JonBenet: The Master Detective /// Part 1 /// 718 | Forensic Files

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I believe that uh sometime during uh December 25th 1996 Christmas night Christmas night someone got into
the house of John and py Ramsey I believe there is some evidence to suggest strongly that he may have come
in through a basement [Music] window L Smith also found tracks and Mar on the little girl's back and neck that
he thought pointed to a stun gun being used in the case that perhaps she'd been taken from her bed and kept quiet
because she'd been [Music] stunned I think that the stun gun is one of the best Clues left behind by the
killer as far as a clue but it also may explain why John banet did not cry out when she was first abducted I am
convinced that a stun gun was [Music] [Music] used Lou detailed 10 11 12 13 points
that led him to believe that an intruder had committed this homicide and not an inside job by any one of the three
family members in 1966 Lou Smith joined the Colorado Springs Police Department after years of service he
worked his way up to the rank of detective L Smith eventually would become the Department's top homicide
investigator he was involved in a number of notable cases including the conviction of spree killer Freddy Glenn
for a series of murders this included at the time the Cold Case killing of Karen Grammer the younger
sister of actor Kelsey Grammar later at the request of his one-time Protege and lifelong friend
John Anderson Lou joined the El Paso County Sheriff's Department John Anderson was the
recently elected sheriff and one of his major goals during his tenure as Sheriff
was to solve the murder of Heather on Church Heather was a 13-year-old 8th grader at Falcon Middle School when she
vanished September 17th 1991 from her home off of eastonville Road in El Paso County
Colorado her mother had left the house around 5:30 p.m. when she returned at 10:15
p.m. Heather was missing Heather Dawn Church's father had been one of the the original suspects in
the daughter's murder El Paso County sheriff's deputies FBI agents and a battalion of volunteers
spent 2 years looking for Heather in 1993 a hiker discovered a human skull near an old abandoned car
off of Rampart Range Road exactly 2 years after her disappearance dental records were used to identify the
remains of Heather L Smith through dogged detective work discovered that the abductor and killer was the victim's
neighbor Robert Charles Brown Brown ultimately confessed to a total of 48 murders he was convicted for
the murder of Heather Dawn church we covered the Heather Dawn Church case in True Crime garage
episodes 339 and 340 Smith retired in 1996 from the Alp Paso County Colorado Sheriff's
Department where he had served as the captain of detectives Lou Smith had become a master
detective in 1997 3 months after the murder of John Benet Ramsey L SMI was asked by the boulder
District Attorney's office to come out of retirement and to assist with the investigation Smith resigned from the
case after 18 months having concluded that the ramies were not responsible for the murder and that the Boulder Police
Department had been unjustifiably pursuing the Ramsay as suspects despite DNA and other evidence that showed that
some other person was responsible for the killing as a detective Smith boasted that he had never lost a homicide case
in a career in which he worked on more than 200 murder cases in which a suspect had been arrested and tried for their
crime the master detective Lou Smith died at age 75 in August of 2010 he never stopped working the Ramsay
case Until the End Lou continued working for John Benet and today former homicide
detective and retired Sheriff John Wesley Anderson continues to lose work this is true crime
[Music] garage [Music] [Music] welcome to the garage Mr Anderson you have a legendary law enforcement career
and fantastic books that you've been putting out over the last several years could you tell our list a little bit
about yourself and a brief overview of your law enforcement career I'll be happy to Nick and thank you for having
me on your your show um I have had a phenomenal law enforcement career just fortunate be in the right place at the
right time with the right plan and more importantly with the right people around
me and Lou SMI was certainly one of those he and I first met the month after I graduated high school in 1972 and I
had applied for the all Springs Police Department in their a police cadet program and in Colorado anyway you have
to be 21 to be a police officer so I was only 18 and for the next two and a half
years I did um various um positions as a police cadet in the department one of those was in the identification record
section and that's where I met L Smith and he'd come in to pull a criminal record on a suspect or look for a mug
shot or something like that and I became really fascinated with his approach to criminal investigations so from the time
I was 18 for the rest of my life or his life I was fortunate to be with him and through him really learned the
investigative process firsthand and working homicide investigation so when I went on the police department my my
