LAST EDITED ON Apr-25-03 AT 02:04 PM (EST)
 
FBI timeline from PMPT book:

At about 7:30 am, Pete Hofstrom, head of the felony division of the Boulder County DA's office, called Bill Wise, the first assistant DA, at home.

Hofstrom told Wise he had asked the police when the FBI would be arriving, only to be told they hadn't even been called. Hofstrom had told the cops to notify the Bureau.

Hofstrom had to point out to them that in a kidnapping, the protocol was to set up a command post away from the victim's home, in case the perpetrators were monitoring the residence.

(too late, the damage had been done, marked police cars were parked in front of the house).

Det. Jan Harmer, who'd attended a seminar taught by the FBI's Child Abduction Serial Killer Unit, was also on vacation.

Harmer had a copy of the Bureau's manual on procedures to follow in a kidnapping case, but he had no idea where she kept it.

More than a year after Harmer (attended) the seminar, the department had not officially adopted the FBI protocol.

Sgt Whitson knew that county sheriff's Lt. James Smith had also attended the FBI seminar. He phoned Smith, and half an hour later, the BP had the FBI manual.
***

When Larry Mason's pager went off at 9:45 am he was at home ... Looking down, he read: "FBI agent is looking for Bob Whitson."

(At least 30 minutes later - 10:15 am) at headquarters, Mason met Special Agent Ron Walker, who had just arrived from the Denver FBI office with a four-man kidnapping team. The special agents wre working with some police officers to set up phone taps and traps.

For 2 hours and 27 minutes, Arndt was the only officer in the Ramsey house.

In Denver, Tom Haney, chief of the patrol division of the Denver police, was discussing a case with several special agents from the FBI. The agents were obviously distracted. "There's been a kidnapping in Boulder," one agent said.

***

At police headquarters, Larry Mason got a page from the crime scene: "We've got a body."

"Ron, we don't have a kidnapping," he told Agent Walker. "It's a homicide. Do you want to go?"

Fifteen minutes after Det. Arndt's page, at around 1:30 pm, Ron Walker entered the Ramsey's living room with Larry Mason.

When Larry Mason returned to police headquarters at midafternoon, he found John Eller upset that the FBI was still involved in the case. Eller told Mason the Bureau was no longer needed.

Agent Walker hoped (the Boulder police) would ask for help from the FBI or the Colorado BI which had both the experience and the resources for a case like this.

But John Eller felt differently. He believed the Boulder detectives could handle the investigation alone.