Monday, February 7, 2022

Doomed from Day One

 



We Have Your Daughter: The Unsolved Murder of JonBenét Ramsey Twenty Years Later by Paula Woodward is a very pro-Ramsey take on this infamous murder, whatever that might mean.  I have not followed this case, so I bring no specialized knowledge to bear at all.  Two things I can say:

1. Like many cases that go unsolved, the fault seems to lie in the first 24 to 48 hours, where the Boulder Police made critical errors that haunt the investigation till this day.  For example, the police failed to treat the Ramsey house as a crime scene.  Contamination was rampant.

2. The police (at least according to this book) became wedded early on to the narrative that someone in the house (a Ramsey) killed JonBenet.  If you stick to this narrative, as the BPD appear to have done until recently, you will not be open to counter-examples (the intruder theory) and not follow those paths with rigor

In a wider sense, it should hardly come as a surprise to readers that police often abuse their power.  Again, the fault can be found in the commitment to a certain narrative.  Police will often work from a vantage of ethically questionable behavior (leaking info the press to put pressure on the Ramsey family) so they can rattle people they believe are guilty when they do not have evidence to press charges.  They are shaking the tree to see what falls out.  In the case, nothing at all.


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