intent was to be a uniform officer and work the streets and that was fun but after uh meeting Lou I decided you know
I think I'd like to to try to become a detective and maybe be Lou's partner and I was fortunate to have that opportunity
for six years in the homicide division with Carl Springs Police Department and worked um a number of dozens and dozens
of cases with Lou and then um I'd gotten promoted and then a little later he retired and when he retired he went to
the District Attorney's Office in El Paso County Colorado and work for the coroner's office and then I ran for
Sheriff of El Paso County our our County Sheriff's Office in 1994 and part of my
intent to run I'd had family and law enforcement and an uncle who was a a sheriff so it always had in the back of
my mind maybe running for County Sheriff when I was um old and gray and finished
my career of the police department but that time got accelerated because of a cold case that we had in El Paso County
the heatherd Don Church murder and some of you may have heard about that one is it's the reason I ran for Sheriff when I
ran for sheriff in 1994 and one of the first people I told I was going to do this was Lou smid and I said Lou if if
I'm successful in being elected I I really want you to come in and be the captain of detectives for the Sheriff's
Office and take over the heatherd Don Church case and at that point it had languished it was a four-year-old Cole
case Lou when he took over the investigation had the case solved Within three and a half months the C the
suspect in custody and he later pled guilty took a a life sentence later Lou formed a Cold Case unit and they were
able to get another conviction for first degree murder on the same suspect eventually that suspect confessed to 49
other a total of 49 murders so if that's true he certainly was one of the most prolific serial killers in American
history uh L and his team was only able to get six or seven confirmed um victims
on him and and after having two life sentences back to back there wasn't a lot of interest in pursuing him further
but that suspect was still in our community and I'm convinced would have continued killing had Lou and his team
not come along when they did and taking him off the streets you also worked with
Joe Kenda is that correct I did yes Joe was um for several years the sergeant of
the homicide Division and and I worked for Joe and appeared on five of his episodes of his television show and
recently You released a book called Lou and John Benet could you tell us a little bit about that book yes I'd be
happy to and part of the motivation was we had just surpassed the 25 year anniversary of John benet's death and um
the year before um one of the other partners homicide partners that worked with Lou and I Dave Spencer who was part
of our uh SMI Family Team um who had helped uh investigate um the case after uh Lou had passed on and uh tragically
Dave passed away in um uh 2020 and on the anniversary date December 26th of 2020 and what it caused
me to do was to realize that um that it really was up to me to document a lot of the
information that we had developed and and also really look at um presenting lose facts uh publicly so that other
people could understand how was it that Lou had reached the conclusion that an intruder had entered the Ramsey home and
that the murder was not committed by uh Ramsey family member and that was really
important to to Lou so I thought the book it's titled Lou and John Benet a legendary law man's quest to solve a
child Beauty Queen's murder I thought that that was my way of helping document the case as completely as I could coming
up on that 25y year anniversary but also this the second purpose was to encourage
law enforcement to continue to uh reevaluate the physical evidence to look at the possibility of the DNA the
foreign DNA that was found under the little girl's fingernails and on her clothing um and use that unknown male
DNA to help identify the Killer and one of the things Lou had done before he passed away in 2010 he knew he was he
was dying he he had cancer and and um was in remission for a short time and then it returned and when he was in
hospice and right before he went into hospice he made sure that the case was as um organized as possible
in that not only I but Dave Spencer and other detectives and his most importantly lose family knew how to find
information in the case his case File how it was organized and what his dying wish was is to make sure that the case
didn't die with him and he had um a wonderful quote on trying to keep a cold case from going cold and that was he
often said you have to stir the pot and that's what I think this this call is today this this U interview Nick is is
another chance to stir the pot because you never know who's going to hear this and what leads will come out of this but
what I hope the the the book does is clear the the Ramsay family from this this cloud of Suspicion this umbrella of
Suspicion as the Boulder Police alluded to so often and and then maybe through the book and the effort of the
family and others to to encourage law enforcement you know to re-evaluate the evidence and to look at you know
identifying that unknown male DNA do you remember your first conversation with Lou about the John benay Ramsey case I
