Boiler room theory arises in Ramsey killing

Theory supported, in part, by basement window facing street

By Charlie Brennan
Scripps Howard News Service

BOULDER— A key argument supporting a possible intruder in the JonBenét Ramsey case is a belief by
some investigators that she was killed in a basement boiler room.
This theory is supported, in part, by the existence of a basement window facing the street, outfitted with an
open air duct, the Denver Rocky Mountain News has learned. That air duct may explain how a neighbor
could have heard a scream the night the child died.
The boiler room theory is further buttressed, sources say, by the fact that remnants of the paint brush used
to fashion the fatal garrote were found just outside that room, which is adjacent to the wine cellar where her
body was found.
When grand jurors toured the house and grounds Oct. 29, several were seen studying the boiler room
window and its unsealed air duct from the outside.
Lou Smit, who recently resigned his position as investigator on the case for Boulder District Attorney Alex
Hunter, believes the boiler room theory, sources say, and thinks it argues against a family member's
involvement in the crime.
Smit declined to discuss his theories Friday. "I wish I could, but I really can't, at least until I testify before
the grand jury," he said.
Smit, a former El Paso County homicide detective who came out of retirement to work for Hunter on the
Ramsey case, resigned Sept. 20. He cited frustration with other Ramsey investigators' reluctance to
consider suspects outside the family.
"The case tells me there is substantial, credible evidence of an intruder and lack of evidence that the
parents are involved," Smit said in his resignation letter. But the 2˝-page letter did not detail his reasons
for suspecting an intruder.
Melody Stanton, a Ramsey neighbor at the time, told police she woke with a start not long after midnight
Dec. 26, 1996, to a frightening scream; her statement was first reported by the Globe supermarket weekly
nearly a year later. ABC's "20/20" reported that Stanton typically slept with her window slightly open.
John and Patsy Ramsey have told police they heard nothing unusual after putting JonBenét to bed around
10 p.m. on Dec. 25.
Some investigators have had trouble reconciling that statement with the neighbor's account of a scream.
Smit is among those, however, who think the basement air vent opening toward the street — and no longer
connected to anything in the boiler room — could have broadcast the scream toward houses across the
street without the same scream being audible in the parents' bedroom on the third floor.
A source close to the family said auditory tests performed by police during a second search of the home in
the summer of 1997 determined that sound travels more easily from the basement out to the street than it
does up through the home's four levels.
Sources say Smit thinks that if the scream emanated from the boiler room, it's likely where the murder
occurred and that Smit can't envision a family member selecting such a space to commit such a crime.
JonBenét was strangled, had a fractured skull from blunt trauma and had injuries consistent with sexual
molestation.
"You wouldn't have to take her downstairs if you lived in the house," said an investigator familiar with Smit's
thinking, who would talk only speaking on condition of anonymity. "If you were living in the house, you'd
sure choose another place besides that."
JonBenét's body was discovered in a windowless basement room next to the boiler room by her father
about seven hours after her mother called 911. She reported finding a 2-˝-page ransom note demanding
$118,000 for the child's safe return.
The child's parents are under suspicion but proclaim their innocence. The murder is under investigation by
a grand jury that convened in Boulder on Sept. 15.
Robert Pence, former director of the FBI office for the Rocky Mountain region, sees the logic in Smit's
reasoning. "I think that would be one good reason that would point to an outsider," he said. "A lot of these
are spur-of-the-moment-type things, a rage or argument, something that got triggered, and wouldn't
necessarily call for the person — whether it's a parent or siblings or whatever — to take the victim to an
out-of-the-way room. I think it would explode right where it happened."
Even if Smit is right about the murder taking place in the boiler room, Pence still can't completely accept
Smit's conclusion that such a scenario bolsters the intruder theory.
One reason is the ransom note, which Patsy Ramsey said she found on the bottom step of a back
staircase while heading down to the kitchen early in the morning.
"If it were an intruder, the thing that would be most inconsistent would be the note," Pence said. "If it's an
intruder, you're not going to leave the body and that note anywhere near the same crime scene. That just
increases the trail of evidence."
An investigator close to the case also sees Smit's theory as flawed because no physical evidence was
found in the boiler room.
And, the source said, if an outsider killed JonBenét in the boiler room, why take the time — after a scream
loud enough to wake a neighbor — to move her body to yet another room?
"If that scream is loud enough to be heard, then that intruder is gone, because he knows Mom and Dad are
upstairs," the police source said. "With this scream, if she (Stanton) in fact heard it, if in fact it happened,
why stay? You're out of here. Are you going to waste additional time in there? Nah."
November 9, 1998

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