JonBenet Ramsey’s Killer Could Be Caught Soon
Despite the police coming quickly, the investigation right from the beginning was faulty.
The Morning After
On the morning of December 26th, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to their daughter missing from her bed. The two had woken up earlier than usual in order to pack for a trip when they realized their daughter was not in her room. Patsy said she found a ransom note on the stairs in their home in Boulder, Colorado, demanding $118,000 for their daughter’s safe return.
The note warned the parents not to contact the police, but they did anyway. The parents also called friends and family to see if anyone had seen JonBenet. The police arrived just before 6 am and searched the house.
Botched Investigation
Despite the police coming quickly, the investigation right from the beginning was faulty. The only room that was cordoned off in the whole house, was JonBenet’s room. People walked freely through the rest of the house, possibly disturbing evidence. Another mistake was that the police shared evidence with the family, before ruling out the possibility that one of them was responsible. The family did not get interviewed right away, and the police even asked them to go around the house and see if anything was missing or amiss.
It wasn’t until hours later that her body was found by her father in the family’s basement. John picked up his daughter’s body and brought her upstairs, disturbing the crime scene and potential evidence.
JonBenet had duct tape covering her mouth, a white cord wrapped around her neck and wrists, and a white blanket covering her. After an autopsy, it was determined that the cause of death was strangulation, probably with the cord, which was part of a paintbrush found in the basement of the house. It was later revealed that she has a skull fracture that was eight and a half inches. Something also unexpected was that there was what seemed to be pineapple found in JonBenet’s stomach, even though her parents don’t remember giving her any the night before. A bowl of pineapple was found on the counter in the kitchen with JonBenet’s nine-year-old brother, Burke’s, fingerprints on it. This does not mean much though, because the fingerprints could have been old.
The Theories
There are two main theories for what happened to JonBenet Ramsey. It is clear that her death was a homicide, however, it is not clear who is responsible. The first theory is that it was a family member.
There are a couple of reasons why the family members were suspects initially during the investigation. The first reason being that the ransom note was unusual. The ransom note was rather long, longer than they usually are. It was also written using a pen and paper from Ramsey’s own house. This means that the killer would have had to sit down and write it while in the house, with the possibility that someone could wake up, it seems a bit unnecessarily risky. There is also the fact that the ransom note asked for nearly the same amount of money that John had gotten as a bonus earlier that year. How would a random intruder know how much to ask for? And why such a specific number? However, this was later ruled out when handwriting tests were administered to the family and John and Burke were not matches, and Pasty’s was unclear.
The case was incredibly public, and many clung to this belief that it was her own family that murdered the little girl, presumably because JonBenet was in beauty pageants and her family was wealthy. But this theory isn’t supported by much evidence and gets dismissed completely when DNA samples are found that do not match any family member.
That leaves the second theory: there was an intruder. This is the more likely of the two, as there was a boot print next to JonBenet’s body and a broken window downstairs. The boot print did not match any shoes that the family-owned, and since the window was broken in the basement, it is completely possible that it didn’t wake anyone up. Ramsey’s house is carpeted, so it is also likely that the intruder could have gone upstairs without alerting anyone. The last piece supporting this theory was drops of blood found on JonBenet’s clothing that did not match family members.
Suspects
The Ramsey’s were never officially suspects of the murder, but the police did have other leads. John Karr was arrested in 2006 when he confessed to accidentally killing JonBenet, claiming it was an accident. He said he drugged and then sexually assaulted her, but he was dismissed as there were no drugs in her system at the time of her death.
The case will likely be solved when the police get a DNA match, but unfortunately, that hasn't happened yet. In 2010, the case was officially reopened to fully focus on finding DNA that matched what was found on JonBenet’s body, now with the information that it was likely two individuals, rather than just one.
Today
It has been over twenty-five years since JonBenet’s murder, and still, the family does not have answers on who killed her. Over the years, police had received and reviewed over twenty thousand tips claiming to have information on what happened. In addition to working with tips, over a thousand people have been interviewed, but still, no new suspects have been announced.
While Pasty died of ovarian cancer in 2006, John still is fighting for justice for his daughter. He blames the police department for not doing enough to find the killer. As of 2016, the Boulder police department has been working with the FBI and CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigations) in the hopes that new DNA technology will help them to find the killer. It was said that DNA is regularly compared to the DNA found on JonBenet’s body, and so far, they have tested hundreds of samples. The police department’s statement says that everyone is one the same side, they all just want justice and peace for the Ramsey family and everyone else who lost her that night. With new advances in technology every day, there is hope that one day, her killer will be found.