Who Saw What in the Windowless Room, and Why

 

On the morning of the 26th. Fleet White, one of several friends of the Ramseys called to the house by Patsy, went down to the basement to search for the missing child. Undoubtedly, he remembered the incident not long before this where his daughter hid from them when they thought she was kidnapped. Perhaps, he thought, this might be the case again, a practical joke. In the basement he called out her name, noticed the suitcase by the 3 paned window well window, and examined the suitcase, the window and the bit of glass that he found. Moving to the opposite end of the basement he approached the windowless room door. It was at the end of a narrow hallway that led from the basement stairs, parallel with the furnace room, to the storage room. It would have been about 6:15 am as he unlatched the door and opened it. Why he opened the door to start with is subject to debate and speculation. Perhaps he thought the children had decided to play a trick on the parents, similar to his experience, where Burke might have climbed a chair and latched the door shut, while JonBenet hid inside. Maybe he had a premonition or hunch that he needed to look inside. Others suggest more sinister motives. For whatever reason he opened the door and stood at the threshold, and seeing nothing, he states, closed the door, relatched it, and when back upstairs.

Later that afternoon, approximately 1:05 pm, John Ramsey opened the same door, and simultaneously with turning the light switch on, or perhaps slightly before, yelled out that he had found his daughter. She was found wrapped in a white blanket, her feet protruding out from the bottom, and lying on the mildewed concrete floor. Many people have felt that these events indicate something "fishy" about one or the other of these men. Perhaps there is a more reasonable explanation.

 

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This is a floor plan of the Ramsey basement showing the location of the wine cellar/ windowless room. The number 6 indicates where the body was found. Number 3 locates the window with the air duct in the furnace room, #4 the threshold into the wine cellar and 5, the switch to turn on the lights, which was high on the wall. The window #3 is on the east elevation of the house.

As one reaches the bottom of the steps at the basement restroom door and turns right there are two doors, one leading to the hobby room and one leading to the hallway to the furnace and windowless rooms. Opening that second door you would see down the hallway as the following photo shows:

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This photo was taken prior to the body being found, and appears to have been taken from within the door way to the hallway (note the door

knob on the right). There are no light fixtures shown in this view that I can see. The light in the picture may be coming from a fixture over head.

That would be consistent with the small casework and counter top at the left. Or it could be partly, or wholely, from the camera flash. There doesn't

appear to be any fixture near the door to the windowless room. If you turn left just past the wing wall (what the cardboard boxes are leaning on; a

wreath is placed on it) you would be facing the furnace in the furnace room:

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The furnace is the green "box" at the lower right with the pipe and flue coming out of the top. The white cylinder on it's left is the water heater. To the left of the WH is the window facing across the street toward the Stanton's house on the east wall of the Ramsey house. The white "box" to the far left is probably a chest freezer. The light in this photo appears to be from the window. Possibly there is a light over the camera person's head which would place it slightly left of anyone facing the windowless room door.  The wing wall shown in the hallway photo is on the left of the picture. Looking again from the hallway toward the cellar door:

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The light in this picture appears to be coming from the upper left or from the window in the furnace room. At best, it is not very illuminating. Of course, we don't know what time of day this photo was taken. With this in mind consider the following facts:

1. The sun of course rose in the east, but at 7:20 am according the National Weather data for Dec. 26th.

    http://www.webbsleuths.com/dcf/jbr_evidence/54.html

2. The moon was setting in the west on the opposite side of the house.

3. Consequently, there was no ambient lighting entering the furnace room.

4. Fleet looked into thw wine cellar at about 6:15 am as I calculate it.

5. There was probably one, maybe two artificial light fixtures in the room, not very well positioned, at best.

6. A typical ceiling height for a house is 8' but basement ceilings sometimes are lower. This ceiling was crisscrossed by duct and pipe, which would have blocked some of the light.

7. Fleet was about 6'-4" tall (?) and a pretty big fellow at least according. The body was on the floor, mostly hidden by the l turn in the wine cellar. That means that most of the light that was availiable from artificial sources would have been blocked, from illuminating the wine cellar floor at least. If a light was near the door, it would have been slightly to the left and reflecting toward the right wall and blocked by Fleet.

8. I think a case could also be made for his eyes not adjusting to seeing into a dark room, called dark adaptation, similar to walking into a darkened theatre where for a moment or two you don't see anything unless the screen is lit up and illuminating the chairs and patrons.

9. Conversely, at 1:00 pm. there was ambient light entering the furnace room.

10. John is much shorter, I think about 5'-9". When he opened the door there would have been some light in the furnace room and the artificial lighting reflected into the wine cellar.