don't know if it was the first one but it was certainly the most meaningful one and it happened while um Lou was um
getting ready to be the best man at my wedding uh second wedding we we were in Las Vegas and Lou had picked up my
fiance and I at the airport the day before we were to be married in a stretch limousine and I remember exactly
the the conversation because this stretch limousine that Lou had rented for us to pick us up the airport the
roof was open and he had had a a bottle of champagne and in a silver ice bucket we just uncork the champagne we're
standing up looking at the through the the sunroof the the of the limo looking at the lights um in Las Vegas and he
said Johnny you may be getting a call from Alex Hunter the district attorney in Boulder because he's putting together
a task force this is in in March of 97 and he said the The Da is is um putting together a task force and he's invited
me to come out of retirement to be a part of that and he asked for references and I gave the district attorney Alex
Hunter your name and phone number so so you might be getting a call and sure enough that the next day I did get a
call from Alex Center the district attorney who asked if I would recommend Lou to be a part of the John Benet
Ramsey task force that he was putting together in Boulder and of course I said absolutely that would be the one of the
smartest moves that you could make and so Lou worked for the DA for the next 18 months during that time did he share
information with you he did very frequently almost every time we saw each other which was prob maybe not weekly
but you know probably every other week we'd get together and have coffee or lunch or we'd talk and almost without
exception the conversation would come around to you know how are things progressing in Boulder what's new there
anything I can do to help I was still the sheriff of El Paso County so we did have some resources I remember when Lou
um accepted the District Attorney's invitation to come up and be part of the task force he really didn't think this
was going to be a prolonged investigation he like so many of us you know had only gotten our information
through the the media and a lot of that was distorted or misinformation and and so when I think I'm fairly confident
that the conversations we had prior to him going to Boulder was you know trying to determine which of the family members
probably one of the parents was responsible for the murder and like so many other people because their early
reports from the media talked about no footprints in the snow no Forest entry but I remember specifically the I think
it was the following weekend after he'd been at the boulder daaz off he was back
in Colorado Springs and it was the first time that we had actually talked since he had become part of the task force and
one of the first things he told me is he said Johnny there's there's something wrong in Boulder he said the physical
evidence is not not supporting what is being touted in the in the media and he talked about how there there were reason
there was no uh footprints in the snow is because on the southern facing side of the of the home where the the sun
warms the sidewalk or the building it melts the snow quicker here in in Colorado on the south side of the the
home he said there is definitely a uh evidence of forcible entry with a window in the basement on the south side of the
house house that was accessible through a window well that was left standing wide open and it had a um a window pane
at the top that had been broken out that was used by John benet's father the previous summer and he had reached
through he locked himself out the house so what he did was he crawled into that window well there's a heavy metal grade
on it so he removed the grade crawled into the window well and he broke this one window pane out at the top of the
window closest to where the lock was re reached in unlocked the window opened the window went inside through the
basement turned around and locked the window behind him but he he said to his regret the rest of his life was that he
never had that window Paine repaired and that was what L believe the suspect used
to enter the ramsy home on Christmas night the thing that fascinates me about that situation is not just that he finds
a possible point of entry for an intruder you know there there are some that that say well there's evidence to
suggest that that's not the way that one would have gotten to that home but what
fascinates me about that aspect is it's the total reverse of what we had been told up until that point no signs forced
entry into the home and what's so confusing about this crime scene to most people most of us don't live in a home
that big with that many doors that many windows and we clearly know that Boulder
PD overlooked a lot of in valuable information and possible evidence at the crime scene heck they didn't find the
victim for several hours after being on the scene you're you're right ni a matter of fact they weren't even the
ones who found the the victim's body it was her father 7 hours after the 911 call came in and from the time the first
Boulder Police police officer arrived at the Ramy home there was a series of of fatal errors that were made to
