from Ramsey interviews

[jameson245]

22 LOU SMIT: What kind of flashlight do you
23 have?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well we've got several, I guess.
25 One that, I believe, came up as an item was this
0145
 1 MAG light flashlight. If it's the one I think it
 2 is, my son gave me that for a Christmas present a
 3 year or two ago. And that was probably in the bar.
 4 The bar drawer was typically where it was kept.
 5 LOU SMIT: You don't remember getting that?
 6 JOHN RAMSEY: No. I know I did not get it.
 7 LOU SMIT: Anyone else get it?
 8 JOHN RAMSEY: Not that I recall. I don't even
 9 know it worked. Typically our flashlights didn't
10 work because we needed new batteries (INAUDIBLE).
11 We might have a few blown flashlights around.

[jameson245]

10 Q. (By Mr. Levin) Mr. Ramsey, I know
11 that you were asked questions about a black
12 metal flashlight that was found in the house.
13 We have developed, since '98, some
14 information about that flashlight I would
15 like to ask you just a little bit about.
16 Is that the flashlight that you
17 habitually used, say for example, if your
18 power went out and you had candles lit in
19 your house? Do you know?
20 A. Not necessarily. And I don't
21 know that that was my flashlight. The
22 picture I saw, and I think I commented at
23 the time, was that that one was very dirty.
24 My flashlight, while it looked to be the
25 same size, mine was clean. And my son gave
0043
1 it to me for a present. So that was the
2 issue that I saw. It kind of looks like
3 mine, but it's certainly filthy.
4 Q. May not be?
5 A. Yeah.
6 Q. Let's talk about, I want to ask
7 this so it is clear for you. The flashlight
8 your son gave you, whether the light in the
9 picture is that or not, but that flashlight,
10 the one you received as a gift from your
11 son, was that the light that, if you had
12 power failures, routinely, that is the first
13 thing you would grab?
14 A. No, not necessarily.

2000 Atlanta interview

[jameson245]

FROM PATSY’S FIRST POLICE INTERVIEW APRIL 30, 1997
Patsy interviewed about ‘The’ flashlight by Detectives Tom Trujillo and Steve Thomas

TT: Let me first describe the picture for the tape, cause the secretary’s going to kill me. That’s the back sink right there at he bottom of the circular staircase.
PR: Right.
TT: OK. OK. That photograph of that.
ST: Patsy, to the best of your memory, how many flashlights did your family own or keep in the house on the 15th Street?
PR: I don’t know.
ST: Do you…
PR: Burke had some round ones, you know.
219
ST: Did John, as a pilot or for the cars in the garage or the house, did he, do you recall flashlights?
PR: I think we had kind of a big one, I don’t know where it was. I think John Andrew gave it to John for, I don’t know whether he gave it to him for the plane or not. I know he keeps one in the plane, I think.
ST: Can you describe that for me, what color it was for example?
PR: The one John gave…
ST: Uh-huh.
PR: I think it was in that drawer that, that little, we usually kept it I think in that drawer. Yeah.
ST: Maybe in this room somewhere in this vicinity.
PR: Yeah, and I think it was like a big black one, you know.
ST: Well, is this picture, and that’s not a good photo. Would that be representative of the flashlight that you are describing.
220
PR: Yeah, probably, I’m afraid don’t know what this it is.
ST: And for the purpose of the tape, I’m showing Patsy a photograph depicting, is that the kitchen table?
TT: Kitchen counter.
ST: Kitchen counter, with several items, but including what appears to be a flashlight on it.
PR: Yeah, it appears to be. I remember a big, he gave him a big flashlight at one time, but I don’t remember.
TT: Is it plastic material it’s made out of?
PR: It seemed like it was heavy, I don’t know.
TT: OK.
PR: John would remember.
TT: OK, next let me do this for the secretary. When you were talking about the drawer that the flashlight was normally kept in, refer back to that other picture, the drawer by the sink.
PR: Yeah.
TT: Bottom of the staircase.
PR: Yeah.
TT: The drawer to the left of (inaudible).
PR: Kind of a catchall, sort of.
TT: Dump drawer.
PR: Dump drawer, we have lots of junk drawers.

