Fox News Report
Copy furnished Justice Watch Forum poster "Milo"
Date of Transcript = Dec 3, 1998

Coming up this half hour: The biggest story of the day. Brand-new information in the almost two-year investigation in the death of jonbenet ramsey, and you'll only hear it here. Also, an exclusive interview with two relatives of jonbenet. That's coming up in just a couple of minutes.

Here's david asman.

David: its been almost two years since the beaten body of jonbenet ramsey was found dead in the basement of her home. What followed was a battery of theories, speculations, and tabloid headlines, but absolutely no answers to who was responsible for the six-year-old's death. Fox news reporter carol mckinley has followed the story since the very beginning and she joins us now from atlanta. With exclusive new details.

>> hello, david. There is new dna evidence from the crime scene in the jonbenet ramsey murder case, which even after two years, as you say, is still unexplained. Boulder authorities want to know who it belongs to. Jonbenet's relatives have been asked for samples of fingerprints, handprints, they've been asked for dna. This is patsy ramsey's two sisters and one of her brothers in law. The georgia bureau of Investigation is going to be coming to their homes to get these samples. Patsy ramsey's sister, pam paugh doesn't understand why this is all happening now:

>>Why haven't you done this before to rule all of us out? And then go back to your original lists and start the work over but they are just now doing it, but at least it's something.

>> jonbenet ramsey was murdered december 26th of 1996, body discovered in the basement. All five of the relatives who have been asked to give samples live in the atlanta area. Jonbenet's grandfather, don Paugh is the only one of the five who has given dna samples. Authorities found unexplained dna in two places at that crime scene, underneath jonbenet's fingernails and in her underwear. The district attorney says this is a grand jury matter and because of that, this all has to be kept secret. The boulder county grand jury will not meet for the rest of the month. They'll be reconvening at the first of the year at January, at that point we'll know that it's been two years since aramirez was killed and no answer as to who murdered her.

Reporting live in atlanta, i'm carol mckinley.

David: carol, what is the answer to the question: why now? Why the evidence now?

>> well, i don't think we have an answer. It's been kept very secret. Another thing is that dna takes a long time to test. This is rflp testing. At this point they've found some kind of dna which was mingled with hers which does not match anyone they have. They want to find out whose It is and maybe there will be an answer after that, maybe not. All of these relatives were out of the town at the time of the murder. The grandfather, however, was there on christmas eve.

David: while the grand jury is on recess, the police are not stopping their investigation one bit, are they?

>> no, they're not. They want to come in and testify before the grand jury. Work is still going on.

David: okay. Carol mckinley from atlanta. Thank you very much for that Update. Appreciate it.

Time now to turn it back over to shepard smith.

Shepard: in an exclusive interview with members of the ramsey family, fox news has learned that the jonbenet ramsey murder investigation is expanding, and dna samples could be the key to unlock this Two-year-old mystery. Fox's carol mckinley is live in atlanta with the latest.

>> hello there. There is dna evidence in the jonbenet ramsey murder case, which even after two years, is still unexplained. Boulder rts authorities want to know who it belongs to. The georgia bureau of investigation has kaubted five of jonbenet's relatives and want palm prints, fingerprints and dna samples from all of them. They are patsy ramsey's two sisters, patsy ramsey's parents and a brother in law. We talked to patsy ramsey's sister:

>> why haven't you done this before to rule all of us out? Then go back to your original lists and start the work over. But they are just now doing it, but at least it's something.

John ramsey's younger brother hasn't talked to media. Did talk to us last night. He's encouraged about the fact there could be outside dna which could point to someone other than a family members. He has a theory of his own:.

>> i think this -- this was a crime that was well planned. I don't think it was a Random act. you know, i don't know who did this. But i know who didn't, and that's john and patsy.

>> jonbenet ramsey was found murdered december 26th, 1996, body discovered in the basement of the family home. All five of the relatives who will give samples live in the atlanta area and not in boulder at the time of the murder. Interestingly enough, jonbenet's grandfather is the only one of the five who's given dna samples in the past. Authorities found the unexplained dna in two places: underneath jonbenet's fingernails and in her underwear. There's been no comment from the boulder district attorney. This is a grand jury matter and it's to be kept secret. No leaks from this grand jury. Everything has been quiet. The grand jury is not going to meet again for the rest of the month. They'll reconvene in january, shepard, two years after jonbenet ramsey was killed.

Reporting live in atlanta, georgia, i'm carol mckinley, fox news.

