On Dec. 26, 1996, the Boulder Police Department received a call from a frantic mother. The morning after Christmas day, Boulder residents John and Patsy Rasmey allegedly discovered a ransom note at the bottom of their staircase. According to the note, their daughter had been abducted that night. Hours after the police arrived and conducted their initial search, they advised John to do a second search of the house on his own. John then proceeded to go straight down to a closet in the basement. Seconds later, he discovered his daughter, six year old JonBenet Ramsey, hit over the head and strangled with a garrote.
While JonBenet’s death may have seemed like any other murder case, detectives faced many complications during their investigation. For one, John and Patsy invited several of their friends into their home shortly after discovering the ransom note. If the sheer amount of people inside the house during the investigation wasn’t enough to contaminate the crime scene, the circumstances surrounding John’s discovery of JonBenet surely was. Upon finding her body, John picked up JonBenet and carried her upstairs. This direct interference with the crime scene destroyed a large portion of DNA evidence that could have been retrieved from JonBenet’s body.
Secondly, the Boulder police were incredibly negligent in their investigation. While it was admittedly common sense for the Ramsey’s to not do anything that could potentially hinder the development of the case, the police should have never allowed people inside of the house in the first place. While some of the detectives’ errors were due to plain inexperience, it’s not far-fetched to accuse the police department of being insanely careless while handling the investigation. It’s true that JonBenet’s death was the first homicide in Boulder that year, and that fact is commonly used to defend the detectives. However, with the police allowing the Ramsey’s friends to galavant around the crime scene, instructing John to to be the one to search the house, and overall neglecting their jobs, their failure of this investigation runs deeper than plain cluelessness.
As a result, JonBenet’s unsolved murder remains one of America’s favorite cold cases. As the 30 year anniversary of her demise dawns closer, the case continues to capture the public’s attention through countless documentaries, books, and television shows. Just last month, John Ramsey took part in Netflix’s “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?” in hopes to shed light on his side of the story. This documentary made it to number one television series on Netflix, and successfully rekindled decades of speculations, theories, and plain accusations on who committed the heinous crime.
By a mile, the most popular theory is that JonBenet was killed by her nine year old brother, Burke. The morning after the crime, police discovered a bowl of pineapple containing Patsy, Burke, and JonBenet’s fingerprints. Additionally, the autopsy reports revealed traces of pineapple in JonBenet’s system. It’s widely accepted that the Ramsey family arrived home from a Christmas party around 10:00 p.m. and fixed Burke this bowl of pineapple. JonBenet allegedly stole a piece, causing Burke to strike her with a flashlight. After JonBenet immediately died from the blunt force trauma, it’s believed that John and Patsy covered for their son by writing a ransom note, placing a garrote around her neck, and hiding her in the basement. These claims aren’t entirely far-fetched, seeing as it was reported by numerous media outlets that Burke hit JonBenet with a baseball bat in a fit of rage months prior. However, while this theory seems good on paper, there’s lots of inconsistencies with the autopsy. Most notably, fibers from the garote were allegedly found underneath JonBenet’s fingernails, suggesting a struggle. If this is accurate, it suggests that JonBenet was alive at the time of her strangulation. However, due to the major unreliability of the crime scene, all of this contradictory evidence has made it incredibly difficult for detectives to even come close to a verdict.
While whether or not Burke is innocent is extremely controversial, many people believe the Ramsey family were still somehow involved in JonBenet’s death. It’s a well known fact that John and Patsy refused to do any interviews with the police, but did not hesitate to appear on television. In their televised appearances, many people found their demeanor incredibly suspicious. As a result, one of the most argued theories is that JonBenet’s parents themselves killed her. The most commonly suggested scenario is that JonBenet did something to upset John or Patsy, causing one of them to hit her in the head. A key player in this theory is the ransom note. While these claims are being re-evaluated, the FBI at one point stated that they had reason to believe the note was written in Patsy’s handwriting. Whether or not this is true, the note was overall incredibly strange. For one, the ransom note was much more lengthy than the standard. Due to several studies conducted by the FBI, it’s proven that the note would have taken at least twenty minutes to write.
Additionally, the Boulder Police Department confirmed that the ransom note was written on a pad of paper from inside the house. If John and Patsy really are innocent, the kidnapper would have had to break in, murder JonBenet, and then proceed to remain undetected long enough to write the note. This timeline is admittedly very unlikely. In addition to the length of the note, the amount of money the kidnapper requested was the exact amount of money John would receive for his Christmas bonus that year. While that could very likely be a coincidence, police admitted it was a strange number to request regardless. In typical ransom notes, you see kidnappers request sums around a hundred thousand dollars or higher. JonBenet’s alleged kidnappers requested an unusual sum of $118,000. And, to top this theory off, JonBenet was never successfully kidnapped in the first place. It’s argued that, if her body was just going to be left in the house, why would anyone bother to leave a ransom note anyways? These circumstances alone have caused decades of skepticism on whether or not JonBenet’s death was something more than just a kidnapping gone wrong.
While, at first glance, the Ramsey family may seem incredibly guilty, there are also numerous speculated scenarios involving JonBenet being killed by an intruder. Firstly, there was evidence of somewhat forced entry into the Ramsey home. The police discovered that an outside window leading to the basement was found wide open. Right under this window was a suitcase positioned as a step stool. While this alone was not enough information to rule the case as a break in gone wrong, the evidence is admittedly very convincing. Overall, with multiple names being thrown out over the years, the intruder theory is by far the broadest. One particularly convincing theory is that the intruder was a family friend. Anonymous sources revealed to the Boulder Police that John Ramsey had been loudly bragging about his Christmas bonus at the party that night. With the exact amount of the Christmas bonus being demanded in the ransom note, it’s not out of left field at all to suggest that the crime was either a robbery/ jealousy fueled murder committed by someone who attended that party. Or on the other hand, it’s a likely possibility that JonBenet was killed by a local serial murderer. Months before JonBenet’s death, a girl who attended JonBenet’s dance studio was almost attacked by an unidentified intruder. Whether or not the two crimes are related is inconclusive.
Lastly, the FBI has received numerous gory confessions over the years by seemingly random people claiming to have killed JonBenet. Most notably, one of the confessions came from a man named John Mark Karr. While he may have seemed like just one of thousands of confessions, the Ramsey’s housekeeper claimed to have seen him lurking around the Ramsey home months before. After the FBI ran DNA testing on Karr, he became one of many suspects whose claims were ruled false. However, it’s a known fact that any DNA recovered from the crime scene is incredibly misleading. Unfortunately, on the off chance one of these confessions were truthful, the Boulder Police Department’s overall failure to preserve the crime scene is one of the many reasons why JonBenet’s killer may still be walking free today.
Regardless of who is responsible for JonBenet’s death, the circumstances surrounding the entire case has caused it to become one of the most captivating unsolved mysteries of all time. However, no matter who you believe is responsible for her death, the case of JonBenet Ramsey has captivated a nation. In some sick way, this tragedy has united millions of people towards one common goal: bringing justice to whoever took the life of an innocent six year old girl.