Lou Smit

Andrew Louis "Lou" Smit (April 14, 1935 – August 11, 2010) was an 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".

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.