[jameson245]

FROM NEWSPAPERs

Hidden In Plain Sight

Rocky Mountain News
Charlie Brennan, June 8 1997

A patrol officer who was among the first on the scene Dec. 26 noticed a heavy, police-style flashlight on the Ramseys' kitchen counter. He asked who owned it. None of the police claimed it. That officer, sources say, suggested to a detective that it be seized as potential evidence. He was rebuffed and told to keep his nose out of detectives' affairs, sources say.

The News has learned that a flashlight from the Ramsey home did, eventually, find its way to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation with dozens of other items seized from the residence. But sources say the flashlight at the CBI is not the one spotted on the Ramseys' kitchen counter.

That flashlight's whereabouts remain a mystery.


That same week The Globe reported:

“A second mistake came when an officer reported finding a large Maglite flashlight in the house and failed to have it bagged as evidence. Once the autopsy revealed the child's skull with a blow, the flashlight was nowhere to be found.”

[jameson245]

New Light Shed on Ramsey Case

By TIME Denver bureau chief Richard Woodbury

January 12, 1998

Boulder police are discovering that when it comes to the stalled 13-month JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, starting from scratch has its benefits. Cops had long suspected that a weighty black flashlight was used to inflict the fatal 8-in. head wound on the six-year-old beauty queen after she was garroted.

The flashlight was spotted on the kitchen counter of the Ramseys' home on the morning that JonBenet's body was found, but then disappeared. Some investigators dismissed it as belonging to a police officer. But now, TIME has learned, the potentially vital piece of evidence has turned up.

After the new police commander, Mark Beckner, ordered a full review of all case files and materials, it was discovered where else? right at police headquarters, in a storage area where investigators are holding a pile of other evidence. The flashlight, which doesn't belong to a cop, was sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab for testing.

Police became interested in the light because its heavy rubber coating seems consistent with an instrument that could deliver a crushing blow yet not cause bleeding. It is among a handful of pieces of physical evidence that police feel could shed major light on the murder.



Flashlight in Ramsey Case Turns Up

Magazine reports item, which might be tied to JonBenet’s killing, was in police evidence bin
Rocky Mountain News
Mike Patty, January 12 1998

A heavy flashlight spotted on the kitchen counter of the Ramsey home the morning JonBenet Ramsey's body was discovered has turned up at police headquarters, a report in today's Time magazine says. The flashlight initially was thought to belong to a police officer. But it disappeared until recently, when it was found in an evidence bin at police headquarters, according to the article written by Dick Woodbury, Denver bureau chief. The flashlight has been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for testing.

The article says police have suspected the heavy, black rubber-coated flashlight could have been used to inflict a wound on the 6-year-old's skull.

Boulder police spokeswoman Leslie Aaholm declined to comment on the flashlight or the magazine article. “We aren't going to add to the rumor mill,'' she said.


JonBenet flashlight found
Daily Camera
Christopher Anderson, January 12 1998

A flashlight possibly used to inflict a fatal head wound on 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found during a review of evidence at Boulder police headquarters, according news reports. The flashlight was first spotted on a kitchen counter in the Ramsey home on Dec. 26, 1996, the first day of the investigation, but had disappeared, according to an article in this week's issue of Time magazine. After Boulder Police Cmdr. Mark Beckner ordered a review of all case files and materials, almost a year later, a flashlight was found in an evidence storage room at police headquarters.

The flashlight does not appear to belong to any police officers, according to the magazine. "Cops had long suspected that a weighty black flashlight was used to inflict the fatal 8-inch head wound on the six-year-old beauty queen after she was garroted," reported Dick Woodbury, Time's Denver bureau chief.

Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby declined to comment on the report.

[jameson245]

Posted Feb 17, 2017 · Edited #1
‘The’ flashlight


In the years since JonBenet's murder new information has kept resurfacing about ‘the’ flashlight. Much of the follow-up information has been oddly conflicting and difficult to make sense of.

