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Special on Ramsey case airs

Taped interviews released by parents of slain 6-year-old

By Christine Reid, Camera Staff Writer
October 5, 2002

John and Patsy Ramsey, appearing on an hourlong television special Friday night,
chastised the Boulder Police Department for its investigation into the 1996 murder of
their daughter JonBenet Ramsey.

The CBS show "48 Hours Investigates" aired videotaped police interviews with the
slain 6-year-old's parents. The tapes — released by John and Patsy Ramsey, they
said, to help shed light on the case — showed interviews from April 1997, June 1998
and August 2000.

"I didn't do it. John Ramsey didn't do it. And we don't have a clue of anyone who did
it," Patsy Ramsey said in one clip from a 1998 interview at the Broomfield Police
Department.

"You're going down the wrong path, buddy," she told one investigator as he theorized
that a Ramsey family member committed the crime.

"It didn't happen," she said.

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner was also shown in a videotaped deposition for a
related civil case. Beckner said John and Patsy Ramsey were suspects "internally" in
their daughter's Dec. 26, 1996, murder.

Beckner would not comment Friday night on his statement because of a confidentiality
agreement, he said. He also would not comment on the show because he did not
watch it, he said, instead opting to get some grocery shopping done.

"It's always frustrating when that happens, when only one side of the story is being
told," Beckner said. "But we have a job to do and have to keep our focus on what's
best for the investigation, and it's our belief you don't investigate cases through the
media."

The Ramseys told "48 Hours" that police have repeatedly ignored many promising
leads in the case, including the investigation into Gary Oliva — a 38-year-old Oregon
man currently in Boulder County Jail. Oliva, a convicted sex offender awaiting
extradition back to Oregon for parole violation, told a friend he had hurt a child around
the time of JonBenet's death and also could be placed near the crime scene the night
of the murder, according to the TV show.

Lou Smit, a homicide investigator from Colorado Springs who once worked for
Boulder prosecutors on the Ramsey case, said he thinks an intruder killed the girl, and
in the program Smit pointed his finger at Oliva. He said the fact that Oliva had a stun
gun, a weapon Smit said was used on JonBenet the night she was killed, is a telling
clue.

In a jailhouse interview with "48 Hours," Oliva denied that he had killed JonBenet, but
he said she came to him in a vision after her death.

Beckner said Oliva was a suspect and had not been cleared by police.

"We haven't cleared anyone per se. Before you solve the case, you can't say anyone
has been cleared," he said. "I think we've been very careful at not doing that at all."

Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan was attending a meeting at a retreat
and was unable to watch the program. She said Thursday that she planned on having
someone tape it for her so she could watch it later.

Contact reporter Christine Reid at (303) 473-1355 or reidc@dailycamera.com.