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JONBENET Tracey gets facts wrong on case Prof. Michael Tracey (Guest Opinion, July 15) thinks he understands the murder of JonBenét Ramsey better than the Boulder Police do. But his factual errors show otherwise. For instance, he claims that two marks on JonBenét's back are "3.5 centimeters apart, the exact distance between the terminals of an Air Taser stun gun." Not true. His measurements are incorrect. The marks are 3.3 cm apart (from center to center), but the Air Taser's electrodes are 3.7 cm apart. The marks don't match the Air Taser. Tracey's new documentary perpetrates the myth that stun guns cause unconsciousness. But in the May 2 Daily Camera, a spokesman for the company that makes the Air Taser said the stun gun "does not render people unconscious." Stun guns inflict pain, but they cannot paralyze. Far from silencing JonBenét, she would have been apt to howl in pain if she were shocked with a stun gun. He claims that stun gun marks on a pig were identical to the marks on JonBenét's back. But in reality, the stun gun marks on the pig were much lighter in color and further apart than the marks on JonBenét. Another misleading claim: Tracey's documentary shows a police photo of a wide open window in the Ramseys' basement. But intruder theorist Lou Smit admitted recently on the Larry King show that the photo of the open window was taken long after JonBenét's body was found - i.e. after the crime scene had been disturbed. When the basement window was first observed in the morning, it was shut, not wide open. (Lawrence Schiller's book, "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town," p. 34 ) But Tracey's documentary never mentions that the window was actually closed. Michael Tracey needs to get his facts right. JonBenét's murder cannot be solved by spreading misinformation.
FRANK COFFMAN
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