48 Hours Mystery: Screw-up Exposed

Private investigator "Pete" Peterson has been around for a long time trying to use the Ramsey case for personal publicity. He originally accused Santa Bill of the crime, but got laughed at for his foolish ideas and even taunted by reporters at a press conference he held to accuse McReynolds of the murder.

Here's the interesting part:
Remember in the 48 Hours Mystery show how Peterson was talking about how two crimes were related where an intruder entered another girl's house who took lessons at the same dance school JonBenet attended?

Peterson forgets that at the press conference where he accused Santa Bill of murder he also mentioned that he was hired by the father of the second girl and found the girl's mother had a boyfriend who attacked the girl, not an intruder. Read this:


Peterson: We started out working for a client in Boulder, a Dr. Steve Dubovsky, whose daughter was molested in their house, and there are a lot of parallels to this case. A lot of parallels overlapped to this case, and--misdirected routes in the process. But we think we're onto the right route.

RPTR: You're saying this same suspect could have been responsible for both?

Peterson: No, no. We excluded the first one, who was involved in our client's case. But in the process, through that process, we got into this case with the blessing of the client. And determined--we know what occurred.

RPTR: So who is your client?

Peterson: We have no client. We had a client when we got into this case. It was a psychiatrist in Boulder whose daughter was molested in their house, and there are a lot of parallels to the Ramsey case. This person got in the house, hid in the house, after the alarms were set--or before the alarms were set, three hours later attacked the daughter. We thought there were parallels to the Ramsey case, and that's how we got into it.

RPTR: Has the psychiatrist client been paying you for two years?

Peterson: No, he paid us for about four months.

RPTR: Who was that person? Can you name him, the psychiatrist?

Peterson: Dr. Steve Dubovsky of Boulder.

RPTR: How do you spell that?

Peterson: D-u-b-o-v-s-k-y, probably...s-k-i, possibly.

Peterson: (OFF MICROPHONE) ...home, yes. He was out of town. The wife was there and the wife kept on bringing the guy into the house. He went out, went off the balcony. There were a lotta similarities there. This was about three months after the Ramsey murder.
http://thewebsafe.tripod.com/09241999petersonconference.htm

(I edited for brevity to focus only on the story of the second girl instead of Peterson's accusations against Santa Bill McReynolds. Read the entire press conference, it's a hoot!)

So now Peterson is back trying to get more publicity from this case. This time he's given up accusing Santa Bill and is trying to link the two cases together so he can expose more of his fantasy suspects. I guess he forgot his original findings that the two cases were not related and that he had "handwriting proof" that Santa Bill murdered JonBenet.

Maybe 48 Hours should have done a little homework and found out what a fraud Peterson is before they went and created some ridiculous news program that featured the guy like he is a credible source with new information about the Ramsey case.


(Thanks to the fantastic ACR who archived Peterson's B.S. press conference back in 1999!)

aRnd2it said:

Private investigator "Pete" Peterson has been around for a long time trying to use the Ramsey case for personal publicity. He originally accused Santa Bill of the crime, but got laughed at for his foolish ideas and even taunted by reporters at a press conference he held to accuse McReynolds of the murder.

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I'd never heard of this guy until Sabrina posted the interview. This is disgusting. Another creep who crawled out of the woodwork.

Jayelles said:

I'd never heard of this guy until Sabrina posted the interview. This is disgusting. Another creep who crawled out of the woodwork.

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UH OH, and the rumors take seed!
That "off the mike comment" didn't happen, according to those that were involved at the time.
Peterson has been a hire for the best, yeah, he's a tad "wecht,spitz, hodges", in the sense he does seem to enjoy free "media" advertising.
His law enforcement credentials, I believe, were strong before going into the private sector.
And...this wife had NOTHING to do with the intruder, just another mongering media lie. Remember there is no crime in Boulder !
Important, IMO, is ,the girl was described as being a tiny little girl for her age by her dance instructor's account. Is this a fact? I don't know, I expect there will be some video coming, with her face frosted over!

Yes, he had Santa, at one point ,as his suspect, this was very confusing as he never said if it was Santa or a family member of Santa's, however the information never seemed to pan out. He had handwriting that he claimed was from a McReynolds, again this handwriting issue is not science and maybe he believed Santa was cleared by DNA so he dropped it?

