Spiral Staircase

• Location on First Floor. The ransom note was found on a spiral staircase that led to the front hallway. This diagram shows where the stair was located on the first floor and where the RN was found on it.
• Location on Second Floor. This diagram shows where the stair entered the second floor just outside of JBR's bedroom. Note that stairs to the third floor, i.e., John and Patsy bedroom, also enter the second floor just a short distance from the spiral staircase. Anyone walking from the master bedroom to the hallway via the spiral stairs would have to go by JBR's bedroom door to do so.
• Video. This video shows the staircase from top to bottom.

The Flashlight in the Kitchen

A heavy black police-style flashlight not owned by police or Ramseys was found on kitchen counter and both flashlight and batteries evidently had been wiped of fingerprints. See Crime Scene-Suspicious Evidence at acandyrose.com for further details about the flashlight.

• Where Found. A Mag-lite flashlight was found on the kitchen counter according to John Ramsey's 1998 interview with police.

• Taken into Evidence. "That morning, Officer Weiss noticed a heavy police-style flashlight on the Ramseys' kitchen counter. By the end of the day, none of the cops had claimed it, so it was taken into evidence" (Schiller 1999:61).
• Report of Flashlight Disappearance. The most authoritative account about the flashlight is a series of posts at The Community Forum. suggests that two flashlights were found. It provides detailed accounts from various newspapers and Ramsey interviews to shed light on the purported disappearance of one flashlight.
• Police Deny Report. Although there was a rumor that this flashlight taken as evidence by BPD had disappeared, police denied this. "Recent media reports that a flashlight had been lost and recently found are incorrect," the police statement said. "The flashlight recovered from the Ramsey home was taken to CBI (the Colorado Bureau of Investigation) in March 1997 for forensic analysis. After the completed analysis it was returned to the custody of the Police Department in October 1997 and has never been missing" CNN, 1/15/98. "The supposition that it was lost and recently found is incorrect," Aaholm said. "It was analyzed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation early on and returned to police as part of the investigation." "The police spokeswoman [Leslie Aaholm] said she didn't know whose flashlight it was or what was found in the CBI examination" Denver Post 1/14/98.
• Time Magazine Account. "Time's Denver bureau chief, who reported on the flashlight, said, "Our information is that it was lost for a considerable amount of time, and then was recovered in the police storage area, so I'll still stand by our story" CNN, 1/15/98.
• Not a Police Flashlight. "The flashlight does not appear to belong to any police officers, according to the [Time] magazine" Daily Camera, 1/12/98. "The police spokeswoman [Leslie Aaholm] said she didn't know whose flashlight it was..." Denver Post 1/14/98.
• No Fingerprints
• No prints were found on either the exterior or batteries, leading some to believe it had been wiped clean of any fingerprints Rocky Mountain News.
• However, Internet poster Dave has pointed out there could be alternative explanations for lack of prints (e.g., factory-inserted batteries).
• When a report reads "no prints,"… …it means no prints of evidentiary value were preserved. It does not mean that the item was wiped down, or that no one had ever touched or handled it... …The term "no prints" does not mean that there were no marks or smears - it means that if any markings were present, they lacked sufficient detail to be of evidentiary value. ("Fingerprints: What They Can & Cannot Do!," The Print, Volume 10, number 7, June 1994, pp. 1-3. Emphasis in original) Quote and source provided by Internet poster Anti-K.
• No Crime Scene Photo. No crime scene photo of this flashlight has been made public, but a good picture of a Maglite 3D is here.

Items on Breakfast Room Table

• Bowl of Pineapple.
• Bowl of Pineapple with Serving Spoon. A bowl of pineapple with large silver serving spoon was found on a table in the "breakfast room" (which typically was used for dinner rather than breakfast).
• Pineapple in JBR Stomach. This was potentially significant since pineapple was found in JBR's small intestine. See The Pineapple Evidence for further discussion.
• Fingerprints on Bowl. The bowl was later determined to have fingerprints matching both Patsy Ramsey and Burke Ramsey (according to Internet poster Evening2, this fact was reported in Schiller's 2006 documentary). Internet poster Jameson says she spent a lot of time with investigators and never heard even a hint that anyone else's fingerprints besides Patsy's and Burke's had been found on the bowl.
• Source of Bowl. Burke reported in police interviews that he recognized the bowl (Thomas 2000:317).
• Who Brought Pineapple? In interviews with Patsy Ramsey in 1998, Tom Haney asserted that BPD had queried the victim's advocates about the pineapple. While he did not indicate their response, it is reasonable to assume that BPD would not have questioned Ramseys so intensively about the pineapple if they knew that it had been brought by the advocates.
• Glass of Tea. There also was a glass of tea on the same table at the seat normally occupied by Burke. This glass was later determined to have fingerprints matching Burke Ramsey (according to Internet poster Evening2, this fact was reported in Schiller's 2006 documentary).
• According to Internet poster Evening2, "Burke helped Patsy empty the dishwasher as part of their family time," so the fact that fingerprints were found on these items is not necessarily suspicious. But what's puzzling is that according to Evening2, "both Patsy and John said the table was CLEARED before they went to the Whites." However, Internet poster Jameson notes that Ramseys "cleaned up after breakfast. Never acually heard the table was cleared off totally. And I never heard anything about the state of the table when the Ramseys left for the Whites. There were a few hours there during which Burke and others could have put things on the table."
• Kleenex. There also was some kleenex on the table.

Dictionary in the Den

• Opened to Word "Incest." "When we checked the photos from a big manila envelope marked as evidence item #85KKY, I almost fell out of my chair, and Peck inhaled in sharp surprise. A picture showed Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary on a coffee table in the first floor study, the corner of the lower left-hand page sharply creased and pointing like an arrow to the word incest. Somebody had apparently been looking for a definition of sexual contact between family members" (Thomas 2000:293; quote and source provided by Internet poster tylin.
• Was Thomas Accurate? Internet poster sue says that in the ninth edition of Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (published in 1991, the last version published before the 10th edition in 1998), the word "incest" is the very first word at the top of the left hand column on a right-hand page (p. 609). This would render Steve Thomas's account impossible; however, an earlier edition of the dictionary might well have shown the word in the right-hand column of the preceding page, in which case this in theory would fit Thomas's description. Thomas also may have misremembered since sue speculates he would not have had direct access to the evidence anymore while writing the book.
• Photographic Resolution? Others have questioned whether a photo that had sufficient detail to show that the book was on a coffee table in the first floor study could possibly be magnified enough to read the print on the dictionary's page. Unfortunately, Thomas's description is not precise enough to deduce whether he knew the dictionary's location from that particular photo or from other descriptive matter/notes contained in the same envelope. If investigators thought this particular dictionary significant, it does not seem improbable that they would include a close-up of the dog-eared page among the many hundreds of crime scene photos taken.