E-mail first step on trail

CU prof had long correspondence on case with suspect

Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 17, 2006 at midnight

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The investigation that led law enforcement to John Mark Karr can be traced to a single e-mail, sent some four years ago.

Karr sent the correspondence to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey after viewing the first of three Tracey-produced documentaries on the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Apparently, Karr was intrigued by what he saw and wanted to talk things over with Tracey, a man whose rigorous documentaries have challenged conventional police theories about the case and criticized what he saw as a rush to convict John and Patsy Ramsey in the court of public opinion.

Since then, Karr and Tracey swapped hundreds of e-mails in an exchange that led the Boulder County District Attorney's Office on Wednesday to name Karr as the prime suspect in the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet almost 10 years ago.

"Michael Tracey was instrumental in this investigation," said Susan Stine, a close and longtime Ramsey family friend who spent considerable time with them through Patsy Ramsey's losing battle with cancer.

"He was instrumental in flushing this person out in the sense of getting him to talk," Stine added. "(The suspect) was in e-mail communication with Michael over a period of (time), and that helped to develop the case."

Tracey himself declined to comment on his role, saying only this about the suspect:

"I do believe he has the right to be presumed innocent. I got involved in this, for 10 years, because I believe that right was never extended to the Ramseys, and that was wrong."

Tracey also complimented Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy and DA investigator Tom Bennett, saying they did a "phenomenal job" and are "taking a real risk."

"We'll see how this thing unfolds," he said.

Stine's description of Tracey's role in the case was confirmed by Ollie Gray, a private investigator who was hired by the Ramseys and has worked on the case for years alongside retired Colorado Springs homicide detective Lou Smit.

Tracey, closely aligned with Smit and Gray, was disturbed by the e-mails from Karr and brought the two into the loop on their exchanges, according to Gray.

"We encouraged (Tracey) to continue to communicate with him on it," Gray said.

Gray said he was in possession of a "three-quarter-inch" stack of the e-mails and characterized them broadly: "(The suspect) talked about being there, about doing this and doing that, and knowing this and knowing that - he had a whole bunch of things that didn't come out before. It wasn't part of what the media was allowed to get at before."

Smit, in keeping with his generally by-the-book approach to cases, declined to comment Wednesday, deferring questions to the Boulder DA's office.

"Mary Lacy's in charge of this case," he said.

But Stine said it was Tracey, along with Smit, Gray and their colleague, John Sanagustin, who played a major role in the case long before the Boulder District Attorney's office was involved.

"Lou . . . never stopped looking for the killer," Stine said of the man recently credited with helping reveal that a convicted Colorado Springs killer, Robert Browne, appears to be responsible for perhaps dozens of murders in several states.

"Lou Smit is the hero in all this," Stine said. "Lou Smit stood up against an onslaught of foolish people in Boulder and suffered the consequences for many years.

"Ollie was a big part of this," Stine added. "He and Lou worked together for all this time. They collaborated, they shared ideas, they brainstormed together."

Gray said he and his associates initially struggled to get officials at the Boulder DA's office interested in pursuing the suspect.

It wasn't until he and his associates considered going to Paris - where Karr apparently was sending e-mails at some point - and confronting the suspect themselves that prosecutors "got interested," Gray said.

Boulder prosecutors formally interviewed Tracey sometime in June, Gray said in an interview late Wednesday.

"Then they got damn serious in a big hurry," Gray added. "I would characterize it this way: I think the DA's office did a great job when they finally got started working on the case, which is what we said needed to be done all along."

Lacy has said she will discuss the details of the case during a news conference today.

Tracey hinted in his third documentary that a major break was coming in the case.

A 2004 CU press release promoting Tracey's third documentary said, "A new team of investigators has uncovered dramatic new evidence about the murder, resulting in the identification of a key suspect."

But it's not clear if that was the suspect now under arrest.

"This compelling evidence points to a new way of thinking about who it was that actually killed JonBenet," Tracey said in the December 2004 press release. "Previously, media leaks about the evidence and absurd theories as to how JonBenet died helped to convince the public that the parents did it.

"A whole new theory of who should have been investigated - but was not - is at the forefront of the investigation reported in the documentary."

hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5048

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