[ACandyRose Logo] A Personal view of the Internet Subculture
Surrounding the JonBenet Ramsey Murder case

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This web page is part of a series covering found materials regarding individuals, items or events that apparently became part of what is commonly known as the vortex of the JonBenet Ramsey murder case Christmas night 1996. The webmaster of this site claims no inside official Boulder police information as to who has been interviewed, investigated, the outcome or what information is actually considered official evidence. These pages outline found material which can include but not limited to materials found in books, articles, the Internet, transcripts, depositions, legal documents, Internet discussion forums, graphics or photos, media reports, TV/Radio shows about the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. Found materials are here for historical archive purposes. (www.acandyrose.com - acandyrose@aol.com)
This webpage series is for historical archive and educational purposes on found materials


[Cord tied to wrist]
Screen Capture from Court TV's
"JonBenet: Anatomy of a Cold Case"
July 7, 2006 Directed by Lawrence Schiller
. Cord and Garrote

"A single loop of white cord was around the right wrist, tied on top of the sleeve but so loosely the doctor easily slid it free. There were 15 1/2 inches between that loop and a loop on the other end, which once apparently had bound the left wrist. A white cord of the same type was wrapped so tightly around the throat and neck that a deep horizontal furrow had been dug into the skin. A gold chain and cross were tangled in that ligature, which was tied behind the neck to a broken stick. Blond hair was snared in the knot, and the coroner had to cut the hair in order to remove the cord, which was tied more like a noose than a twisting garrote. The broken paintbrush used as the garrote handle had Korea printed on it. (ST Pg41)


[Cord and Garrote]
Blond hair tangled in knot of cord around neck as well as cord around the 4 1/2 inch Wooden stick that is irregularly broken at both ends. Korea printed in gold on stick. Part of broken stick was in Patsy's paint tote on floor by wine cellar door.
[Cord and Garrote]
Two tails of cord trailing from the knot. One was 4 inches long and frayed. The other was 17 inches long and had multiple loops secured around a wooden stick. A gold chain and cross were tangled in that ligature tied behind the neck.
[Cord and Garrote]
Police bought white Stansport 32-strand, 3/16-inch woven cord from the Boulder Army Store. When the cord test results were returned, the samples purchased from the army store were consistent with the murder ligature. (ST Pg234 & 291)
[Cord and Garrote]
A single loop of white cord was around the right wrist, tied on top of the sleeve but so loosely the doctor easily slid it free. There were 15 1/2 inches between that loop and a loop on the other end, which once apparently had bound the left wrist.


CHAIN OF EVENTS 1998


[www.globemagazine.com]1998-03-31: You Read It Here First!
Globe broke chilling news of death cord


Week of March 31, 1998:
Transcription donated by "Catnip"
You Read It Here First!
Globe broke chilling news of death cord

"When TV shows and newspapers recently headlined stories saying cops had located the store where the cord used to strangle little JonBenet Ramsey was bought, it was old news to GLOBE readers.

We broke the story EIGHT months ago - way back on July 1, 1997!

In fact, it was our reporter Jeff Shapiro who made the discover.

Shapiro saw the Stansport Nylon Utility Cord on sale in the Boulder Army Store - just one block from John Ramsey's former downtown office and 50 feet from the tycoon's parking spot. He realized it was identical to the cord show in GLOBE's exclusive pictures of the garrote used to kill the 6-year-old tyke.

The photographs caused a storm of controversy when GLOBE published them on Jan 21, 1997, just weeks after the murder.

With the crime scene pix in hand, Shapiro bought four packages of the cord and took them to Boulder police. Investigators then snapped up the store's remaining supply, almost 100 packages. Forensic tests on the cord are still being carried out. Bat sources tell GLOBE the garrote cord was almost certainly made from a batch sold at the Boulder Army Store.

The rest of the press caught up with GLOBE readers on Feb. 9 with stories naming the store."


[Webbsleuths Community Forum at www.munitrading.com]1998-11-20: Webbsleuths Community Forum (http://munitrading.com)
on thread titled, "Van Tassel"


"Van Tassel"
Posted by jameson on 20:37:33 11/20/98
Include Original Message on Reply

What follows is the bio of the knot specialist, Van Tassel. I think this is very interesting and informative. I mean how does one get to BE an expert on knots?

