Mark Beckner - AMA

supersonic · Aug 2, 2016

I think we need something light hearted to balance out the religion thread. What better topic than child murder... the former chief of police of Boulder CO did a Reddit AMA. It of course primary ended up being about Jonbenney Ramey. I remember this being popular on the news post-OJ but was too young to care much.

Not me personally, as I did not get involved until September 1997, about 9 months after the murder. I was brought on to try to get the investigation back on course, which I think we did a pretty good job of once we got some DAs involved who worked with us rather than against us. As for the police department in general, I wish we would have done a much better job of securing and controlling the crime scene on day one. We also should have separated John and Patsy and gotten full statements from them that day. Letting them go was a big mistake, as they soon lawyered up and we did not get to formally interview them again until May of 1997, five months after their daughter was murdered. Had the police found the body early on, as they should have, I believe the initial course of the investigation would have gone differently, but who really knows at this point. We also did a poor job of protecting the crime scene. It was sort of like a perfect storm that day that set things off in the wrong direction. It was and still is the only case of its kind as far as we or the FBI knows of, so its not like anyone had experience with this sort of thing either.
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We know from the evidence she was hit in the head very hard with an unknown object, possibly a flashlight or similar type item. The blow knocked her into deep unconsciousness, which could have led someone to believe she was dead. The strangulation came 45 minutes to two hours after the head strike, based on the swelling on the brain. While the head wound would have eventually killed her, the strangulation actually did kill her. The rest of the scene we believe was staged, including the vaginal trauma, to make it look like a kidnapping/assault gone bad. I have avoided saying who I believe is responsible and let the facts speak for themselves. There are several viable theories.
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The killer also took the time to find a pad and sharpie pen, write a 2.5 page ransom note, fashion a garrote and choke her with it, then wrap her in a blanket with one of her favorite nightgowns and place her in a storage room in the basement. He/she/they then neatly put the pad and pen away and escaped without leaving much evidence.
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I'm not going to speculate on what Burke may or may not know. He was only 9 years old at the time. However, after a short initial interview that day (before we had many facts) Burke was only interviewed one more time and that was by a social services worker. We of course had many other questions we wanted to ask him as the investigation wore on, but were never given an opportunity to interview him again.
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1. Were any similar incidents in the country discovered by the police during the course of the investigation? By similar I mean child discovered in the family home & the presence of a ransom note.

None. We specifically looked into this and had the FBI check their records for any similar case and ours was and to my knowledge still is the only case in history where a body was found in the same house as a ransom note demanding money. This is the only time this MO (modis operandi) has ever been used.

2. Was a familial history of sexual abuse on Patsy's side considered/discovered during the course of the investigation by the police? There have been suggestions that her father (JonBenet's grandfather) may have been abusive to his daughters.

We looked into this and heard the same suggestions. Never found any evidence of this.
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Yes, of course it was. The only fingerprint on the note was one belonging to the document examiner at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On the notepad from which the note came from, the only fingerprints on the pad belonged to the CBI agent, the sergeant with the police department who took the pad into custody, and Patsy Ramsey. No, we do not believe a someone wrote the note prior to attempting to kidnap JonBenet. Neither the PD or the FBI believe this was ever a kidnapping. It was a murder that someone tried to stage as a kidnapping.
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I will answer a couple of these. Yes, the crime scene was not handled properly and this later affected the investigation. Their position in the community may have had something to do with decisions made that day, but I think the primary reason was a perfect storm type scenario. It was the Christmas holiday and we were short staffed, we faced a situation as I said earlier that no one in the country had ever seen before or since, and there was confusion at the scene as people were arriving before we had enough personnel on the scene. As a result, some evidence was compromised. Yes, after that initial day, we felt pressure the from the DA's office not to push too hard on the Ramseys. This was a constant source of frustration and much could be written about this and the reasons for it. Yes, once I became Chief, we put in place policies that changed how we responded to missing children cases and each Detective Commander while I was Chief was told explicitly that we (the police department) had jurisdiction over any investigation and we were to handle it according to accepted policies and practices, regardless of whether the DA objected or not. Yes, there was evidence that would indicate prior sexual abuse.
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There were many things that investigators thought were unusual, including Patsy being upset at the first officer being in uniform and wearing a gun. Officers found that very strange given that her daughter was missing and allegedly kidnapped. The officers also noticed the how distant John and Patsy seemed to be toward each other.
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I certainly wish we could have gone to trial. However, the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is hard to overcome when you have some foreign DNA that cannot be explained. If we were to find the source of this trace DNA, we would have an explanation, regardless of which way it pointed. When you are talking about small traces of DNA, there can be several explanations and various ways it could have been transferred. Without identifying who it belongs to, we can only theorize the source of the DNA and how it got there. Without this trace DNA, I believe the prosecutors would have moved forward. It is interesting that apparently the grand jury jurors did not find the DNA reason enough not to find probable cause. Personally, I believe if the source is ever found, we will discover that there is an explanation other than belonging to the murderer. There are others, such as ex-DA Mary Lacy who believe the DNA has to be that of the murderer.
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We investigated all aspects of the family relationships. There is no evidence that I know of to support the rumor you heard. Handwriting experts noted some similarities, but not enough to say she wrote the note. There are also similarities to the style of writing to Patsy's style, such as use of exclamation marks, acronyms, and indentation. One expert noted signs of deception in the writing as well.
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I don't believe they wanted her dead. If you believe someone in the family killed JonBenet, the most likely scenario is that it was accidental in a fit of anger and then they tried to cover it up by making it look like something it wasn't. There are many books out there you can read, including several by the Ramseys that provide plenty of theories, but I have not seen any focused on the family that believe it was a planned situation.
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Most investigators do not believe there was a legitimate point of entry. It is unknown how an intruder may have gotten in. Lou Smit always believed it was the basement window, but we did not agree with him, as the dust and spider web were undisturbed.
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This will be my last post, but after reading some of the follow-up posts, I believe there may have been some misinterpretation of some of my comments or "reading between the lines". I want to emphasize that I do not fully know what happened that night or who killed JonBenet, as some have surmised. If anyone did, this would not be a mystery. This is why I do not speculate. I simply answered questions as truthfully as possible and only on things that have already been reported. Dismissing the intruder evidence is a mistake and as I emphasized in an earlier post, the location of the foreign DNA is significant. This could very likely be the person who killed JonBenet. However, we will not be sure until and if they find out who it belongs to. And, just because we can not prove a point of entry, doesn't mean someone didn't find a way to get in. Just as I believe we can not exonerate on one piece of evidence, neither can we ignore evidence. Finally, everyone is presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Thanks again.
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Full AMA:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Unresolved...m_former_boulder_police_chief_mark_beckner_i/

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