Veteran investigator joins Ramsey case

Family denounces JonBenet art display as 'vulgar'

March 13, 1997
Web posted at: 9:43 p.m. EST (0243 GMT)

BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) -- A veteran police detective is joining a task force of experts Colorado prosecutors are assembling to investigate the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

Andrew Louis "Lou" Smit, a 30-year police veteran and former detective in Colorado Springs, was hired as an independent investigator, city spokesman Kelvin McNeill announced Thursday.

He will work as a liaison between the Boulder County district attorney's office and the Boulder Police Department.

Smit has investigated more than 150 murder cases in his career, McNeill said.

"He has an impeccable reputation, and he's highly respected," McNeill said. Other experts on the case include DNA legal expert Barry Scheck and prominent forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee. Both were part of O.J. Simpson's defense team.

The body of the 6-year-old was found the day after Christmas in the basement of the Ramsey's Tudor-style mansion in Boulder. The discovery came eight hours after her mother reported finding a ransom note. The girl had been strangled and beaten.

No suspects have been named in the case.

Smit says he has 'open mind'

Smit told the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper that he would approach the probe with no preconceptions about the case.

"I'm just going in with a completely open mind, and we'll see what happens down the line," he said. "Normally, the answers are in the case someplace. It just takes a lot of work to dig them out is all. It's just like everything else -- you just take it a little bit at a time."

At a news conference Thursday, McNeill also said the latest writing sample taken from Patricia Ramsey, the victim's mother, is still being analyzed. Police have now taken three handwriting samples from her.

McNeill also said police have deposited in the investigative file a transcript of the 911 telephone call Patricia Ramsey made after finding the ransom note.

Family outraged by exhibit

Meanwhile, a Ramsey family spokesman denounced an art display about JonBenet Ramsey by a student at the University of Colorado as "tasteless" and "vulgar."

The first panel of the exhibit contains the word "Look" and an arrow pointing to a second panel, which contains three color copies of a photo of JonBenet below the words "Daddy's Little Hooker." The photo, which came from Newsweek magazine, shows her in a white dress with full makeup and a crown of white flowers in her hair.

Paul Hidalgo, 21, who created the display, said his intention was to "raise issues" about child beauty pageants, in which JonBenet competed.

"The ethics and morality behind them must be questioned. Exposing young and impressionable children to this very adult and superficial institution is a terrible thing," Hidalgo said. He said the display has been torn down twice since he posted it Monday.

The interim chair of the university's Fine Arts Department, Merrill Lessley, said he found the display hurtful and disturbing. But he defended Hidalgo's constitutional right to erect it.

"For centuries, artists have taken on provocative subjects. This work is no different," Lessley said.

Correspondent Charles Zewe contributed to this report.