Lou Smit's findings, and evidence photos

This link is really interesting, but gruesome. It pretty clearly spells out Smit's case.

Probably it's been posted before but for those who haven't read it, it's very interesting.

http://www.jameson245.com/doc2usa.htm

So, what do poeple think?

KatherineQ said:

This link is really interesting, but gruesome. It pretty clearly spells out Smit's case.

Probably it's been posted before but for those who haven't read it, it's very interesting.

http://www.jameson245.com/doc2usa.htm

Click to expand...

KatherineQ,

Lou Smit's presentation is full of errors. Let's examine just one of them -- the snow.

The temperature that night dipped to 10 degrees fahrenheit, and then later that morning warmed up and reached into the 50's. It snowed that night and there was a light dusting of snow on the ground in the morning when the cops arrived at 6 AM. Patrol Sergeant Reichenbach was one of the first officers to arrive (just seconds after Officer Rick French knocked on the Ramseys front door). Reichenbach inspected the exterior grounds and reported in a sworn affidavit there were no footprints in the snow or in the frost around the house.

The temperature rose quickly that morning and the dusting of snow melted even before the sun rose at 7:20 AM. By noon the temperature was in the 50's.

Now take a look at the "snow photos" Lou Smit used in his presentation. The shadows in the photos show they were taken in broad daylight and the sun was overhead, and therefore were taken long after the rising temperatures had melted the snow around the house, including the walkways. Smit was perpetrating a scam with those photos.

The shadows in the photos prove Smit was lying and Sgt. Reichenbach was likely telling the truth when he said that, at 6 AM, there were no footprints in the snow.

BlueCrab

BC We are to believe that from the time Richenbach reached the Ramseys, after passing a temp thing on the bank, stating 9*, that the temperature rose to over 32* before the sun came out.
The photo shooting, according to Arndt was in progress before she arrived around 8 am. She could be lying, but what's in it for her to lie?
BTW are you assuming the sun rises to the left of the Ramseys, is that east?

sissi said:

BC We are to believe that from the time Richenbach reached the Ramseys, after passing a temp thing on the bank, stating 9*, that the temperature rose to over 32* before the sun came out.
The photo shooting, according to Arndt was in progress before she arrived around 8 am. She could be lying, but what's in it for her to lie?
BTW are you assuming the sun rises to the left of the Ramseys, is that east?

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sissi,

You are almost correct. Sgt. Reichenbach was on the scene for about 1 1/2 hours before the sun rose. However, the residual heat in the ground, especially in the masonry walkways, hastened the melting of the fresh dusting of snow even before the sun rose.

The Ramsey's house faces east.

I believe BC, you are almost correct, the pavement held the heat from the previous day, giving the reason the light dusting was on the grassy areas and not on the walks.

copied from Japanese bondage site....
"Two variations on this that I've been told about are:

Use colored electrical tape instead of duct tape. Select tape color either to match the rope color (makes the rope finishing invisible in photos), or use the tape color to indicate the length of this piece of rope. Then using a small paper match, just faintly heat the end enough so that the tape melts into the end of the rope. The rope will darken, but the tape will prevent any sharp edges from forming, if done properly.
Cut the rope without benefit of any tape, and immediately dip both ends into an open can of "tool dip". This will provide a soft, pliable finish to the end of the rope, very safe and very secure. Different color tool dip can be used to indicate the length.
See what Lehigh rope makers say about finishing and caring for your rope.

My Rope Recommendation
My favorite rope for Japanese-style bondage is 1/4" braided nylon. I use Lehigh part number SNR812, 1/4" braided white nylon available in spools of 1200 feet (365m), which can be bought by the spool at Home Depot for about $90 and at Hechingers for $170. It's bright white, quite soft, narrow enough to have a nice little bit of a bite but not nearly narrow enough to cut. This rope has a working load limit of 124 lbs (56 kg). It's not strong enough to use for suspension, but it's more than strong enough to "weld" someone's limbs to their body with, or encase their torso with, the two main functions of Japanese Rope Bondage

There are also some risky-but-not-wildly-unsafe practices, such as placing both electrodes on the front (not the back!) of the neck/throat, as with a dog-shocker collar"

I see something here, anyone else??

yes Sissi, I see it, and I think the investigators and Smit saw it too - that this is the work of a sexual deviant pedophile, not the work of a parent who accidentally killed their child and is trying to cover it up quickly, or the work of a 9 year old.

The thing is, sexual deviants have things in common, have classic ways of doing bizarre things, like using a garrotte (sp) and a stun gun.