Santa had the "in", could have been a good lure, and surely it is difficult to give him up when all of the "coincidences" are considered. His harp, with the names of dead children carved into it must raise the eyebrows of others? Especially the little murdered boy that he claims he was "santa" for, lord, the man was only santa for what? 4 yrs or so? How many murdered children can one have known in a lifetime, let alone four years? If an investigator is worth his salt he should have followed the unsolved murders, or the weakly solved ones occuring in and around Boulder over the last 20 years , there may be a memory jogged in an associated family member that could offer a clue or two.

sissi said:

UH OH, and the rumors take seed!
That "off the mike comment" didn't happen, according to those that were involved at the time.

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Oh really? And how were YOU involved at the time?
I notice the transcript says this: "Representatives from ABC, KABC, KCAL, KCBS, KNBC, FOX, KCOP, CNN, Extra and others attended."

Which one of those news organizations do YOU work for, Sissi? :liar:

sissi said:

UH OH, and the rumors take seed!

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Em, before you get overly upset at my reaction to Peterson, let me tell you that it wasn't based on any "off the mike" comment which may or may not have happened. I am disgusted by the FACT that Peterson went on record accusing Santa and that he now apparently has jumped on a different bandwagon. .

From what I have read, he would appear to have little credibility. Just a creep looking for his 15 minutes. I find it very easy to dismiss such characters.

The stations don't care about "facts" since they are only interested in ratings. Sad, sad, sad...

Jayelles said:

Em, before you get overly upset at my reaction to Peterson, let me tell you that it wasn't based on any "off the mike" comment which may or may not have happened. I am disgusted by the FACT that Peterson went on record accusing Santa and that he now apparently has jumped on a different bandwagon. .

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Notice in the press conference transcript how he completely dismisses any connection between the two cases and tries to focus attention on his "Santa did it" agenda. In 1999 he knew the Debovski case was not related to the Ramsey case.

Now years later after the laughter at his "Santa theory" has died down he uses the unrelated Debovski case to get his mug on TV.

Sorry Pete you're still a loser... :loser:

In the case of the 2nd little girl who'd had lessons at DanceWest, didn't Peterson claim he turned out to be the mother's boyfriend? But then why would she have said he had a jutting-out chin? Why did he need to slander that mother? Hormones out of control, or because he only got to work for them for 4 mo. or what?

And she said that he jumped off the balcony instead of using a door. There was a balcony outside JonBenet's window too. Did the same perp, and/or some others scout around looking for houses with balconies? IOW, was there at least that 2nd similarity or connection? The first would be DanceWest.

Helgoth's face looked rather wide, and his chin did not attract any notice, in the picture of him they showed, right? A couple of us agreed that "Sketchman" looked to have blonde hair, but a pointed chin and narrower face. If the drawing was accurate.

Eagle1 said:

In the case of the 2nd little girl who'd had lessons at DanceWest, didn't Peterson claim he turned out to be the mother's boyfriend? But then why would she have said he had a jutting-out chin? Why did he need to slander that mother? Hormones out of control, or because he only got to work for them for 4 mo. or what?

And she said that he jumped off the balcony instead of using a door. There was a balcony outside JonBenet's window too. Did the same perp, and/or some others scout around looking for houses with balconies? IOW, was there at least that 2nd similarity or connection? The first would be DanceWest.

Helgoth's face looked rather wide, and his chin did not attract any notice, in the picture of him they showed, right? A couple of us agreed that "Sketchman" looked to have blonde hair, but a pointed chin and narrower face. If the drawing was accurate.

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I'm playing devil's advocate here:-

Maybe she didn't give too accurate a descrtiption of the boyfriend? If he got caught, the affair might come out.

Just thought I'd bump this thread with regards to the similar incident.

Venom said:

Just thought I'd bump this thread with regards to the similar incident.

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Thank you Venom.

We are up to two (yes) TWO intruders now.:facepalm::facepalm: Does two intruders a small foreign faction make?

I am glad that someone found this, I vaguely remembered it, but I couldn't remember the year it came out. Thank you!

JMO

well the posts above urge me to ask: Was JonBenet enrolled in the same dance classes?

No, not in the same class.

Cherry said:

well the posts above urge me to ask: Was JonBenet enrolled in the same dance classes?

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Same studio, not the same class.

Believing Helgoth was the Intruder doesn't explain why John and Patsy lied about JonBenet being asleep when they got home from the White's party and if JonBenet was asleep how is the pineapple found in her duodenum explained?

