JONBENET

By Richard Woodbury

"Do you know this man? JonBenet's killer?" ask the orange flyers being distributed in Boulder, Colo., neighborhoods. The leaflets and newspaper ads, which contain a behavioral profile of the alleged murderer, mark the latest public relations effort by the child beauty queen's parents, JOHN and PATRICIA RAMSEY, in the search for JONBENET'S killer. Voicing disgust at police for concentrating their suspicions on him and his family, Ramsey disclosed that his 10-member legal team was pursuing an assortment of "solid" outside leads. The computer-company executive, who has spent hundreds of thousands on lawyers and private eyes, is enlisting experts in language forensics and handwriting. They have created a template for comparing writing samples against the ransom note found in the Ramsey home.

The Ramseys' actions raised eyebrows among legal experts, who saw the moves as a way to capitalize on tension between the Boulder district attorney's office (which last week said it would dispatch a top assistant D.A. to consult with the FBI in Quantico, Va.) and the besieged local cops. Then too, the Ramseys' well-funded search might have another motive: it could serve the couple well with a future jury pool if one or both is ever charged in court.

--By Richard Woodbury