Sept. 13 - Former Boulder police detective Linda Arndt, one of the first to respond to a call that JonBenét Ramsey was missing on Dec. 26, 1996, says she feared for her life in the Ramsey home that morning.

In an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS’ Good Morning America, Arndt reveals details about what happened in the first few hours after the Ramseys reported their 6-year-old daughter missing, and described why she thinks JonBenét’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, remain under suspicion.

After arriving at the Ramsey home, Arndt says she stayed with the family as they waited for the author of a ransom note to call. The note stated that the author would call between 8 and 10 a.m.

Arndt says during the wait, John Ramsey did not seem upset or distraught. He was “cordial” throughout, she said.

Arndt says she made note of his reaction, but did not say it was unusual behavior for someone in Ramsey’s situation. “I don’t know that there’s a usual or unusual response. I don’t put judgment to it. I’ll just note it.”

She also noted the lack of interaction between the girl’s parents.
“I saw very little interaction between them,” Arndt said. “They were in different rooms for most of the time.”

She said she questioned John Ramsey about the events of the previous night and asked whether there was anyone who might be upset with him. He mentioned an employee. Patsy Ramsey mentioned the family’s housekeeper, and the second detective left the house to follow that lead, leaving Arndt alone with the family as they waited for a call from the author of the ransom note.

Arndt said she had requested backup from the police department and the FBI before going to the Ramsey home and that those requests were denied. By 10:35 a.m., she said every police officer was gone and she was on her own in the house with the Ramseys.

Arndt says she feels “scapegoated.” She said when she called for backup she was told everybody was in a meeting.

No Reaction to Missed Phone Call
Although Arndt said the atmosphere was “electric when the phone rang,” she noted that “10 o’clock comes and goes and there’s no acknowledgment in the house from anyone that this self-imposed deadline, or the deadline imposed by the author of the ransom note, has come and gone.”

She said she asked everyone in the house to examine the ransom note and give her feedback.

“I got feedback from most everybody but John Ramsey,” she says.
She says she then suggested Ramsey and his friend Fleet White “check the house top to bottom” and look for anything that might be out of place, and to tell her if they found anything.
Arndt Feared Father
At 1:01 p.m., “I heard a noise then heard and saw Fleet run to the phone in the den. He was crouched and I saw him dial three numbers, hang up the phone, yell ‘we need an ambulance’ and run back to the front of the house.”

She then saw Ramsey carrying his daughter’s body up the stairs from the basement.

“I saw black with thousands of lights and everything that I had noted that morning that stuck out instantly made sense,” Arndt says. “JonBenét was clearly dead and had been dead for a while.

“I leaned down to her face and John leaned down opposite me and his face was just inches from mine. We had a nonverbal exchange that I will never forget and he asked if she was dead and I said yes, she’s dead, and I told him to go back to the room and to dial 911.

“As we looked at each other and I remember - I wore a shoulder holster - tucking my gun right next to me and consciously counting out the 18 bullets.”

When asked why, Arndt said, “Cause I didn’t know if we’d all be alive when people showed up. I knew what happened, I knew what happened to her.”

Vargas: Do you think your fear was well founded?

Arndt: You bet I do. There’s no doubt in my mind.

Vargas: To this day?

Arndt: Never wavered.

Vargas: Do you think he knew what you suspected?

Arndt: I hope he didn’t. I hoped he didn’t.

Vargas: Why?

Arndt: I needed him not to know what I felt.

Vargas: What you suspected?

Arndt: What I believed.

Arndt is no longer a member of the police force and has a lawsuit pending against the department. She has testified before the grand jury in the case. The Ramseys have not been charged and deny any wrongdoing.

The Ramseys did not return repeated phone calls. The interview with Arndt is part of a five-part series that will appear on Good Morning America this week. The first segment of the interview did not indicate who Arndt believes killed JonBenét, ABC executive producer Shelley Ross said that would be in a later segment.
Detective Tried to Preserve Body
Ramsey Case Detective Speaks Out

Sept. 14 - Former Boulder police Detective Linda Arndt says she knew it was her responsibility to preserve the body of JonBenét Ramsey when the home became a crime scene in 1996.
The only police officer in the Ramsey home when the 6-year-old beauty queen’s body was found, she describes in a five-part interview with ABCNEWS’s Good Morning America the way JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, carried his daughter’s body up the stairs from the basement where he found her.

He carried her “away and out from his body,” she says. Arndt could tell from where she was standing that JonBenét was dead.

“There was no doubt,” she says. “She had rigor mortis. Her arms were rigid right above her head with no support.”

The Ramseys said in a statement Monday, “Linda Arndt’s bizarre speculations are the latest in a series of seemingly endless attacks on the Ramsey family by people who seek to justify their own conduct at the Ramseys’ expense.”
Blanket Source of Criticism
As John Ramsey went to call 911, Arndt said she carefully took JonBenét’s body and carried it from the hallway into the living room.

