Searching: The Stun Gun Theory

Key Evidence?

(CBS)  More than any other evidence, detective Lou Smit believes that small marks left on JonBenet’s face and back, prove that an intruder killed JonBenet.

“The killer had a stun gun. I am sure the killer had a stun gun,” he says.

He thinks the marks were made by a stun gun, an electrical weapon, which was used to incapacitate the little girl in order to move her to the basement. Smit believes only an intruder would need to use one.

“There is no reason at all for the parents to have a stun gun to help stage the murder of their daughter,” he says. “There’s nothing to indicate the Ramseys ever owned a stun gun.”

What’s significant about the injuries, says Smit, is that those on the child’s face and those on her back appear to be an equal distance apart: approximately 3.5 centimeters, much like the prongs of a stun gun.

Dr. Michael Dobersen, a stun gun expert and coroner for neighboring Arapahoe County, also believes the marks on JonBenet were left by a stun gun. To prove it, he used one on the skin of an anesthetized pig. “The marks are similar in size, shape and color and are a certain distance apart,” he says.

While there are some minor differences, both Doberson and Smit believe the experiment confirms a stun gun was used.

But the Boulder police are relying on another opinion, that of Dr. Werner Spitz. He thinks that pebbles or rocks on the floor caused the marks. Spitz has worked as a forensic pathologist in Michigan for nearly 50 years.

“A stun gun. Stun gun injury is an electrical burn, and these do not look like electrical burns,” he says. Spitz believes the large, dark mark on JonBenet’s face was left by a snap on a piece of clothing.

Unfortunately, with only photographs to go by, no expert can be sure. The best way to determine the answer would have been to exhume the body to study the injuries. Smit admits that in the months following JonBenet’s death, investigators considered going to court to have her body exhumed. They decided against it

So did John Ramsey. “We had buried our child, she was at peace, she was safe. That was just an abhorrent thought to me,” he says. “We’ve got people that know what they’re doing that say with 95 percent medical certainty that a stun gun was used, no question.” Despite the uncertainty that leaves, he says he didn’t want to disturb his child.

Smit believes a stun gun is the key to JonBenet’s murder. He’s searching for a killer or killers who own one.

Part V: Other Suspects?



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