Imagine waking up the day after Christmas and your daughter missing and later found dead. Overnight your daughter went from a Little Miss Colorado pageant champion to the victim of one of the states most publicized murders. If that wasn’t bad enough for you then add in you’re the prime suspect in her murder. That’s what John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to that day in 1996 when their daughter JonBenet was missing and found dead in their Colorado home. The evidence suggest the killer is somebody close to the family or somebody who worked with John Ramsey. Although many people believe that somebody inside the family killed JonBenet the murder remains unsolved due to the fact the investigation was botched, mishandled, and too many people scotched …show more content…
On the night of December 25, 1996 JonBenet went to bed around 10 P.M. in her room in Boulder, Colorado after the family returned from a Christmas party. The next morning her father John reports that JonBenet is missing from their home (Aaron Bandler). The police were called after the mother of Ramsey found a lengthy ransom note demanding $118,000 in exchange for the return of Ramsey (“JonBenet Ramsey Biography”). Slightly before 6 a.m. the police arrive at the home where they begin the investigation for what they believed was a missing child. There were no signs of forced entry nor anything obviously missing. At about 1 p.m. while searching the house for anything missing John Ramsey discovers his daughters’ lifeless body covered with white cloth, tied up with duct tape over her mouth (Aaron Bandler). The body had signs of sexual assault and a fatal blow to the head. What was believed to be semen or sweat on the dress was also found at the scene. At this moment the police realized they weren’t dealing with a missing child and they were dealing with a cold blooded murder. This day was the start of a controversial murder investigation by …show more content…
From the start of the investigation the case was mishandled by police. Since the police believed that it was a kidnapping the police never secured the crime scene which resulted in dozens of people coming in and out of the house which compromised a lot of evidence they may have been able to find. Next neither parent was ever separated nor gave a statement until weeks later. The police also allowed roughly 10 people including the father to mill throughout the house without escorts. If that wasn’t enough to botch any case, they appeared to have the D.A. involved and influenced police as they appeared to have an agenda not to indict the parents for the murder. The reason is to believe to be due to the family’s wealth and their influence in the town that they didn’t want to indict. Through the little evidence they could use none of it directly pointed to the parents as the killer. Physical evidence such as the ransom note, fingerprints, and unknown footprints none of the evidence pointed to them. John and burke’s handwriting were cleared of writing the ransom note while patsy’s did not match but also couldn’t be completely cleared. Also the fingerprints found did not match any of the Ramsey family or any of the 400 plus people investigated. The footprint found at the scene didn’t match anybody in the family either.