investigate the case properly the first officer was handed The Ransom note who looked at it handed it back and that
Ransom note got passed around to many people in the home there was probably as many as maybe up to two dozen people who
were allowed into the home it was never secured in the Boulder Police there there was other uniform officers arrived
a sergeant the the commanding off the the Comm the commander on duty at the time came so there were a number of
uniform plane clothes and crime scene uh technicians from Boulder PD who arrived
to initially process the scene after about two hours they all left and um one detective Linda AR was was tasked with
remaining at the home just in case the the suspect um called and and made arrangements for the ransom demand to be
picked up it was this detective Linda AR after um several hours later um with nothing happening is when she instructed
John Ramsay to take one other man who was in the home and to search the the house again from top to bottom to see if
anything was out of place so John Ramsay took one other um friend of his an another gentleman and they started in
the basement when he went into the basement he pointed to that open window and he said that's that window that's
standing open and there's this blue suitcase that's underneath that window standing upright and he said that wasn't
like that before that window was closed that's the window that I used to get in when I locked myself out of the out of
the home last summer and then John in the basement searched there's it's it's only a half basement so it's a Hu it's a
large house four levels but the basement was not huge and when he there's only like four rooms in the basement so when
he walked through the room where the window was standing open they called that the train room just because there
was a toy model train set up in the basement for the kids to play with but he walked into another room that they
called The Boiler Room and then adjacent to the boiler room was a smaller room that they called The Wine Seller
although there was no wine in it and when he opened the door to the Wine sellers when he saw his daughter laying
on the on the floor and she um was deceased um he didn't know that his first in reaction is to try to help her
as any of us would and he he noticed immediately that there was black duct tape over her face over her mouth so he
ripped that off again contaminating the scene uh tries to untie the knots that were around her wrists and around her
throat from the garant he scream for help he picks her up and then he carries her upstairs through
the the kitchen laser on the floor by the Christmas tree hoping that the detective or someone you know can help
revive his little girl from the time that the police officers first arrive to the time that her body is found 7even
hours later there's unnown number of of neighbors and friends and police officers First Responders crime scene
investigators that have contaminated the crime scene so um it's a it's a real tra
tragedy one of the baffling things I guess for me as being a police officer in 30 years and probably a lot of police
officers is how can you enter a a home to search for a missing six-year-old girl and not search the entire house for
wherever that little girl could be I've been on many calls and you you know you a six-year-old little girl kindergarten
is not very big but you want to look anywhere she can be you know is she under the bed is cuz she be in the
clothes hamper is she hiding in a closet is she sick or injured or scared and um
the other thing as an officer is you want to search the en entire house to also see if there's a suspect in there
you you don't want to turn your back on a on a possible suspect a threat so you search every the the rooms and on every
floor carefully to make sure that you're not turning your back on a on a suspect
and that was not done and that and that's just um defies even common sense if you're looking for a lost little girl
little girl that's missing that can't be found who who who the ransom note says was abducted and being held for ransom
you you should you should search wherever that that child might be and that was not that was not done and you
don't ask you know someone else that's not law enforcement you you know to to search to try to find them because that
they're going to do the natural thing like like her dad did and contaminate the scene and try to try to help them
and unfortunately my opinion Linda aren't she's kind of she's left there to try to Corral several adults into one
room and she's having trouble keeping a couple of them in the room and so I I think she kind of did that as a way
to keep people busy and with very little knowledge or information being provided
to her while she's left alone with all the I I I just can't believe for a second that we have a police department
that is under the impression that a child is missing has been abducted and there's a ransom and yet we only put one
officer posted up at the house with the parents and now their their friends and Priests are there with them as well and
very obviously highly emotional uh setting she's dealing with a number of different people in in a very stressful
