Amazing detective adds another notch to his belt

Standing in victim's shoes helped Smit crack another case

Kevin Vaughan And Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 17, 2006 at midnight

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He is old-school, a detective who knows that even as technology advances there is no substitute for stopping and staring and thinking and asking.

And then doing it again.

It's a trait that has served Lou Smit well as he has cracked murder cases that confounded other investigators.

It's also led him to take the unconventional path when he felt it was warranted.

Smit, 71, a retired El Paso County homicide detective, first got involved in the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation in the spring of 1997, when he was hired by then-Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter to work on the case.

In the fall of 1998, Smit quit his appointment, concerned that Boulder detectives and prosecutors were focusing too heavily on the child beauty queen's parents and largely ignoring the possibility that an intruder was responsible for her killing.

"Shoes, shoes, the victim's shoes," Smit wrote in his resignation letter, "who will stand in the victim's shoes?"

Continuing to work the case on his own, he went public in the spring of 2001 with his elaborate theory that an intruder killed JonBenet on Christmas night, 1996.

So people might have assumed that with Wednesday's arrest of a suspect in Thailand that Smit would issue an "I told you so."

That's not his style.

Smit, who shuns the spotlight when the subject is an ongoing case, declined to discuss his work Wednesday, deflecting questions to the Boulder district attorney.

"I really can't say anything," Smit said.

"Mary Lacy is in charge of this case."

While Smit is modest about his efforts, Lin Wood, an attorney for the Ramsey family, called him "an American hero" in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC.

Relying partly on instinct, Smit often cracks cases after studying the same evidence others have thoroughly examined, and finding something everybody else missed.

Smit started his law enforcement career in 1966 at the Colorado Springs Police Department before moving to the El Paso County Coroner's Office, the district attorney's office and the sheriff's office.

He cracked one case by driving every day to an alley where a young woman was killed. After several visits, he wondered whether the murderer may have fled up the alley to an apartment building rather than out the alley into a street.

He found the killer in the apartment building.

In another case, he noticed an old note from a Florida police officer who had a similar case involving a man who had been in Colorado.

Smit checked traffic tickets and found that three days before the killing, the man had been cited for a violation near the scene of the crime.

When he was being considered for the job on the Ramsey case, he went through all the evidence. Then he met with Hunter, the district attorney, and displayed the intuition that he'd honed during all those years on the job.

The subject was the ransom note left in the Ramsey home.

In 2001, Smit recounted the discussion: "I told Alex, 'Look, I don't know if you're going to hire me, but I'll give you a freebie: Whoever wrote this note did not do it after the murder.' "

The case for an intruder

Smit has long argued that an intruder killed JonBenet Ramsey. These are the clues he has cited:

• Outdoor footprints: Early in the case, law enforcement leaks said no footprints were seen in snow around the Ramsey house, which seemed to discount the possibility of an intruder. However, Smit examined police photographs taken before 9 a.m., the morning after JonBenet's death that showed much of the perimeter of the house, including walkways, was clear of snow.

• Basement window: Police photographs show an open basement window. The window, hidden from view, would have been a likely point of entry for an intruder. A grate over the window well appeared to have been moved, leaving green foliage caught under its edge. Leaves and debris from the window well were found on the basement floor directly below the open window. There appeared to be less debris next to the central window, which was open, than elsewhere in the window well. Finally, areas of the window appeared to have been wiped clean as if disturbed by someone; a piece of broken glass looked like it had been dislodged; and there was a scuff mark, perhaps from a shoe, below the window.

• Debris in the wine cellar: Pieces of debris from the window well were found in the basement wine cellar, where JonBenet's body was found. They included foam peanut packing material, an autumn leaf and a footprint.

• DNA evidence: Foreign DNA - but not Ramsey family DNA - was found on JonBenet's body, both under her fingernails and in her underwear.

• The suitcase: A hard-sided suitcase was discovered below the open window. The killer, figuring it was safe to go out the way he came in, may have used it to boost himself up. John Ramsey said the suitcase was not in that area of the basement before, suggesting that someone moved it there. In addition, if the suitcase had been under the window for a long time, dust and debris would have collected on it. But little was there.

• Hair and fibers: Many significant hairs and fibers associated with the crime don't belong to John or Patsy. A hair, possibly a pubic hair, from a Caucasian male was found on the blanket covering JonBenet. The hair doesn't match John Ramsey. Light brown, cotton fibers were found on wood shards of the broken paintbrush, the duct tape, the nylon cord and on JonBenet's body.

• The stun gun: Marks on JonBenet's back and face matched those caused by a stun gun. The marks were not on her face the previous evening, according to photos of her opening Christmas presents. Her parents didn't own a stun gun.

• Unidentified footprints: There were unidentified footprints in the mold on the wine cellar floor. Experiments conducted by Smit suggest the fast-growing mold would diffuse footprints quickly, so he believes these were fresh prints. One print appears to be a tread from a shoe but didn't match shoes owned by John and Patsy Ramsey and didn't match any shoes found in the house. Another print belonged to a Hi-Tec boot, which also does not match any shoes owned by the family.

• Ransom note: The letter made frequent allusions to death and violence. It threatened "immediate execution" of JonBenet. There were four consecutive threats ending with "she dies." There's a reference to calling between 8 and 10 "tomorrow morning." To Smit, this suggested the letter was written before midnight, before JonBenet's killing.

• The killer took something away: Because none of the cord or tape was found in the home, and no stun gun was ever recovered, Smit thinks the killer must have taken any unused cord and tape, plus the stun gun, with him when he left.

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