While doing research on ligature strangulation, I notice that law officers are told to look for evidence of prior interest in tying knots when investigating accident deaths during autoerotic ligature strangulation. For this reason, I felt the person who made this garrote may have a similar interest. You know, just likes tying things - some people doodle, some twist their hair, he ties knots...

I wonder what Van Tassel thinks of the knot and garrote.
He will probably speak to the grand jury.

His Bio:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cpl. J.J. (Van) Van Tassel is presently posted to the North Vancouver Forensic Identification Section, where he has been suitably posted since August 29, 1989.

His early initiation to knot tying began with his association with the Navy League of Canada, followed by time spent with the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, and with the Royal Canadian Army Militia Medical Corps.

During this time, formal training was obtained in the skills of seamanship which included knot tying.

His association to the RCA Medical Corps, enabled his access to the books and papers available on Civil Defence (Search and Rescue of today) which also taught common knots used in rescue techniques.

Knot tying became a hobby with Van, and as a result he became knowledgable in the tying of a number of general purpose knots as well as some ornamental knots. He started to collect several books on knot tying and continued to experiment with knot tying.

Several of Van's hobbies that utilized the use of knots are: cliff climbing, camping, seamanship (sailing/boating), S.C.U.B.A. diving, and magic.

The R.C.M.P. parade system updated prior to 1981, indicated that Cpl. Van Tassel had demonstrated skills in the area of knot tying. This lead to his being called to assist the Calgary Police in a case involving knotted ligatures. Not having the benefit of research on this topic, or the knowledge of what was required as an 'expert', he advised them that he was willing to assist, however, he would help attempt to locate someone to help them. The investigators were directed to seek help in the Vancouver area as there was no one within the 'Force' with the required discipline. The investigators did eventually get the knot identified, however, no information was given with respect to the crime scene.

This early exposure to the need for someone in this discipline, stayed with Cpl. Van Tassel until 1990, when he began to research knotted ligatures. This also lead to the purchase of ex-Inspector Geoffrey Budworth's book 'Knots and Crime', which he wrote after his research into this discipline for the London Metroploitan Police Force.

The intent of Cpl. Van Tassel was to research knotted ligatures with respect to scenes of crime and thus enable him to assist in local cases. Through the encouragement of Sgt. Ray Fawcett, then NCO i/c North Vancouver F.I.S., Van applied to the Research Branch for assistance for funding and for equipment. Although the Research Branch supported the research, they did not lend the financial support required; this research was finally supported by then Inspector (now Supt.) Glen Wood of the "E" Division Identification Services. Further support and encouragement was gratefully received from S/Sgt. Bob Barr and the staff of Ident Services when a year was spent doing full time research. On his return to North Vancouver F.I.S. in April of 1996, support for the research was continued by Sgt. Phillippe, NCO i/c F.I.S.

Research into various aspects of this discipline continues to date, and with over 40 cases worked on for several police forces. This discipline remains today as a 'shared police resource'.

CHAIN OF EVENTS 1999


[Perfect Murder, Perfect Town]1999-02-18: “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, JonBenet and the City of Boulder”
Written by Lawrence Schiller, February 18, 1999


PMPT Page 28

"Meanwhile, Detective Jim Byfield had obtained a search warrant, and by 8:00 P.M. the police were allowed to begin searching the crime scene. Twenty minutes after they began, coroner John Meyer arrived. JonBenet's body was still lying at the foot of the lighted Christmas tree in the living room, but now she was covered with a blanket and a Colorado Avalanche sweatshirt. Meyer and his chief investigator, Patricia Dunn, noted the ligature around the child's neck and around one wrist. The cord around her neck had been pulled through a knot almost like a noose, and a broken, lacquered stick was tied to one end. They could also, see a small abrasion or contusion on her right cheek, below her ear. Meyer had left the house by 8:30 P.M. Dunn stayed on to prepare the body for transport to the morgue."


(SNIP)


PMPT Page 41

"Meyer described the cord around the child's neck: Wrapped around the neck with a double knot in the midline of the posterior neck is a length of white cord similar to that described as being tied around the right wrist." He cut through the cord on the right side of her neck and slipped it off.

"A single black mark is placed on the left side of the cut and a double black ink mark on the right side of the cut." Meyer stated these specifics in case it would be necessary to reconstruct the cord as evidence. He knew the police would want the knot left intact, to study the technique used to secure the ligature.

There were two tails of cord trailing from the knot. One was 4 inches long and frayed. The other was 17 inches long and had multiple loops secured around a wooden stick that was about 4 1/2 inches long.

