JonBenét Ramsey was born on 6th August 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia, the youngest of 2 children of Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey (1956 - 2006) and John Bennett Ramsey (born 1943). She had an older brother named Burke (born 1987). JonBenét's first name combines her father's first and middle names, and her mother's first name was used as her middle name. She was enrolled in kindergarten at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado.
JonBenét's body was found on 26th December, 1996, in her family's Boulder residence. She was buried at St James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, on 31st December. JonBenét was interred next to her half sister Elizabeth Pasch Ramsey, who had died in a car crash nearly 5 years earlier at 22 years old.
John Ramsey was a businessman who was the president of Access Graphics, a computer software company that later became a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1978. John's 2 surviving adult children (a son and a daughter) lived elsewhere. In 1991, John had moved with his second wife and family to Boulder, where Access Graphics' headquarters was located.
Patsy Ramsey entered JonBenét in various child beauty pageants in Boulder, where she won the titles of America's Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. JonBenét's active role in child beauty pageants and Patsy's reported "pageant mother" behaviour were reported by the media after the murder.
In the summer of 1997 - approximately 6 months after JonBenét's death - the Ramsey family moved to a new home in Atlanta after a summer at their vacation retreat in Charlevoix, Michigan. Patsy died of ovarian cancer at 49 years old in 2006; she was interred next to her daughter.
According to statements that Patsy gave to authorities on 26th December, 1996, she realised that her daughter was missing after she found a 2 ½ page handwritten ransom note on the kitchen staircase at the Ramsey's family residence. The note demanded $118,000. John pointed out to police first on the scene that the amount was nearly identical to his Christmas bonus of the prior year, which suggested that someone who would have access to that information would be involved in the crime. Investigators looked at several theories behind the dollar amount demanded, considering employees at Access Graphics who may have known of the amount of John's prior bonus. They also considered the possibility that the ransom demand was a reference to Psalm 118 and spoke to religious sources to determine possible relevance.
The random note was unusually long. The FBI told the police that it was very unusual for such a note to be written at the crime scene. The police believed that the note was staged, because it did not have any fingerprints except for Patsy's and authorities who had handled it, and because it included an unusual use of exclamation marks and initialisms. The note and a practice draft were written with a pen and notepad from the Ramsey home. According to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation report, "There are indications that the author of the ransom note is Patricia Ramsey." However, the evidence fell short of a definitive conclusion. Michael Baden, a board-certified forensic pathologist, who had consulted with both sides of the case, said he had never seen a note like it in his 60 year experience and that he did not think it was written by an outside stranger.
A federal court ruled it highly unlikely that Patsy wrote the note, citing 6 certified handwriting experts. The court bemoaned the existence of self-proclaimed experts - without credentials - trying to wrangle their way into the case by accusing Patsy without scientific basis.
The only people known to be in the house on the night of JonBenét's death were her immediate family; Patsy and John Ramsey and their son Burke. The ransom note contained specific instructions against contacting police and friends, but Patsy called the police at 5:52am. She also called family and friends. 2 police officers responded to the 911 call and arrived at the Ramsey home within 3 minutes. They conducted a cursory search of the house but did not find any sign of forced entry.
Officer Rick French went to the basement and came to a door that was secured by a wooden latch. He paused for a moment in front of the door, but walked away without opening it. Rick later explained that he was looking for an exit route used by the kidnapper, which the closed inside peg ruled out. JonBenét's body was later found behind the door.
With JonBenét still missing, John made arrangements to pay the ransom. A forensic team was dispatched to the house. The team initially believed that the child had been kidnapped, and JonBenét's bedroom was the only room in the house that was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. No precautions were taken to prevent contamination of evidence in the rest of the house. Meanwhile, friends, victim advocates, and the Ramsey family's minister arrived at the home to show support. Visitors picked up and cleaned surfaces in the kitchen, possibly destroying evidence. Boulder detective Linda Arndt arrived at about 8:00am, in anticipation of receiving further instructions by the kidnapper, but there was never an attempt by anyone to claim the money.
At 1:00pm, Detective Arndt asked John Ramsey and Fleet White, a family friend, to search the house to see if "anything seemed amiss." They started their search in the basement. John opened the latched door which Officer French had overlooked and found his daughter's body in one of the rooms. JonBenét's mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was found around her wrist and neck, and her torso was covered by a white blanket. John picked up the child's body and took it upstairs. When JonBenét was moved, the crime scene was further contaminated, and critical forensic evidence was disturbed for the returning forensic team.
