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The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey

Natalie Piganelli

B.A. Program in Forensic Psychology

Mansfield University

CJA 2400-190 Crimes of the Century

Dr. Justin Crowl

June 6, 2021
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The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey

Introduction

JonBenét Ramsey was only six years old when she was murdered sometime between

Christmas night and the morning of December 26, 1996, in Boulder Colorado. The murder has

become sensationalized throughout the media and is still unsolved. From the day the

investigation began to this day, there has been speculation and conspiracies proposed by people

around the world. There are two main theories most often suggested: members of JonBenét’s

family were responsible, or an intruder committed the murder. Although there are multiple

pieces of evidence and countless theories, the Boulder Police Department has never found the

perpetrator and the case of JonBenét Ramsey’s murder remains open. This report aims to analyze

the case in detail and perhaps provide a deeper understanding to a case that has perplexed

millions of people for almost 25 years.

Background and Overview

JonBenét Ramsey was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 6, 1990. Her family consisted

of her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and a brother three years older than her, Burke. She also

had three half-siblings from John’s previous marriage. In 1991, the family moved to Boulder,

Colorado where JonBenét would spend the remainder of her life. The Ramsey family was

significantly wealthy with John Ramsey being a successful businessman. This helped support

JonBenét in her regular participation in beauty pageants. She won various titles with the

guidance of her mother, Patsy, who had once been a pageant queen herself. JonBenét competed

in a pageant a mere eight days before her death (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000). Her beauty queen

persona seemed to be what made her stand out in the media and is part of the reason this case is

so sensationalized.
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On Christmas Day, 1996, the Ramsey family went through their day as they had in

previous years. They opened presents in the morning, went to have Christmas dinner with their

friends, and went home around 9:00 PM with JonBenét sleeping in the backseat of their car. John

Ramsey explained that he carried his sleeping daughter upstairs to her bedroom and Patsy

finished putting her to bed. All the while, JonBenét did not awaken (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000).

This was the last time her parents would see her alive.

The Ramsey’s had planned on making an early flight the next morning to their vacation

home in Michigan. Patsy woke up at 5:45 AM and went to go wake up her daughter. This is

when she realized JonBenét was missing. At 5:52 AM Patsy made a 911 call. Throughout the

call, Patsy was hysterical and pleading that someone needed to come. When authorities arrived at

the house and were informed that Patsy had found a ransom note on their staircase. The note was

three pages long and addressed to John Ramsey. It explained that JonBenét had been kidnapped

and John needed to pay $118,000 to get her back. The note went into great detail on how the

ransom should be given, that the police were to not be involved, and that if the writer’s

instructions were not followed exactly, then JonBenét would be killed. Despite this, Patsy had

immediately called 911. Douglas & Olshaker (2000) provide a full transcript of the 911 call and

a copy of the ransom note.

Boulder, Colorado police officer, Rick French, arrived at the Ramsey not long after the

911 call. When he got there, he read the ransom note and did a search around the house. In the

basement, French noted a broken window that an intruder could have used to gain access to the

house. He also observed a latched door but did not open it to further investigate (Glick et al.,

1998). This could be considered the first oversight in the investigation with many to follow. The

next came when police did not treat the Ramsey’s home as a crime scene. Three family friends, a
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minister, victim advocates, and multiple officers walked through the house freely with only

JonBenét’s room taped off. At one point, friends and advocates cleaned up the kitchen after

having food with the parents to try to console them (Glick et al., 1998).

After most of the authorities had left, having found nothing incriminating at the house,

Patsy and John were left with their friends and one officer, Linda Arndt. The people left were

there to wait for a ransom call that the ransom note had advised would come sometime between

8 and 10 AM (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000). As that window of time came and went, Detective

Arndt suggested that John and his friend Fleet White do another search of the house. This was,

presumably, just something to keep John occupied. That instruction, though, would be what led

to JonBenét’s body being discovered. John and Fleet started in the basement. When they came

across the same door Rick French had not opened, John opened it knowing it led to a wine cellar

that they did not use. In the cellar was JonBenét’s body.