There are deviant commonalities that when you look into the lifestyles and practices you'll find them - and someone who is racing around trying to cover up a crime won't manage, by sheer coincidence or guesswork to so effectively make it look real.

sissi said:

BC We are to believe that from the time Richenbach reached the Ramseys, after passing a temp thing on the bank, stating 9*, that the temperature rose to over 32* before the sun came out.
The photo shooting, according to Arndt was in progress before she arrived around 8 am. She could be lying, but what's in it for her to lie?
BTW are you assuming the sun rises to the left of the Ramseys, is that east?

Click to expand...

what's in it for reichenbach to lie? i don't know exactly what he wrote down that day, but police officers keep notes of all their activities. at the time, the case had not yet gained the momentum in the national media that the case now has. wasn't reichenbach just doing his job and reporting what he saw?

also, whenever it is below 32, every single drop of water is not necessarily frozen. the sun can melt ice even if the temperature is below 32. or the pathways could be clear but the grass has frost, as you pointed out. there are a number of different scenarios. i don't think the temperature is entirely dispositive on this issue.

think about it the other way around...when a puddle evaporates, does that mean that it is 212 degrees out? ok, now i just confused myself. how does water evaporate, because it's never 212 degrees out! if you stuck your hand in a puddle that was slowly evaporating, do you burn yourself as though you stuck your hand in a pot of boiling water? look out google! here i come...

KatherineQ said:

yes Sissi, I see it, and I think the investigators and Smit saw it too - that this is the work of a sexual deviant pedophile, not the work of a parent who accidentally killed their child and is trying to cover it up quickly, or the work of a 9 year old.

Click to expand...

just playing devil's advocate here, but let's say, for sake of argument, that a ramsey committed the crime. who's to say that it was an accident? you don't have to commit to the accident theory to think a ramsey did it. also, if they did do it, accident or not, they are murderers. murderers do strange things. they are not normal people, in my book.

i am open to the intruder theory, but the intruder as stranger/sexual deviant pedophile doesn't make sense. many of the circumstances point to someone close to the family, even if they did "intrude". i think many involved(john douglas, FBI, BPD, even the ramseys at times!) agree on that point, at the very least. lou smit seems to be the only one to strongly endorse the "complete stranger" theory.

Oh, I don't even think Smit thinks it's a complete stranger, does he? I mean, there's NO evidence, is there, that this was a stranger?

I think it was someone quite well known to the family. A business associate, or a friend who was at the house.

I think you can know someone pretty well but still have no idea that they're a a sadistic pedophile, because people in their social status would take great pains to hide that. Well, I guess people in any social status would take great pains to hide it.

KatherineQ said:

Oh, I don't even think Smit thinks it's a complete stranger, does he? I mean, there's NO evidence, is there, that this was a stranger?

I think it was someone quite well known to the family. A business associate, or a friend who was at the house.

I think you can know someone pretty well but still have no idea that they're a a sadistic pedophile, because people in their social status would take great pains to hide that. Well, I guess people in any social status would take great pains to hide it.

Click to expand...

you may be right. i always thought that smit seemed to imply that some wacko was walking the streets of boulder and did this.

after reading his whole analysis, i question his assessment of the window entry...we know for a fact (and those are rare in this case!) that john ramsey had broken the window in the past to gain entry when he locked himself out. while we don't know whether or not the window was repaired or not, there is no question that entering through that window is possible! it doesn't really tell us much. also, lou's discussion of the mark on the wall, IMO, is also useless. since no forensics were pulled from that mark, it could just as easily have been made by JR a year earlier when he was locked out.

also, his discussion of the head wound baffles me. he seems to suggest that it ABSOLUTELY must have come after the garotte, yet the coroner could not be sure. lou smit is a detective, not a doctor. i tend to give deference to the medical experts on that one. it does sound fishy that a wound of that magnitude would not swell or bleed, but if that were the case, the autopsy would have clearly noted that.

overall, i think smit does a good job of showing that this case is not a slam-dunk on the ramseys, but even believing everything he says, it is still possible that a ramsey did it...i don't think that the BPD and the DA's office are out of line to try to prove that theory.

Voice of Reason said:

what's in it for reichenbach to lie? i don't know exactly what he wrote down that day, but police officers keep notes of all their activities. at the time, the case had not yet gained the momentum in the national media that the case now has. wasn't reichenbach just doing his job and reporting what he saw?

also, whenever it is below 32, every single drop of water is not necessarily frozen. the sun can melt ice even if the temperature is below 32. or the pathways could be clear but the grass has frost, as you pointed out. there are a number of different scenarios. i don't think the temperature is entirely dispositive on this issue.

think about it the other way around...when a puddle evaporates, does that mean that it is 212 degrees out? ok, now i just confused myself. how does water evaporate, because it's never 212 degrees out! if you stuck your hand in a puddle that was slowly evaporating, do you burn yourself as though you stuck your hand in a pot of boiling water? look out google! here i come...