Each of the Ramseys provided handwriting, blood and hair samples to the police. John and Patsy participated in the preliminary interview for more than 2 hours, and Burke was also interviewed within the first couple of weeks following JonBenét's death.
The autopsy revealed that JonBenét had been killed by strangulation and a skull fracture. The official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma." There was no evidence of conventional rape, although sexual assault could not be ruled out. Although no semen was found, the was evidence that there had been a vaginal injury. At the time of the autopsy, the pathologist recorded that it appeared her vaginal area had been wiped with a cloth. Her death was ruled a homicide.
A garrotte that was made from a length of nylon cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush was tied around JonBenét's neck and had apparently been used to strangle her. Part of the bristle end of the paintbrush was found in a tub containing Patsy's art supplies, but the bottom third of it was never found despite extensive searching of the house by the police in subsequent days.
The autopsy revealed a "vegetable or fruit material which may represent a pineapple," which JonBenét had eaten a few hours before her death. Photographs of the home taken on the day when JonBenét's body was found show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon in it. However, neither John nor Patsy said they remembered putting the bowl on the table or feeding pineapple to JonBenét. Police reported that they found JonBenét's 9 year old brother Burke Ramsey's fingerprints on the bowl. The Ramseys have always said that Burke slept through the entire night until he was awakened several hours after the police arrived.
In December 2003, forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on JonBenét's underwear to establish a DNA profile. That DNA belonged to an unknown male person, and excluded the DNA of each of the Ramseys. The DNA was submitted to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database containing more than 1.6 million DNA profiles, but the sample did not match any profile in the database. In October 2016, a report said that new forensic analysis with more sensitive techniques revealed that the original DNA contained genetic markers from 2 individuals other than JonBenét.
A. James Kolar, who was a lead investigator for the D.A.'s office, said that there were additional traces of male DNA found on the cord and paintbrush that Boulder district attorney Mary Lacy did not mention, and that there were 6 separate DNA samples belonging to unknown individuals that were found by the test. Former FBI profiler Candice Delong believes that the DNA, having shown up identically in several different places in multiple surfaces, belongs to the killer. Former Adams County, Colorado, District Attorney Bob Grant, who has assisted the Boulder's DA's office on the case for many years, also believes that the DNA evidence is significant, saying that any resolution of the case would have to explain how the DNA showed up on several pieces of JonBenét's clothing. Forensic pathologist Michael Baden said, "Trace amounts of DNA can get on places and clothing from all different, non-suspicious means. There is no forensic evidence to show that this is a stranger murder."
Experts, media commentators, and the Ramseys have identified potential suspects in the case. Boulder police initially focused almost exclusively upon John and Patsy, but by October 1997 had over 1,600 people in their index of persons of interest for the case.
Errors that were made in the initial investigation complicated the resolution of the investigation and applicable theory. Those errors included loss and contamination of evidence, lack of experienced and technical staff on the investigation, evidence shared with the Ramseys, and delayed informal interviews with the parents.
Lou Smit was a detective who came out of retirement in early 1997 to assist the Boulder County District Attorney's office with the case. In May 1998, he presented his findings to the Boulder Police with other staff members of the DA's office, concluding that the evidence pointed away from the Ramseys. They were unable to successfully challenge the police department's belief that the Ramseys were guilty. The DA's office sought to take control of the investigation. Due to the animosity between the police and the DA's office, and the pressure to obtain a conviction, Colorado governor Roy Romer interceded and named Michael Kane as special prosecutor to initiate a grand jury.
2 of the lead investigators in the case had opposing views. Both Lou Smit and Steve Thomas ultimately resigned - Lou because he believed that the investigation had incompetently overlooked the intruder hypothesis, and Steve because the DA's office had interfered with and failed to support the police investigation of the case.
A grand jury was convened beginning 15th September, 1998 to consider indicting the Ramseys for charges relating to the case. In 1999, the grand jury returned a true bill to charge the Ramseys with placing the child at risk in a way that led to her death and with obstructing an investigation of murder, based on the probable cause standard applied in such grand jury proceedings. But Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter did not prosecute them, because he did not believe that he could meet the higher standard of proving guilty beyond a reasonable doubt that is required for a criminal conviction.
Mary Lacy, the next Boulder County District Attorney, took over the investigation from the police on 26th December 2002. In April 2003, she agreed with a federal judge who sat on a 2002 libel case that evidence in the suit is "more consistent with a theory that an intruder murdered JonBenét that it was with a theory that Mrs. Ramsey did". On 9th July, 2008, the Boulder District Attorney's office announced that, as a result of newly developed DNA sampling and testing techniques, the Ramsey family members were excluded as suspects in the case. Mary publicly exonerated the Ramseys.
