07/02/03                                                                                                                     Grade: A

Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?

Sometime during Christmas night, 1996 JonBenet Ramsey was murdered. The question today still remains on who did it and why? From the day when JonBenet was found dead in the basement of her home in Boulder Colorado, the Boulder police and a large proportion of the world's media believed that her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were responsible for her death. Prior to the murder of their daughter, John and Patsy Ramsey's life seemed almost ideal.  Patsy, a former beauty queen, was married to a successful businessman. They had moved to Boulder in 1991 where John ran a computer company that had started in his garage. The Ramsey's readily adapted to their new life in Colorado and made several new friends. They built a large house in the suburbs, and entertained often. Their last party in Boulder, just three days before the murder, was particularly happy. Over a hundred guests were present at a Christmas function as the Ramsey's had good reason to celebrate. Patsy had warded off cancer and John had been voted Boulder's "businessman of the year."           

According to the Ramsey's testimony, they drove home the few blocks from a party at a friend's house on Christmas night. JonBenet had fallen asleep in the car so they carried her upstairs to her room and put her to bed at 9:30 p.m. Shortly after, Patsy and John went to bed as they planned to get up early to prepare for a trip to their holiday home on Lake Michigan. The next day, Patsy woke just after 5:00 am and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. At the foot of the staircase, she found a two-and-a-half page ransom note that said that JonBenet had been kidnapped by a "small local faction" and was being held for a ransom of $118,000. She was to be exchanged for the money later the same day. The letter warned that if the money were not delivered, the child would be beheaded. Patsy yelled to John as she ran back up the stairs and opened the door to JonBenet's room. Finding she wasn't there they made the decision to phone the police. The 911 dispatcher recorded Patsy's call at 5:25 am. The police arrived at the house 7 minutes later. The uniformed police officers that attended were openly suspicious from the start. The Ramsey’s, treating the demand seriously, were already taking steps to raise the ransom. The note said that the kidnappers would call John Ramsey between 8-10 am but no call came. It was while the police were waiting for the call that they made several critical mistakes. They did not conduct a proper search of the house, the area was not sealed off and friends were allowed to walk in and out at their leisure. No moves were made to protect any forensic evidence. The scale of their mistakes became apparent later that afternoon when a detective asked Fleet White, a friend of the Ramsey’s, to take John and search the house for "anything unusual." They started in the basement. In the boiler room, the Boulder Police Department along with John Ramsey found JonBenet Ramsey unconscious wrapped up in her own white blanket. Around her neck was a cord that was used to strangle her which ultimately led to her death. When Mr. Ramsey found JonBenet he ran and picked her up and carried upstairs, while her body stiff and cold, laid limp showing signs that she had been dead for some time.                                                                                                                                           While the Ramsey’s went to stay with friends, their home became a major crime scene. Being the only murder in Boulder that year, the investigating police had little experience in that type of crime, with very few of them having conducted a murder investigation at all. Regardless, they immediately assumed the Ramsey’s were guilty. The fact that JonBenet had been found in her own home by her father was considered highly suspicious. By the time her body had been taken from the house that evening, some of their suspicions had been passed to a local journalist. On December 27, the "Rocky Mountain News”" quoted an Assistant District Attorney as saying, "It was very unusual for a kidnap victim's body to be found at home - it's not adding up." According to Charlie Brennan, the journalist who wrote the story, the police had also indicated to him that they held a strong belief that the parents were responsible. Julie Hayden, a television reporter for Denver's Channel 7, also covered the story on the same day and drew the same conclusion. She later explained that from her first exposure to the case, the police had made it very clear that they were not scouring the area looking for "some mad kidnapper" but instead, concentrating their efforts on John and Patsy Ramsey. From that day on, a clear pattern emerged in the coverage of the case. While police chief, Tom Koby, made little comment, reporters had their own sources, which tended to implicit the Ramsey’s. From that day on, a clear pattern emerged in the coverage of the case.    

                                              By December 28, various local news sources made it clear to their readers that the Ramsey’s were the principal suspects in the case. While the police made few comments regarding any evidence they had to implicate the parents, the media began to cite their own "evidence." The first "clue" they focused on was the supposed lack of footprints in the snow surrounding the house, which suggested that someone inside was responsible. Later the media admitted that this opinion was based on an official report from a policeman at the scene who noted: "Strange, no footprints." The next item was also gleaned from a police report. It stated that there were allegedly no signs of forced entry. The police report noted that there were a number of open windows and at least one open door; therefore an intruder would not need to break in. One possible point of entry was the basement window. Not only was it easily accessible via a ground level lift-out grille, it had been broken sometime before Christmas and could not be secured. These facts, although well documented by the police, did not come to public attention until a year after the event. The reality of this situation is that an intruder could have easily entered the house through the basement window and moved around the house virtually undetected and unheard. JonBenet's bedroom is one floor below her parents' room, a total distance of 55 feet of walkways, covered by thick carpeting, making it ideal for a soundless approach. Furthermore there is no hidden room. A carpeted spiral staircase, a few feet from her room, leads down to the kitchen. From the kitchen, it is only a few steps to the door that leads to the basement stairs. At the bottom of the stairs is a short corridor that leads directly to the room where her body was found.                                  

JonBenet's funeral took place on New Year's Eve 1996, at her parents' family church in Atlanta. That day, the family had to shield the Ramsey’s from the growing hostility that the media coverage had created. Even as they buried their daughter, a new story emerged that revealed that John and Patsy had hired several criminal lawyers. Although Mike Bynum hired the attorneys, it was seen as another indication of the parents' guilt. Alarmed by the mounting criticism, Bynum and members of the family urged the Ramsey’s to go on television and defend themselves. The following day they appeared on CNN.

