She then calls friends, asking them to come to their home for moral support. Police respond immediately, soon arriving at the Ramseys. Some officers have come from home, called in early or on their day off. John Eller said. Phone taps and tape recorders are set up.
Police make only a cursory search of the house.
While police needed to deal with the apparent kidnapping, they should have simultaneously investigated alternative scenerios, including the possibility that the child was not being held captive or may have already come to harm, experts say. In a case where a child is missing, police departments should think the worst,'' says Mark Taff, a forensic pathologist and associate professor at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. It's not uncommon for a kidnapping case to quickly become a murder case.'' An agent assigned to the FBI's Boulder office is at the Ramsey home minutes after Boulder police arrived. The ransom note names a time by which the Ramseys are to receive a call from the kidnapper. Police have not revealed the deadline.