The Mystery Lingers After Jonbenet’s Parents Talk Meeting Called ‘Peculiar’; Contents Of Ransom Letter Released

The password: “subtract.”

Reporters who met with the parents of JonBenet Ramsey not only had to know a secret password to get in the door. They had to wear small white stickers and agree to restrictions on what they could ask.

“They were extremely peculiar, extra-ordinary circumstances,” said Christopher Lopez, an editor at the Denver Post.

It was the long-awaited direct questioning of John and Patricia Ramsey in their daughter’s death, but it only raised more questions.

Six-year-old JonBenet was found strangled in her family’s basement Dec. 26. Ramsey discovered the body about eight hours after Patricia Ramsey discovered a 2-page ransom note demanding $118,000.

On Saturday, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the note was an angry missive at Ramsey, warning him his daughter would be beheaded if the ransom were not paid.

The newspaper said it obtained the contents of the note from sources who have seen it.

“We respect your business but not the country it serves,” the note said, purporting to come from a “small foreign faction.” It concludes with the signoff “Victory, SBTC.”

Ramsey served at the defunct Subic Bay Training Center at the U.S. naval base in the Philippines in the late 1960s. He is president of Access Graphics, a computer software distributor that grossed more than $1 billion last year, and the $118,000 in the note is reportedly equal to his 1996 bonus.

The note, which misspells the words “possession” and “business,” tells Ramsey not to talk to authorities and not o wear any monitoring devices, the newspaper said.

Ramsey has been ruled out as author of the note, but Patricia Ramsey has been asked for a fifth handwriting sample.

District Attorney Alex Hunter would not comment on the newspaper’s report.

University of Denver law professor Robert Hardaway, a former prosecutor and public defender, called the timing of the report interesting.

“It comes right after their interview. Maybe they’re trying to do everything at once to counter the negativity,” he said.

Hal Haddon, an attorney for the Ramseys, said the family had nothing to do with the release of the note.

No arrests have been made, but Hunter recently acknowledged the Ramseys are the focus of the investigation.

That may have prompted the Ramseys to speak out, some observers say.