cellar.
At 6:45 A . M ., White said, his wife called home and told her niece that JonBenét had been kidnapped. Her niece, Heather, woke the other adults in the house and told them why Fleet and Priscilla were with the Ramseys.
White told the police that the Ramseys decided to wake their son, Burke, at around 7:00 and move him to his house. Fleet White and John Fernie, with Burke in hand, first picked up the Fernies’ children from their home and then took all the kids to the Whites’, where his guests looked after them. Forty-five minutes later, the two men returned to the Ramseys’.
White remembered that just after 7:00, the Ramseys’ pastor, Rev. Rol Hoverstock, arrived.
Meanwhile, Ramsey had called Rod Westmoreland, his friend and Merrill Lynch broker, at home in Atlanta and told him what had happened and that he needed cash. Westmoreland started to make arrangements to transfer money from one of Ramsey’s cash management accounts—where he had over a million dollars—to a Boulder bank. Fleet White told the police that when the Lafayette branch of John Fernie’s bank opened, Fernie went there to see about collecting the ransom money from his own account. During this time Ramsey was distressed, White said; the pain he observed in John was unmistakable. He’d never seen Ramsey this way, at the end of his rope. “He just put his head in his hands and cried and shook.”
White also told the police that he and Ramsey went down to the basement again at about 1:00 P . M . and first went into Burke’s train room, where they both looked atthe broken window. Ramsey told White he had broken it to get into the house a few months earlier, when he came home one day without his house key. Then White described what had happened when John Ramsey found JonBenét’s body. He couldn’t forget seeing John standing in the doorway screaming, his back to White, the light being turned on and, when he entered the room himself, seeing Ramsey on his knees beside JonBenét. It all happened so fast, White said. He had no explanation for why he himself hadn’t seen the body on his first trip to the basement.
At about 1:30 P . M ., White said, his wife called home and told her niece that JonBenét had been found dead. White also said that around 3:00 P . M ., he had called Ramsey’s pilot to cancel a flight to Atlanta that John Ramsey had made arrangements for after finding his daughter’s body. White told the pilot the Ramseys might not be allowed to leave that night because of the police investigation.
Around 4:00 P . M . Priscilla left the Fernies’ house, where they’d all gone with the Ramseys, and returned home. White went home later, he said, and they told their children, Daphne and Fleet Jr., that JonBenét had gone to heaven. Later that night, White stopped by the Fernies’ house on his way to Denver International Airport to pick up Jeff Ramsey, John’s brother, and Rod Westmoreland. Ramsey asked to go along. The four men were back at the Fernies’ home by around 11:00 P . M ., White said.
3
I remember Boulder when there was no mall on Pearl Street, just a drugstore, some dress shops, and Valentine’s Hardware. Valentine’s had 20-foot ceilings, and you’d get a ladder out and climb up to find what youwanted. That was back in ’71, when my wife and I moved to Boulder. I’m a CPA. And I’ve been a devoted member of St. John’s and a member of its vestry ever since we arrived.
Boulder used to be a crossroads for teenagers and kids in their early twenties who were crossing the country—runaways, hitchhikers, activists, the whole spectrum. Our Father Jim created some havens for them. He got the parish involved in providing food and temporary housing. His one condition for their getting help was that they had to call their parents. He didn’t ask anything beyond that.
Father Jim was the most open-minded person I ever met. He was an activist. He could reach all those young people marching through Boulder.
At 6:45 A . M ., White said, his wife called home and told her niece that JonBenét had been kidnapped. Her niece, Heather, woke the other adults in the house and told them why Fleet and Priscilla were with the Ramseys.
White told the police that the Ramseys decided to wake their son, Burke, at around 7:00 and move him to his house. Fleet White and John Fernie, with Burke in hand, first picked up the Fernies’ children from their home and then took all the kids to the Whites’, where his guests looked after them. Forty-five minutes later, the two men returned to the Ramseys’.
White remembered that just after 7:00, the Ramseys’ pastor, Rev. Rol Hoverstock, arrived.
Meanwhile, Ramsey had called Rod Westmoreland, his friend and Merrill Lynch broker, at home in Atlanta and told him what had happened and that he needed cash. Westmoreland started to make arrangements to transfer money from one of Ramsey’s cash management accounts—where he had over a million dollars—to a Boulder bank. Fleet White told the police that when the Lafayette branch of John Fernie’s bank opened, Fernie went there to see about collecting the ransom money from his own account. During this time Ramsey was distressed, White said; the pain he observed in John was unmistakable. He’d never seen Ramsey this way, at the end of his rope. “He just put his head in his hands and cried and shook.”
White also told the police that he and Ramsey went down to the basement again at about 1:00 P . M . and first went into Burke’s train room, where they both looked atthe broken window. Ramsey told White he had broken it to get into the house a few months earlier, when he came home one day without his house key. Then White described what had happened when John Ramsey found JonBenét’s body. He couldn’t forget seeing John standing in the doorway screaming, his back to White, the light being turned on and, when he entered the room himself, seeing Ramsey on his knees beside JonBenét. It all happened so fast, White said. He had no explanation for why he himself hadn’t seen the body on his first trip to the basement.
At about 1:30 P . M ., White said, his wife called home and told her niece that JonBenét had been found dead. White also said that around 3:00 P . M ., he had called Ramsey’s pilot to cancel a flight to Atlanta that John Ramsey had made arrangements for after finding his daughter’s body. White told the pilot the Ramseys might not be allowed to leave that night because of the police investigation.
Around 4:00 P . M . Priscilla left the Fernies’ house, where they’d all gone with the Ramseys, and returned home. White went home later, he said, and they told their children, Daphne and Fleet Jr., that JonBenét had gone to heaven. Later that night, White stopped by the Fernies’ house on his way to Denver International Airport to pick up Jeff Ramsey, John’s brother, and Rod Westmoreland. Ramsey asked to go along. The four men were back at the Fernies’ home by around 11:00 P . M ., White said.
3
I remember Boulder when there was no mall on Pearl Street, just a drugstore, some dress shops, and Valentine’s Hardware. Valentine’s had 20-foot ceilings, and you’d get a ladder out and climb up to find what youwanted. That was back in ’71, when my wife and I moved to Boulder. I’m a CPA. And I’ve been a devoted member of St. John’s and a member of its vestry ever since we arrived.
Boulder used to be a crossroads for teenagers and kids in their early twenties who were crossing the country—runaways, hitchhikers, activists, the whole spectrum. Our Father Jim created some havens for them. He got the parish involved in providing food and temporary housing. His one condition for their getting help was that they had to call their parents. He didn’t ask anything beyond that.
Father Jim was the most open-minded person I ever met. He was an activist. He could reach all those young people marching through Boulder.
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