There is one apparent fact however about ‘the’ flashlight that was established early on by Boulder Police, which has remained consistent ever since. This is the belief that there was only ever one flashlight found at the house and therefore that there was only ever one flashlight that was related to the murder.

The public first learned of the existence of ‘the’ flashlight when, early in the investigation it was identified as a possible murder weapon by Boulder Police. It was just prior to their first interviews of John and Patsy in April 30 1997 when Boulder Police leaked information about their view of the crime, which at that time involved Patsy hitting JonBenet over the head with a heavy Mag flashlight and inflicting the massive skull fracture.

Excerpts from The Globe the week of April 28,1997 revealed:

“Police believe she died in fight after mom walked into dad's sick sex games . . . JonBenet's mom was awakened from a sound sleep by eerie, terrifying noises that echoed through the darkened, three-story mansion. Patsy was alarmed. For months she suspected her daughter was being molested and now in the early morning hours of Dec. 26, she saw that her husband was missing from the king size bed they share. Grabbing a heavy Maglite flashlight, the mother crept down the stairs to her daughter's bedroom - her heart sick with dread over what she expected to find. This chilling scenario is part of a shocking new theory Colorado investigators have pieced together of the final hours of the slain beauty queen. Police now believe that Patsy caught her husband strangling JonBenet during a sick sex game and the innocent child was killed during a ferocious fight between her enraged mom and her father, say sources”


Apparently since it was Patsy who Boulder Police had decided was the one who had used the flashlight on JonBenet it was only she who the questioned about ‘the’ flashlight in the first round of police interviews. John wasn’t asked any questions at all about the flashlight

When Tom Trujillo and Steve Thomas conducted Patsy’s first police interview, they showed her a crime scene photo (lifted from one of the videos their crime scene techs had taken of the house interior) of a flashlight on their kitchen bench. Judging by their questions it seems that all they knew of this flashlight was that it had been seen on the kitchen counter the morning after the murder and photographed there. It also seems that they were very interested in establishing ownership of that flashlight apparently because if it could be confirmed that it belonged to the Ramseys, as they suspected it did, that would further fit with their theory that she had used this flashlight to inflict the fatal head blow on her daughter.

On studying the photo Patsy agreed that the kitchen counter flashlight appeared to be theirs and said that it was normally kept in a drawer under the bench. No reason was given by Patsy as to why it came to be out on the bench firstly because the detectives didn’t ask that question and secondly because Patsy didn’t volunteer the information.

FROM PATSY’S FIRST POLICE INTERVIEW APRIL 30, 1997
Patsy interviewed about ‘The’ flashlight by Detectives Tom Trujillo and Steve Thomas

TT: Let me first describe the picture for the tape, cause the secretary’s going to kill me. That’s the back sink right there at he bottom of the circular staircase.
PR: Right.
TT: OK. OK. That photograph of that.
ST: Patsy, to the best of your memory, how many flashlights did your family own or keep in the house on the 15th Street?
PR: I don’t know.
ST: Do you…
PR: Burke had some round ones, you know.
219
ST: Did John, as a pilot or for the cars in the garage or the house, did he, do you recall flashlights?
PR: I think we had kind of a big one, I don’t know where it was. I think John Andrew gave it to John for, I don’t know whether he gave it to him for the plane or not. I know he keeps one in the plane, I think.
ST: Can you describe that for me, what color it was for example?
PR: The one John gave…
ST: Uh-huh.
PR: I think it was in that drawer that, that little, we usually kept it I think in that drawer. Yeah.
ST: Maybe in this room somewhere in this vicinity.
PR: Yeah, and I think it was like a big black one, you know.
ST: Well, is this picture, and that’s not a good photo. Would that be representative of the flashlight that you are describing.
220
PR: Yeah, probably, I’m afraid don’t know what this it is.
ST: And for the purpose of the tape, I’m showing Patsy a photograph depicting, is that the kitchen table?
TT: Kitchen counter.
ST: Kitchen counter, with several items, but including what appears to be a flashlight on it.
PR: Yeah, it appears to be. I remember a big, he gave him a big flashlight at one time, but I don’t remember.
TT: Is it plastic material it’s made out of?
PR: It seemed like it was heavy, I don’t know.
TT: OK.
PR: John would remember.
TT: OK, next let me do this for the secretary. When you were talking about the drawer that the flashlight was normally kept in, refer back to that other picture, the drawer by the sink.
PR: Yeah.
TT: Bottom of the staircase.
PR: Yeah.
TT: The drawer to the left of (inaudible).
PR: Kind of a catchall, sort of.
TT: Dump drawer.
PR: Dump drawer, we have lots of junk drawers.


