The murder of JonBenét Ramsey

The year was 1996, and everything seemed to be going well for the Ramsey family. The patriarch, John Ramsey had a successful business, and his wife Patricia “Patsy” Ramsey had been focusing on raising their young family. Patsy had a love for socializing, and in December of 1996, the family’s social calendar had been packed.

John and Patsy had their first child together on January 27, 1987; a baby boy named Burk. John had experienced fatherhood before with his first wife, and that marriage saw the birth of three children- 1 of which died in a tragic car accident at the age of 22. On August 6, 1990, the couple welcomed into the world their second child together; a blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl named JonBenét.

The murder of JonBenét Ramsey is one that continues to devastate many people as it remains unsolved. By the time the six-year-old beauty queen departed, she had won over two dozen beauty pageant titles. The last title she would win would be just a few weeks before her death. JonBenét Ramsey had been crowned Colorado’s Little Miss Christmas just twenty days before she died. JonBenét had been murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado.

At 5:30 am on the morning of December 26, 1996, Patsy realized that her daughter was missing after she found an unusually long ransom note on the kitchen staircase. The note was handwritten and not particularly interesting. The note demanded an astronomical amount of money for the safe return of JonBenét. The police believed that the ransom note had been staged because it didn’t have fingerprints on it. There were indications that Patricia Ramsey wrote the ransom note, but this couldn’t be proved. Despite the note’s orders to not involve anyone, Patsy had immediately involved police and friends and family to begin a search for JonBenét. JonBenét’s lifeless body would eventually be found in the basement of the family’s home. JonBenét Ramsey had died from strangulation.

Let’s just a moment to note that some investigative mistakes had been made. When John Ramsey had found his daughter, he picked up the body and took it upstairs, contaminating the crime scene in the process. The only people known to be in the house at the time of JonBenét’s murder were her immediate family; Burk, John, and Patsy.

The theories surrounding JonBenét’s murder are endless, but there are two common theories. The first one is that a family member might have been involved. The initial investigation focused heavily on the possibility of the Ramsey family being involved. The family had been questioned by investigators and needed to submit handwriting samples to compare to the ransom note. Both Burke and John had been cleared of any suspicion regarding the note. A Colorado grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the parents on, “two counts each of child abuse,” and said the parents, “did unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation that posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenét Ramsey, a child under the age of sixteen.” Eventually, the Ramsey family had been cleared of suspicion.

One of the other popular theories is that an intruder got in. Although there were no signs of forced entry, there had been an unidentified boot print in the basement where JonBenét’s body had been found. On the night JonBenét was killed, there had been two windows that were left partially open to allow electrical cords for the outside Christmas lights. There had also been a broken basement window and an unlocked door.

The crime remains unsolved and is still an open investigation with the Boulder Police Department.

*Images taken from Google