When the Ramsey’s returned to Boulder to assist in the police investigation, they had no idea that worse was still to come. They moved in with friends where they were besieged by the media who added a third element to the case against them. News stories appeared reporting that the police believed that JonBenet had been sexually assaulted prior to the time of her murder. The televising of footage from JonBenet's beauty pageants and the suggestion that the Ramsey’s might have sexually abused their daughter brought over 300 journalists to Boulder. Soon after, the story exploded. The Ramsey’s desire to cooperate with the police did not last long. Their attitude towards them changed dramatically when they got back to Boulder and learned from Mike Bynum that the previous week, the police had refused to release JonBenet's body until John and Patsy agreed to be interrogated. Even though Bynum had been successful in having the body released in time for the funeral, the police continued to press for additional interviews. After hearing this, John and Patsy Ramsey finally realized that the police, to use John's words "Weren't there to help us, they were there to hang us." They became very suspicious and untrusting of the police and made further moves to defend themselves.

There are two main theories on who killed JonBenet Ramsey if her parents are pleading innocent. The first is that an unknown assailant who entered the house, presumably via the basement window murdered JonBenet. JonBenet was found lying in the middle of the basement floor wrapped in a blanket. She had duct tape across her mouth. She lay with her arms above her head and a white cord was wrapped tightly around her neck. At the time of her death, JonBenet was wearing a sweatshirt over a long sleeve shirt. A red heart was drawn on the palm of her left hand. Around her neck was a gold chain with a single gold cross attached. The evidence suggests that either someone took the girl from her bedroom by force, or lured her to the kitchen with the promise of food, which would explain the undigested remnants of pineapple found in her stomach at the time of her death. She was then taken to the basement, had tape placed over her mouth and bound with the nylon cord. Then JonBenet was sexually assaulted after which she was strangled with the garrote and bashed about the head. If this theory is correct the killer or killers would have to be familiar with the layout of the house, know the Ramsey’s personally enough to know to that they were capable of exchanging $118,000 for their daughter’s safe return. The killers would have also been confident enough to know that they could write a ransom note without being caught while committing the offence. The theory also suggests that JonBenet knew her killer, and that the killer could have come from a small circle of friends that JonBenet knew including her family, and close relatives.

The evidence observed by the police at the crime scene strongly suggests that the attack came from someone outside of the house. A footprint was found in the concrete dust of the wine cellar by a Hi-Tec stamping hiking boot. The boot has not been connected to any of the Ramsey’s or the 400 people or more that have been to the Ramsey’s household. An unidentified palm print was found on the door of the wine cellar. It does not belong to any of the Ramsey’s. Pubic Hair was found on the blanket that was wrapped around JonBenet, which also does not belong to any of the Ramsey’s. The duct tape that was wrapped over JonBenet’s mouth and the cord that was used in the murder were not found in the Ramsey’s house. The intruder must have brought them in and taken the items while exiting. The list of suspects could be enormous and one theory suggest that since the Ramsey’s gave numerous people a key to their home anyone with a key could have entered the home that evening. If this were true why would the intruder bother to break a window in the basement, why wouldn’t they just enter through the doorway?

A basic method of homicide investigations is to draw up a list of possible suspects and concentrate on eliminating them, either by comparison with physical evidence or by checking their whereabouts at the time of the offence. Using this method, the investigative body does not become sidetracked by suspects who "seem" suitable at the time. By using this process of elimination, the list of suspects is narrowed considerably. The only draw back with this method is that in a case like that of JonBenet Ramsey, the large number of suspects would take a great deal of time to examine in the necessary detail, even with a large task force.

A factor to consider is the time that JonBenet died. The normal body temperature of a human is 98.6 degrees F. The body gradually cools after death and the rate of cooling is determined by the ambient temperature around the body, the victim's body size and clothing. Body heat dissipates from a deceased person at approximately 1.5 degrees per hour, but will often vary according to the temperature in the room, and age and gender of the victim. The rate of advancement of rigor mortis is another method used to determine time of death. Rigor mortis is the stiffening of the muscles caused by chemical changes in the muscle tissue after death. The onset of rigor mortis normally begins within 2 to 4 hours after death and takes between 6 to 12 hours for the entire body to be affected. Normally after 24-36 hours after death, the affects of rigor mortis have dissipated. According to the police report, JonBenet was last seen alive at approximately 10:00 p.m. on December 25, 1996. John Ramsey, in company with Fleet White, found JonBenet dead in the basement at approximately 1:05 p.m. on December 26, 1996. When police first sighted the body, they observed that the body was affected by advanced rigor mortis. Rigor mortis is known to spread through the lesser-muscled parts of the body first and gradually spreads through the body affecting the larger body parts last. John Ramsey found JonBenet at 1:05 p.m. and her body was completely set with rigor mortis, which indicates that she had died between 10:00 p.m. on December 25 and 6:00 a.m. on December 26. The police also reported a smell of decomposition on the body. Again, the rate of decomposition depends on room temperature and the body's levels of bacteria and enzyme activity. Typically, for every ten-degree increase in room temperature, the rate of decomposition is doubled. For the odor of decomposition to be detected by the police, JonBenet would have had to die near the beginning of the estimated time frame. If that were the case, the perpetrator would have had ample time to commit the offense, write a ransom note and escape.

Home · Links · Shopping