JonBenet Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia to John Ramsey and Patrica (Patsy) Ramsey. She was named after her father and mother. Her older brother Burke Ramsey was 9 years old at the time of her murder. JonBenet was an outgoing little girl who enjoyed being the center of attention. By the age of six, she had already won multiple beauty pageant titles, thanks to her bouncy blond hair, poised smile, and glittery costumes. Her father was a multi-millionaire businessman, and her mother was a former beauty queen (Miss West Virginia 1997). They doted on their daughter in every way they could. Their luxurious home was plush with everything JonBenet needed to live a comfortable life.
On the morning of December 26, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up and found their six-year-old missing from her bed at their home in Boulder, Colorado. They had woken up early to prepare for a trip when Patsy discovered a ransom note on the stairs demanding $118,000 for their daughter’s safe return. Despite the note saying not to involve the police, Patsy immediately called the police. The police arrived and found no signs of forced entry. The Boulder Police suspected Patsy of writing the ransom note, and that the note was staged by the parents to cover up her murder. JonBenet’s parents did several interviews but resisted police questioning except on their terms. They also gave the police inconsistent stories that made them seem guilty to the media. The ransom note was discovered to be written on paper found at their house and fiber retrieved from the duct tape found on JonBenet’s body matched the same fiber on Patsy’s clothes.
At 1:00 pm MST, Detective Arndt asked John Ramsey and Fleet White to search around the house to see if anything seemed amiss. They started their search in the basement, John opened the latch door which Officer French had overlooked, and found JonBenet’s body in one of the rooms. When he found her body, her mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was found wrapped around her wrist and neck, and her torso was covered by a blanket. John picked up her body and took her upstairs. When he moved her, the crime scene was contaminated and critical forensic evidence was disturbed for the forensics team.
During the autopsy, it was discovered that JonBenet had died from asphyxiation due to strangulation, in addition to a skull fracture. There was no evidence of rape, or semen found on her body or her private parts, although a sexual assault had occurred as her private parts appeared to have been wiped clean. There was a makeshift garret made out of nylon cord and part of a paintbrush that had been used to strangle her; part of the bristle at the end of the paintbrush was found in a tub containing Patsy’s art supplies. The autopsy revealed pineapple found in JonBenet’s stomach but her parents do not remember giving her any before her death, but there was a bowl of pineapple in the kitchen which had her nine-year-old brother’s fingerprint. But the Ramseys said that Burke slept through the entire night until he was woken up several hours later after police arrived.
Despite a large number of suspects, the media focused on JonBenet’s parents, and they spent years under the harsh light and public eye. Then in 1999, a grand Colorado jury voted to indict the Ramseys on child endangerment and obstruction of a murder investigation. However the prosecutor felt the evidence did not meet the reasonable standard and declined to prosecute, so JonBenet’s parents were never officially named as suspects of her murder. The case is still considered a cold case and remains an open investigation.