"This wooden stick," Meyer said, "is irregularly broken at both ends, and there are several colors of paint and apparent glistening varnish on the surface. Printed in gold

PMPT Page 42

letters on one end of the wood [stick] is the word Korea." Fine blond hair, Meyer noted, was tangled in the knot of the cord around the child's neck as well as in the knot of the cord tied around the stick.

"The white cord is flattened and measures approximately 14 inch in width. It appears to be made of a white synthetic material. Also secured around the neck is a gold chain with a single charm in the form of a cross."

Meyer then recorded a series of observations about a groove left in JonBenet's neck by the cord. In front, it was just below the prominence of her larynx. The coroner noted that the groove circled her neck almost completely horizontally, deviating only slightly upward near the back, At some points, the furrow was close to half an inch wide, and hemorrhaging and abrasions could be seen both above and below it. The groove included a roughly triangular abrasion, about the size of a 25-cent piece on the left side of the neck, that Meyer had seen when he first viewed the body at the Ramseys' house.


(SNIP)


PMPT Page 405

"After church, Jeff Shapiro called Frank Coffman, an occasional contributor to the Colorado Daily. Coffman, a friendly

PMPT Page 406

guy about to turn fifty, had first met Alex Hunter in 1982 during a citizens' meeting and was currently writing articles on the Ramsey case. Coffman agreed to meet Shapiro at the Trident bookstore and cafe on Pearl Street, next door to the Rue Morgue mystery bookstore.

Over coffee, they talked about the case and eventually reached the topic of the garrote stick. In the photo the Globe had published, the wood looked like a manufactured item, slightly glossy and tapered. Then they looked at the autopsy and crime scene photos, which Shapiro had been given by his editor. Coffman said he'd once seen some white cord at the Boulder army-navy store that looked similar to the cord around JonBenet's wrist.

That afternoon, Shapiro visited the store Coffman had mentioned, which was just a few blocks from the Access . Graphics offices. Sifting through the boxes of white cord, he found some that matched what he'd seen in the autopsy photo. Shapiro asked the cashier if John or Patsy Ramsey: had ever been in the store.

"Not that I can recall," the clerk said.

That evening, Shapiro wrote a letter to Alex Hunter. He mentioned what he'd found and said that according to the clerk, the police had never visited the store to inquire about cord."


(SNIP)


PMPT Page 454

"The detectives felt that in every scenario, JonBenet spent the final moments of her life just outside the wine cellar door, where the police had found wooden shards from the broken paintbrush that was tied to the cord at one end of the noose. That was also where they found Patsy's paint tote. The tote contained the unused portion of the paint- brush and additional brushes similar to the one used in the murder. After JonBenet was murdered, the police surmised, her body was taken inside the windowless room."


(SNIP)


PMPT Page 498

"To the FBI profilers, the time spent staging the crime scene and hiding the body pointed to a killer who had asked, "How do I explain this?" and had answered the question: "A stranger did it." The staging suggested a killer desperate to divert attention.

Moreover, there was staging within staging: The loop of cord around one wrist was not a real indication that JonBenet had been restrained. The ligature that suffocated JonBenet-though she would eventually have died from the head injury-was in their opinion an unusual cover-up attempt, if that was what it was. The way the cord had been made into a noose-with the stick tied 17 inches from the knot-suggested staging rather than a bona fide attempt to strangle JonBenet. It suggested that the killer was a manipulative person, with the courage to believe that he or she could control the subsequent investigation. In short, everything about the crime indicated an attempt at self- preservation on the part of the killer."

CHAIN OF EVENTS 2000


[JonBenet, Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation]2000-04-11: “JonBenet, Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation”
by Steve Thomas and Don Davis, April 11, 2000


ST Page 41

"It was the morning of December 27. The little body was first removed from a locked yellow outer covering, then from an inner black bag. The paper sacks were removed from the hands and feet, and Meyer began describing his findings.

The victim weighed forty-five pounds, was three feet, eleven inches tall, and had green eyes, and some green garland was caught in her blond hair. A single loop of white cord was around the right wrist, tied on top of the sleeve but so loosely the doctor easily slid it free. There were 15 1/2 inches between that loop and a loop on the other end, which once apparently had bound the left wrist. A white cord of the same type was wrapped so tightly around the throat and neck that a deep horizontal furrow had been dug into the skin. A gold chain and cross were tangled in that ligature, which was tied behind the neck to a broken stick. Blond hair was snared in the knot, and the coroner had to cut the hair in order to remove the cord, which was tied more like a noose

ST Page 42

than a twisting garrote. The broken paintbrush used as the garrote handle had Korea printed on it."


