Globe and Linda Arndt/FFJ Article

"Linda Arndt was a very troubled woman, Deja. What do you see stemming from this article in the Globe. Another lawsuit by Lin Wood?"

Ella, this is all conjecture of course, but I fully understand Linda's sentiments as you posted above. You have to understand a cop's mentality. Their job is their whole life, especially single cops and the further up on the ladder they are, the truer this is. It's not just their life, it's their identity and without it, they feel worthless and useless. Ask any long timer who's retired out or on perm disability. My son works with many of them every day and they all suffer from severe depression. And none went through what Arndt did at the peak of her career. Her whole life, her identity, her comraderie and sense of belonging, her longtime family as it were at the BPD, were ripped right out from underneath her and try as she did to stop that locomotive, it completed its trip and Arndt alone was left to deal with it all. And all at a time in her life and career where she was decorated, celebrated, well-ensconced with higher ups that should have guaranteed her a continuing climb up the ladder of success instead of leaving her life in ruins. For what? For not being able to control a large group of very independent people contaminating a crime scene? For one mistake in covering a victim's body with a sweatshirt? For not being able to convince dispatch she desperately needed help? For believing John Ramsey molested and killed his daughter then used his wife as the patsy she really is?

Then please tell me what terrible, horrible crimes ST committed to deserve the devastation he and his wife suffered too.

And why didn't the idiots who let Miss Pam trounce through the same crime scene helping herself to loads of what could have been evidence, helping her lug it to a patrol car, then taking her for lunch to McDonald's, didn't suffer the same devastation as Linda Arndt or Steve Thomas?

It's mind boggling who else made huge mistakes at that crime scene, yet Arndt is the only one who had to hold her head up in the midst of worldwide contempt.

The alienation Arndt suffered from her fellow officers, or what she perceived as alienation, as well as their suspicions of "where her head was at," were a serious blow to Arndt. Brotherhood among LE is famous; they don't turn on each other, they don't rat each other out, they are tighter than tight because their lives depend on one another in ways we cannot imagine. This alienation would have been such a complete blow to Arndt that her feelings of ending it all would have been understandable. Couple that with the fact that she knew she would be taken off the case when she obviously was impassioned about it, AND that she had become a public scapegoat for the BPD to wipe its dirty hands on, Lord, I would probably feel the same way she did!

Just because someone expresses suicidal feelings doesn't mean they intend to act upon it. Some people, like me, even joke about it when the stress gets high, just to add some levity. If I were tagged "very troubled" for every time I've put a finger-gun to my head over the span of my career, I'd be sharing that "private forum" with Candy! LOL Hell yes, Arndt was very troubled. She was up to her in brass alligators and found no support from her brothers except Mason. That's situational trouble, Elle, not the product of a deeply disturbed individual.

Although I do not doubt ST's heartfelt intent or concern for Arndt, he may have misunderstood the intensity of Arndt's feelings of betrayal. As it turns out, ST subsequently suffered his own screwing at the hands of the BPD and BDA with serious health issues as well. Yet no one has tagged him "very troubled" or questioned his character and integrity (except those who serve to gain by it).

I see Arndt's emotional, psychological and financial state as being a direct result of the horrid experience she had with her own brothers and being made a public pariah all over the world. To try to put a decent life together again for herself after all that, and the fallout from it all, i.e., she's "too hot" to get a decent job in CO again, my God, what devastation that woman still suffers. That she HAS survived it and not done herself or anyone else in, that she still lives quietly supporting herself in whatever ways she can working extremely menial jobs after such a rewarding career, that she still walks, breathes and makes the effort to live a decent life, is enormous testimony of the strength and mental/emotional health of this woman and it should be acknowledged and acclaimed.

Regardless of whether Arndt played any part in contaminating the crime scene, there are a whole lot of other factors far more important than her own contribution for why that was so. Yet she and she alone has suffered the entire blame worldwide for it while those who refused to send her back-up have skated away without consequence.

Arndt, ST and Larry Mason paid a huge price for internal politics, favoritism and monkey shines. That, along with "that dead child" in the basement, are the greatest tragedies in this case.

 

You know in the 8 years I've followed this case I am always amazed at how people feel the need to make people "close to the case" saints or devils. Alex Hunter ruined the case. Linda Arndt ruined the case. Steve Thomas ruined the case. Blah blah blah. NOT TRUE.

Boulder was not prepared for a media juggernaut like the Ramsey case. It is that simple. Under the intense media glare, people got paranoid, people stabbed each other in the back, and before you knew it, the whole thing was out of control. In hindsight I can say one thing is for sure--the Ramseys were absolutely brilliant in playing the authorities against each other. Just go back and make note of how John Ramsey has, for 8 years, driven a wedge between the DA's office and the police by constantly harping on the fact that if only Hunter would put 'seasoned professional investigators" on the case, everything would be fine. Before you knew it the DA was feeding into it, so were the cops, and John Ramsey was laughing all the way to Charlevoix.

