NORWICH – The lead investigator in the Ganesh Ramsaran noted their were several incongruities in Ramsaran’s voluntary statements to police, Tuesday in Chenango County Court.
As the final witness for the prosecution, Lieutenant Richard Cobb testified in court Tuesday to having essentially been in control of the case investigated by the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office in 2012 and 2013, barring a brief time when former Chenango County Undersheriff James Lloyd was still employed by the department.
Audio was played for the jury Monday and Tuesday from a recorded discussion between Cobb, Detective Gary Miller, and Ramsaran at Ramsaran’s home on March 22, 2013. At this time, the body of Jennifer Ramsaran had already been located. During the recorded conversation, Ramsaran told detectives again what had happened the day of Jennifer’s disappearance.
Cobb recalled some inconsistencies with Ramsaran’s prior voluntary statements to police. More specifically, Ramsaran said in March that on the morning of Jennifer’s disappearance, he had gone for a run from his Sheff Road home westbound down Route 23, took a left onto Wells Road, and ran to the top of the hill. He then turned around to go back to Route 23, then made his way to Rexford Street, Silver Street, then Mitchell Street in the City of Norwich.
Cobb said the Wells Road and City of Norwich street names were additions Ramsaran had not included in prior discussions.
On the audio recording, when asked by detectives if Ramsaran had touched Jennifer’s iPhone after finding it at the bottom of Moonhill Road in the Town of Plymouth, Ramsaran said no. Ramsaran said he found the phone by using the “Find My iPhone” app, then called 911.
“I never went down there, no way,” Ramsaran said on the recording.
“The last four months, she (Jennifer) changed,” Ramsaran continued on the recording. Jennifer was “always on the [expletive] iPod or iPhone,” he said, adding that he “was the one tucking the kids in and stuff.”
The audio also has Ramsaran telling police that Jennifer had been emailing him locations of possible houses they could move to as a family. One location was Tennessee.
“I had no desire to move,” said Ramsaran to the detectives on the audio. “Forget about the winter; it’s the community, the school system, friends, the children … I didn’t want to uproot them.”
“I would never hurt my wife,” Ramsaran said, insisting that detectives could call him whenever they had any questions.
Cobb referred to the March interview as a “soft interview” and the first “hard interview” with Ramsaran was the day he was arrested for murder on May 17, 2013.
According to Cobb, when authorities became aware that Jennifer often played games online, they attempted to track five individuals with whom she engaged in gameplay.
“Only the lead of Rob Houston gave us any information about December 11, 2012,” said Cobb.
When asked if friends were interviewed, Cobb said, “Jennifer’s only real friend was Eileen Sayles.” Prior testimony revealed that Sayles and Ganesh Ramsaran had been having an affair, which continued after Jennifer’s death.
McBride asked Cobb, “Was there anyone in the world that would have reason to do harm to Jennifer Ramsaran?”
“Not that we could find, no,” said Cobb.
Cobb clarified to the jury that it was his job to keep in contact with Ramsaran prior to his arrest, not to interrogate or get a confession.
Cobb said the strategy changed on May 17, 2013. After examining all of the evidence (the phones, computers and video), “It led nowhere,” he said. “We had no information pointing anywhere but him (Ramsaran).”
Cobb said Ramsaran was called and asked to come to the Sheriff’s Office the morning of May 17, 2013. When Ramsaran arrived, Cobb confronted him about evidence suggesting Ramsaran was not working on his laptop when he claimed to be. Ramsaran was also confronted about emails and times.
