Robert B. McFarland, M.D.
2300 Kalmia Avenue
Boulder, Colorado 80304
Telephone (303)442-1735
September 7, 1999
Alex Hunter
District Attorney
20th Judicial District
Boulder CO 80302
Dear Mr. Hunter,
I'm writing to request to testify before the grand jury in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, as described in Colorado Revised Statutes 16-5-204 (l).
As you know I have been involved in programs to prevent child abuse in Boulder county for the past 15 years. You were gracious enough to serve as a Board member of the Community Parenting Center for several years so there is no need to describe my role in that effort. Our stated purpose was "to improve the quality of life for parents and young children by providing education and encouragement in a supportive setting and to raise the community's awareness of its role and responsibility in preventing child abuse and neglect."
For a variety of reasons most people do not want to know about the often depressing details of child abuse and neglect. Child pornography and cult abuse of children are even more horrifying to most people. Diana Russell's study in San Francisco showed that 38%f adult women could remember being molested as a child, usually by a relative.
Large scale investigations of child abuse, child pornography and child murder in Belgium and France upset enough people that the governments of these countries took steps to stop the investigations. I realize all elected officials are threatened by such problems.
At the present we often can't decide how to treat people who abuse children but we know pedophiles are probably never cured. When people don't know how to solve a problem they don't event want to know the problem exists.
The recent news story that members of the Children of God cult are living in Boulder County went on to relate that they returned the Parent of the Year award because ex-members of the cult exposed them. I enclose an article I published about this group in 1994. I want to testify about these issues to the grand jury.
I also want to suggest that they question the FBI as to why the Bureau didn't respond quickly as they usually do when a ransom note from a foreign faction id discovered. Bill Tidyman, a retired FBI agent, told me that the Bureau usually waits 24 hours after a child disappears before entering the case, but when there is a suggestion of foreign terrorists the response is immediate. The FBI's very tiny response to the Ramsey ransom note needs elucidation and analysis.
Respectfully,
Robert B. McFarland