^ and why they lied about Burke being awake

this here just proves to me how important Helgoth was to them(as a possible suspect/killer).....NOT
Helgoth was just diversion


1 Q. (By Mr. Hoffman) Okay. Now, do you

2 remember who it was that you were -- that you

3 made the statement, This is it, this is the

4 killer? Do you remember who that person was, the

5 investigator that had shown you material on it?

6 A. Yes.

7 Q. Can you name that person?

8 A. I don't recall his first name.

9 Helgoth was his last name, a fellow that

10 committed suicide on Valentine's Day, the day that

11 Alex Hunter told the world that they were going

12 to get the killer.

13 Q. Right. So you were not referring to

14 Chris Wolf in that statement; is that correct?

15 A. No. That is correct.

16 Q. Now, I want to ask you, in the

17 statement, there is a reference to an early lead.

18 What kind of lead was it? Was it -- you know,

19 specifically. Since you weren't shown any files.

20 MR. WOOD: Do you mean how was he

21 imparted, the information imparted to him by

22 Helgoth?

23 MR. HOFFMAN: Yes. I had asked him

24 earlier if he ever had an opportunity to review

25 any of the investigative files on any of the

0012

1 murder suspects.

2 MR. WOOD: No, you didn't. You

3 asked him if he had ever reviewed any

4 investigative reports.

5 MR. HOFFMAN: All right. Reports.

6 MR. WOOD: And now you are asking

7 him how he obtained the information about Helgoth?

8 MR. HOFFMAN: Uh-huh, yes. If he

9 hadn't seen any investigative reports.

10 THE WITNESS: I think -- I don't

11 recall specifically whether my attorney told me

12 about him or one of the investigators, but

13 typically I communicated with my attorney.

14 Q. (By Mr. Hoffman) Were you actually

15 shown evidence or were you just simply given a

16 summary?

17 A. I have not seen any evidence that the

18 police have.

19 Q. Any evidence that your investigators

20 have?

21 A. I have seen a few things relating to

22 your client. I don't know that I have seen

23 anything relating to Helgoth.

24 Q. All right. Were you involved in

25 directing the activities of these investigators

0013

1 that were working on your behalf?

2 A. I was not.

3 Q. Then what was, basically, your

4 association with the private investigation of the

5 potential suspects in the murder of JonBenet

6 Ramsey?

7 A. The investigators were retained by our

8 attorneys, and they stated to me that the

9 principal purpose of those investigators was to

10 prepare a defense in the case that the police

11 might bring a charge against me.

12 I hoped that they would also follow

13 up on leads that came to us, but I was

14 frequently reminded by our attorneys that their

15 principal role was to prepare a defense should

16 that be necessary.


you would be a little more interested in someone if that person is really a suspect in your child's murder,no?

Yes. Good point, Madeleine.

Does this sound like people who are searching for their childs killer?

3 Q. Then what was, basically, your

4 association with the private investigation of the

5 potential suspects in the murder of JonBenet

6 Ramsey?

7 A. The investigators were retained by our

8 attorneys, and they stated to me that the

9 principal purpose of those investigators was to

10 prepare a defense in the case that the police

11 might bring a charge against me.

12 I hoped that they would also follow

13 up on leads that came to us, but I was

14 frequently reminded by our attorneys that their

15 principal role was to prepare a defense should

16 that be necessary.

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:waitasec: All that money and resources they had available to them and their investigators were just to help build a defense, not look for leads into who did this?

Venom said:

Yes. Good point, Madeleine.

Does this sound like people who are searching for their childs killer?




:waitasec: All that money and resources they had available to them and their investigators were just to help build a defense, not look for leads into who did this?

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if you take his answers out of the big picture it sounds like he knows who but doesn't get how such a thing could have happened...>>>accident?

RAMSEY, J: But the other -- the other reason is that -- for our grief to resolve itself we now have to find out why this happened.

RAMSEY, J: Not because we're angry, but because we have got to go on.


RAMSEY, J: This -- we cannot go on until we know why. There's no answer as to why our daughter died.

RAMSEY, J: Yes. I -- we don't -- you know, it's just so hard to know, but we are -- our family is a loving family. It's a gentle family. We have lost one child. We know how precious their lives are .


he doesn't ask WHO,only WHY