By Marilyn Bardsley  

(Continued)

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Cloud of suspicion lingers despite the emergence of the truth

For years the mainstream media and tabloids put John and Patsy Ramsey on trial in the press for the murder of their daughter. Evidence of their involvement in JonBenet's death was not really necessary. The thinking went: any parent who would promote her daughter's participation in something as politically incorrect as a beauty contest was capable of, well, anything. Even murder.

Eventually a very experienced investigator, Lou Smit, came into the case and provided the professional analysis that had been lacking up to that point.

In 1999, the D.A. called in famed forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee to examine the forensic evidence. Shortly afterwards, the D.A. called a press conference to announce that a grand jury that had been assembled 13 months previously to hear the evidence of the case had found that there was insufficient evidence to charge any suspect with the murder of JonBenet. Apart from John and Patsy Ramsey, the police have never publicly named any additional suspects in the case.

Tired of being consistently abused in the press, the Ramseys finally went on the offense and started to sue those media organizations that had portrayed them so disgracefully. It seemed to work and the level of negative publicity decreased substantially. That, plus the increasing coverage of Lou Smit's analysis and the lack of evidence connecting the Ramseys started to bring the case into a more reasonable focus.

So, now that this particularly dark chapter in American law enforcement and journalism has come to an end, let's tally up the costs of this orgy of sensationalism:

·   The killer of JonBenet Ramsey is free today.

·   A little girl was brutally murdered and no justice was delivered.

·   The lives of John and Patsy Ramsey were effectively ruined by the stupidity and cruelty of the press and the incompetence and vindictiveness of Boulder law enforcement. At a time when they should have been comforted after the loss of their daughter and been given the satisfaction that a real investigation into her murder had been conducted, the Ramseys were instead continuously harassed and tormented for almost a decade.

It's impossible to prove that the contemptible behavior on the part of the media and police contributed to Patsy succumbing the cancer that was in remission before the murder of JonBenet, but it is clear that it destroyed her peace of mind in the last few years of her life.

"I have lost the most precious thing in the world to me," Ramsey told ABC News' Barbara Walters in 2000. "I lost my child, my little girl JonBenet. I have been as low as you humanly can go."

Has anything been learned to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again? Don't count on it.

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