Killing of JonBenét Ramsey

JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was an American murder victim.

JonBenet Ramsey was a child beauty pageant queen who was found murdered in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado, United States, eight hours after being reported missing. The case drew national attention when no suspect was charged and suspicions turned to possible family involvement. The tantalizing clues of the case have inspired numerous books and articles that attempt to solve the mystery.

Life

Ramsey was born at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved with family to Colorado when she was one year old. Her name is a portmanteau of her father's first and middle names, John Bennett. Her mother, Patricia Ramsey, enrolled her daughter in a variety of different beauty pageants in several states. In addition, she funded some of the contests in which Ramsey was involved. John Ramsey, her father, is a wealthy businessman, president, and chief executive officer of Access Graphics, a computer services company.

Ramsey held a number of child beauty contest titles, including (in no specific order): Little Miss Charlevoix Michigan, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, America's Royal Miss, National Tiny Miss Beauty, Little Miss Merry Christmas, Little Miss Colorado, and Little Miss Sunburst.

Ramsey's grave lies in Saint James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, next to the grave of Elizabeth Ramsey (d. 1992), a child from John's first marriage who died in an automobile accident. JonBenét's grandmother is also buried nearby. A total of 12 Ramsey headstones lie in the cemetery.

John Ramsey stated that he found his daughter's body in the basement of their 15-room home in Boulder on December 26, 1996, the day after Christmas.

The murder case

On December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey (according to her own testimony) discovered that her daughter JonBenet was missing after finding a three-page ransom note inside the family residence. Despite specific instructions that the police and friends not be contacted, she telephoned the police and invited over family friends. The local police conducted a cursory search of the house but did not find any obvious signs of a break-in or forced entry. The note suggested that the ransom collection would be monitored and JonBenet would be returned as soon as the money was obtained. John Ramsey made some arrangements for the availability of the ransom, but no preparation in order to obtain it.

In the afternoon of the same day, a police officer asked the Ramseys for permission to check the residence for anything unusual. John Ramsey and two of his friends went directly to the basement. There, in the wine cellar, the most dark and remote room of the house, John found his daughter's body covered in a white blanket. He carried the body up the stairs and placed her onto the floor of the foyer. The police arrived later that evening and authorized the removal of the body by issue of a search warrant. Typically, this procedure would be performed under consent of the parents.

The results of the autopsy revealed that JonBenét was violently killed by strangulation and an 8.5-inch skull fracture. A garrote made from a length of nylon cord and the handle of a paintbrush had been used to strangle her; her skull had suffered severe blunt trauma; and she may have been sexually assaulted. The "official" cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma. The missing half of the paintbrush was never discovered. It was noted by experts that the construction of the garrote required a special knowledge of knots. Autopsy also revealed that the child had eaten pineapple only a few hours before the murder, which her mother claimed to be unaware of.

Clues

Police investigations within and around the residence discovered the following clues which were by some interpreted as evidence of intrusion:

• two dissimilar footprints in the wine cellar that did not match to any of the shoes in the residence
• a third footprint of unknown match on the outer part of the window of the room by the wine cellar (John Ramsey claimed that the window was malfunctioning)
• a possible footprint on a suitcase, placed directly below the same window
• a rope that was foreign to the residence found on the bed of the guestroom located near JonBenét's room
• physical marks on JonBenét's body that suggest the use of a stun gun
• blood sample on JonBenét's underwear that did not match any known suspect

The note

Investigators determined that the lengthy ransom note was written on a pad of paper that belonged to the Ramsey family. A Sharpie felt-tip pen similar to the one used to write the note was found in a container on the Ramseys' kitchen counter, along with other pens of the same type. Information regarding matching ink can be found at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/handbook/intro8.htm According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on the same pad of paper, a practice sheet of the ransom note was found. No fingerprints could be detected on the note. The text of the note had many odd features, including the fact that $118,000 was demanded. Perhaps coincidentally, John Ramsey earned a bonus that year of $118,117.50. Also during investigation of the home, police reported that Jon Ramsey's Bible was found on his desk in his office open to Psalm 118. The police regarded the ransom price a suspiciously low amount of money in respect to John Ramsey's income. The parents have invariably held that the crime was committed by an intruder, and a group of investigators favour that theory.

Several handwriting samples were taken from a number of suspects who might have written the ransom note. Forensic analysis cleared everyone except for Patsy Ramsey, whose writing style bore some resemblance to the ransom note.

• Note, page 1
  Note, page 1
• Note, page 2
  Note, page 2
• Note, page 3
  Note, page 3

Recent developments

In December 2003, forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on the deceased's underwear to establish a DNA profile. The DNA belongs to an unknown male. The DNA was submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database containing over 1.6 million DNA profiles, mainly from convicted felons. The sample has yet to find a match in the database, although it continues to be checked for partial matches on a weekly basis.

Latest investigations have also discovered that a high record of burglaries and a strong presence of pedophilia existed in the Ramseys' neighborhood during the period of the crime.

Speculations

Case speculation by experts, media and the parents has supported different theories. For a long time, the local police supported the theory that her mother had accidentally killed JonBenét in a fit of rage after the girl had wet her bed on the same night. Another theory was that John Ramsey murdered his daughter because he had been sexually abusing her. Police suspicions were initially concentrated almost exclusively on the members of the Ramsey family, as they had statistically a 90% chance of finding the murderer (according to the data obtained from similar cases). Yet, the girl's parents had never shown any prior signs of aggression, nor any suspicious behaviour towards their children.

The Ramseys have invariably held that the crime was committed by an invader. Some police investigators and private detectives support the Ramsey's theory. John Douglas, former head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, was hired by the Ramseys to examine the case. He contended that the Ramseys were not involved in the murder, and that it was unlikely that anyone would resolve the case.

With such contradictory evidence, a grand jury failed to indict the Ramseys or anyone else in the murder of JonBenét. Not long after the murder, the parents moved to a new home in Atlanta. Two of the lead investigators in the case resigned, and there have been accusations of a cover-up in the district attorney's office. To this day, the case remains unsolved.

Pop culture

In fictional portrayals of her life, JonBenét has been played by Dyanne Iandoli, Mackenzie Rosman, and Julia Granstrom.

On a Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live, Norm MacDonald joked that the Ramseys were going to have another baby, to which the audience reacted poorly. Slightly embarassed, McDonald said, "They'll have a new little bundle of joy in their life."

The sketch comedy show Mad TV once featured a sketch in which the Ramsey parents play on an episode of Hollywood Squares, and eventually kill everyone else on the show.

In an episode of Family Guy, during one of the show's cutaways, Peter Griffin promises the Ramsey parents that he will not rest until he finds their daughter's murderer. The cutaway strongly implies that they are, in fact, the killers.

The Ramseys, along with O.J. Simpson and Gary Condit, are portrayed in the South Park episode Butters' Very Own Episode and it is implied strongly that each committed the controversial murder they were involved in.

The British indie rock group Queen Adreena performs a song written by lead vocalist Katie-Jane Garside called "FM Doll", which is about JonBenét's murder.

References

• Hickey, Eric. Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime.
• M., Ronald and Stephen T. Holmes. Profiling Violent Crimes.

External links

• JonBenet Ramsey Case Encyclopedia
• JonBenet Ramsey.com
• True Crime: JonBenét Ramsey
• Crime Magazine: The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey
• The Smoking Gun - JonBenet Ramsey Case Documents
• JonBenet Ramsey murder case, an investigative analysis - The Crime library
• FindAGrave.com: JonBenét Ramsey