floor next to JonBenét. John repeatedly referred to JonBenét as ‘my little angel’. John stroked JonBenét’s hair with one of his hands. John Ramsey laid down next to JonBenét, placed an arm around her body and made sounds as though he was crying. I did not notice any tears. John Ramsey then rolled away from JonBenét’s body and went into a kneeling position … John Ramsey then knelt by JonBenét’s body, hugged her, and called her his little angel.”

• Detective Arndt also noted that John looked toward the den where Patsy was and then added her observations of Patsy making her way into the living room: “I saw Patsy Ramsey. It seemed as though Patsy was unable to walk without the assistance of someone on each side of her, holding her up … When Patsy saw JonBenét’s body she immediately went to her and laid on top of her.”

These acts described are among the most serious that occurred that day. It was wrong that police allowed an unsupervised search of a crime scene by non-police personnel, and major complications occurred due to John and his friend cross-contaminating the fragile evidence from the body of JonBenét. John did this when he tried to untie his daughter’s hands, ripped the tape off her mouth and carried her upstairs. His friend picked up the duct tape that John had ripped from JonBenét’s mouth and then dropped the piece of duct tape on the blanket in the basement. Experts say the situation was further compromised when Detective Arndt moved JonBenét’s body, allowed John to place a blanket over it, adjusted JonBenét’s shirt and the blanket to cover the neck wound and allowed Patsy Ramsey to lie on and then hold the body of her daughter in her arms.

According to the US Department of Justice, the following actions are among those that should have been, and were not, taken by Detective Arndt:

• “Upon arrival at the scene, and prior to moving the body or evidence, the investigator should: A. Remove all nonessential personnel from the scene.”3

• “The investigator shall ensure that all property and evidence is collected, inventoried, safeguarded and released as required by law.”⁴

By January 8, 1997, the date of Detective Arndt’s written report, a media maelstrom had begun swirling around the Boulder Police Department’s mishandling of the case and the Ramseys’ possible involvement in the death of their daughter. Whether such public pressure may have influenced Detective Arndt when she wrote her report thirteen days after the child’s body was found and whether she remembered information clearly at that point is not known. She gave only one interview to the media, and the information in her police report was not discussed.

Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby removed Detective Arndt from the Ramsey murder case in May 1997. Arndt told another detective at that time that she would not talk about anything related to the investigation and could not recall anything about it other than what was in her police reports.

Detective Arndt sued the City of Boulder in February 1998, alleging that defamatory and damaging statements had been published repeatedly about her. She asked for $150,000. The case would be dismissed in 2001. She testified in that case that she hadn’t talked with the media because Chief Koby had imposed a gag order.

In 1999, Arndt gave her first public interview. She told Elizabeth Vargas of ABC’s Good Morning America about the moment she saw John walking up the stairs with JonBenét:

“I saw black with thousands of lights and everything that I had noted that morning that stuck out instantly made sense. JonBenét was clearly dead and had been dead for a while.

“I leaned down to her face and John leaned down opposite me and his face was just inches from mine. We had a nonverbal exchange that I will never forget and he asked if she was dead and I said, ‘Yes, she’s dead,’ and I told him to go back to the room and to dial 911.

“As we looked at each other … I remember—I wore a shoulder holster—tucking my gun right next to me and consciously counting out the 18 bullets.”

Vargas asked Arndt why she counted her bullets.

“’Cause I didn’t know if we’d all be alive when people showed up. I knew what happened. I knew what happened to her.”

“Do you think your fear was well founded?” Vargas asked. “You bet I do,” Arndt said. “There was no doubt in my mind.”

Nowhere in the obtained portion of Detective Arndt’s police report written by her for the day of the initial investigation did she state such information.