JonBenét Ramsey

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JonBenet Ramsey
Born Jon Benet Patricia Ramsey
August 6, 1990(1990-08-06)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
Died December 25, 1996 (aged 6)
Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.
Cause of death murder by strangulation
Burial place Saint James Episcopal Cemetery
Marietta, Georgia, U.S.A.
33°57′18″N 84°33′23″W / 33.95501, -84.55637
Known for sensational Christmastime murder and ransoming
Parents Patsy and John Ramsey

JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990—December 25, 1996) was an American girl made famous by her mysterious Christmas time murder and the subsequent media coverage. She was found dead in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado, nearly eight hours after she was reported missing. The case is notable in both its longevity and the media interest it has generated in the US. After several grand jury hearings, the case is still unsolved.

The tantalizing clues of the case inspired numerous books and articles that attempt to solve the mystery. Many details of the case, including suspicions of possible family involvement, her parents' wealth, her apparently violent death, and the fact that JonBenét had frequently been entered in beauty contests, enhanced public interest in the case.

Contents

[edit] Life

JonBenét Ramsey was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but the family relocated when JonBenét was 9 months old. Her first name is a combination of her father's first and middle names, John Bennett; her middle name is that of her mother, the late Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey, who enrolled her daughter in a variety of different beauty pageants in several states. In addition, she funded some of the contests in which Ramsey was involved. Patsy Ramsey was a former beauty queen, having held the title Miss West Virginia 1977; her sister became Miss West Virginia 1980. JonBenét Ramsey held a number of child beauty contest titles, including: America's Royal Miss, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, Little Miss Charlevoix Michigan, Little Miss Merry Christmas, Little Miss Sunburst, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. John Ramsey, JonBenét's

[edit] Murder case

According to the testimony of Patsy Ramsey, on December 26, 1996, she discovered her daughter missing after finding a two and a half-page ransom note on the kitchen staircase, demanding US$118,000, which was coincidentally the exact value of a bonus John Ramsey received earlier that year. [1] Despite specific instructions in the ransom note that police and friends not be contacted, she telephoned the police and called family and friends. The local police conducted a cursory search of the house but did not find any obvious signs of a break-in or forced entry. The note suggested that the ransom collection would be monitored and JonBenét would be returned as soon as the money was obtained. John Ramsey made some arrangements for the availability of the ransom, which a friend, John Fernie, picked up that morning from a local bank.

In the afternoon of the same day, Boulder Police Detective Linda Arndt asked Fleet White, a friend of the Ramseys, to take John Ramsey and search the house for "anything unusual." John Ramsey and two of his friends started their search in the basement first. After first searching the bathroom and "train room," the two went to a "wine cellar" room where John found his daughter's body covered in a white blanket.

The results of the autopsy revealed that JonBenét was killed by strangulation and a skull fracture. A garrote made from a length of nylon cord and the handle of a paintbrush had been used to strangle her; her skull had suffered severe blunt trauma; she likely was sexually assaulted either with a finger or with a paintbrush, but there was no evidence of conventional rape. The official cause of death was asphyxia due to strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma. The bristle end of the paint brush was found in a tub of Patsy Ramsey's art supplies, but the top third never was located despite extensive searching of the house by law enforcement in subsequent days.[2] Experts noted that the construction of the garrote required a special knowledge of knots. Autopsy also revealed that the child had eaten pineapple only a few hours before the murder, of which her mother claimed to be unaware[3]. Photographs of the home, taken the day JonBenét's body was found, show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon in it. Neither Patsy nor John claim to remember putting this bowl on the table or feeding it to JonBenét[3].

[edit] Later developments

In December 2003, forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on JonBenét's underwear to establish a DNA profile.[4] The DNA belongs to an unknown male. The DNA was submitted to the FBI's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database containing more than 1.6 million DNA profiles, mainly from convicted felons. The sample has yet to find a match in the database, although it continues to be checked for partial matches on a weekly basis.[citation needed]

Later investigations also discovered that there were more than 100 burglaries in the Ramseys' neighborhood in the months before JonBenét's murder, and that 38 registered sex offenders were living within a two-mile (3 km) radius of the Ramseys' home, an area that encompasses half the population of the city of Boulder, but none of the sex offenders had any involvement in the murder.[5]

JonBenét's mother, Patsy Ramsey, died of ovarian cancer on June 24, 2006,[6] at the age of 49. She was first diagnosed in 1993, and had experienced multiple recurrences. She had a recurrence in 2003. She was aware at the time of her death that the Boulder County (Colorado) District Attorney's Office was investigating a suspect in Bangkok, Thailand. John Ramsey stated in a show that aired in early December 2006 that Patsy appeared to believe that with the implication of Karr, the killer had finally been found and would be brought to justice.

Main article: John Mark Karr

On August 16, 2006, 41-year-old John Mark Karr, a former school teacher, was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand on five-year-old child-pornography charges from Sonoma County, California. Authorities reportedly tracked him down using the Internet after he sent e-mails regarding the Ramsey case to Michael Tracey, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado.[7] Once apprehended, he confessed to being with JonBenét when she died, stating that her death was an accident. When asked if he was innocent, he responded, "No."