On 2nd February, 2009, Boulder police chief Mark Beckner announced that Stan Garnett, the new Boulder County District Attorney, was turning the case over to his agency, and that his team would resume investigating it. Stan found that the statue of limitations for the crimes identified in the 1999 grand jury true bill had expired, and did not pursue review of the case against the Ramseys.
In October 2010, the Boulder police reopened the cold case. New interviews were conducted following a fresh inquiry by a committee that included state and federal investigators. Police were expected to use the latest DNA technology in their investigations. There was no new information gleaned from those interviews. It was reported in September 2016 that the investigation into JonBenét's death continues to be an active homicide case, per Boulder Police Chief Greg Testa.
In 2015, Mark disagreed with exonerating the Ramseys, stating, "Exonerating anyone based on a small piece of evidence that has not yet been proved to even be connected to the crime is absurd." He also states that the unknown DNA from JonBenét's clothing "has got to be the focus of the investigation" at this point in time and that, until one can prove otherwise, "the suspect is the donator of the unknown DNA." In 2016, Gordon Coombes, a former investigator for the Boulder County District Attorney's office, also questioned total absolution of the Ramseys, stating, "We all shed DNA all the time within our skin cells. It can be deposited anywhere at any time for various reasons, reasons that are benign. To clear somebody just on the premise of touch DNA, especially when you have a situation where the crime scene wasn't secure at the beginning... really is a stretch." Steven E. Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist hired by Boulder authorities, said, "Lacy's public exoneration of the Ramseys was a big slap in the face to Chief Beckner and the core group of detectives who had been working on the case for years."
Theories & Suspects
There are 2 types of theories about the death of JonBenét. One is the family member theory. Boulder police initially concentrated almost exclusively upon the parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. According to Gregg McCrary, a retired profiler with the FBI, "statistically, it is a 12-to-1 probability that it's a family member or a care giver" who is involved in the homicide of a child. The police saw no evidence of a forced entry, but they did see evidence of staging of the scene, such as the ransom note. They did not find the Ramseys cooperative in helping them solve the death of their daughter. The Ramseys had said that their reluctance was due to their fear that there would not be a full investigation for intruders, and that they would be hastily selected as the key suspects in the case, according to the Daily Camera.
One theory is that Patsy struck JonBenét in a fit of rage after a bedwetting episode, and strangled her to cover up what had happened, after mistakenly thinking she was already dead. However, Patsy did not have a known history of uncontrolled anger. JonBenét's brother later said, "We didn't get spanked, nothing of the sort, nothing close, nothing near laying a finger on us, let alone killing your child."
Theoretically, the strangulation could have been a "red herring" aspect to conceal other elements of the assault and killing.
Burke, who was 9 years old at the time of JonBenét's death, was interviewed by investigators at least 3 times. The first 2 interviews did not raise any concerns about him. A review by a child psychologist stated that it appeared that the Ramseys had "healthy, caring family relationships". In 1998, Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said during an interview with a news reporter that Burke Ramsey was not involved in the killing of his sister. In May 1999, the Boulder County District Attorney's office reiterated that Burke Ramsey was not a suspect. The investigators never had considered him a suspect.
The Ramseys offered a $100,000 reward in a newspaper ad dated 27th April, 1997. 3 days later, more than 4 months after the body of their daughter was found, they submitted for the first time to separate formal interviews at the Boulder County Justice Center.
In 1999, Colorado Governor Bill Owens spoke out, telling the Ramsey couple to "quit hiding behind their attorneys, quit hiding behind their PR firm".
A Colorado grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the parents. The indictment cited "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."
Among the experts who testified in the case were DNA specialist Barry Scheck and forensic expert Henry Lee. On 13th October, 1999, Alex Hunter, who was the district attorney at the time, refused to sign the indictment, saying that the evidence was insufficient for prosecution. The public thought that the grand jury investigation had been inconclusive. In 2002, the statute of limitations on the grand jury's charges expired.
The grand jury's vote to indict was not revealed publicly until 25th October, 2013, when previously sealed court documents were released.
The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey, a show broadcast on CBS on 18th and 19th September 2016, used a group of experts to evaluate the evidence. The group theorised that Burke hit his sister in the head with a heavy object after she stole a piece of pineapple from his bowl, perhaps not intending to kill her. They suggested that the ransom letter was an attempt to cover up the circumstances of JonBenét's death. On behalf of Burke Ramsey, his counsel filed defamation lawsuits against CBS, the producers of the program, and several of its participants, based on many of its claims.