From the information their crime scene techs had provided and the answers Patsy gave investigators in her first interview, Boulder Police detectives must now have felt they had a nice little bit of evidence implicating their chief suspects – a flashlight believed to be the murder weapon that had been found in a location in their home that suggested it had been recently used and that Patsy just acknowledged belonged to them.

This was all very well and good but what happened to upset the applecart was a leak that came two months later in June 1997 that claimed the kitchen bench flashlight that Trujillo and Thomas had questioned Patsy about had not actually been taken in as evidence and had even gone missing.

This leak was published in the Denver issue of Time magazine in an article authored by Tom Foreman. Chuck Greene reported on the article in The Denver Post June 1, 1997:

“ABC correspondent Tom Foreman reported that a flashlight in the Ramsey home - possibly used as a weapon by JonBenet's attacker - wasn't seized as evidence and later couldn't be found.”


This article was followed by another published a week later. The second article revealed that there was a flashlight from the Ramsey home that was at the CBI lab but it was not the ‘kitchen counter’ flashlight:

Hidden In Plain Sight

Rocky Mountain News
Charlie Brennan, June 8 1997

A patrol officer who was among the first on the scene Dec. 26 noticed a heavy, police-style flashlight on the Ramseys' kitchen counter. He asked who owned it. None of the police claimed it. That officer, sources say, suggested to a detective that it be seized as potential evidence. He was rebuffed and told to keep his nose out of detectives' affairs, sources say.

The News has learned that a flashlight from the Ramsey home did, eventually, find its way to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation with dozens of other items seized from the residence. But sources say the flashlight at the CBI is not the one spotted on the Ramseys' kitchen counter.

That flashlight's whereabouts remain a mystery.


That same week The Globe reported:

“A second mistake came when an officer reported finding a large Maglite flashlight in the house and failed to have it bagged as evidence. Once the autopsy revealed the child's skull with a blow, the flashlight was nowhere to be found.”


Strangely these pieces of information about apparent police incompetence seemed to have little impact on the public consciousness, as least as far as I can tell because there was never any follow up discussions about any of these articles on any of the forums, as far as I could find.

However, tabloid journalists continued to probe and two months later on August 4, 1997 The Globe reported about 'the' flashlight again:

“Later, sources say police realized that a large flashlight, which had been standing on the kitchen counter, had been taken. And since then, investigators have theorized that the heavy Maglite was the awful weapon used to crush JonBenet's skull. "The investigators recalled the big flashlight," says a source. When they realized it could have been the murder weapon, they went back to the kitchen to find it, but it was gone.”


Now none of this should have been news to any of the detectives in the Boulder Police. If they had been studying all the evidence gathered they should all have been aware that there had been one flashlight and one only, that had been taken in as evidence and that it had been collected by James Byfield on December 27 and listed in the second search warrant document as 'item 20JRB' and that it was not the flashlight that had been photographed on the kitchen counter. They should also have been aware that very early in 1997 that the flashlight that had been taken in as evidence had been sent for fingerprinting to CBI where it was currently being held. They should also have known exactly from where in the house James Byfield had collected this particular flashlight.