However, Karr's DNA did not match that found on JonBenét Ramsey's body. On August 28, 2006, prosecutors announced that no charges would be filed against him for the murder of JonBenét Ramsey.[8][9][10] In early December 2006, Department of Homeland Security officials reported that federal investigators were continuing to explore whether Karr had been a possible accomplice in the killing.

No evidence has ever come to light that placed the then-married Alabama resident Karr near Boulder, Colorado during the Christmas 1996 crime. Evidence linking Karr to the killing is highly circumstantial in nature. For instance, handwriting samples taken from Karr were said to match the ransom note. In particular, his technique for writing the letters E, T and M were described by the media as being very rare.

[edit] Defamation lawsuits

Several defamation lawsuits have ensued since JonBenét's murder. Lin Wood was the plaintiff's attorney for John and Patsy Ramsey and their son Burke, and has prosecuted defamation claims on their behalf against St. Martin's Press, Time, Inc., The Fox News Channel, American Media, Inc., Star, The Globe, Court TV and The New York Post. John and Patsy Ramsey were also sued in two separate defamation lawsuits arising from the publication of their book, The Death of Innocence, brought by two individuals named in the book as having been investigated by Boulder police as suspects in JonBenét's murder. The Ramseys were defended in those lawsuits by Lin Wood and three other Atlanta attorneys, James C. Rawls, Eric P. Schroeder, and S. Derek Bauer, who obtained dismissal of both lawsuits including an in-depth decision by U.S. District Court Judge Julie Carnes that the evidence in the murder case overwhelmingly pointed to an intruder having committed the crime.

In November 2006, Rod Westmoreland filed a defamation suit[11] against a Keith Greer, who posted a message on an Internet forum using the pseudonym "undertheradar". Greer had accused Westmoreland of participating in the kidnapping and murder.[12] Greer has defended his statement.[13]

[edit] Speculation

Case speculation by experts, media and the parents has supported different theories. For a long time, the local police supported the theory that her mother injured her child in a fit of rage after the girl had wet her bed on the same night, and then proceeded to kill her either in rage or to cover up the original injury. Another theory was that John Ramsey had been sexually abusing his daughter and murdered her as a cover. The Ramseys' son Burke, who was 9 at the time of JonBenét's death, was also targeted by speculation, and asked to testify at the grand jury hearing.[14] In 1999, the Governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, told the parents of JonBenét Ramsey to "quit hiding behind their attorneys, quit hiding behind their PR firm."[15] Police suspicions were initially concentrated almost exclusively on the members of the Ramsey family, although the girl's parents had no prior signs of aggression in the public record, nor any suspicious behavior towards their children.

The Ramseys have consistently held that the crime was committed by an intruder. They hired John E. Douglas, former head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, to examine the case. While retained by the Ramsey family, he concluded that the Ramseys were not involved in the murder. He also concluded that it was unlikely that anyone would resolve the case. He detailed his arguments in his 2001 book, The Cases That Haunt Us. Lou Smit, a seasoned detective who came out of retirement to assist Boulder authorities with the case in early 1997, originally suspected the parents, but after assessing all the evidence that had been collected, also concluded that an intruder had committed the crime.[16] While no longer an official investigator on the case, Smit continues to work on it.

With such contradictory evidence, a grand jury failed to indict the Ramseys or anyone else in the murder of JonBenét. Not long after the murder, the parents moved to a new home in Atlanta. Two of the lead investigators in the case resigned, one because he believed that the investigation had incompetently overlooked the intruder theory, and one because he believed that the investigation had failed to successfully prosecute the Ramseys.[2] There have also been accusations of a cover-up in the district attorney's office.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Police drop some potential suspects in Ramsey killing", CNN, January 21, 1997
  2. ^ a b JonBenét: Anatomy of a Cold Case - Court TV
  3. ^ a b Hickey, Eric. Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime.
  4. ^ JonBenet: DNA Rules Out Parents, Will New Evidence Lead To A Break In This Murder Case? - CBS News
  5. ^ Erin Moriarty, JonBenét: DNA Rules Out Parents, 26 March 2005.
  6. ^ JonBenét Ramsey's mother dies. MSNBC/AP (7 April 2006).
  7. ^ No Forensic Evidence Currently Links John Karr to JonBenét Murder. Crime Library (August 17, 2006).
  8. ^ No DNA match, no JonBenet charges
  9. ^ "not the source of the DNA found"
  10. ^ D.A.'s Motion to Quash Arrest Warrant
  11. ^ Man Sues Over JonBenet Murder Claim - November 9, 2006
  12. ^ JonBenet Ramsey Case Encyclopedia wiki / Legal Issues Surrounding JBR Case
  13. ^ JonBenet Ramsey Case Encyclopedia wiki / undrtheradar biosketch
  14. ^ The JonBenet Ramsey Investigation
  15. ^ Warning on JonBenet speculation
  16. ^ Rocky Mountain News article

[edit] External links