Lou Smit

Andrew Louis "Lou" Smit (April 14, 1935 – August 11, 2010) was a DA's investigator, hired three months after the crime by District Attorney Alex Hunter. He is best known for re-investigating the entire case-file from the perspective of the "intruder theory", which the District Attorney's office had been advocating for some time.

Smit was an outspoken defender of the Ramsey family and his theories formed the basis of their defense case. Smit's basic hypothesis--that the crime was too "brutal and vicious" to be committed by a family member--has been highly influential in the public perception of the case.

""It is better to stand and fight for a unpopular [sic] cause than to sit idly by and allow injustice to others to continue unchallenged." I have had this written on a small piece of paper on my desk for the last thirty years." - Lou Smit

Heather Dawn Church kidnapping case
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District Attorney's office
At the time of his hiring, Lou Smit was working in the El Paso County Sheriff's office with John San Agustin (who was hired as a private investigator for the Ramsey defense team).

Reinvestigation of the case-file
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Resignation
In 1998, the DA's two prosecutors in charge of the Ramsey investigation were removed from the case and replaced by prosecutors from outside the office. Lou Smit was unhappy with the direction the new prosecutors were taking.

Smit continued to communicate with DA Alex Hunter about the case after his resignation. Though according to Hunter in 2000, "so far, what I hear from Detective Smit is old stuff, old stuff that has been considered and most of it debunked".

Work for Mary Lacy
Lou Smit was hired by District Attorney Mary Lacy on a part time basis.

Smit wrote a letter to Lacy in which he said:


 * "I have been asked by the Ramsey attorney Lin Wood to put together 10 areas that could be followed up on."

Smit's "leads" (which he admitted had been put together at the urging of the Ramseys' defense attorney) shaped the investigative efforts of Lacy's office. Not one of these leads led to any individual being connected to the killing of JonBenet Ramsey in any way.

Lou Smit's Top 4 Suspects
List of "Suspects" provided to the media by Lou Smit and Ollie Gray (May 25, 2001):


 * 1) Michael Helgoth "A Boulder County man who committed suicide on Feb. 14, 1997"
 * 2) Gary Oliva "A man who showed up at a memorial service for JonBenet a year after her death."
 * 3) "Candy Cane Man" "A man living in a suburb east of Boulder who an informant said had a basement shrine to JonBenet"
 * 4) Darrel Kirkwood " A man who said he killed JonBenet in an e-mail last October to Gray, Ramsey attorney Lin Wood and John Ramsey, as well as in phone calls to John Ramsey. Gray said he believes the man is probably running a scam because he sought money as part of his contact."

Smit and Gray eventually moved on from these suspects and focused instead on John Mark Karr, at one point even planning to fly to Paris to confront him.

Later Life
Smit formed a business called Lou Smit investigations, part of a Colorado Springs-based network called United Investigative Associates, which also included the firms of the Ramseys' private investigators Ollie Gray and John San Agustin. Smit claimed under oath he had never been paid by the Ramseys.

The "Apple Dumpling Gang"
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