Lou And Jonbenet

A retired police officer offers insights about the crime scene of a famous child murder case, revealing insider details about the mishandled investigation. On Christmas Night 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. A ransom note was found in the home, but it was hours before her father, John, found her body in the basement. She had been strangled with a garrote and her skull was fractured. The media sensationalized the tragic death of the “child beauty queen” and public speculation and rumors ran rampant. What followed was one of the most notorious unsolved murder investigations in American history. Boulder police fixated on JonBenet’s parents as suspects. Needing investigative help, the Boulder DA brought in legendary homicide detective Lou Smit. However, he was soon disenchanted with law enforcement’s obsession with the Ramsey family as the primary suspects, excluding other possibilities. Smit resigned but continued to work on his own time, and at his own expense, determined to find justice for JonBenet. He determined the Ramsey family was not involved in her death but died in 2010 before he could identify the killer. Thousands of people attended his funeral service, including John Ramsey, and the detective’s lifelong friend and colleague, John Anderson. Along with a handful of retired detectives, Anderson and Smit’s family continue to pursue justice based on Smit’s work. Now, for the first time in Lou and JonBenet, Anderson tells the story of Smit’s investigation and why the Smit family team now believes that the killer can be identified.

The primary purpose of this book is to answer the questions, "What kind of person kidnapped, tortured, sexually assaulted, and murdered JonBenet Ramsey? Did John or Patsy Ramsey torture, sexually assault, and murder JonBenet?" The secondary purpose is to educate criminal justice practitioners, psychologists, criminal justice students, psychology students, and the public about psychopathy and sadism in an effort to prevent more people from becoming victims. JonBenet Ramsey was only six years old when she was taken from her bed and murdered on December 25, 1996. Not only did John and Patsy Ramsey lose their daughter during a horrific murder, but they were falsely accused of the murder by members of the Boulder Police Department and the news media. JonBenet's murder remains unsolved 15 years after her death and the killer has never been brought to justice. Andrew "Lou" Smit was stricken with cancer and passed away on August 11, 2010, after this book was 90% written. Lou was a highly respected criminal investigator with the Colorado Springs and El Paso County Sheriff's Department, who had investigated 200 homicides with a 90% clearance rate. Lou played a major role during the investigation of JonBenet's death and he became the leading authority of the intruder theory. Lou shares his insight and experience in this book. Robert Whitson, Ph.D., was a law enforcement officer for 30 years and retired from the Boulder Police Department in 2005. He spent six years obtaining his doctorate degree after he retired and, because of JonBenet's murder, studied psychopathy for his dissertation. He has taught criminal justice at the college level for eight years and he shares his knowledge about psychopathy and sadism in this book. Psychopaths comprise about one-percent of the American population, but they comprise a dispproportionate rate of about 25% of the prison population. Psychopaths may be responsible for as much as 50% of violent crimes and 90% of serial killers are psychopaths. Psychopaths tend to demonstrate abnormal sexual behaviors, including sadistic characteristics. Not every psychopath will become a criminal who commits serial rapes or serial murders, but the vast majority of people who commit the most heinous and violent crimes in our society are psychopaths. After reading this book, Lou Smit and Robert Whitson believe you will agree a sadistic pscyopath murdered JonBenet Ramsey - not her parents.

New information from We Have Your Daughter has been revealed. Here is some of it. The Family As a top reporter in Denver, Paula Woodward was one of the few who had access to the Ramsey attorneys and thus the family. One of the prevailing questions in most of the television specials is about the bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with Burke and Patsy’s fingerprints on the bowl. That pineapple has been linked to JonBenét’s death on some television broadcasts because of a reference in the autopsy to JonBenét having “fragments like pineapple” in her stomach. For more than a year after the murder, the pineapple theory behind her death was talked about. But when Boulder police finally had the material in her stomach tested at the University of Colorado in Boulder in October of 1997, they found out two months later in December, that the material was pineapple, plus grapes, grape skins, and cherries. That is food similar to that found in a fruit cocktail. What does that mean? This is the type of exclusive and factual information you will find in We Have Your Daughter that allows you to challenge preconceived theories. In 2010, Woodward interviewed Burke Ramsey specifically for her book. • Burke discussed his family and the chaos surrounding the case. Woodward has obtained a Boulder Social Services Evaluation of the Child about Burke Ramsey that states “From the interview it is clear that Burke was not a witness to JonBenét’s death.” That raises more doubts about those who believe Burke was involved in his sister’s death and again reinforces the information Woodward has researched and uncovered. • In an interview with Burke Ramsey from 2010, he talks about his mom and how she taught him he could be optimistic or pessimistic about all the tragedies in their family. She chose positive for herself and so did he both believing it was important to find joy in each day. • After Patsy Ramsey was diagnosed again with cancer in 2002, she began sharing private conversations with Paula in 2004 and 2005. This information was to be used after she died. • John Ramsey gave Paula access to his personal journal as well as access to JonBenét’s personal drawings and photos The Handwriting Test Results Handwriting is another key controversial part of this investigation and story. Paula has information and findings that show issues with how Boulder Police handled this aspect of the investigation. She discusses the results of the handwriting. Exclusive Reports & Documents Investigative Reporter Paula Woodward reviewed portions of thousands of police reports and documents for her book. Here are some highlights of her findings which she includes in the book, all of which affected the investigation and the public’s view of the family. Exclusive: The police report from the Boulder Police Officer who was FIRST to arrive on scene the morning of December 26, 1996 – before JonBenét’s body was found and why he didn’t find it. Exclusive: In the police report from the BPD Detective who stayed on scene until JonBenét’s body was found – Paula lists some discrepancies in that report. Exclusive: Paula discovered what she calls a “deliberate campaign of disinformation” by law enforcement, based on information she received from her sources. She also cites issues with the media coverage, with outlets reporting information without verifying it. Woodward says much of the information and “anonymous leaks” reported were untrue and has all had an effect on the investigation. She cites several examples. Exclusive: Paula found found that Boulder police withheld the results of the DNA tests that excluded the Ramsey family from both the Boulder district attorney and the public. The evidence that was submitted as DNA excluded the Ramseys. In We Have Your Daughter: The Unsolved Murder of JonBenét Ramsey Twenty Years Later, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Paula Woodward offers an unprecedented, definitive, insider perspective on the twentieth anniversary of one of the most heinous, sensationalized, unsolved crimes in American history. Here for the first time, Woodward examines conversations and information from all sides of those involved in the case. She shares information compiled during the twenty years she reported on the murder, including private conversations with law enforcement individuals directly involved in the case, their thoughts and dissections of what went wrong and right, and who they now believe is the killer. Woodward has included drawings by JonBenét, letters from her teachers, and photographs that show a normal, happy six-year-old whose life was cut short in such a horrible manner. She shares portions of John Ramsey’s private journal, where he wrote of his torment and grief in the aftermath of the murder. And she recounts personal conversations with JonBenét’s mother prior to her death from cancer in 2006. JonBenét’s brother Burke talks publicly about his sister’s death and how it affected the family and his life. We have Your Daughter is an extraordinary work of journalism, twenty years in the making. It depicts a family under siege with their guilt or innocence still openly questioned. This book allows readers to decide in this heartbreaking story - was it Ramsey or an unknown intruder?

