PMPT Page 568-569

"On the evening of September 27, Smit's letter spread like wildfire on the Internet, and 20/20 broadcast its one-hour special, hosted by Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer. Correspondent Elizabeth Vargas pointed out: "We emphasize there may be evidence to the contrary (to what we are reporting) not available to us or different conclusions that might be drawn (from what we are reporting). And a reminder in law, and in fairness, all people are considered innocent until proven guilty.' The report detailed Donald Foster's conclusions about Patsy's authorship of the ransom note; the enhanced 911 call with Burke's voice in the background; the four fibers found on the duct tape that seemed to match Patsy's jacket; and a time study prepared by the police that showed how long it would take for somebody to complete the murder and the cover-upwhile the family slept, unaware."

Vincent Bugliosi, a former Los Angeles prosecutor, told Vargas, "The strongest evidence against the RAmseys in this case is nothing that directly implicates them. (it is) the implausibility that anyone else commiteed these murders. But paradoxically, the strongest evidence that I've just pointed to, by its very nature, is the weakest evidence against the Ramseys." Vargas asked, "Why?" Bugliosi continued, "If we come to the conclusion that JonBenet was not murdered by an intruder, the inevitable questions presents itself: which (parent) did it? A prosecutor can't argue to a jury, "Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence is very clear here that either Mr. or Mrs. Ramsey committed this murder and the other one covered it ut..." Thre is no case to take to the jury unless (the DA) could prove beyond a reasonable doubt which one (of them) did it." Later in the show, Bugliosi told Vargus, "Even if you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Patsy Ramsey wrote the ransome note, that doesn't mean that she committed the murder."

"Steve Thomas was the featured guest on the Program. He did not discuss the evidence: he only talked about why he left the case and the department.

Alex Hunter had watched 20/20 fearing the worst. The attack on him wasn't as bad as he had expected. But listening to Fosters conclusions regarding Patsy and the ransom note, he knew there was another side to the story, which the Ramseys' Attorneys were sure to make public. Several months earlier, Bryan Morgan had given Hunter a copy of a letter that Foster had written to Patsy Ramsey in the spring of 1997, before he agreed to work for Hunter. The DA was aware that Foster had followed the case on the Internet from February 1997 and that he had also written to Patsy. But when Morgan told him about a second letter, which Foster wrote to Jameson, Hunter was dismayed. It seemed that first Foster had believed that Sue Bennett, known only at the time as Jameson, who ran an information Web site on the Internet, was in fact John Andrew. After corresponding with Jameson in a serious of Internet bulletin board messages, Foster believed not only that Jameson was John Andrew but that John Andrew had murdered JonBenet. Foster had even gone as far as writing to Jameson, asking that he, John Andrew confess to the murder and turn himself in. "

"In Foster's letter to Patsy, hehad written, ' I know you are innocent - know it absolutely and unequivocally.I will stake my professional reputation on it, indeed my faith in my humanity.'He also said that his analysis of the note (at the time) 'leads me to believeyou did not write it and the police are wasting their time by trying to prove that you did.' Even though Foster's Spring 1997 conclusions were based only on fragments of the ransom note that were available at the time, there was a powerful contadiction between between his conclusionat that time and what he said in 1998."

" 'Did you think the Ramseys were going to forget about his letter?' Wise said to a reporter when word of it leaked. In his final report, Foster used strong language to state that Patsy Ramsey had written the ransom note. In his letter to Patsy, Foster had used almost the same language."