Excerpt from The Craven Silence 3 #JonBenetRamsey

From the chapter

Wanted: missing photos, video, rope, duct tape, piece of paintbrush…

“Both ends of the duct tape found on her were torn, indicating that it came from a roll of tape that had been used before.” — Plaintiff’s Statement Disputing Material Fact [PSDMF]

I want to get back to Steve Thomas’ reconstruction, but whoever is guilty of murder, we’re still not clear on what happened to missing pieces of evidence. Were these various items evanescent? Where is the rest of the rope used to tie and strangle JonBenét? Where is the original roll of duct tape? What happened to the other piece of the broken paintbrush? Did they disappear into Boulder’s thin, cold Christmassy air? We believe that’s exactly what happened.

Let’s address just one of these objects before moving on. The duct tape across JonBenét’s mouth was similar to duct tape that had been used to fix two painted canvasses to their frames. One of these paintings was hung in JonBenét’s bedroom.

Patsy was an amateur painter and John was a man who habitually engaged in remodelling. Duct tape can also be used to protect surfaces from being contaminated by paint splatter, such as window and door frames.

Since my own brother is a professional artist, and since I also have canvasses prepared for photographic printing, I know how often duct tape is used in mounting canvasses onto frames. For this reason I’m inclined to think the duct tape belonged to or was bought by Patsy. If that’s the case it may explain why red fibers from her outfit worn on Christmas night were found on the discarded duct tape in the basement. If the duct tape was Patsy’s, she knew where it was and she retrieved it. Did she apply it to her daughter’s mouth? Unknown.

What’s interesting is that the duct tape found was torn on either end, which proves it was used. This suggests at least the possibility that it came from the home. If so, what happened to it? What happened to the other end of the paintbrush and the nylon rope? I believe they were burned. At Christmas it’s not unusual to have a fire going. Of course one of the first things that sticks out when looking at the Ramsey residence is the enormous chimney.