JonBenet: The Search for Truth Part II

A special four-part series:

Part I   Part II  Part III  Part IV

Former detective Lou Smit is a man on a mission. You could call it an obsession with the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

He carries JonBenet's autopsy pictures with him wherever he goes. And now, he's sharing them with the world.

Smit took the pictures without permission when he resigned from the JonBenet investigation two-and-a-half years ago. He says they point to the six-year-old beauty queen's killer.

"I was very reluctant to show these photographs," said Smit.

The pictures were taken by the Boulder police and the Boulder County Coroner's Office in late December of 1996 — right after JonBenet's body was found.

Boulder authorities sued to get the photographs back, but Smit won the right to keep them. His decision to go public angered case investigators who want to keep the images sealed.
 
"This is an investigation that you could pick up tomorrow and work, and the less the public knows about intimate details, the more likely you are to apprehend the killer or killers," said Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter.

"I don't blame them a bit," said Smit. "I think if somebody interfered with my case, I think that I'd probably be angry too."

Smit points to two small red dots found on JonBenet's lower back as evidence that a stun gun was used in the fatal attack. He thinks an intruder incapacitated JonBenet before carrying her downstairs to the Ramsey's basement, where she was strangled with a garrote.

An autopsy photo shows an eight-and-a-half inch skull fracture from a violent blow to her head.

"This is not a little accidental doink on the head, whoops I think she's dead, I'm going to cover it up," Smit said.

He doesn't believe parents are capable of committing such gruesome acts of violence against their children either, but forensic scientists who studied the report disagree.

"(Does it happen?) Unfortunately, yes ... and much worse," said autopsy report consultant Tom Henry.

Investigators are suspicious of Smit’s motives, believing he is working to clear the Ramseys because he has grown close to the family.

Smit could be seen praying with the Ramseys outside their abandoned Boudler home before the couple was finally formally interviewed by the police.

In a previous interview with Fox News, John and Patsy Ramsey denied their relationship with Smit had anything to do with his belief in their innocence.

Lou Smit has devoted his retirement to finding JonBenet's killer. But his theory that an intruder is responsible for her death is controversial ...