Finally, the information you've been waiting for: who really killed JonBenet? Perhaps the most compelling murder case of our day, the death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey galvanized the nation-and years after it occurred, the mystery still endures. Who killed the young beauty queen and why? Who is covering up for whom and who is simply lying? In JonBenet, the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail-pointing the way toward an analysis of the evidence some deem too shocking to consider. Here, Thomas raises these and many other provocative questions: -How was the investigation botched from the beginning-and why did police so carelessly allow the crime scene to be tampered with? -Why were John and Patsy Ramsey protected from early questioning and any lie-detector tests, even though their stories and behavior were erratic, suspicious and inconsistent? -Why was crucial evidence ignored, why were certain key witnesses unquestioned by detectives, and why were the Ramseys privy to sensitive information about the case and even police reports?

This book tells the inside story of Detective Lou Smit's role in the JonBenét Ramsey investigation and offers proof the Ramseys were not involved.

In 1996, six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was tortured and murdered in her family home. Twenty-five years later, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Paula Woodward revisits the cold case to share new insider information on the heinous murder that gripped the nation. After the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, rumors and misinformation planted by Boulder, Colorado law enforcement sped rapidly around the world. Suspicion immediately fell on the family as police sought to exploit her death in the media. Prosecutors and law enforcement intentionally manipulated existing evidence and ignored inconvenient evidence. Child beauty pageant photos of JonBenét whipped the case into a judgmental frenzy. Paula Woodward was one of the few journalists who reported the family’s side of the story. She’s still investigating the 25-year conspiracy to convict John and Patsy Ramsey by law enforcement who acted with arrogance, insecurity, incompetence, and benign neglect. In Unsolved, the follow-up to Woodward’s award-winning and acclaimed true crime exposé We Have Your Daughter, Woodward explores outstanding questions still swirling around the cold case: Who wrote the baffling ransom note? What was found in the 11 pages of exclusive police report summaries backgrounding the Ramseys? And why has the case languished for years? Included in the book are new, exclusive interviews with John Ramsey, his wife Jan, and his son John Andrew as they look back at the case, 25 years later, and react with stunning candor. New photos and reports from JonBenét’s teachers, friends, and family cut through the sensationalized headlines to show who JonBenét really was. Interwoven throughout the book is expert commentary on what the actual evidence shows, and whether the killer might ever be caught. With never-before-released evidence from a now-passive investigation, Unsolved presents the known facts of the killing of JonBenét Ramsey, the bizarre yet intriguing aspects of this ongoing mystery, and gives you rare insight into whether a family member or an intruder savagely murdered JonBenét.

The untold story of how John Ramsey survived unspeakable tragedy and learned to hope again. Like the biblical Job, John Ramsey had it all-wealthy, social position, a loving family. And like Job, Ramsey was destined for great affliction, as many of the most precious things in his life were cruelly taken from him. First came the death of his eldest daughter in a car accident in 1992. Then, four years later, his beloved six-year-old, JonBenét, was murdered; Ramsey was the one who discovered her body, concealed in the basement of his family's home. The case drew international media attention, and-compounding Ramsey's woe-suspicion unfairly focused on Ramsey and his wife, Patsy. Although they were ultimately cleared of any connection with the crime, Ramsey's sorrows did not end. In 2006, Patsy died, at 49, of ovarian cancer. In this remarkable book, Ramsey reveals how he was sustained by faith during the long period of spiritual darkness, and he offers hope and encouragement to others who suffer tragedy and injustice.