Death of a Beauty Queen
It’s been 20 years since a 6-year-old beauty queen was found dead in her Boulder, Colorado home. A family grief-stricken and put through the ringer, suspected of murdering their daughter. A little girl dead—the case gone cold. Will the killer be found, justice for such a horrific crime?
JonBenet Patricia Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990 in Atlanta Georgia, United States. She was reported missing the day after Christmas 1996 when her mother, Patsy, found a ransom note on the kitchen stairs, and within hours, the body of JonBenet was found in the basement of her family home in Boulder, Colorado.
John Ramsey found his daughter’s body after searching the basement with two other friends, when John finds her wrapped in a white blanket with a nylon cord around JonBenet’s neck and her wrists tied above her head and mouth covered with duct tape.
The Autopsy
The autopsy results reveal JonBenet was killed by strangulation due to a skull fracture. The official cause of death is asphyxiation due to strangulation associated with craniocerbral trauma. Although there was no evidence of rape, sexual assault was not ruled out.
The autopsy also showed that JonBenet was fed pineapple a few hours before the murder, as photographs taken of the Ramsey’s home were taken the day of the murder of a bowl of pineapple found on the kitchen table with a spoon. Reports show that JonBenet’s 9-year-old brother, Burke’s fingersprints were found on the bowl, but JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy, claim to have no memory about feeding JonBenet pineapple and that Burke slept through the scene until police arrived.
A garrote, the length of cord, was broken and a handle to a paintbrush was used to strangle JonBenet. Experts show that construction of the garrote required a special knowledge of knots. Part of the bristle end of the paintbrush was found in Patsy’s art supplies—the bottom third never recovered despite an extensive search through the house by police.
Investigation and Suspects
There have been claims that police botched the investigation by not sealing off the crime scene and allowing friends and family to enter and leave after the kidnapping was reported. Because they immediately suspected the Ramsey, particularly John and Patsy, of their daughter’s murder, there have been claims that police failed to collect sufficient forensic evidence before and after the body of JonBenet’s body was found.
Police immediately zeroed in on John and Patsy Ramsey as potential suspects in their daughter’s murder. There was also the belief that Patsy, in a fit of rage, killed her daughter after a bedwetting episode, possibly to cover up an injury. The Ramsey’s 9-year-old son, Burke, was also a suspect in JonBenet’s murder, even being asked to testify in a grand jury hearing.
Books
Several books have been written revolving around the mysterious case. “The Cases That Haunt Us” by former FBI agent John E. Douglas, who was hired by the Ramsey family and at first argued with seasoned detective Lou Smit, who came out of retirement to work on JonBenet’s case, eventually coming to agreement with Smit’s investigation and conclusions. He was impressed with Smit’s discovery of a stun gun that was overlooked by autopsy photos and apparently used to subdue JonBenet.
Stephen Singular, an investigative journalist and author, wrote “Presumed Guilty: An Investigation Into the JonBenet Ramsey Case, the Media and the Culture of Pornography”. The book suggests a connection of JonBenet’s murder to child pornography industry. Singular elaborates about consultations with cyber-crime specialists who believe that JonBenet, with her extensive beauty pageant experience, was a perfect as a child who could have been dragged into the world of child pornography, not to mention a natural candidate for pedophiles.
A Cold Case Reopened
On October 23, 1999, previously sealed court documents released a Colorado grand jury that voted in 1999 to indict John and Patsy Ramsey of JonBenet’s murder citing child abuse that resulted in death and accessories to a crime. District Attorney Alex Hunter refused to sign the indictment citing a lack of evidence alleging the grand jury lacked inconclusive evidence.
A December 2003 forensic investigation that extracted enough DNA material from mixed blood sample found on JonBenet’s underwear revealed the DNA profile of an unknown male person. The DNA was submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that contained more than 1.6 million DNA profiles of convicted felons failed to locate a match.
Later investigation also revealed that there were more than a 100 burglaries in the Ramsey’s neighborhood the month before JonBenet’s murder, and also 38 registered sex offenders that were living within a 2-mile (3 km) radius of the Ramsey’s home.
A False Confession
The most spectacular thing that came from the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation was the August 2006 confession from a 41-year-old elementary school teacher named John Mark Karr, who falsely confessed to murdering JonBenet. Karr subsequently being held on child pornography charges in Sonoma County, California.
Authorities managed to track down Karr through Internet and emails regarding a case to Michael Tracy, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado. Karr was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand in August 2006 where he confessed to killing JonBenet when he claimed he drugged and sexually assaulted her, alleging the death was an accident. Eventually dismissing Karr’s confession due to providing only publicly known facts with little convincing details—the drugging of JonBenet was also thrown out because autopsy revealed no drugs in JonBenet’s body. After DNA found on JonBenet’s body failed to match Karr’s, and there was no evidence linking Karr to the crime scene, Karr was not charged with JonBenet Ramsey’s murder. Karr, who’s confession was linked on media frenzy, was released on child pornography charges.
Apology to the Ramsey Family
A letter on July 9, 2008 from the Boulder County District Attorney’s office, with newly developed DNA sampling and testing techniques (Touch DNA analysis) eventually cleared the Ramsey family members as suspects in the JonBenet Ramsey murder. But investigators were still looking for possible suspects.
In January 2009, the new district attorney Stan Garnett announced he planned to take a fresh look on the JonBenet Ramsey case and in February 2, 2009, the district attorney’s office turned the case over to the Boulder County Police Chief Mark Beckner.
Final confirmation came in October 2010 when the case was officially reopened with new interviews and a fresh inquiry conducted by state and federal investigators using the latest DNA technology.
Defamation and Lawsuits
Several lawsuits also arose during the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation as the Ramsey family, with their attorney, Lin Wood, representing their claims from several press magazines: St. Martin’s Press, Time, Inc., The Fox News Channel, American Media, Inc., Star, The Globe, Court TV, and The New York Post. But along with suing several magazines and television broadcast companies, the Ramsey family was also sued as a result of the publication of their book “The Death of Innocence,” when two of the persons they named in the book was said to have been investigated suspects by the Boulder Police. And in November 2006, Rod Westmoreland, a friend of John Ramsey sued an anonymous web surfer who went by the alias “undertheradar” posted two messages in an Internet forum that implicated Westmoreland in the murder.
In Conclusion
After 20 years, a 6-year-old beauty queen is gone, but not from our hearts, and a case has gone cold. As a family has grieved after years of facing suspicions implicating them in their daughter’s murder, will the killer ever be revealed. Will there be justice for JonBenet Ramsey?
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