LAST EDITED ON Sep-18-03 AT 06:36 PM (EST)
 
Ramsey supporter offline
'Jameson245' says she no longer thinks investigation biased

By Amy Hebert, Camera Staff Writer
September 18, 2003

One of the few remaining "Web sleuths" who tried for years to help solve the JonBenet Ramsey case over the Internet is hanging up her cyber hat.

Susan Bennett, the North Carolina woman known online as Jameson245, said she sought to bring balance when people she called a "lynch mob" were accusing John and Patsy Ramsey of killing their 6-year-old daughter. Bennett said that's no longer critical since Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan took over the investigation into the December 1996 murder.

"I have full faith that they will solve it, so there's really nothing else for us to do," Bennett said in a phone interview Tuesday. "I think that the lynch mob is dead and that people now realize the Ramseys are innocent and the investigators are on the right course"

Bennett befriended John and Patsy Ramsey through her advocacy of their innocence. But she betrayed their trust last year by selling transcripts of a police interview with them to the National Enquirer for $40,000, said Lin Wood, the Ramseys' attorney.

In the message she posted to her "Jameson's WebbSleuths" site announcing she was leaving the case, Bennett wrote that she was not under pressure from Wood or anyone involved with the investigation.

Wood said he had nothing to do with the decision and had appreciated that Bennett was a "source of fair comment on the Internet about the Ramsey case." He said the National Enquirer sale was the only time he had ever taken issue with her.

He said it seems like Internet traffic on the case is diminishing in its intensity and numbers now that it's in the hands of "fair and objective investigators."

Several sites once dedicated to the case have disappeared over the years. "Mrs. Brady," whose site also supported the Ramseys, has not made her "daily update" on the case since Jan. 17.

But Utah resident Tricia Griffith, whose site forumsforjustice.org targets the parents as suspects, said there are still "incredibly dedicated people" online committed to finding the truth about the case.

She said the reason Ramsey supporters are going offline is not just because Keenan publicly agreed with a federal judge's ruling in March that evidence in a lawsuit against the Ramseys was more consistent with the possibility an intruder killed JonBenet.

"In my view they're going away because they don't have anything left to talk about," Griffith said. "The Ramsey supporters can't argue anymore because every one of their points has been refuted."

Griffith's site has gathered 1,092 signatures since February for a petition asking Gov. Bill Owens to appoint a special prosecutor for the case, alleging that Keenan's office is biased in favor of the Ramseys.

Except for her agreement with the March ruling, Keenan has maintained a consistent no-comment policy since taking over the case from the Boulder Police Department in December. Keenan hired investigator Tom Bennett to work solely on the Ramsey case and has asked him not to comment, either.

Bennett said the fact that a special investigator is on the case and the investigation is going on "with no leaks" is another reason her "voice of balance and reason" is no longer needed.

http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/city_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2422_2272209,00.html