Click to expand...

Richenbach's words were taken back two years after the murder. There was no snow on the pathways. What I was pointing out to BC, is yes, snow on pathways can melt in the sun quickly, snow may not form on paths that were warmed in the previous days sunlight, but for him to suggest, snow will melt before the sun comes out, on a day that was 9* at 6 am, by 7:30 , imo, can't happen. There was a light dusting, as light dustings go, we have them here, generally snow will stick to all grassy areas, and areas ,including walks,porches and decks, that are on the northern side of the house. I don't know which way the Ramsey house faced.

According to the Rocky Mountain News...
Quote: "A sergeant who arrived at the home that day reported he found no footprints in light snow on the grass. But there was no snow on the walkway by the door."

sometimes we have to go back and look at the news , not the forums

http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cach...ootprints+in+the+snow+jonbenet&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

KatherineQ said:

yes Sissi, I see it, and I think the investigators and Smit saw it too - that this is the work of a sexual deviant pedophile, not the work of a parent who accidentally killed their child and is trying to cover it up quickly, or the work of a 9 year old.

The thing is, sexual deviants have things in common, have classic ways of doing bizarre things, like using a garrotte (sp) and a stun gun.

There are deviant commonalities that when you look into the lifestyles and practices you'll find them - and someone who is racing around trying to cover up a crime won't manage, by sheer coincidence or guesswork to so effectively make it look real.

Click to expand...

Interesting,as well, on the site where I found the bondage info, is how often electrical devices are used as a part of the "play". Knowing, according to this site they hold seminars, that using electricity is dangerous, they suggest not getting near the heart or the back of the neck.
Worth mentioning, is the use of a stick, similar to the one fashioned as the garotte handle. It was used as a mouth bit to take the person by the lead and it said, "pony". Within the site was a description of how to bind the hands, since this one is "safe" I will link it, as I NOT DARE to link the other
How does this compare to the autopsy pics of Jonbenet's bound hands?

http://ms.ha.md.us/~hotpink/knots/bowline/

Voice of Reason said:

after reading his whole analysis, i question his assessment of the window entry....

Click to expand...

I too question Lou Smit's assessment of the window. He's flat out lying when he states the window was wide open. Smit took a picture of the window wide open for his presentation and says that's how cops found the window that morning, but even John Ramsey disputes that. John said that, when he went into the basement by himself early that morning the window was ajar by about a quarter of an inch, and he closed it. Lou Smit knew better but blatantly lied.

Also, Lou Smit doesn't address the unbroken spiderweb on the iron grate, nor does he address how the perp got past the train room door when, according to John Ramsey himself, a chair had the door blocked on the opposite side of the door.

There is no way an intruder could have come through that window. The physical evidence (the spiderweb and the chair) says it couldn't have happened.

sissi said:

There was no snow on the pathways...There was a light dusting, as light dustings go, we have them here, generally snow will stick to all grassy areas, and areas ,including walks,porches and decks, that are on the northern side of the house...

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fair enough. but, since this is a thread regarding lou smit, i would like to address this point with regards to his observations. lou smit cannot have his cake and eat it. smit suggests an intruder through the window. however, while we can agree there was not snow on the walkways, wouldn't an intruder need to go across the grass to get to the window? i don't believe the ramseys had a walkway leading up to the window. if it was indeed an intruder, he/she had to either come in through a door or break in through a window. but lou's theory seems to suggest both on some level, without addressing the problems that exist in both (no footprints to the window and no signs of forced entry through any door).

how does lou smit address that?

BlueCrab said:

sissi,

You are almost correct. Sgt. Reichenbach was on the scene for about 1 1/2 hours before the sun rose. However, the residual heat in the ground, especially in the masonry walkways, hastened the melting of the fresh dusting of snow even before the sun rose.

The Ramsey's house faces east.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I will keep in mind the "east facing" when I review the pictures again.

sissi said:

Thanks, I will keep in mind the "east facing" when I review the pictures again.

Click to expand...

sissi,

The front of the Ramsey's house faced east. The basement window was on the opposite side of the house and faced west. Thus, the snow at the basement window area would have remained in the shadow of the house until about noon when the sun was directly overhead.

Therefore, the snow on the west side of the house would have likely been the last to melt. Reichenbach saw no footprints in the snow when he got there at 6:00 AM, which would have included the snow at the basement window area on the west side of the house.