2004-01-14: The Bonita Papers-1999 (Black Duct Tape)
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"

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"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."

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"After the physical evidence had been collected at the autopsy and from the search of the residence, the next step was testing by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations. Blood had been found on the long-sleeved white top and the "Wednesday" underwear worn by JonBenet, the blanket and nightgown found in the wine cellar, and the duct tape found in the cellar which John reported to have removed from JonBenet's mouth. CBI Agent Kathren Dressel, a DNA and serological testing expert with 25 years of experience, performed the DNA testing on these items and positively matched the blood to JonBenet."

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"The DNA analysis of the trace evidence recovered from the duct tape revealed a human hair, an animal hair, later identified as beaver, and various natural and man made red, blue, pink, purple and brown fibers."

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Another name from the Simpson trial was also brought on board the Ramsey investigation Dr. Henry Lee, a leading criminologist and expert in DNA analysis and crime scene reconstruction. in February, 1996 Lee spent five hours with police department investigators and D.A. Hunter to review evidence in the Ramsey case. After attending the briefing, Lee concluded that there was probably a 50% chance of solving the crime. He took DNA evidence back to the State Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Hartford, Connecticut, of which is the director, for his own testing and analysis. One piece of physical evidence recovered from the wine cellar was the black duct tape that John said covered his daughter's mouth which he removed before carrying her body upstairs. During the April 30 interviews, both John and Patsy said they had never seen, used or owned such duct tape.

On January 19, the Boulder police department received a telephone call from one of the bookkeepers at McGuckins Hardware in Boulder. The bookkeeper said she had received two phone calls, one on January 14 and again on January 19, from a man only identifying himself as John and requesting information about receipts for purchases with his American Express card on December 2 and December 9. The caller said he would call back on January 20.The bookkeeper said that the person calling was pushy, impatient and intimidating. Boulder police met at McGuckins early on the morning of January 20 and set up a tape recording for calls to the accounting department. The bookkeeper had volunteered to assist with tape recording of this conversation. The call came in soon after the store opened, but this time the caller was cordial and patient:

"This is John. I called you last week looking for some receipts," said the caller. The bookkeeper said she had the receipts, but asked John to verify the number of the American Express account. John gave her a number that did not match the account number appearing on the receipts.

Bookkeeper: "That's not the correct number that I've got out of the system."

John: "Ok, but you were able to pull a purchase on an American Express on 12/2 for $46.31 and on 12/9 for $99.88?"

Bookkeeper: "That's correct. I was not able to pull anything for a John Ramsey.'

John: "Ok I'm looking at the invoices here from American Express and it does say 12/2 and 12/9 for those amounts on this card could be under Patsy's card too."

Bookkeeper: "That's exactly what it is, it's under Patsy's card.''

After confirming that John's and Patsy's American Express cards were under a joint account, the bookkeeper agreed that she could provide John with the information from the store if he would provide a written request. John told the bookkeeper he would provide the written request by fax machine and asked the bookkeeper to send the store receipt to him by fax.

A few minutes later John called again. "I just got your fax and I wanted to thank you for that. I also wanted to ask you if there was a itemized invoice available on those two. I got the credit card invoices but not the itemized copies." The bookkeeper apologized for the mix up and told John she would immediately fax the itemized receipts

The receipts for purchases by Patsy Ramsey in, December 1996 at McGuckins shows items priced at $1.99 the price of the missing duct tape, but unfortunately the items listed at this price were not identified on the receipt. Perhaps that is what John was trying to find out.

A report had also come in to the Boulder police that Patsy, while shopping at a local home improvement store in Athens, Georgia in November 1996 has asked a clerk for assistance in locating duct tape.

During the search of the residence, the detectives found pictures hanging on the walls with black duct tape used in the framing on the back. This tape appeared to be identical to the duct tape found in the wine cellar. Both the tape found in the wine cellar and the tape on the back of the pictures were sent to the FBI for analysis which concluded that the two samples were consistent in manufacturer, but from a different production time.

In a subsequent interview with personnel at A better Light Photography where Patsy had the two portraits framed, the detectives were told that the photography studio had placed the black duct tape on these portraits in the framing process.

With this lead ended, the detectives were again trying to determine the source of the duct tape. In September/ Dets. Gosage and Thomas flew to North Carolina for a site visit of the Shufford Mills duct tape manufacturing plant the manufacturer previously identified by the FBI testing. Personnel at the plant explained that the uniqueness of this tape is the percentage of the market share. The general model is a retail grade sold at hardware and other stores throughout the country, but that this particular black color only accounted for a fraction of two percent of the entire market of the tape. Additionally, further elimination of sources could be accomplished by testing thread count which had consistently changed during the last three years. The detectives returned to Boulder with samples of tape provided by Shufford Mills and product specification information which would be provided to the FBI to continue their analysis.

Other key evidence connected with the duct tape was trace evidence which had adhered to the surface of the tape. CellMark laboratories, who conducted the testing on the duct tape, found, red, blue, pink, purple and brown cloth fibers, and animal fur probably beaver."