BOULDER, Colo. (Court TV) — The final stretch of the grand jury's investigation of JonBenet Ramsey's murder came down to prosecutor Alex Hunter — stern-faced, defensive — insisting there wasn't enough evidence to arrest anyone.
From his and other prosecutors' conclusions, the case would seem to have been abandoned, right?
Think again.
For all the time invested in trying to sniff out her killer, the JonBenet Ramsey case could be remembered as the greatest murder trial that everyone wanted to happen, but never did.
At the center of it all, aside from the Ramseys, is Boulder District Attorney Hunter, who, along with police investigators, has been accused of chasing after dead-end leads, making empty promises about the investigation's conclusion and lacking the direction and hard proof to solve the murder.
Indeed, during a follow-up press conference after he had announced the long-awaited grand jury's decision — not to indict anyone, as it turned out — Hunter appeared defensive as he spoke into the microphone. His face drenched in camera lights, his forehead wrinkled, he stood behind what was presumably the jurors' conclusion, saying, "The case is stronger as a result of work by the grand jury."
He told the nation he had an "aching heart" that the investigation had come up short of an indictment, but would not acknowledge any kind of failure. He underscored that the case would remain open.
"I don't think any of us has any sense of quit in this case," Hunter said.
But what worth do those words hold now - three years later?
"In Colorado, where people are familiar with Alex Hunter, people are shaking their heads and saying this is yet another unsolved homicide in Boulder County," said Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor and now a civil and criminal defense lawyer. "They have very few murders in Boulder, and the few they do have he consistently mangles."
Silverman noted the case of Sid Wells, who was murdered in Boulder in 1983. Police thought they had enough evidence to file charges against a roommate, Thayne Smika, but Hunter and his fellow prosecutors decided against it. Wells' death drew media attention because he happened to be dating the daughter of Robert Redford.
Standing behind Hunter, however, are those who believe he did the best he could with the evidence he had. The decision not to prosecute anyone, after all, was a collective one determined by some of the most experienced prosecutors in the country, argued Jeralyn Merritt, a criminal defense attorney and JonBenet case watcher.
"Alex Hunter did the best job he could in an extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, situation," Merritt said. "This decision was not just made by Alex Hunter. It was made by eight experienced ethical prosecutors — all of whom agree there is insufficient evidence to charge anyone at this time."
Fueled consistently by coverage in both tabloid and more staid media, blame for JonBenet's death fell directly on parents John and Patsy Ramsey right from the story's nascence. And the case had plenty to keep people talking: the media's dogged coverage; an oft-viewed videotape of the little girl in her pageant attire; and prosecutors' endless assurances that the killer would one day be caught, even though he or she hasn't been caught yet.
"This is a medical drama, a legal drama, a psychological drama. There are suggestions of illicit sexual activity, money, power, politics," Silverman said. "This is a mystery of not just who killed JonBenet, but why in God's name if one parent killed the girl would the other cover it up."
Unlike O.J. and Monica Lewinsky, stories that started off strong but lost steam once people got so fatigued they stopped caring, the JonBenet story has had a continuous momentum, despite its fits and starts. And why not, especially with this little girl, this beauty queen who'd been beaten to death in her own home?
"If you can't care about a six-year-old who gets brutally murdered in her house on Christmas night, then you must not be a very caring person," Silverman said.
With so much tape of JonBenet, the public connected to her. Seeing her in pageant attire, coiffed hair and perfectly applied makeup, it was easy sympathize with a little girl forced to grow up in a culture viewed by many as completely inappropriate for a six-year-old. Images of her triggered both snickers and sorrow.
"I think the reason this case has been the object of so much media fixation have been the videotapes of JonBenet in her pageantry attire," Merritt said. "We have become an increasingly voyeuristic society and saw JonBenet oversexualized in most videos. The media kept playing it and playing it, ratings went up and the case was born."
As the third anniversary of JonBenet's death edges closer, it's hard to imagine that the case could go anywhere but in circles. Yet Colorado Gov. Bill Owens is looking into the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor to look further into the investigation.
In the meantime, the Ramseys probably won't ever recover from public assumptions of their guilt. And to those who have given them the benefit of the doubt, their arguably premature discreditation could be, next to their daughter's death, the biggest tragedy of this unsolved crime.
"I think they have been victimized by the most sensational tabloid writing I have ever witnessed," said Larry Pozner, immediate past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "The picture painted of them was entirely inaccurate."
—Valerie Q. Carino
