On Christmas night in the year of 1996 a six old girl named Jonbenet Ramsey was killed and found in the family's wine cellar, long with a ransom note. After a christmas party Jonbenet's mother Patsy, took her sleeping daughter up to bed around 9:00 pm, but the next morning around 5:00 am her daughter was gone. Almost all of the evidence was strange starting with the placement of the body, the 911 call, the ransom note, the window, and the victim's stomach contents. Jonbenet’s body was found in the family home wine cellar, but the placement of her body was strange. The detectives that worked the case did not understand why the killer would leave Jonbenet in the home that she was supposed to have been taken from.
On the morning of December 26, 1996 John Ramsey discovered the lifeless body of six-year old JonBenet Ramsey in the basement of the family’s home. This was the beginning of an American crime story that remains unsolved to this day, despite the Boulder Police Department processing over fifteen hundred pieces of evidence and interviewing more than one thousand people (Agrawal, 2016). The Ramsey family blamed the Boulder Police Department for their inexperience kidnapping and murder investigations and scrutinized the police for not seeking additional assistance from other law enforcement agencies (Ramsey, 2000). The Boulder Police Department immediately became suspicious that a member of the Ramsey’s family or someone close to them committed
Annotated Bibliography Bane, Vickie. “20-Year Murder Mystery Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?” (Cover Story).” People, vol. 86, no. 8, Aug. 2016, pp. 42–47.
The Blow to the head, which would have rendered her unconscious and giving the appearance of being dead, would have caused the mother to panic and attempt to formulate a plausible explanation. However, after noticing the child was not dead, had to complete the act in the basement, thus the scream heard by the neighbor and the transfer of fibers from her clothing to the garrote, tape, and blanket (Who Killed the Pageant Queen? JonBenét Ramsey Documentary, 2016). These actions and the fact that Mr. Ramsey does not state that his wife was in bed or that she showered and dressed before him gives rise to the question of whether or not
The planning of the murder was to kill her and make it look like a person from the outside killed her. When she was killed the next morning her mother Patsy Ramsey called her friends to come into the murder scene. When they came into the house they brought in footprints and a lot of fingerprints. Then the detectives could not find a whole lot of finger prints from the suspect. The father John Benet brought the body up to the living room then moved her again to the
A bonechilling, mystery, murder took place in a peaceful/small town in Boulder, Colorado, taken place on Christmas night shook the nation. Beauty queen, pageant winner, adorable, innocent JonBenet Ramsey was killed in the family home on the night of December 25th, 1996. Jonbenet was found with a device around her neck that straggled her, stun gun marks on her left side of her body, hands tied above her head, and tape over her mouth. Later autopsies found that the girl was bashed over her head leaving an 8 ½ inch fracture. Then found later on that Jonbenet was sexually assaulted.
One of very first mistakes the Department made was that they did not search the house very thoroughly, nor did put the house on secure the home and the evidence within the home after the first arrived on the sense. The Police department should have made sure that nobody enter the home, nor left the Ramsey home, before they had the opportunity to search it, and question everyone in the home at the time of the event. With no doubt if the police would have searched the house when they first arrived on the sense, they would have found JonBenet in the cellar of the basement in the Ramsey home wrapped in a blanket. Allowing John Ramsey and a close friend to search the house for missing house hold items, and that allowed him to find his deceased daughter. The Bounder Police Department also allowed family and friends to enter the home,
Though almost tried by a jury, John was cleared by the 2008 DNA test his wife was also cleared from and walks as a free man... well, not quite - many people have held John under suspicion since the day he found his daughter’s body in his basement. As expressed by the first detective at the scene in an interview with ABC News, “I see John Ramsey carrying JonBenét up the last three steps from the basement and my mind exploded - everything that I had noted that morning that stuck out instantly made sense. As we [John Ramey] looked at each other, I remember tucking my gun and consciously counting my bullets.” In the interview, Detective Arndt clearly looks distraught while telling of her experience and alludes to the killer being John.
The year of 1996 started out extraordinarily for the Ramsey family. John Ramsey's company grossed more than $1 billion and they were eminent in his community of Boulder, Colorado. JonBenet had been in her town's local Christmas parade on a float with her name on the side about a week earlier (Casarez). Little did the Ramsey family know that this holiday season, a horrific event would occur that would forever change their lives. Evidence was left on the third step of the Ramsey’s staircase; a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the return of JonBenet.
This is the top theory of who the murder in the Ramsey case was due to the fact that he was a convicted pedophile, and who also happened to express a deep obsession with the six year old little girl. He also admitted in recent prison letters as of 2024 to killing her, even stating it as an
John Ramsey’s found his daughter’s body covered with a blanket in the basement of their home. He carried her body upstairs, where someone covered the body with a
John Ramsey never liked the fact that she got entered into beauty pageants. JonBenet’s body, found with signs that show sexual assault, shows the possibility that her father took her into the basement, sexually assaulted her, and then killed her. Then he’d have left the ransom note to draw attention away from. Most of the evidence points directly to him for only the family had known they had a basement where JonBenet died. John Ramsey told the cops that he didn’t hear anything that night.
It is understood that the grand jury found no suspect to blame for her murder, and even with countless DNA samples, not even one matched. Frustrations were raised in the public, for example, a former homicide detective ultimately dropped out of the case simply because he was a firm believer in the intruder theory. This article also highlights the focus on Ramsey’s parents, but shies away due to the multiple witnesses that have evidence of the Ramsey’s innocence. The article at hand is important when understanding and learning about the JonBenét Ramsey case due to the number of theories and information provided in this article. It describes the tragic fate JonBenét endured, provides information on the grand jury decision, multiple theories on how she died, and the parent’s involvement or lack thereof.
The ransom note is the key piece of evidence, and is believed to have been written by the girl’s mother. Mrs. Ramsay reported to the police she found the note on the stairway, which led to the discovery that JonBenet was missing from her bed. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey submitted handwriting samples. An examination of Patsy’s notebook exposed the killer used her pad and pen to write the note. Also the writing patterns matched those of Patsy Ramsey.
In this paper I will go over the case of a six year old girl from Boulder Colorado, her name is JonBenet Ramsey. This case swept the nation in 1996 when she was found dead in the wine cellar of her Colorado home. JonBenet was the daughter of Jon Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey she lived her childhood traveling across the nation doing beauty pageants. On December 26, 1996 JonBenet parents called the police after they had found a lengthy ransom note stating that they wanted 118,000 dollars and to not contact the authorities or JonBenet would be killed. Eight hours after the note was found JonBenet was found murdered in the basement of the home, with trauma to the head and a cord wrapped around her neck.