Whether all the detectives working the case knew, or whether only some did, what happened next is nonetheless very disturbing. Boulder Police dealt with the August 4 leak to the public about 'the' flashlight by suggesting that the disappearance of the kitchen counter flashlight was because John Ramsey had secreted it away from the house that morning after it had been photographed. At least that is the way it appears because the next report relating to the flashlight appeared in The Globe later that week:

“John Ramsey disappeared for fifty mysterious minutes only hours before his daughter's body was found - and police now believe that vital evidence may have vanished with him, say sources. But with 17 Ramsey friends, including investigators, milling around the house, nobody watched as JonBenet's dad quietly slipped away, say sources. Later, sources say police realized that a large flashlight, which had been standing on the kitchen counter, had been taken. And since then, investigators have theorized that the heavy Maglite was the awful weapon used to crush JonBenet's skull.”


Here was clear evidence of Boulder Police manipulating the minds of the public by knowingly releasing false information and it all happened while the investigation was under the control of John Eller.

Then a little over a month later in September 1997, even though Boulder Police fought to keep them sealed, portions of the search warrant documents were ordered to be released. It then became public knowledge that a flashlight had been collected by Detective James Byfield during the execution of the second search warrant on December 27 and although the location in which he found it was not recorded the item itself was listed as 'item 20JRB'.

If any member of the public who read the search warrants once they were released and had been following 'The' flashlight saga, they would have immediately realised then what at least some Boulder Police detectives must have known for months – that there were two flashlights found at the Ramsey house the morning after the murder – the 20JRB one taken in as evidence and the kitchen counter one missing apparently because John Ramsey secreted it away from the house during his ’50 minute disappearance’ after its photo had been taken.

In October 1997 Mark Beckner took over as Commander of Boulder Police Department and one of his first tasks as head of the Ramsey case was to order a review of all evidence. One (probably unintended) result was that the flashlight problem resurfaced. This time it was a flashlight that turned up in a bin at police headquarters that apparently was the flashlight that had been seen on the kitchen counter the morning after the murder. This obviously was not something police wanted anyone to know about – they had already accounted for its loss by accusing John Ramsey of removing it from the crime scene.

However, it did manage to become publicly known because on January 12 1998 another leak took place that was published in the Denver publication of Time magazine and reported on by local Boulder News media:



New Light Shed on Ramsey Case

By TIME Denver bureau chief Richard Woodbury

January 12, 1998

Boulder police are discovering that when it comes to the stalled 13-month JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, starting from scratch has its benefits. Cops had long suspected that a weighty black flashlight was used to inflict the fatal 8-in. head wound on the six-year-old beauty queen after she was garroted.

The flashlight was spotted on the kitchen counter of the Ramseys' home on the morning that JonBenet's body was found, but then disappeared. Some investigators dismissed it as belonging to a police officer. But now, TIME has learned, the potentially vital piece of evidence has turned up.

After the new police commander, Mark Beckner, ordered a full review of all case files and materials, it was discovered where else? right at police headquarters, in a storage area where investigators are holding a pile of other evidence. The flashlight, which doesn't belong to a cop, was sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation lab for testing.

Police became interested in the light because its heavy rubber coating seems consistent with an instrument that could deliver a crushing blow yet not cause bleeding. It is among a handful of pieces of physical evidence that police feel could shed major light on the murder.



Flashlight in Ramsey Case Turns Up

Magazine reports item, which might be tied to JonBenet’s killing, was in police evidence bin
Rocky Mountain News
Mike Patty, January 12 1998

A heavy flashlight spotted on the kitchen counter of the Ramsey home the morning JonBenet Ramsey's body was discovered has turned up at police headquarters, a report in today's Time magazine says. The flashlight initially was thought to belong to a police officer. But it disappeared until recently, when it was found in an evidence bin at police headquarters, according to the article written by Dick Woodbury, Denver bureau chief. The flashlight has been sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for testing.

The article says police have suspected the heavy, black rubber-coated flashlight could have been used to inflict a wound on the 6-year-old's skull.

Boulder police spokeswoman Leslie Aaholm declined to comment on the flashlight or the magazine article. “We aren't going to add to the rumor mill,'' she said.