Immediately, John and Patsy Ramsey were the prime suspects mostly based on the

statistical probability that a child so young would be killed by a family member (Douglas &

Olshaker, 2000). However, neither of JonBenét’s parents were ever formally charged with the

murder of their daughter. There was the possibility of an intruder committing the crime, but no

specific person was actually named until 2006 when John Mark Karr confessed to killing

JonBenét. This turned out to be a false confession and no other suspect has ever been actively

pursued.

Evidence

The biggest issue with the case of JonBenét Ramsey’s murder is that virtually all possible

pieces of evidence were contaminated at one point or another. The entire crime scene was

walked through by multiple people and parts of it were even cleaned. When John found his
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daughter’s body, he instantly rushed over to her, tried to undo the restraints found on her body,

picked her up, and carried her upstairs where Patsy threw herself over the body and wept

uncontrollably. The restraints on JonBenét’s body consisted of duct tape across her mouth and a

cord tying her hands together above her head. Her body also had a white blanket wrapped around

the torso and a nightgown was lying next to her. When JonBenét was brought upstairs, both John

and Detective Arndt moved the body and placed another blanket and sweatshirt over it. At this

point, the body had been contaminated so much that a forensics team would have no possibility

of obtaining any usable evidence from it (Behm, 2015). The only applicable evidence from the

body was found during the autopsy. When a coroner examined the body at the house, he noted

the ligature around one of her wrists and found another around her neck. The one around the

neck was tied so tightly that it had cut into the neck (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000). Also noted at

the house was the observation that JonBenét’s underwear was stained with both urine and blood.

When performing the formal autopsy, the coroner most notably found a large skull fracture and

evidence that JonBenét had been sexually assaulted. There was hemorrhaging on her eyelids,

neck, brain, lungs, heart, and vagina (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000). Interestingly, the coroner also

found that there was undigested pineapple in JonBenét’s stomach. This suggested that she had

consumed pineapple not long before her death, but John and Patsy Ramsey later claimed that

they had not given JonBenét pineapple that day. The official cause of death was deemed

strangulation with associated head trauma (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000).

Another significant piece of evidence is DNA found under JonBenét’s fingernails and in

her underwear. DNA was a very new way of collecting evidence at the time and it is still being

worked on and debated today. That being said, the DNA found on JonBenét’s body was found to

be from a male and it did not belong to anyone within the Ramsey family (Boulder County
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Government, 2008). In 2007, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office learned of a new method of

retrieving DNA called touch DNA. A laboratory competent in doing this work was contacted and

asked to try to collect DNA from the long johns JonBenét’s had been wearing that night with the

new method of touch DNA. It was found that there was DNA on both sides of the waist of the

long johns that matched the DNA found in JonBenét’s underwear (Boulder County Government,

2008). With this information, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office stated that it is their belief

that the DNA belongs to the perpetrator. The office explained that it could be a fluke to find it

one place, but not to find it in three places. This means the Attorney’s Office is adamant that no

member of the Ramsey family is responsible for JonBenét’s murder.

The most confounding piece of evidence may be the ransom note Patsy Ramsey found on

the staircase after seeing that JonBenét was not in her bedroom. The note was found to be written

inside the house and with a pen and paper that Patsy would use to write shopping lists or other

things of the like. Douglas & Olshaker (2000) provides an analysis of the note done by respected

former FBI profiler, John E. Douglas. Douglas explains that his first impression of the ransom

letter was that it was oddly long, and he immediately concluded that the writing of the letter must

have been done before JonBenét’s death rather than after. His profile of the perpetrator described

that the person was educated but somewhat young and not experienced in killing. Douglas also

pointed out that $118,000 was an odd amount of money to ask for. Either coincidentally or not,

John Ramsey had recently received a bonus that rounded to that amount. Douglas believed that

this pointed to the perpetrator being someone that knew the Ramseys well and knew of John’s

recent bonus. It is also notable that this seemingly odd amount of money was equal to one

million pesos at the time (Woodbury et al., 1999). This implies that the murderer might have

been planning on fleeing to Mexico. In either scenario, Douglas does not believe one of the
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Ramseys wrote the note. Also of note is that everyone that provided the police with a

handwriting sample, including John, was ruled out except for Patsy, who’s results were

inconclusive (Behm, 2015).