“I was cognizant that she was my sole responsibility - the preservation of her was my responsibility, so I was careful how I carried her out of this pathway of heavy traffic,” Arndt says.

“I put her in the living room. She looked like she was sleeping. John Ramsey came back and he says, ‘could you please cover her body,’ and as he’s saying it he’s already put the blanket on top of her.”

Arndt has been criticized for letting John Ramsey put the blanket on the body and jeopardizing the crime scene.

“John was next to JonBenét and he did, I guess, his goodbye,” Arndt says. “I heard a wail, just a guttural moan, aching wail from the back area and it was probably one of the most pitiful things I’ve ever heard - and anguished. I saw the rest of the people - Patsy and the pastor and the four friends come then towards the living room.”
From Kidnapping to Homicide
Arndt then asked the pastor and the friends to leave.

The house had suddenly become a homicide scene. “Oh, it became hell, it became hell,” says Arndt.

JonBenét’s body had been brought up from the basement at about 1:05, and about five minutes later the police had not arrived yet.

“I called 911 and I said - I gave my radio number - and I said the kidnapping has turned into a murder. Still nobody showed up about five minutes after I made that 911 call,” Arndt says. “I looked out the window to the street and I saw an ambulance slowly drive by and I thought ‘I am in a twilight zone.’”

Five minutes later, Arndt was paged and told that the police could not find the house.

Finally, she says, police back-up and the FBI arrived.

They told Arndt the ransom note and a legal pad with handwriting samples from John and Patsy Ramsey put the focus on the Ramseys.

When asked what her reaction was, Arndt said “No kidding. No kidding.”
‘Savagery’ and Sexual Trauma
Wednesday, September 15, 1999

CHARLES GIBSON This morning, one of the most controversial chapters of the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation, the autopsy. Former Boulder, Colorado, detective Linda Arndt was there for the autopsy, and today in the third part of an exclusive interview with ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas, she describes what she saw.
In her career as a detective, Arndt says she worked a number of murder cases, which included sitting in on autopsies. But she says nothing prepared her for this one.
LINDA ARNDT I hadn’t seen savagery done to a child or even an adult until the doctor peeled back her scalp, and saw that horrific - God! - fracture to her head. It was the length of her head.
ELIZABETH VARGAS, ABCNEWS (VO) It was eight and a half inches long.
LINDA ARNDT The doctor hadn’t seen an injury like that. I just couldn’t believe what was done to her body. Her head, the depth of that ligature around her neck. It was so deep that twice that cord had been wrapped around her neck and the - it looked like it was only one loose time around. And she had trauma to her vagina.
ELIZABETH VARGAS What kind of trauma?
LINDA ARNDT It would be trauma that would be consistent with injuries seen in sexual assault cases.
ELIZABETH VARGAS Recently?
LINDA ARNDT What was seen was not a first-time injury.
ELIZABETH VARGAS And it wasn’t just something that happened the night of the murder?
LINDA ARNDT I don’t want to speak for the coroner, but not all of her injuries appeared to have been recent.
ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) The coroner, in fact, said the evidence was inconclusive.But ABCNEWS has confirmed that three medical experts who consulted for the Boulder Police Department reported injuries consistent with prior sexual abuse.
(on camera) After the autopsy was completed, this is the day after, 27th, did you go back to talk to the Ramseys that day?
LINDA ARNDT At about 9:30 at night, we were told that they were unavailable due to - one person had been drinking, and the other person had been medicated.
ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) Which brings us to a criticism that Linda Arndt did not take the Ramseys into the police station as soon as JonBenét’s body was found.
(on camera) It was clear it was a homicide, and you and everybody else on the scene at least suspected that there might be involvement by the parents. At that point, why weren’t the Ramseys separated and taken in for questioning at the police station?
LINDA ARNDT That’s a good question. That wasn’t my decision to make. I was relieved of my responsibilities when the supervisor showed on scene.
ELIZABETH VARGAS Some people might be listening to you and think, It-that’s classic sort of pass the buck, it wasn’t - I wasn’t in charge, it wasn’t my responsibility, therefore it wasn’t my fault.
LINDA ARNDT It’s not passing the buck. I was responsible for the things that I was assigned to do, but how is it that things that were not my decision, not my choice, I didn’t have the authority to do, I got blamed for?

ELIZABETH VARGAS Wouldn’t it have been standard procedure to take them down to the police station to question them?
LINDA ARNDT I would say that’s usually done.

ELIZABETH VARGAS Why wasn’t it done in this case?

LINDA ARNDT I don’t know why a lot of things weren’t done in this case.

ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) Arndt also explains that because she carried JonBenét’s body, her clothing became evidence. She was ordered to go home and change, and she is quick to point out that an FBI agent, her supervisor, and 10 other officers remained. And they did not force the Ramseys to go to the police station either.
In fact, it was not until much later that day that the Ramseys would be asked for a formal interview.
(on camera) Were you at all surprised that they wouldn’t speak to you?