JonBenet flashlight found
Daily Camera
Christopher Anderson, January 12 1998

A flashlight possibly used to inflict a fatal head wound on 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found during a review of evidence at Boulder police headquarters, according news reports. The flashlight was first spotted on a kitchen counter in the Ramsey home on Dec. 26, 1996, the first day of the investigation, but had disappeared, according to an article in this week's issue of Time magazine. After Boulder Police Cmdr. Mark Beckner ordered a review of all case files and materials, almost a year later, a flashlight was found in an evidence storage room at police headquarters.

The flashlight does not appear to belong to any police officers, according to the magazine. "Cops had long suspected that a weighty black flashlight was used to inflict the fatal 8-inch head wound on the six-year-old beauty queen after she was garroted," reported Dick Woodbury, Time's Denver bureau chief.

Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby declined to comment on the report.




Aaholm and Koby and might have declined to comment to the Daily Camera but Beckner was seemingly upset enough by the news reports to issue a new version of ‘the’ flashlight story, different from the one Eller had promoted. His story was that the one and only flashlight, the kitchen counter flashlight, newly identified by police as being rubber-coated, had not been secretly removed from the house by John Ramsey as Eller claimed but had been sent to CBI some 10 months previously. Someone, likely Beckner ordered that following police statement to be issued the following day:

Police Statement issued by Leslie Aaholm:

"Recent media reports that a flashlight had been lost and recently found are incorrect. The flashlight recovered from the Ramsey home was taken to CBI (the Colorado Bureau of Investigation) in March 1997 for forensic analysis. After the completed analysis it was returned to the custody of the Police Department in October 1997 and has never been missing."


Nevertheless Time magazine stuck to its guns and maintained that its information about the missing flashlight was correct. The Denver Post reported:

Report of missing flashlight denied
The Denver Post
January 15 1998

The police statement also took issue with a recent report that a flashlight taken from the Ramsey's Boulder home has mysteriously turned up in a police storage area where evidence from the Ramsey case is being kept. The Time magazine report said police have long felt that such a flashlight could have been used to inflict a head wound on JonBenet, and a similar flashlight was spotted on the kitchen counter of the Ramsey home the morning after JonBenet's body was found. But the flashlight then disappeared. Time's Denver bureau chief, who reported on the flashlight, said, "Our information is that it was lost for a considerable amount of time, and then was recovered in the police storage area, so I'll still stand by our story."

[jameson245]

FROM PATSY’S SECOND POLICE INTERVIEW JUNE 23, 1998
Patsy interviewed about ‘The’ flashlight by Detective Tom Haney and Attorney Trip DeMuth

0513
2 TOM HANEY: Okay. The next group of photos
3 and these are not numbered –
4 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh (yes).
5 TOM HANEY: -- but they show flashlight.
6 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh (yes).
7 TOM HANEY: A black metal string light
8 type –
9 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh (yes).
10 TOM HANEY: -- flashlight. Do you
11 recognize that?
12 PATSY RAMSEY: It looks similar to one that
13 John Andrew gave John for Christmas, birthday or
14 something.
15 TOM HANEY: Okay. Do you recall when it
16 was he gave it to him or...
17 PATSY RAMSEY: Not exactly, unh-unh (no).
18 Although it looks kind of dirty there. I mean,
19 if I remember –
20 TOM HANEY: It looks different?
21 PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah.
22 TRIP DeMUTH: Okay. Describe how it looks
23 different.
24 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, the one that I
25 remember John having was pretty slick black, you
0514
1 know, and that looks kind of smudgy or gray or
2 something.
3 TRIP DeMUTH: Okay. That's been processed,
4 so it has been changed.
5 PATSY RAMSEY: Oh, okay.
6 TRIP DeMUTH: Other than that, do you
7 notice any differences from...
8 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh (yes)
9 TRIP DeMUTH: That's similar to the one
10 that John Andrew gave John?
11 PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah, uh-huh (yes).