in and environment and um you know the the ramies are um and we're a very religious uh family and the priest was
allowed into the home and he's assembling prayer circles and and uh you know that that adds a lot to the um very
stressful environment that that Linda art was in by herself so I think you're right I think she's trying to you know
keep these people busy for several hours waiting for the phone to ring which never happens one of the things that I
do have trouble with Linda and I don't know if this was just the way she's wired or La lack of training but I I do
know that she made a statement later and and repeated the statement about when John Ramsey brings her little girl his
little girl upstairs layser on the floor um that Linda aren't checks for Vital Signs doesn't find any and then and then
she says she looks into the eyes of John Ramsay knew she was count knew she was looking in the eyes of the Killer and
then made some statement about counting the number of bullets in her gun because
she was afraid that he was going to kill everybody else in the house and and I know John Ramsey I've met with him
several times Lou had in um U introduced us and he is uh not I mean he's a very humble very very uh calm person but I I
can't and I've looked into the eyes of a lot of different killers and I can't imagine how she could immediately jump
to the conclusion that she's looking into the eyes of a killer and that she feels so threatened that she's counting
the bullets in her gun so I don't know if she just was that inexperienced or lack of skill or or or training or lack
of confidence but I think it does show some preconceived belief that a Ramsay family
member was involved before the body was found and and you just can't objectively
investigate a crime without all the the facts especially a complex frme like this one yeah possibly something that
like you said preconceived notions or was it a situation where she created a better story later to sell her book oh
that that that could be too yes and it it's really unfortunate there there were no winners out of this case um she left
the Department uh not under good circumstances uh Steve Thomas who is the for a short for a Time the lead
detective who who left in to write a book and um you know this this this case ended a lot of a lot of people's
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purchase [Music] now when you were having your almost weekly meetings with Lou like you mentioned there's
misinformation like the the footprints I mean I I remember when we looked into this case and going well there's no
footprints in the snow so therefore it had to be a inside job and then you later find out that there's there was
parts of the yard that didn't have snow so there obviously couldn't be any Footprints
was was there other pieces of misinformation that that Lou was pointing out to you that that you
remember being shocking uh yes and and I don't want to misrepresent um my involvement um because it was minimal um
right and again it was probably only once or twice a month that Lou and I would uh talk uh or in Social um in
encounters you know or just have lunch or coffee just to stay in touch with friends and then the case would come up
so I don't want it to come across like I was advising him you know we're Consulting on the case because that
that's not the the circumstances at all but um what I can say though is when we would
meet he would Contin continue to add one more uh piece of evidence or one more layer of information that excluded the
Ramsay family and pointed again to the Intruder and within the first several months he had developed what I thought
was an undeniable case that um the family was not involved and that um uh the killer uh
who intended to commit uh an abduction for ransom that something had gone wrong um in the commission of that that crime
after he had contact with with the little girl and that a very violent sexual assault happened in the basement
of the home and culminated with with her being bludgeoned with some type of a heavy blunt force object but I I know
that um Lou had a difficult time trying to to communicate to the boulder detectives the evidence that really
should be pursued that again would convince most people Beyond any reasonable doubt that that the ramies
weren't involved and um some of that evidence had to do with um what was brought into the home by the Killer and
what was taken away for example Lou put a lot of emphasis on the Paracord the B the the white parachute cord that was
um used to Fashion the garat that was was found on John B's uh around her throat um and also is the same cordage
that was used to bind her wrist and uh what Lou knew was um uh and we have all in investigations been taught
this the idea of the uh um transfer Theory with that states whenever crime is committed the suspect either takes
something into the crime scene or take something away from the crime scene take something with them and what L pointed
out was the C the Paracord is a good example because it's called par paracord 550 the it's not a common cordage
especially back in the 90s it was mostly for military purposes it was used for suspension lines on a parachute and um