The second theory is the intruder theory. The police and the prosecutors followed leads for intruders partly due to the unidentified boot mark left in the basement room where JonBenét's body was found.
Early persons of interest included neighbour Bill McReynolds, who played Santa Claus; former family housekeeper Linda Hoffmann-Pugh, and a man named Michael Helgoth, who died in an apparent suicide shortly after JonBenét's death. Hundreds of DNA tests were performed to find a match to the DNA recovered during her autopsy.
Lou Smit, a detective in the case, assessed the evidence and concluded that an intruder had committed the crime. On the night JonBenét was killed, there had been 2 windows that were left slightly open to allow for electrical cords for the outside Christmas lights to pass through, a broken basement window, and 1 unlocked door. Lou's theory was that someone entered the Ramsey home through the basement window. This has been criticised because there was an intact cobweb in the basement window. The steel grate that covered the window also had undisturbed cobwebs, and the foliage around the grate had been undisturbed. There were also cobwebs in the tracks of various windows, and dust and debris were on some cills. Lou believed that the intruder subdued JonBenét using a stun gun and took her down to the basement. JonBenét was killed and a ransom note was left. Lou's theory was supported by former FBI agent John E. Douglas, who had been hired by the Ramsey family. Believing that the Ramseys were innocent, Lou resigned from the investigation on 20th September, 1998, 5 days after the grand jury was convened against the Ramseys. While no longer an official investigator on the case, Lou continued to work on it until his death in 2010.
Stephen Singular, author of the book Presumed Guilty: An Investigation into the JonBenét Ramsey Case, the Media and the Culture of Pornography, refers to consultations with cyber-crime specialists who believe that JonBenét, due to her beauty pageant experience, could have attracted the attention of child pornographers and pedophiles.
It was determined that there had been more than 100 burglaries in the Ramseys' neighbourhood in the months before JonBenét's murder. There was 38 registered sex offenders living within a 2 mile radius of the Ramseys' home. In 2001, former Boulder County prosecutor Trip DeMuth and Boulder County Sheriff's Detective Steve Ainsworth stated that there should be a more aggressive investigation of the intruder theory.
One of the individuals whom Lou identified as a suspect was Gary Howard Oliva, who was arrested for "two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and one count of sexually exploitation of a child" charges in June 2016, according to Boulder's Daily Camera. Gary, a registered sex offender, was publicly identified as a suspect in an October 2002 episode of 48 Hours Investigates.
The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, broadcast by A&E on 5th September, 2016, concluded that an unidentified male was responsible for JonBenét's death, based on forensic DNA analysis of evidence. In the documentary, DNA and forensic scientist expert Lawrence Kobilinsky stated that "an unidentified male committed this crime".
The District Attorney's office investigating pedophiles indicated to former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman that the District Attorney's office followed the intruder theory. The Ramseys developed a relationship with District Attorney Mary Lacy and her office, which was criticised by authorities such as the city's mayor, Leslie L Durgin. Craig said, "Once you have conceded the possibility of an intruder, I don't see how any Ramsey could ever be successfully prosecuted." Gordon Coombes joined the office as an investigator under Mary when they were testing JonBenét's clothing for touch DNA. He also said that Mary strongly supported the intruder theory and talked about it with the staff. Although he was not directly involved with the case, he said he was told not to voice opposition to the theory because he might lose his job. "It just seemed weird the whole premise of... this attempt to influence the entire agency," he stated.
Alexis Valoran Reich, a 41 year old elementary school teacher, was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, on 15th August, 2006 when she falsely confessed to murdering JonBenét. She had previously been known as John Mark Karr, prior to coming out as a transgender woman. She claimed that she had drugged, sexually assaulted, and accidentally killed JonBenét. According to CNN, "Authorities also said they did not find any evidence linking Alexis to the crime scene."
In her confession, Alexis had provided only basic facts that were publicly known and failed to provide any convincing details. Her claim that he had drugged JonBenét was doubted because the autopsy indicated that no drugs were found in her body. DNA samples that were taken from Alexis did not match DNA found on JonBenét's body.
On 26th October 2006, Alexis sent an email to Bill Hammons of Bill's List seeking a literary agent to help "publish a manuscript that some might find controversial."
Alexis later sent emails under numerous pen names, including Daxis the Conqueror, Drk Prnz, and Alexis. Alexis later changed her legal name to Alexis Valoran Reich after coming out as transgender. However, this was denied by Samantha Speigel, who alleged that Alexis only intended to undergo gender reassignment surgery to get closer to younger girls in a child sex cult called "The Immaculates".