JonBenet arrest.

I've long said that the Ramseys had nothing to do with the death of their daughter, JonBenet. When it first happened in 1996, I didn't know what to think. I actually withheld judgement, unlike a lot of people, because I just couldn't tell. Yeah, I thought the 6-year-old beauty contestant thing was a little creepy. Girls grow up fast enough and are sexualized too soon as it is - why accelerate the process? But I never thought that meant the parents had anything sinister going on. To me, it was more like she was a doll that they dressed up than an object of some kind of unspeakable abuse. But, and this is where my mind was open to an outside killer, just because she wasn't seen as a sexual object to her parents didn't mean she wouldn't be seen as one to some demented pedophile.

There are plenty of things that you, as loving parent, can do innocently that can be perverted by someone who wants to see it as less than innocent. You bathe your kids and take pictures of them naked in the tub playing with toys, right? But do you want those pictures published on the NAMBLA Web site? I think not. There are too many sickos in the world to parade your 6-year-old daughter around in makeup and grown-up clothes or to let your 10-year-old walk around in t-shirts that say "hot stuff" or shorts with writing on the butt. Use some common sense.

Having said that, the Ramseys may not have used the best judgement in how to present their daughter to the world, but I don't think they meant anything bad by it, and I don't think they deserved the hell they were put through. I think they were treated unforgiveably by the media and by the Boulder police. I know someone high up in Colorado law enforcement, and this person told my family outright that the Boulder police had botched the investigation. As time went by, I watched various TV shows about the Ramsey case - shows that focused solely on the media coverage, shows that brought in outside investigators to look at the evidence, and so on.

I became convinced early on that the Ramseys had nothing to do with it and that some sick bastard was running around free after killing that baby. And my heart bled for the Ramseys. Those poor people went through a nightmare none of the rest of us can imagine. Their little girl was brutally murdered (a loss generally recognized as the worst possible loss) in their own home (try ever sleeping again in that house). The father found her (he has to live with that image for the rest of his life). The police and media proceeded to brutalize these people - accusing the father of abuse, accusing the mother of concocting false evidence, all but accusing them outright of the murder. There were mock trials of these people on TV shows! And meanwhile, the killer is getting further and further away, and there wasn't a damn thing they could do. Stop for one second, especially if you have children, and *imagine* this! And poor Patsy Ramsey - she didn't even live to see some vindication. Say your prayers you're never subjected to what those people went through. Because it could happen to you as easily as it happened to them.

So fast-forward to 2006. There's an arrest now. The guy confessed. But did he do it? Just like in 1996, I'm keeping an open mind. I'm not sure. Some of his facts of the crime are way off. Others, they say, only the killer could know. So, is he a sick mofo who killed JonBenet, but is so demented he can only really relate the crime with partial clarity? Or is he a sick mofo who confessed to something he didn't do because he believes he did it, but he didn't? No way to know yet. They're going to have to do some DNA testing, and I'm sure there will need to be other testing/investigation as well since the guy is clearly off his rocker.

I really pray, for John Ramsey's sake, that this is the guy who did it, they can prove it, and the trial is swift and decisive and the guy gets put away. If not, this is still not over for him. And hasn't he been through enough?