Another stellar example of this manipulation of the authorities was Patsy Ramsey sending Linda Arndt flowers. Ask yourselves what the motive was there! The Ramseys were dividing and conquering. That one little gesture got the cops completely suspicious of LA! Steve Thomas even wrote about it! This was no accident on the part of Patsy Ramsey. Patsy knew what she was doing.

Linda Arndt should have controlled that crime scene even if she was alone--but that certainly doesn't make her responsible for the failure of an arrest in this case. Mistakes like this happen all the time. I'm sure every person involved in this tarbaby case wishes he or she could go back in time and change things.

Never forget one thing: the Ramseys are the true villains here.

 

I'm with you all the way here, Deja, I'm on your side! I just can't understand why Linda Arndt didn't get the backup she needed, and of how she was treated so badly later by her superiors. Surely we haven't heard the end of this side of it yet? She was just one amongst many when it came to the contamination scene, which was well planned by the ramseys.

None at all, Deja! Steve was another cop who was badly treated by his fellow officers.

No argument here, Deja. You're doing a good job. I think all of the JonBenét posters feel Arndt was given a raw deal by those in charge of the case. I get angry every time I think of Sgt. Larry Mason letting the Ramseys walk away from the scene of the crime to the Fernie's home. What the hell was he thinking about, but they didn't jump all over him for that.

It's obvious Steve was mad at Linda because she wouldn't give anything away as to what was said between her and Patsy. I thought this was a bit strange that she didn't tell him anything. I felt his frustration when he felt the Ramseys were involved somehow. I think I would have felt the same, but she had her reasons (?).

Yes, I know this, Deja. Steve embellished on her remarks about taking everyone with her, but I think Linda was just releasing anger at that time.

Yes, Deja, I agree with you here. This was what I meant when I said she was a very disturbed young woman. I wasn't relating this necessarily to her mind, or Steve Thomas' account, but more or less to the whole shebang.

Of course there is!

I couldn't agree with you more, Deja.

 

This is true Bob. This is exactly how it happened. John Ramsey, like Susan Stine enjoys playing games.

This one really puzzled me.. Yes! Patsy Ramsey knew what she was doing, for sure! Things must have looked black for Linda Arndt with this gesture.

Yes, I would like to go back and change a lot of things, if I could. I would have made sure the Ramseys and friends were not allowed to wander around the house, and I would have made sure the Ramseys were pushed into a police car and taken to the station. Just look at all the thanks they got from the Ramseys by allowing them to go to the Fernies.

They sure are! You have good insight, Bob.

 

Way to go Tricia

No matter what the reasons for the article appearing in the Globe at this point, the important thing is, it keeps the case alive. Way to go on the comments as well, Tricia.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I would be the last person on earth to take the side of John or Patsy Ramsey. I am convinced they either did the deed or have guilty knowledge. Here comes the "but," :behind: I don't look at the fact that John Ramsey carried his dead daughter's BODY the way he did up the stairs the same way most of you do. When someone dies their body is a shell - void of the soul and spirit of the person once inhabiting it. It would have been difficult, at best, for JR to hold JonBenet to his chest and impossible to "cradle" her in his arms given the fact that rigor mortis had set in. I think he carried her the way he did because there was really no other way to carry her, she was obviously not at all pliable. Maybe Steve felt the same way and didn't, therefore, put much emphasis on the event.

When my step-dad died my mom waited a few hours to call me (or anyone) ... I asked her when he died, she said she found he was dead at 5:00 a.m. - it was after 10:00 when she called. I drove to her house immediately. I found her in bed, crying her eyes out. I got into the bed with her, hugging her and trying to console her, thinking the ambulance or funeral home had already taken Tom's body away. She put an arm to the side of her and patted what I thought was a pile of pillows, "my poor Tom," she cried as she patted the large protrusion under the covers. I freaked, "mom, is that Tom under there?" When she said it was, I LEAPED off the bed and shuddered at the thought of her lying there with his dead BODY. To this day it freaks me out, and I loved that man dearly, but that was no longer him, he was gone. I can't explain why I would have happily jumped in between them when he was alive, but could not even fathom the thought of sitting on the same bed when it was his body lying there instead.