Shepard: all right, carol, our colorado correspondent on assignment in colorado. We will continue our look into the ramsey murder investigation. A talk with a couple of people who have some pretty interesting insight into all of this. What does the interview mean, and have we learned anything new, really? Who are these killers? Stay with us. You're watching "fox news now" on the fox news Channel.

(milo: oops - missed just a couple of sentences of phone interview with charles bosworth, jr.)

Eliminate every single human being on the planet to try to come down to the person or persons who might have actually committed this crime?

>> well, this is basic police work. They have to eliminate any possibilities.

Shepard: yeah, but these people weren't even in the state when this happened, some of them.

>> that's true. What this would be -- we've heard that some of this evidence may be older than other bits. They may be trying to eliminate the possibility that some of this evidence was collected sometime after It was left.

Shepard: some of this dna might actually be completely unrelated to this crime. We don't know yet, right?

>> absolutely i spoke with dr. Henry lee, the criminologist who is consultant for the district attorney in boulder county on this case. And he said that there are so many ways to transfer dna that most people just -- you can't even begin to imagine.

Shepard: charles, congress here, but from my reading of this case, they haven't found one single bit of information to suggest that anyone, other than the people who were in the home that night, might have been Responsible for this crime.

>> that's certainly our conclusion based on the evidence we've been able to analyze. We found no evidence that there's any trace evidence, fingerprints, semen, blood, hair, nothing at all that would suggest anybody else came into that house.

Shepard: bob massi, given all of that -- i mean, we've talked about this issue for two years. What we're talking about here is a bungled investigation, no one really knows what's going on and all roads lead back to home.

>> i think it's a process of elimination now. I think you're right. It's unfortunately but, obviously, we know at the beginning of this case, there were a lot of mistakes made. I agree with mr. Ramsey's brother, it appears as if, however this occurred, it was well planned and well thought out. Because of the problems at the beginning of the case, Shepard, now basically what they're trying to do is go back and see if they can mend some of the mistakes that were made. With all this, it may change nothing.

Shepard: there's a grand jury going on now. My assumption is that the effort here is to get an indictment against someone. Of course, we've been listening to this clinton stuff, and we know you can get an indictment, quote/unquote, against a ham sandwich. Can we expect and who will it be?

>> i don't know if they're going to be able to get an indictment. Based on what we know so far, there is nothing there. It all leads back to house. Even when it leads back to the house, shepard, they haven't been able to nail anybody, including the parents. I don't know if this is just going to be an exclusionary process, if you will, ending up where it may be one of those cases unless somebody comes forward and that's the only way i think this case is going to solved. Somebody, somewhere is going to snitch.

Shepard: basically what you're saying is that one of the two people on the screen is going to turn on the other?

>> well, i mean, that's one of the ways that it usually can happen.

Shepard: what do you think the chances of that are, mr. Bosworth.

>> at this point, i don't think it's possible at all.

>> shepard, i think bob is exactly right. I am not optimistic that anyone will ever be charged in this case. In fact, all the roads that i've seen do lead back to the house. Even if you collect dna evidence that might seem to be incriminating, these people lived in that house, so what do you really have?

>> you're right.

>> yeah. I just don't see it ever going anywhere. I think the grand jury is convened with the intent being, you know, we will have them return a report that says there's insufficient evidence to indict anyone.

Shepard: right.

>> shepard, i'll tell you something else. Assuming an indictment comes down on this case, i've got to believe that a competent defense lawyer will have a field day with it.

>> absolutely.

Shepard: you got to figure so given everything we know about the case. What if someone said, okay, i killed jonbenet. Do they have enough evidence to convict anyone then?

>> obviously, if somebody confesses that they committed the actual crime

>> or says, i did it. Catch me if i can.

>> a confession is hard for anybody to reject from the law enforcement perspective.

Shepard: but outside of that?

>> but outside of that, i don't see it. I mean, i don't see it. This whole thing has been wrapped so tight that you would think after a couple years that somebody would have come forward. If it's the family, that's not going to happen. That just is not going to happen at this point. If it's something other than the family that's starting to get coerced and maybe there was a coconspiracy here involved, then maybe if somebody's the getting heat they may roll over and say this is how this whole thing was planned out. The other part of this, my god, what would be the motive in killing this little child?

Shepard: charles bosworth?

>> well, our conclusion, based on all of the evidence that we reviewed, is that this is an accidental death. We do not consider this a murder. In the st. Louis area, where i work, this would be considered an involuntary manslaughter or in some ven news, it's a second-degree murder. We think this was the accidental outcome.

Shepard: ...We've got to go to a break. A story we'll be following throughout the day.