Dear Ms. Moriarty:
I wish to comment on your recent program concerning the Jonbenet Ramsey murder. I was shocked and greatly troubled by the shockingly one-sided nature of your program.
If I may begin at the beginning, I have followed this case from the very start, and much of what was said is, in many cases, highly disputed, and in some, outright lies.
I will not address the comments made by John Ramsey, other than to say that they were incomprehensible to me. If it were my daughter, I would not be so quick to sympathize with a man who has said the things John Karr has said.
But the nuts and bolts of it is what I'm talking about.
How could you, in good conscience, use Michael Tracey as a source for anything? His track record with the truth is shameful, and I wish you had addressed that.
As has become standard procedure for 48 Hours, the famous DNA "evidence" was again trotted out, as if it meant something to the case. There are many case insiders who say it doesn't. Michael Kane, the prosecutor who ran the Grand Jury investigation, is one of them, along with Dr. Henry Lee, and even District Attorney Mary Lacy. Not only that, but not saying the DNA in the panties does not match the DNA under the fingernails is a lie by omission.
Most troubling were the segments involving Trip DeMuth. I say troubling because the average viewer might be led to believe that this man is an authority on this case, when, in reality, he hasn't worked it since 1998. This man claims he was kicked off the case because he wanted to persue the intruder theory. That is a lie. He was removed because of his bias toward the Ramsey family and his general incompetence. This fact is well-documented in several books written about the case. I know you've read them, because you told me so.
Why, in the interest of full disclosure, didn't you disclose the fact that Trip DeMuth, was hired by John Ramsey's lawyer Mike Bynum for his law firm, Chrisman, Bynum & Johnson when DeMuth lost the race for DA to Mary Lacy? If you didn't know, your journalism was lacking. If you did know, it was a deliberate omission. Your viewers have a right to know these things.
He claimed that the only evidence pointing to the Ramsey's was their proximity to JonBenet. This is very wrong, and I can prove it. I could give you a list of evidence pointing to their involvement, but I shouldn't have to, because you should be aware of these things. It troubles me that none of this evidence was presented on your program. Among those points is this:
Quote-"She [Det. Jane Harmer] showed a picture of the vagina of a normal healthy six-year-old girl and contrasted it with a photo of the vagina of JonBenét. Even to the uninformed the visual difference was apparent, and Harmer cited the experts who said there was evidence of "chronic sexual abuse", although the detectives referred to it only as "prior vaginal trauma".-End quote.
He claimed that the Ramseys were the focus of the investigation to the exclusion of all others. That is a flat-out lie, one that Mr. DeMuth peddles consistently, when he knows full well it's untrue. Over 100 people were investigated in the course of the police investigation. This is well-documented in books, articles, interviews, and so on.
His claim that JonBenet fought her attacker is laughable. The autopsy report is public. Anyone can read it and see that there were no defensive wounds on the child's body, no marks from trying to remove the garrote, no fresh skin or blood under her fingernails, no marks showing that the cord moved at all from her thrashing. A team of well-known pathologists have said that JonBenet could not have possibly fought her attacker because she was already unconscious from the blow to her head. I can even name them: Werner Spitz, Henry Lee, and Ronald Wright, among many.
DeMuth's lack of knowledge is made obvious when he mentions the "unknown" boot print. Back in August of 2002, the Boulder Police Dept. made it public knowledge that the boot print was left by Burke Ramsey, JonBenet's older brother.
Lou Smit claimed he knew that the cord wasn't owned by the Ramseys. But he bases that on the fact that they told him that and he never questioned it, despite the fact that McGuckin's Hardware in Boulder sells just such material, and that Patsy Ramsey had made several purchases there a few weeks prior to Christmas 1996.
I could go on and on and on, but my main point is this: if you and your producers were unaware of these points, it was sloppy journalism. If you were aware of them, then it was a grossly irresponsible propaganda piece. It should not be up to regular viewers like me to point these things out to you. The media is supposed to inform the public. You did a terrible job.
Sincerely,
David