later it became more popular with outdoor people hunters and one because it is such um it's so so strong and um
but there was no uh paracord anywhere in the Ramsay home other than what was used
on the garat and around John benet's wrist same way with a black duct tape that was on her mouth uh was about a 6in
strip of black duct tape that was torn on both edges uh Lou pointed that out it they weren't cut and I remember Lou
telling me that you know when you look at the duct tape where it was was uh torn if you could find the parent roll
you'd be able to match the one edge of the of the torn duct tape to that roll or if you could find anywhere in the
house where that duct tape had been used um anywhere um on the back of a picture
frame or around um some some duct duct work but he said the Ramsay didn't own any black duct tape the house was
searched from from top to bottom and there was no duct tape that was found and he said um you know when you think
about that that 6inch piece of duct tape you know most everybody's handle duct tape you know that sticks to everything
so how do you get that into the house if it's not um part of that role and then Lou also talked about the stun gun and
that was something else that he put a lot of time and energy in um as the case continued to evolve when he was still
with the district attorney's office and trying to get the the boulder detectives
to look at the stun gun marks that the wounds that were on uh John benet's back on the left side and on the right side
of her cheek below her her right ear and what Lou pointed out is that these These
are thermal uh wounds abrasions um and and they were rectangular uh in shape and measured 3.5
CM apart both on on the side of her face and not on her her back and Lou became convinced they were thermal wounds
caused from a stun gun the discharge of a stun gun when it is placed in contact with a flesh not not with the barbs
being shot into the the the the person but by the cartridge from the top being removed and the electrodes actually come
in direct contact with with the body and um the the detective even up to the last time I talked to the
homicide detectives 20 several months ago um they denied you know that that was even a remote
possibility so one of the things Lou had done when he left the boulder uh DA's office he he resigned in protest when
they were getting ready to take the case in front of the grand jury he could see
that the whole purpose was politically charged to indict the parents and he he just and he wrestled with with that he
he showed me the the um draft of the letter he was sending to the district attorney to resign from from the task
force and he said I know this is going to be really hard to work this case from the outside looking in but he told me he
said I just can't be a part of you know this because they're using the grand jury system to indict these parents who
are grieving parents who are not involved in this murder and they're trying to uh indict them for the the the
the death of their little girl and he said I just can't be a part of that so what Lou tried to do was in protest was
to draw attention to the fact that somebody some objective um body needs to look at U the evidence that the Boulder
Police had refused to acknowledge U and it wasn't just the police it was the district attorney and Boulder the
special prosecutors that were appointed by the governor at the time and luk um asked to be um allowed in to present
um his side of the the case because um it was not being U presented and one of the most forceful things he wanted to
get in front of the grand jury was the evidence of the Intruder the the um uh the photos that the crime scene that
showed the window standing open in the basement that there was no snow out there but one of the most important
things was the uh foreign DNA that was left um on the uh under John B's fingernails and on the crotch of panties
and that that eliminated um any member of the the Ramsay family within 3 weeks of the murder and that information was
never released in fact it didn't get to the district attorney's office where Lou
was working for several months I think it was July of 97 when that report finally that lab report finally came
through to the DA's office and Lou knew immediately that that was information that was not being released anywhere
that that really did exclude the the Ramsey family in all of your years in law enforcement and as a detective as a
sheriff you've seen it all have you ever witnessed or been a part of or experienced such a divide between a
police department and a district attorney's office in a homicide a child abduction a situation
where parents killed the child any any number of those scenarios have you ever witnessed a situation more divided than
what was going on in Boulder with the John Benet case I have not and that was very out of character with the law
enforcement agencies that Lou or I had ever worked with in in fact in um our 30 40e career if you count the homeland
security work that I did um all of all of the law enforcement agencies work very much as partners we were aware of
where one jurisdiction began and another ended so we wouldn't step on one another's um you know get out get into