LINDA ARNDT It was curious, it was confusing.

ELIZABETH VARGAS At that point, were John and Patsy Ramsey suspects?

LINDA ARNDT Of course they were suspects.

CHARLES GIBSON The Ramseys, of course, have denied any involvement in the crime and have also denied there was evidence of past sexual abuse of JonBenét. For its part, the Boulder Police Department told us it had no comment on Linda Arndt’s statements because she’s filed a lawsuit against them.
Tomorrow, Linda Arndt addresses more facts and myths of the murder probe in response to criticism that she’s the Mark Fuhrman of the Ramsey case.
The Detective’s Story
Good Morning America

Thursday, September 16, 1999

CHARLES GIBSON All this week we have been hearing the compelling story of former Boulder detective Linda Arndt, who was the sole police officer in the home when JonBenet Ramsey’s body was discovered. And she attended the autopsy later that day.

From the start, Arndt’s actions were scrutinized and criticized, some suggesting she was incompetent and jeopardized the investigation. Now, in the fourth part of her exclusive interview with ABC’s

Elizabeth Vargas, she responds.

ELIZABETH VARGAS, ABCNEWS (audio interrupt) even called in one account the Mark Fuhrman of the JonBenet Ramsey case. Why has so much criticism been leveled at you?

LINDA ARNDT I think it’s not only the criticism, it’s the focus. Whatever people wanted to dump, I was the person that then became responsible. And how did I end up with the honor, or dishonor, of being the person who was the total screw-up and the person who made all these decisions, regardless of the many people involved, is that I was a highly competent woman in a male-dominated career.

ELIZABETH VARGAS You think it was sexism?

LINDA ARNDT Absolutely.

ELIZABETH VARGAS Did you ever think at any point during the morning, before JonBenet’s body was found, that this was anything other than a kidnapping?

LINDA ARNDT No.
ELIZABETH VARGAS Should you have?

LINDA ARNDT Well, do you want me to look back at the information I know now? With what I knew at the time, this was a kidnapping.

ELIZABETH VARGAS But you yourself were noting things all morning that didn’t quite fit.

LINDA ARNDT It would have been great to have the luxury to have even a couple seconds to just sit and think and assimilate the information that was coming from me nonstop from many different directions. But I didn’t.

ELIZABETH VARGAS When John Ramsey put the blanket on JonBenet’s body, you had to know that that was going to contaminate evidence.

LINDA ARNDT JonBenet’s body was in and of itself a crime scene. Would it be nice if John hadn’t found JonBenet? Absolutely. And would it be nice if he hadn’t put a blanket? Yes, it would be great, and it would be nice if there were other people to help control and keep people away. That would have been wonderful. But that’s not the circumstances that I had available that day.

ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) We also asked Arndt about another criticism, that her bonding with Patsy Ramsey derailed the case.

LINDA ARNDT Well, I have compassion that I bring to work. And compassion is not the same as empathy. Just simple courtesy towards people in this case just went out the window. Just was gone.

ELIZABETH VARGAS Should there be courtesy when people are murder suspects?

LINDA ARNDT Absolutely. I should show you respect. Does that mean I’m bonding with you? No. You want someone to talk to you, you establish trust. You show sincerity. And you can’t fake it, because people know when you’re insincere.

ELIZABETH VARGAS Did you give the Ramseys a Xerox copy of the ransom note?

LINDA ARNDT On January 5th I gave the Xerox copy to Patsy Ramsey’s attorney.

ELIZABETH VARGAS Why?

ELIZABETH VARGAS The attorneys for the Ramseys, respective attorneys, had asked for copies of the ransom note, and that request I had bumped up to the supervisor making the decisions.

ELIZABETH VARGAS (VO) Arndt adds it did not compromise the case at all. She says the Ramseys already read the note and had already provided handwriting samples using wording from the note. (on camera) Do you concede you made mistakes?

LINDA ARNDT Did I make mistakes in the decisions I made? No. Did I make the decisions-mistakes in who I trusted and the faith I put in? Absolutely, absolutely, I did.

ELIZABETH VARGAS You made no mistakes in your handling of this case?

LINDA ARNDT The decisions I made, when I made them, at the time I made them, they were sound decisions.

ELIZABETH VARGAS You stand by them even now.

LINDA ARNDT I stand by the decisions I made.

CHARLES GIBSON As you know, the Ramseys have consistently denied any part in the crime. And a statement from their attorneys released on Monday called Linda Arndt’s story “bizarre.” The Boulder Police Department says it has no comment on Linda Arndt’s statements because she has filed a lawsuit against them.

And we’re going to talk to her about that suit tomorrow and address the question, Will we see, eventually, justice in this case?