Theories

Despite the vast majority of the evidence pointing to the fact that an intruder murdered

JonBenét, the media’s favorite theory seems to be that someone in the Ramsey family is

responsible. This is most likely in part due to the Boulder police very quickly pointing fingers at

the Ramsey family. This is the first narrative suggested, so it was the first narrative the press

released to the public. Since then, however, evidence has come to light and multiple experts

suggest that an intruder is the perpetrator of JonBenét’s murder.

John Ramsey

The theory that John Ramsey killed his daughter uses mostly the evidence of JonBenét

being sexually assaulted. It can be theorized that John was regularly molesting his daughter and

this particular night he over did it. He could have had a paraphilia towards using something to tie

up his victim and something went awry so he needed to cover it up. One fact in support of this is

that JonBenét was a persistent bed-wetter. This is often seen in children that are the victim of

sexual abuse (Douglas & Olshaker, 2000). John Ramsey was interviewed by the FBI profiler,

John Douglas. In the interview, Douglas noted that Ramsey did not have any of the

characteristics most often seen in pedophiles and other sexual predators. Although this is just one

man’s opinion, Douglas was very experienced in telling whether a person was putting on an act.

Patsy Ramsey

The theory that Patsy Ramsey killed her daughter seems to be the least likely with the

only exception being that she was not ruled out of having written the ransom note. The backing
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of this theory is related to JonBenét’s bed-wetting as well. The theory posits that Patsy became

enraged when JonBenét wet her bed again and hit her or pushed her into something that cause

the head trauma. Then, aiming to put her daughter out of her misery, Patsy strangled JonBenét.

Patsy then supposedly wrote the ransom note and set it up to make it look like someone else had

committed the murder (Behm, 2015). There is not much fact-based evidence to support this

theory. The possibility that Patsy wrote the ransom note is the only this that seems off, but

handwriting analysis is not an exact science.

Burke Ramsey

The theory that JonBenét’s brother, Burke, killed is also not based in fact. People that

purpose this theory are often only informed through the media. A televised interview conducted

by Dr. Phil Mcgraw with Burke is usually what people use as evidence that Burke might be the

true killer. In the interview, Burke says outright that he did not murder his sister. He goes on to

describe the day it happened, and the most notable thing people took away from it is how little

emotion he showed as he talked about his murdered sister (Helling, 2016). Dr. Phil Mcgraw

suggested that Burke is just socially awkward, but people have used this interview as

ammunition against Burke ever since.

Intruder

No theory explains the DNA found on JonBenét’s body other than the intruder theory.

Looking at the actual facts and evidence of the case, the intruder theory seems the most likely. It

is extremely compelling that experts agree with this as well. Along with John Douglas, retired

homicide detective in Colorado, Lou Smit, is one of these experts. Woodbury (1999) details

Smit’s theory. He proposed that the killer saw JonBenét in her beauty queen attire and planned to

assault her. The killer would have entered the house while the family was out having their
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Christmas dinner to write the ransom note and hide until the family returned. After everyone was

asleep, he subdued JonBenét in her bedroom, put tape over her mouth, and brought her to the

basement where he sexually assaulted her whilst choking her. Smit theorizes that JonBenét woke

up and ripped the tape from her mouth to scream for help. That is when the killer would have

panicked and hit her with something, causing the trauma to her head. The killer then would have

fled out the broken window in the basement. Lou Smit is adamant that the Ramseys are

completely innocent (Woodbury et al., 1999).

