We all love a good murder mystery don’t we? At least I do, provided I am not the one looking down the barrel of a gun and the victim is not an innocent child. Unfortunately, in this world, children also fall prey to murder most foul. A few posts back, I lightly touched on the terribly tragic JonBenet Ramsey murder that occurred in Boulder, Colorado on Christmas night ’96. I would like to expand on this and put in my 2 cents. I read every book on this cold, cold case that crosses my path and the more I delve into it there are more questions than answers. Let’s set the stage shall we?
On the morning of December 26th, 1996 JonBenet Ramsey was lying dead under the Christmas tree she had unwrapped gifts under just a day before. What could possibly have transpired in 24 hours to lead to this tragic turn of events? The world may never know. Just like in the Jack the Ripper case, there are many, many theories – too many to go into all of them. I will name just a few.
The Ramsey’s had gone to a party on the night of the 25th and JohnBenet had gone to sleep in the car. I remember the parents saying she had to be carried in and put to bed but her brother Burke said she walked in the house herself. This doesn’t seem important, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. I just like to report inconsistencies. Being human, we sometimes forget things but more often, it’s a red flag. The parents say she was put to bed and that was the last time they saw her alive. She was wearing a red turtleneck that night but in the morning she was wearing a white shirt with a sparkly star on it. It is possible that her clothes were changed while she was asleep. I will give them that.
Supposedly, all was quiet in the Ramsey household on the night of the 25th since they had planned to get up very early to fly to Michigan where they had a vacation home. These people were definitely the 1%. Anyways, the mother Patsy gets up a little after 5am and heads down the back stairs to the kitchen. On her way, she spots some sheets of paper on the end of the stairwell. She picks them up and reads them, realizes it’s a ransom note sating that “a small foreign faction” has her daughter. She then runs to JonBenet’s room where she is missing. In one account, she rushes to her daughter’s room to find her missing, runs down the stairs to find the letter. Which is it? Despite which is really true, if either, it would be any parent’s worst nightmare to find their child not safely tucked in bed where they are supposed to be. Patsy rushes to to call 911 at 5:25 am where she pleads for help.
Let’s talk about the ransom letter, the biggest piece of evidence there is. Here it is in all it’s 2 1/2 page glory. The length of the letter is remarkable in that nobody wanting to break in and kidnap a person for ransom would stick around longer than necessary. If it was really a kidnapping they would want to name their price on a piece of paper and get the hell out. Seeing that the letter is almost 3 pages in length lets you know that the author of the note felt comfortable enough in the house and was not afraid of being caught. The letter also leads us to believe that there is more than one person which I do believe. I don’t, however, believe it was a foreign faction. The writer states that they want $118,000 in exchange for JonBenet. $118,000 happens to be the exact amount of John Ramsey’s bonus that year. Coincidence? I think not. The letter also states that if the police were contacted, she would die. Strangely enough, that was the first thing done. They gave many criteria to meet and if not followed, she would be beheaded. My guess is that she that the writer knew the child was already dead. They also said they would call between 8 and 10 am to arrange for the exchange. I just wanted to touch on it’s importance but not really get into the note in this post since it could take up a few pages itself.
The police arrived 7 minutes later and that’s when eveything went to hell in a handbasket. Dumb ass move #1 – The crime scene was not secured. Friends and family came flooding in contaminating any evidence. The police say John and Patsy were in seperate rooms and did not interact, leading to the assumption that they were divorced. I find that odd. When the police searched the house the came to a cellar door that was jammed but instead of trying to open it, they just let it be. I may not be a detective but I think that would pique my interest right there. I would have made sure that door was opened one way or another.
The window of time specified by the ‘kidnapper’ came and went and nobody seemed fazed in the slightest. Odd? I think so. I also think it’s odd that Mr. Ramsey was given free reign to check his mail and do as he pleased, like calling for his plane to be ready so they could fly outta there which didn’t happen, by the way. At any rate, the Ramseys were lawyered up that morning. In an effort to keep things under control until she could get some backup, Detective Linda Arndt made a big no-no by telling John and his friend Fleet White to search the house. They started in the basement and it seems John went directly to the body that was in the room with the jammed door. Odd? No doubt.
She was brought up and her body placed under the Christmas tree where she had lovingly spent time with her family the day before. Here’s where this sad story ends for JonBenet. This, however, is only the beginning of the investigation about to unfold. Stay tuned for Part 2.
However, those things do not prove to me that the murder was committed by a member of the Ramsey family. It could have been someone who knew John Ramsey personally, such as: a family member outside of the house, a so called ‘friend’, or even someone who worked with Mr. Ramsey and held a grudge against him. Someone who would know how much his bonus was, called Mr. Ramsey, “John” 3 times in the letter as if he knew him on a personal basis (incl. some snide comments on his character), had been in the house before, and knew he and his family would be gone on Christmas night, then entered the home while they were out and waited. While he/whomever waited, he found the notepad and pen and calmly wrote the lie based (to distract and deter) ransom note before they got home. Perhaps, as police have speculated, the intent and plan was a kidnapping that went horribly awry. What about the DNA evidence of an unknown person on JonBenets clothes? It did not match up with any of the Ramsey family members. The evidence does not add up.
It’s possible their son did it and they were covering for him. I don’t doubt for a minute the person who wrote it knew him. Patsy was never excluded as the author of the letter. I remember some experts saying the writer wrote it with their left hand to disguise themselves but you never really can. Most handwriting experts agree Patsy wrote it. I believe someone told her what to write. I read that the DNA could have come from a factory worker. Imagine being implicated in a murder just because you assembled the underwear.
Handwriting ‘experts’ disagree on whether she wrote it or not; some believed she did, some not.
We will never know for sure but the experts that were hired by the Ramseys don’t hold much water.