0514.12
12 TRIP DeMUTH: And I think last time when
13 you were here on last April –
14 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh (yes).
15 TRIP DeMUTH: -- you said where that was
16 stored.
17 PATSY RAMSEY: Uh-huh (yes).
18 TRIP DeMUTH: And I wanted to clarify that
19 a little bit. Do you remember where it was
20 stored?
21 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, the best I recall it
22 was in like one of those junk drawers there in
23 the bar area.
24 TRIP DeMUTH: Okay. And I wanted to flip
25 back to photo 380, right there.
0515
1 PATSY RAMSEY: Right, yeah, one of those
2 drawers.
3 TRIP DeMUTH: One of the drawers that's
4 depicted in 380?
5 PATSY RAMSEY: Yeah.
6 TRIP DeMUTH: Do you remember which drawer?
7 PATSY RAMSEY: Well, I, I most recently
8 remember it being, you know, right in this
9 drawer.
10 TRIP DeMUTH: The drawer that is open?
11 PATSY RAMSEY: That's open there, yeah.
12 TRIP DeMUTH: And that's the wet bar that's
13 by the spiral staircase, right?
14 PATSY RAMSEY: Right.
15 TRIP DeMUTH: Okay. Okay. And now looking
16 at photo 380, you don't see a flashlight in
17 there, right?
18 PATSY RAMSEY: Correct.
19 TRIP DeMUTH: Okay.

1515.20
20 PATSY RAMSEY: Where was this flashlight
21 found?
22 TRIP DeMUTH: Well, do you remember when
23 you came in on, in April, they showed you a
24 picture of the flashlight? Do you recall that?
25 You may not.
0516
1 PATSY RAMSEY: No, not exactly.
2 TRIP DeMUTH: Okay. This was on the
3 kitchen counter?
4 PATSY RAMSEY: Oh.

[jameson245]

0518
16 TOM HANEY: And maybe I missed it, do you
17 know when you last saw it in the drawer?
18 PATSY RAMSEY: No, I'm not for sure.
19 TOM HANEY: Do you remember ever putting
20 batteries in it or buying batteries for it,
21 somebody says woop, the flashlight is low, get
22 us some –
23 PATSY RAMSEY: No.
24 TOM HANEY: -- C, D cells?
25 PATSY RAMSEY: No, it just kind of wasn't
0519
1 my, my thing, you know.
2 TOM HANEY: Okay. How about, do you recall
3 of using that during say a power outage or to
4 check on the kids at night, anything along those
5 lines?
6 PATSY RAMSEY: No, I don't remember that.

[jameson245]

FROM JOHN’S SECOND POLICE INTERVIEW JUNE 23, 1998
John interviewed about ‘The’ flashlight by retired Detective Lou Smit

0144
19 LOU SMIT: Okay. Did you use a flashlight
20 at that point?
21 JOHN RAMSEY: No
22 LOU SMIT: What kind of flashlight do you
23 have?
24 JOHN RAMSEY: Well we've got several, I guess.
25 One that, I believe, came up as an item was this
0145
1 MAG light flashlight. If it's the one I think it
2 is, my son gave me that for a Christmas present a
3 year or two ago. And that was probably in the bar.
4 The bar drawer was typically where it was kept.
5 LOU SMIT: You don't remember getting that?
6 JOHN RAMSEY: No. I know I did not get it.
7 LOU SMIT: Anyone else get it?
8 JOHN RAMSEY: Not that I recall. I don't even
9 know it worked. Typically our flashlights didn't
10 work because we needed new batteries (INAUDIBLE).
11 We might have a few blown flashlights around.