out of bounds but what we what we try to do is utilize their strengths uh a good
example is if there was I don't know Grand lony Auto that crossed you know state lines the FBI
could prosecute and um uh you know had a greater reach you know than than we did
and and at that time felony gr Larson the auto carried a higher penalty so we would readily work with the FBI and not
say wait minut this my case back off it was the opposite or or armed robberies where you have federally insured Bank we
knew that under federal charges we could get um a higher penalty and then both what was just alarming the FBI was
notified immediately and in fact they were allowed to put up a phone trace on the ramsy phone but they were never
allowed in the house which was baffling because everybody else was being allowed
in the house but the FBI um from the very first within the first few hours um the the um resident agent in charge of
the Denver office said look you know we have experts that we can bring in we have have U you know crime scene
investigators you know let us let us help and Boulder PD to include up to the staff officers refused to let the FBI
even step foot into the crime scene other than the phone trap said we don't we don't want your help we don't need
any help we got this covered you know go away and then that was exasperated with
the uh within a few days when the Denver Police Department offered two homicide detectives to be loan from Denver's
homicide unit to the B Boulder Police Department at no charge and the problem that Boulder PD was dealing with is none
of not only none of their detectives but none of their supervisors or Rank and file none none of their chain of command
had worked um a murder either so this was new to all of them but the homicide detectives out of Denver for people who
don't know Carl Springs is a large large police agency and we worked um several dozen you know homicides every year but
Denver just being such a larger Community would probably work two or three times the number of cases we did
so they those homicide detectives had even more experience than someone like like me would have so when um Denver PD
The Command Staff offered two homicide detectives these were I don't I don't know the names of who they offered but I
do know the uh caliber and the training of the bould or of the Denver homicide unit is is almost unparalleled that they
really are true experts and they could have from from the very first day pointed out the physical evidence that
Lou months later is trying to get them to focus on one of the biggest mistakes from the first day second day third day
of the investigation was refusing any help from any outside agencies and I know that's something that John Ramsey
also um uh has commented on in some of the contexts discussions that he and I have had in where he's spoken out
publicly either on documentaries or in a public forum he said you know I don't blame Boulder Police for not having you
know a lot of experienced homicide detectives because it it's a smaller Community they didn't have a lot of
violent crime but he says the thing that it that I will never forgive them for is
that they turned down help from the very beginning that would have completely changed the course of this invest a and
perhaps the outcome frankly my speculation is this we have Boulder PD who doesn't seem Alex Hunter the da
they're not getting along seeing eyi completely on this investigation Boulder PD is is steadfast saying well paty
Ramsey killed John Benet Alex Hunter is simply saying well we don't have enough evidence to take this to trial or beyond
that get a conviction so essentially is brought in by Alex Hunter simply to find that
evidence right he's he's corre so many homicide investigations yeah over 200 yes over
200 with with with the clearance rate of what uh Pro I think Lou probably had about a 98% clearance rate may yeah
right at that that very few cases um did did he not clear and the other amazing thing is he never lost the case in court
he had 100% conviction rate so he's worked 200 more homicide cases than John Eller the captain of the detectives for
Boulder PD worked 200 more homicide cases than Steve Thomas who was one one of the lead detectives on the John Benet
case and he's brought in essentially to find evidence to take this to take paty Ramsey to trial that they could not find
and when he comes back to Alex Hunter and says the evidence you're looking for is not here because I'm finding evidence
that something else happened another theory is probably the more likely and Alex Hunter eventually says I'm going to
take this to the grand jury who's already been tainted from the media for you know for months and months and
months and we're going to get our we're going to get this thing to trial that way
and and Lou basically says well I got to get out of this because you're not you're not respecting the the
investigation I'm following the evidence where it led me and I'm here to tell you
that this is not my findings correct that that is correct well one one slight um
uh change there or or focus and we may never know the truth to this is I'm not so sure taking the case to the grand
jury was Alex Hunter's idea and not um uh the the the governor uh at the time or someone with the Colorado um at a G's