In my opinion, John carrying JonBenet the way he did speaks volumes to something other than what has been theorized here so far. Consider this - John had all day to think about his daughter's dead body lying in that cold basement room - he and Patsy both knew she was dead when they called the police. This is why, in my opinion, he was able to pick her up right away and coldly carry her, like a plank of wood, up those stairs. John and Patsy had already held their dead daughter's body to them, maybe for hours, grieving over her and saying good-bye to her before they proceeded to stage her death and the elaborate crime scene the night before.

It might not be strange to hold someone in your arms right away when they die, but try to imagine holding them many hours later, when their body has stiffened from rigor mortis and there is no sign, whatsoever, of the person you knew and loved. I think this would be weird for anyone to do.

 

VP, thank you for sharing your family's tragedy with us. Your mom loved Tom very much and it's clear she didn't want to let him go. I hope she is at peace now and realizes she will be with him again some day.

You make a very salient point about the absence of emotion that would have caused JR to react much, much differently had he believed all that time JB was alive. I never thought about foreknowledge and how that would lead to an earlier acceptance of her death in their minds.

Yet, this in itself is very condemning of the Ramseys and could be used to demonstrate that foreknowledge, AND HENCE, both their strange behaviors upon "finding" the body.

And, this understanding is also very fundamental in supporting Arndt's reactions as well. Probably in her mind, she was still dealing with a kidnapping even as the day wore on and her observations of other strange Ramsey behavior began to formulate suspicions in her mind. But at the moment JR brought JB upstairs, Arndt may have still been believing they'd find her alive. Seeing her obviously dead, and JR's bizarre handling of her, would have been very traumatic in that scenario.

 

Error in Globe Article

Just got a copy of the Globe and read the article in real time. It was great! But on page 34, under the photo of the spiral stairs labeled "Ransom note found on these stairs," the caption reads, "Patsy Ramsey says she found a three-page ransom note demanding $180,000 on the bottom rung of this spiral staircase. And a piece of the green garland on the railing was found in JonBenet's hair during the autopsy."

Of course, that caption is in error. The ransom demand, as we all know, was $118,000, not $180,000.

 

Great article and FFJ plug! I agree this article likle has made for some very interesting conversation in certain households!!!! :clap: YOU GO TRICIA!!!!
No shame at all in that article.The Globe played it classy for once!!!!!



Ive read everyones comments and..........I agree John & Patsy hate each other and John likely was willing to set Patsy up for the "fall guy" should it come to that.I shudder to think what their marriage and life in that household is like!!


Reading LA's own words really give me pause to think about John's involvement.
My first gut feeling when the story emergered so many years ago was "The Dad did it" then when everything came tumbling out(the pagaents,potty training etc etc) I was a "Patsy Did It" for years but have waivered now between BURKE and Patsy (although I know all 3 were involved in some way/shape/form in cover-up/staging) but now????? HOW COULD HE READ HIS FLIPPING MAIL?????? :tsktsk: My "hinky meter" is wayyyyyyy up!


WHATEVER IT TAKES TO KEEP JBR IN THE SPOTLIGHT!!!! :verdict:

 

When I posted recently, I wasn't posting from a newly formed opinion on having read the Linda Arndt depo. I was posting from memory and past research. I started reading the depo today, and I can feel Linda Arndt's pain as she relives that fateful day on the 26 December, 1996. I think it was atrocious the way she was treated.

I would like to know just exactly where did all the other cops go after they left her alone in the Ramsey home with so many people to guard (?). Even if it was still classified as a kidnapping, she still needed backup. I sincerely hope something can still be done for this young woman, to clear her name.

Shame on all her colleagues who let her down. Yes, she did make a mistake herself by moving the body, but she had plenty of company when it came to the contamination party.

I agree with you VP about not being able to go close to a dead body; not even if it was someone you knew personally. I do not go to any viewings for this reason. I would rather remember the person the way they were alive, not lying there with a made up face to make them look alive. I find this offensive. If I was a law maker, I would have all caskets closed. out of respect for the one who is dead. A nice photograph on display is a much better way to go. jmo

 

VP,

I gotta tell you this, my cousin died at 4 yrs old. At the viewings we all pretty much came and went throughout that day at different times. While I was in there I had an amazing urge to pick him up and cradle him to me. I was so worried that I would mess up his make-up and placement in his casket and upset his mother that I didn't. I did get close and hold him to my chest as best I could.

The next day after the funeral we were all sitting around talking and found out that not only I felt that way but also my sister, 2 cousins, grandmother and of course my aunt.

When you see the body of your loved one especially a child you still see the person they were and have the urge to hold and comfort.

No way can I accept that John as the father of the newly murdered child would have his brain reasoning that this was just a body and not his baby girl. This is the most cold hearted thing I have ever heard of what John did with his baby girl. It gives me chills to think of the coldness of a parent that could do that.