(SNIP)


ST Page 233

"Following a tip six months earlier, I had found what seemed to be identical cord, packaged as "nylon," in both the Boulder Army Store and McGuckin's Hardware, and collected more than fifty samples. Everyone agreed that it seemed a visual match for the neck ligature, but

ST Page 234

Trujillo insisted that the ligatures in the Ramsey case were not nylon and that we needed to find a polypropylene rope. I told him to have it tested anyway.

In the middle of November, John Van Tassell of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, one of the world's foremost experts on knots and cords, reviewed the neck ligature, the length of white cord that had been twisted around the broken paintbrush handle to create a terrible killing tool. Van Tassell commented that it was "a soft nylon cord." Sergeant Wickman and I immediately caught the term.

We asked if he was certain, and the Mountie studied it some more. Sure looks like soft nylon, he said, as he examined what looked like a soft flat white shoelace. Not stiff and rigid like polypropylene.

I retrieved one sample package, a fifty-foot length of white Stansport 32-strand, 3/16-inch woven cord that I had bought. Van Tassell pulled the cord out, frayed an end, held it against the end of the neck ligature, and said, "Look." The soft white braid and inner weave appeared identical. "I think this is the same cord," he said."


(SNIP)


ST Page 291

"By January 1998 Trujillo had still not submitted all the prints of police officers for comparison with the palm print on the cellar room door. The paintbrush handle fashioned into the garrote took a year to finally get fingerprinted! And when the cord test results were returned, the samples I had purchased from the army store were consistent with the murder ligature."

CHAIN OF EVENTS 2004


[Forums For Justice]2004-01-14: The Bonita Papers-1999 (Cord, Garrote)
From a poster known as "Spade" on the www.forumsforjustice.org forum posted information regarding a person known as "Bonita." Spade wrote: "These are the unedited "notes" of Bonita Sauer, secretary/para-legal to Dan Hoffman. Bonita intended to write a book from the case documents provided to her boss. But Bonita's notes were sold to the tabs by her nephew. Larry Pozner is a partner in the same law firm. I hope he reads his secretary's notes about this case before he runs his mouth about the Ramsey's. (Again) This is a long file, so I suggest copying to your own computer and printing it out. I have checked the important case info and find it accurate, however there is some BS. Please post your questions." On another postings, Spade wrote, "Bonita is the 1st name of the legal secretary who wrote up the Boulder Police reports, mailed them to her nephew in Oregon who in turn double-dealt them to two tabs for $70,000. Bonita had access to all the BPD reports. Keep in mind that Bonita wrote-up her info in 1999"



"Inside the room, investigators found the white blanket that John said had been wrapped around JonBenet, and the piece of black duct tape which had covered her mouth. .They also found bundled inside the blanket a child's pink Burble nightgown. A red Swiss army knife was also found lying in the corner of the room away from the blanket. On the floor outside the door to the cellar was a paint tray and acrylic painting supplies. One of the detectives observed a wooden handle to a paint brush, the type used by artists, which appeared to be broken and a piece missing. The floor of the wine cellar was vacuumed to collect any trace evidence. The black duct tape, blanket, nightgown, knife, broken paint brush and paint tray, and vacuumed particles were all collected and logged into evidence."



"A white synthetic cord, matching that found on the wrist, had formed a tight ligature around JonBenet's neck. The cord had been tied with a double knot at the back of her neck. Dr.Meyer cut off the cord exposing a deep furrow created by the tight cord encircling the neck. The furrow was almost horizontal with no upward pattern. One end of the cord measured approximately 4 inches and was frayed. The other end of the length of cord was approximately 17 inches and was tied in multiple loops around a wooden stick. The stick was approximately 4-1/2 inches long and had the word "Korea” printed in gold letters."

Research Links Regarding Knots


[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrictor_knot]Constrictor knot - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Constrictor knot is one of the most effective binding knots. Simple and secure, it is a harsh knot which can be difficult or impossible to untie once tightened. It is made similarly to a clove hitch but with one end passed under the other, forming an overhand knot under a riding turn. The Double constrictor knot is an even more robust variation having two riding turns."

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