office or or somebody and the reason I say that is because um Alex Hunter had the jurisdiction to assemble the grand
jury on his own in Boulder it was his County he was the district attorney but that didn't happen what happened is the
governor of Colorado at the time appointed Three Special prosecutors for the grand jury they're the ones who came
into Boulder and they opened up the and panel the grand jury and then they ran for months and months taking testimony
and um once that was over the uh um the grand jury did return a true bill inditing both the John and paty not for
a murder but for a lesser crime of and I can't remember the statue that was cited
but it was something about enabling um or endangering you know their child or something like that and
then Alex Hunter quashed the um uh true bill he he just took the true bill rather than than charging the
parents and that's when he makes the statement that you just referred to Nick but there's no evidence to convict
anybody in this crime and so what what Alex Hunter did was he just put both of those um true bill indictments in his
bottom death drawer never acknowledged him and it wasn't until later when he's out of office and the next district
attorney comes in her name was Mary Lacy and she's the one who um issues the letter to the parents saying that they
they Boulder U District Attorney's Office acknowledge that no one in the Ramsey family was involved and then this
next district attorney to Boulder Stan Garnett he's the one who first acknowledges to my to my understanding
that there was actually a true bill indictment from the grand jury because that was never released and when he does
this he points out that the statute limitations on that charge had uh ran out now had they been charged with a
first-degree murder there's no statute limitations there but um by the time that that information surfaces years
later that the grand jury did return a true bill on both the parents that was um that was new information but it was
Alex Hunter who made the determination there's there there's no way you know that they can be convicted of this crime
and and I did not talk to Alex hunder specifically about this but I know him and he's a brilliant man and um and
could think through a criminal investigation methodically was well known in Colorado um law enforcement
circles as as as as a bright prosecutor I have absolutely no doubt that he knew that his biggest um challenge um if he
did adite the parents was the defense attorney's star witness was going to be his former investigator L
[Music] SMI make sure you check out the Great Book Lou and John Benet a legendary law
man's quest to solve a child Beauty Queen's Murder by John Wesley Anderson and make sure you come back here to the
garage tomorrow and join us for part two until then be good be time and don't [Music]
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JonBenet: The Master Detective /// Part 1 /// 718

Part 1 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

This week as we enter the Christmas season we find ourselves once again intrigued by the still unsolved homicide case of JonBenet Ramsey. Legendary homicide investigator Lou Smit was hired by the Boulder County, Colorado District Attorney’s office three months after the murder of six year old JonBenet. However, Smit resigned from the position less than two years later. This week we are joined in the Garage by one of the people who knew Lou best, John Wesley Anderson. Mr. Anderson worked with Lou and he himself had a legendary law enforcement career. Mr. Anderson is a former homicide detective and El Paso County Sheriff. This week we feature John Wesley Anderson’s book - LOU AND JONBENET: A Legendary Lawman’s Quest to Solve a Child Beauty Queen’s Murder. We are going to take a few weeks to examine the JonBenet Ramsey case from a few different and very interesting perspectives. This will be the first of several episodes, each with a different focus and perspective on the case that continues to fascinate True Crime buffs all around the world.

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Brief Summary

John Wesley Anderson discusses Lou Smith's investigation of the John Benet Ramsey case, emphasizing evidence of an intruder and missteps by law enforcement.

Key points

NCIS Sydney Launch. The NCIS franchise expands with NCIS Sydney, now streaming on Paramount Plus.
Lou Smith's Investigation. Lou Smith, a master detective, believed an intruder committed the Ramsey homicide.
Heather Dawn Church Case. Lou Smith solved the cold case of Heather Dawn Church within three months.
Police Response Questioned. A police officer expresses disbelief at the lack of thorough searching for a missing girl.
Detective Resigns in Protest. Detective Lou resigns, unable to support the indictment of grieving parents in a child murder case.
Boulder PD's Refusal for Help. Boulder Police declined assistance from experienced homicide detectives, impacting the investigation's outcome.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The clock is ticking, people!

WatchNov 29, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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