48 Hours has learned that the DA’s office is using this DNA profile to investigate several suspects in the case.
One of those suspects came to light in a most dramatic way. It was early in 1997, when Alex Hunter, then Boulder district attorney, made a startling announcement: “I want to say something to the person or persons that took this baby from us. The list of suspects narrows. Soon, there will be no one on the list but you.”
Those words were written by the FBI as part of a strategy to put the killer and any accomplices under pressure. That strategy may have worked. But just two days later, the Boulder Sheriff’s Department discovered a man by the name of Michael Helgoth, dead in his home, an apparent suicide.
Did he have anything to do with JonBenet’s murder? “We were walking along at the end of the day, just as calm as can be. He just casually comes up and says, ‘I wonder what it’d be like to crack a human skull,’” says John Kenady, who worked with Helgoth at an auto salvage yard outside of Boulder. “And I looked at him and I thought, ‘Whoa, I don’t want to have this conversation.’”
Just a few months before JonBenet’s murder, Kenady says he noticed a change in Helgoth’s attitude: “Mike was pretty happy around late November, about him and a partner making a killer deal, and they were each gonna make $50,000 or $60,000.”
Kenady didn’t think anything of it, until he read in newspapers about the ransom note found at the Ramsey home that demanded a curious $118,000. It was close to the amount Helgoth had said he and his unknown partner would make -– and it was a ransom that was never paid to anyone.
“Then Christmas goes – comes. And then he’s really depressed. And there’s no money. And then he said that he wanted to crack a human skull,” says Kenady. “And then, she received a crack in her skull. I felt obligated to go to the police department and tell them what I knew.”
Gray says Kenady “provided a very relevant piece of information that should have been a priority lead for the Boulder police department.” Kenady says he called 10-20 times, but got no response: “No one would call me back.”
“I got the distinct feeling that they had absolutely no interest in anything that took them away from the theory that John and Patsy Ramsey killed their daughter,” says Gray, even though he and San Augustin were convinced Helgoth was worth a closer look.
“His friends say that he owns several stun guns, that he was a gun nut,” adds Gray. “And supposedly through the sources that we talked to, that he used to break into people’s houses just for the thrill of doing it.”
The stun gun is important because Gray and San Augustin believe, from examining autopsy photos, that JonBenet was incapacitated with one at some point during her attack.
“In that time frame, 1995-95 time frame, the only stun gun that had a laser sight on it was Air Taser,” says Gray, who adds that he believes this was the same type of stun gun used on JonBenet.
San Augustin adds that the high-tech boots, which they later took into possession, were originally ignored by investigators in Helgoth’s home. But they were later discovered by Kenady and passed on to Gray and San Augustin.
San Augustin showed 48 Hours the underside of Helgoth’s boot. “On the left is the high tech impression that was made in the area where JonBenet’s body was found,” says San Augustin. “There’s no reason for Helgoth’s boot to be in the Ramsey home where JonBenet’s body was found.”
The investigators turned the boots over to the Boulder police, who now claim their investigation showed they were the wrong size for a match. But they have yet to be turned over to the district attorney for further analysis.
The private detectives in their investigation also uncovered a number of Helgoth’s personal video tapes that they say the sheriff’s office ignored. San Augustin says they found one piece of video that included coverage of an unsolved murder in Colorado.
But what was even more disturbing were videotapes of Helgoth and one of his girlfriend’s children. “The ex-girlfriend and he had a major argument over supposedly her coming home and finding the daughter in the bedroom, and he was in bed under covers and she was on the covers,” says Gray. “They had a big fight and there were temporary restraining orders issued.”
Most surprising of all, however, was the nature of Helgoth’s suicide. Investigators initially said he died from a bullet to his head. But in fact, Gray says, the fatal shot was nowhere near his head.
“The gun was found on Michael’s right and he’s right-handed,” says Gray. “The bullet hole is on Michael’s left and it goes across the body from left to right.”
“It became really odd to us that he would then take the gun and bring it around and then try and shoot himself,” adds San Augustin. “It doesn’t make sense why you would have somebody commit suicide in that manner.”
The investigators were left with only one conclusion. Someone killed Helgoth. Why?
“If he’s one of two people involved in a major, major-major death of a small girl, what’s the best way to eliminate an – you know, the word getting out that you had any involvement in it?” asks Gray. “You eliminate your partner.”
Was Helgoth involved in JonBenet’s murder – and was he killed by a partner for what he knew? In the Ramsey ransom note, there was the mention of “two gentleman who are watching over your daughter.”
“If you look at the case real close, you’ll see that quite possibly there was more than one person involved,” says San Augustin.
But there is one thing investigators are sure of: Helgoth’s DNA does not match the DNA profile sitting in the Denver crime lab.
“Investigators must be careful not to put all the weight in the investigation on the DNA because the DNA, as important as it is, could be misleading them, depending on who it matches or who it doesn’t match,” says LaBerge.
It could mean that if Helgoth was involved, he wasn’t alone. And the person who sexually assaulted and killed JonBenet is still out there.
How did 6-year-old JonBenet become a target? Gray and San Augustin have a theory of how she may have been marked for death.
“She was high profile in her community. She had just participated in several pageants in the general area,” says Gray. “She had participated in the Christmas parade in Boulder. So you know you have seen her.”
Investigators believe that putting JonBenet in the public eye may have inadvertently put her in the sights of a sexual predator as well.