Investigator Quits Ramsey Case

The city's police chief has dismissed accusations that the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation unfairly targeted her parents and failed to consider other suspects.

Lou Smit, a special investigator in the slaying, made the claim in a Sept. 20 resignation letter sent to Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter.

"Lou Smit has been on this case for how many months now, and I don't recall him ever presenting any arrest warrants to the DA's office," Police Chief Mark Beckner said Sunday. "If he's aware of who the perpetrator is, I wish he'd let everybody know."

Correspondent Scott Sander of CBS Station KCNC-TV in Denver reports that Smit's statement, which closely parallels what the Ramseys have claimed all along, will carry weight, given Smit's reputation as an outstanding homicide investigator.
Legal experts say Smit probably has put notes and memos into the case file, which helps the Ramseys. Those notes will be discoverable by the defense if there is ever a trial.

In his letter, Smit told Hunter that JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, "did not do it," and urged Hunter to "wait and investigate this case more thoroughly," he stated.

Smit, formerly a detective with the Colorado Springs Police Department, came out of retirement in March 1997 to help Hunter with his investigation.

"I find that I cannot in good conscience be a part of the persecution of innocent people. It would be highly improper and unethical for me to stay when I so strongly believe this," Smit wrote Hunter.

JonBenet, 6, was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996. No one has been arrested, but police said the Ramseys remain "under an umbrella of suspicion."

Earlier this month, a grand jury began hearing evidence in the case.

Smit said he was not abandoning the case.

"I intend to stand with this family and somehow help them through this and find the killer of their daughter," he said.

Smit's resignation follows the departure last month of Boulder Detective Steve Thomas. Thomas, who had been on the case from nearly the beginning, released a scathing eight-page resignation letter in which he accused Hunter of bungling the case.

Thomas' letter expressed similar frustration but conveyed different thoughts about the Ramseys.