The other mentionable thing surrounding the intruder theory is the false confession given

by John Mark Karr in 2006. Karr seemingly confessed to get himself extradited back to the

United States in order to get himself out of trouble he had gotten into in Thailand. DNA tests

quickly ruled him out as a suspect (Moffa & Platania, 2008).

Aftermath and Impact

The somewhat hidden takeaway from this case is in the way this specific case has been

sensationalized by the media. Thousands of children are murdered every year, but this case is

about a blonde, blue-eyed, white, wealthy beauty queen. Cagidemetrio (2000) compares the way

JonBenét was described in the media to the way older fiction novels have portrayed and

oversexualized children. The media chose to print the pictures of JonBenét that amplified her life

as a beauty queen when there were plenty of pictures of her with natural hair, teeth, and clothing.

Conrad (1999) explains that America’s fascination with an oversexualized child has dark

connotations about America itself. Even if it is happening subconsciously, the American

population seems to be drawn more to the story of JonBenét’s murder than to a possible similar

scenario of a victim that was poor and a person of color. JonBenét’s murder has inspired
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countless documentaries, message boards, and websites dedicated to solving the crime. The same

cannot be said for the murdered children of color that fall below the poverty line.

The other, perhaps not as dark, impact this case has had is the lessons learned from the

mistakes made early on in the investigation. Not only were there procedural mistakes made by

the officers at the scene, but the press was allowed to print misleading evidence that supported

whatever story they wanted to tell. For example, multiple publications claimed there was no

forced entry. This was technically true and supported the theory that it was someone inside the

house, but officials have since explained that a door and at least three windows were either open

or unlocked the night of the murder (Glick et al., 1998). This is just one instance of the media

only presenting things that made for the best story. The hope is that both the police and the press

can learn from their mistakes and be better in the future.

Summary

In summation, the murder of JonBenét Ramsey is one that baffles minds everywhere. The

case is one that has been talked about in the media since the day the murder occurred. It may

never be definitively solved but based on the collected evidence and opinions from experts, an

intruder seems to be the most likely perpetrator. This may not be the most headline worthy

explanation as one that claims the Ramsey family worked together to murder their daughter and

sister, but that is not what matters. What matters is that an innocent six-year-old child was

murdered in cold blood and she has still not received justice almost 25 years later.
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References

Behm, S. (2015). Who killed JonBenét: An analysis of a flawed investigation and main suspects.

[Honors Thesis, Ball State University]. Cardinal Scholar.

https://cardinalscholar.bsu.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/199920/BehmThesis%20-

%20Final.pdf?sequence=3

Boulder County Government. (2008, July 09). Ramsey press release. [Press release].

https://web.archive.org/web/20080801081500/http:/www.bouldercounty.org/newsroom/t

emplates/?a=1256&z=13

Cagidemetrio, A. (2000). Dressing for sacrifice: The spectacle of the child/woman, from Little

Eva to JonBenet Ramsey. European Contributions to American Studies, 44, 363-380.

Conrad, J. (1999). Lost innocent and sacrificial delegate: The JonBenet Ramsey murder.

Childhood, 6(3), 313. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568299006003003

Douglas, J. & Olshaker, M. (2000). The cases that haunt us. Scribner.

Glick, D., Keene-Osborn, S., & Murr, A. (1998). The door the cops never opened. Newsweek,

132(2), 32.

Helling, S. (2016). The Jonbenet Ramsey case what does her brother know? People, 86(14), 65.

Moffa, M. S. & Platania, J. (2008). From obsession to confession: A false confession paradigm

in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 4(2), 228-

242.

Woodbury, R., Shapiro, J., August, M., Barovick, H., Castronovo, V., Cooper, M., Gray, T.,

Kluger, J., Levy, D., Lofaro, L., Philadelphia, D., & Taylor, C. (1999). Did an intruder

kill JonBenet Ramsey? TIME Magazine, 154(17), 43.