0241
2 LOU SMIT: And I'm just going to show you
3 another photograph here. I want to talk to you
4 again a little bit, if I can, about the
5 flashlight. Okay?
6 JOHN RAMSEY: Um hmm.
7 LOU SMIT: You said you kept in a drawer
8 where? Can you point out to that?
9 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, normally it was just
10 in a drawer in this little bar area in the
11 hallway.
12 LOU SMIT: On another interview, were you
13 shown a picture of a flashlight?
14 JOHN RAMSEY: I was shown a picture of a
15 scarf and a picture in which there was a
16 flashlight in the background, and not just of a
17 flashlight.
18 LOU SMIT: Okay. I'm going to show you a
19 photograph that I've got out of labeled Book Four.
20 And I'll show it to the camera. And I'd like it,
21 if you can, to tell me what you see there?
22 JOHN RAMSEY: Well it looks like a MAG
23 like kind of flashlight there. But that looks like
24 maybe a plane or (INAUDIBLE) or something.
25 LOU SMIT: Does that look like flashlight
0242
1 that you have or does –
2 JOHN RAMSEY: I mean, it could be. It
3 looks a little bigger than the one I had. But it
4 could have been the same one.
.
8 LOU SMIT: Where does that flashlight
9 appear to be here?
10 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, it's on the kitchen
11 counter.
12 LOU SMIT: Can you point on the diagram
13 where that is?
14 JOHN RAMSEY: It's right here. (INAUDIBLE)
15 is right there.
16 LOU SMIT: Do you have any idea how it got
17 there?
18 JOHN RAMSEY: No.
19 LOU SMIT: Did you put it there?
20 JOHN RAMSEY: No. Not that I recall.
21 LOU SMIT: Did you use a flashlight at all
22 that morning to look for JonBenet?
23 JOHN RAMSEY: I don't think so. There was
24 no reason to turn the lights on. I wouldn't even
25 bet that our flashlight worked. If I were to bet,
0243
1 I'll bet it wouldn't work. We just didn't keep up
2 with that.


0536
11 LOU SMIT: Okay. We will just go
12 on to the next photograph. I am going to show
13 you a photograph, this will -- you had
14 described your flashlight before. The one that
15 you had. And we had a photograph on the counter
16 of a flashlight and we discussed that before. I
17 am going to show you another photograph and have
18 you take a look at that, see if that looks
19 familiar to you, that's a photograph of a
20 flashlight, and I don't have a number associated
21 with that.
22 JOHN RAMSEY: Well, it's dirty.
23 Mine was hardly used. You know, it was
24 completely black. I don't know what the scale
25 is here. Is that 3 feet do you suppose or maybe
0537
1 that's -- (handing a magnifying glass).
2 (MULTIPLE SPEAKERS.)
3 JOHN RAMSEY: It's dirty. Mine
4 was not dirty.
5 LOU SMIT: Is that a similar type
6 flashlight as to what you --
7 JOHN RAMSEY: It is similar if
8 that's a metal case, and it looks similar. The
9 end looks a lot different, the end where the
10 battery is in. It looks -- looks similar, but
11 it's very dirty. Mine was, I don't think mine
12 ever got used; it was just in the drawer.

[jameson245]

New Light on JonBenet Evidence State investigators find no fingerprints on flashlight, batteries from Ramseys' kitchen
Rocky Mountain News
Charlie Brennan, November 7 1998


A flashlight that might have been used to smash JonBenet Ramsey's skull showed no fingerprints, even on its batteries. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation found no prints on the police-style flashlight, which was in the Ramseys' kitchen, but that may have limited significance, a law enforcement source said Friday. That's because almost two years into the investigation police are still unsure what caused the 81/2-inch fracture along the right side of the child's skull. A broadcast report Friday raised the possibility that the batteries were free of fingerprints or residue because they were wiped clean. But law enforcement sources did not confirm such a conclusion.

Former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary, who has followed the case closely, was not surprised that fingerprints were not found on the flashlight. Rough or textured surfaces don't easily retain fingerprints. The batteries are another story. "That's a little more suspicious," McCrary said. "By their nature, batteries would be a better surface on which to leave fingerprints because they're typically shiny and smooth."

If the flashlight was used to strike a blow to JonBenet's head, and if the killer had taken the time to wipe down the batteries, McCrary thinks that would support his suspicion that the crime was committed by someone close to the family. "An intruder would have spent very little time in the house," McCrary said. "They'd want to put as much time and distance between themselves and the crime scene as possible. "Why not just take the flashlight with you, if you want to get rid of it? To wipe down batteries is just not consistent with an intruder."