 

I don't think John and Patsy Ramsey hate each other anymore. I am sure living through this experience eventually brought them closer together. But for a while there...

 

Bobc, whatever emotions they may feel for each other, they are forever bound together to avoid loose lips that sink ships.

 

I remember reading John Douglas FBI said that a couple who have committed a crime together "stay together" to keep an eye on each other.

 

exactly.

 

Bobc, I bet John Ramsey read that too....

 

Oh they HAVE to stay together otherwise everything falls apart.All the years of blame and recrimination-could you imagine?
Plus The Ramsey's are all about how things look and it wouldnt look good to divorce! Might get people asking questions!

 

Deja,

I am still reading the Linda Arndt depo at every opportunity I can get, and I am appalled to read what this young woman went through. A young competent female detective is given an assignment the day after Christmas; confronted with the worst type of crime one could ever imagine; a kidnapping which turned into a murder, and to cut a long story short, the end result was Linda Arndt being told when it comes to her applying for a new job, she would never be able to find one with any type of law enforcement in Boulder, because of her attachment to the JonBenét Ramsey case. What a way to end a very successful career! An officer who had just received an award not that long ago, from the district attorney's office in April 1997.

So ...according to the deposition, although Steve Thomas maintains Linda Arndt didn't reveal what was said during a personal visit to Patsy Ramsey, she was in fact reporting to Sgt. Wickman, with verbally and written reports, but is challenged by Halaby for not presenting a written report when she manages to achieve a face-to-face meeting with Patsy Ramsey.

A meeting that was sanctioned by Patsy's attorney, Patrick Burke, when Linda Arndt phones up and asks for a meeting in relation to Patsy's well being. I'm amazed Patrick Burke condoned this meeting, but it was arranged as a meeting with no talk about the investigation. I find this a bit on the odd side, Deja. Why would a detective have been allowed an hour visit to see Patsy Ramsey just to enquire about her health?

I can see why her walks with Barb Fernie could have been misunderstood. Fernie seemed to pester her quite a bit after the official walks.

It seems Linda Arndt was being used here, Deja? She's encouraged by her peers to get close to the Ramsey friends and find out as much as she can about her, and it seems to have backfired on her. I will admit, I was puzzled as to how she could become friendly with Patsy when she had those terrifying moments when she had a face-to-face encounter with John Ramsey over JonBenét's body. Reading the deposition is giving me the answers.

I just had to post this today while it's fresh in my memory, rather than finish it all.

Thanks again, Deja for all your hard work with this depo.. I'll probably finish the rest tonight.

 

"A meeting that was sanctioned by Patsy's attorney, Patrick Burke, when Linda Arndt phones up and asks for a meeting in relation to Patsy's well being. I'm amazed Patrick Burke condoned this meeting, but it was arranged as a meeting with no talk about the investigation. I find this a bit on the odd side, Deja. Why would a detective have been allowed an hour visit to see Patsy Ramsey just to enquire about her health?"

Well, who knows what was in the mind of Patrick Burke, Elle. I can think of several reasons why he agreed to the meeting. One, to play Arndt with a show of force in setting boundaries. Two, to play Arndt in the public eye over it. Three, as evidence, i.e., if THE first cop on the scene is sympathetic to PR, then how could all those brute male detectives be accusing PR of killing her beloved child? And four, to see what info Arndt may volunteer.

Yes, I agree it would seem Arndt was set up by her own department which is why she felt such genuine betrayal and was so traumatized over it. She had no obligation to inform ST about her part of the investigation when things on the "Ramsey team" began unraveling. She played her cards close and informed brass only. That's what I would have done.

Let us know your final impressions after finishing the read.

 

I don't think verbal reports in a criminal investigation should be acceptable, and Linda Arndt's case is one example of that. It's called CYA - you put everything in writing. That way, it becomes part of the written report and no higher up or anyone else can deny what was said later. Verbal reports are okay if they are immediately backed up with written reports. Anyone in any profession who doesn't back up verbal reports or conversations with written reports is just asking for trouble. I do it in my own office. I never commit something to memory, there are just too many things going on and it's too easy to forget. Also, if someone later on says, well, that didn't happen or that's not what was said, I have the written, dated report in my files that backs me up.

Casual conversations in a police department are one thing. Things said on the record in a meeting or with a superior officer have to be backed up with written reports. It is asking for trouble not to do so, it can be used in court against the officer if s/he doesn't, and others can use the absence of a written report to cover their own butts if they have to. Linda should have committed her words to paper for her own protection. She didn't. Now, it's her word against her superiors' word.

 

Have I missed seeing the photo of the basement room with all of the clutter or is this the first time it was published? I do not remember seeing it like that before, the room always seemed empty.

RR