Ramsey interviews to be aired

'48 Hours Investigates' meets with JonBenet's parents

By Pam Regensberg, Camera Staff Writer
September 28, 2002

Videotaped police interviews — portions of which contain sensitive information never
before released — with John and Patsy Ramsey will be aired on national television
next week.

It is unclear which of the three police interviews with the Ramseys that CBS' "48
Hours Investigates" will focus on in their Friday evening report "Searching for a Killer."

The former Boulder couple and parents of the slain 6-year-old JonBenét met with
investigators on three separate occasions — in April 1997, for three days in June
1998 in Broomfield and in August 2000 in Atlanta.

Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner said his office gave the Ramseys copies of each
videotaped interview. He said they did not give copies of the tapes to CBS.

Beckner said he will not be tuning in to the news show.

"I've tried to stay away from the whole thing," Beckner said of what he called "the
media circus" surrounding the investigation.

Beckner said the tapes contain information that could be damaging to the nearly
6-year-old investigation.

"It all depends on what they show," he said.

District Attorney Mary Keenan, who observed the June 1998 interviews, said it's been
so long that she doesn't recall details from the meeting. A great deal of information
already has been leaked to the media, she added.

Neither the Ramseys nor their attorney, L. Lin Wood of Atlanta, could be reached for
comment on Friday.

In the nearly six years since JonBenet Ramsey was found strangled and beaten to
death in the basement of her parents Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996, the Ramseys
have maintained their innocence. Police say they are still under the "umbrella of
suspicion."

Lou Smit, a retired El Paso County homicide investigator brought in by the district
attorney in March 1997 to help in the case, said he thinks the tapes will show
investigators "interrogating" Patsy Ramsey.

"It was pretty heavy-duty," Smit said of Patsy's June 1998 session. He was in a
separate room at the time questioning John Ramsey.

Smit resigned from the investigation in September 1998 just as a grand jury probe of
the case was beginning; it concluded 13 months later without issuing any indictments
— due to concerns that then District Attorney Alex Hunter's team was wrongly
targeting the Ramseys.

Smit, said he was interviewed by "48 Hours" about two weeks ago about his theory
an intruder killed the girl. It's a theory embraced by the Ramseys.

"The Ramseys are still trying to progress this case as far as finding the killer," Smit
said.

Contact Pam Regensberg at (303) 473-1329 or regensbergp@dailycamera.com.

I believe Lou Smit is right - - it will be the 1998 interview. And can you imagine that the chiefof police won't be watching? IMO, that is very sad - - it IS his case,doesn't he want to know what is happening? (rhetorical question, apparently - - his refusal to watch the show shows his position. I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing.)