02/09/2025
THE CRIME DOCTOR SPEAKS
Saturday, February 8, 2025
THE JONBENET RAMSEY CASE – THE REST OF THE STORY
Written By: Patricia A. Grenelle, PsyD
The Case
JonBenet Ramsey was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 6, 1990. She died in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996, at the age of six, in her home. She participated in dance school and beauty pageants for young children. Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, dressed her in s*xually suggestive clothing and heavy makeup to make her appear like an adult woman who would be considered s*xually active. Ramseys were naïve about the dangers. JonBenet was a pedophile’s dream. There are reportedly two theories about her death, one a family member and the other an intruder killed her.
Patsy Ramsey reported she was kidnapped the morning of December 26, when Patsy reportedly found what appeared to be a ransom note requesting an amount that was equivalent to John Ramsey’s Christmas bonus of $118,000. The note was unusual because it was written on a notepad and with a pencil used routinely by Patsy. The police department arrived, but not before Patsy had called various friends to come over. When the police arrived, there was a house full of 18 people, with coffee and orange juice being served and someone doing the dishes.
The investigator, Linda Arndt, stayed at the family home until around two in the afternoon when a search of the house by John Ramsey produced a dead JonBenet in a basement room. She was on duty when John Ramsey found the body and brought it upstairs. She noted that when it was suggested that Ramsey search the house, he went directly to the basement room where the body was located. She felt the Ramseys were not as innocent as presumed if it was a kidnapping case. She reported that she felt threatened in the home with that many people and continued to feel that way until more police arrived on the scene. Ramsey tore the tape off of the victim’s mouth, untied her bound hands, and took the child’s body upstairs. Once it was discovered that the house was a crime scene, police cordoned it off and asked the Ramseys and their friends to leave to conduct an investigation.
The Boulder coroner’s office determined the cause of death was asphyxiation and ruled it as a homicide. It was later determined, during the autopsy, that JonBenet had been bludgeoned with something, causing her to have an eight-inch gaping wound in her head. The coroner determined that the head wound and asphyxiation occurred almost simultaneously. The evidence included a white blanket the child had been covered with, her underpants had DNA in them from a male donor which was from a source other than semen. The tape that John Ramsey tore from the child’s mouth had been thrown onto the blanket that covered her. A garotte had been used on the child’s neck and was found along with broken paint brushes from Patsy’s paint supplies.
What John Ramsey Thinks
Ramsey reveals he thinks the same perpetrator attempted another similar assault on a child from JonBenet’s dance studio in 1997, which occurred about two miles from the Ramsey home. A 12-year-old girl had been attacked in her bedroom until her mother heard voices and discovered an intruder and ran him off. He reportedly escaped through a window. It is expected that the breach was conducted in the same manner as JonBenet – that someone got into the house during the evening while they were out, then laid in wait until the early morning. It was determined that because of the size of the house, being four stories, 15 rooms, and 7000 square feet, it would be difficult for someone unknown to the residence to find the victim.
Ramsey continues to pressure the Boulder Police Department so they won’t just call it a cold case and forget about it. He feels that all the collected DNA evidence should be retested to ensure accuracy. Ramsey, who is 76, is still working because he can’t afford to retire. He now lives in a mobile home in southern Utah.
Fox True Crime Podcast
The podcast with Emily Compango as host and Tray Dowdy as a guest, who is an American television presenter, a former politician, and a former federal prosecutor, reviewed the case. They stated that John and Patsy Ramsey were indicted by the grand jury in 1999 for child abuse and obstruction of justice; however, the District Attorney, Alex Hunter, did not return it.
Tray Dowdy commented on the asphyxiation, questioning if it was s*xually motivated, and also discussed the white blanket that was laid over the body, which likely suggested that the perpetrator had some remorse or emotional connection to the victim. Tray Dowdy said, “You are more likely to die at the hands of someone who says they love you.” He stated that because of the Susan Smith case and then the Ramsey case, all of which children were killed, he left his position as District Attorney.
Lou Smit Went to His Grave Trying to Solve the Case
In March 1977, Lou Smit, a seasoned investigator, was hired by the Boulder District Attorney with the approval of the Boulder Police Department, who was determined to solve the case. He was considered a Sherlock Holmes who had solved over 150 murder investigations and one crime by identifying a single fingerprint on a window. He noted that the ransom note written on a notebook routinely used by Patsy was atypical in that it was particularly long and only asked for $118,000. Smit originally believed the Ramseys did it but changed his mind after reviewing the evidence. He discovered two marks on the photographic evidence of the body that he asserted were from a stun gun. He thinks she was incapacitated while in her bed by a stun gun and carried to the basement. Smit surmises that an intruder entered the house the evening before when Ramseys were out and waited in the home until the morning. After Smit decided the case was by an outside offender, he was vilified by the Boulder Police Department. He quit the case in September of 1988 officially but continued to investigate it on his own until his death from colon cancer in 2010.
Paula Woodward
Another investigative reporter on the case, Paula Woodward, who worked for KUSA-TV and the Denver Post and published articles in the Rocky Mountain News, stated that they found it very difficult to find friends of the couple who would talk about them or shed any light on the Ramseys as a family. Woodward has written two books on the case.
The Boulder Police Department
It’s been stated that from the moment Patsy Ramsey made the 911 call about the kidnapping, the Boulder Police Department fumbled the case. They only had one murder investigation for that year – the Ramsey death. The Boulder Police Department did not have any homicide detectives nor a section that dealt with murders.
The ransom note said if Ramseys “talked to anyone about this – even a dog,” they would behead the victim. The first policeman that arrived on the scene was black and white, and if there had been someone like the kidnappers watching the house, it would have been obvious that the police had been notified. Following Patsy’s phone call to the police, she called all her friends, who all came to the Ramsey home.
The police searched the house but did not go into the basement room with a latch on the outside because they were looking for ways for an intruder to access the house and then leave. The Boulder Police Department refused assistance from Denver who had a Homicide Division, they did not contact the FBI or attempt to obtain any help from alternate sources initially. They felt they knew who the suspects were and were ready to interview John and Patsy Ramsey for the murder. However, the Ramseys hired four attorneys five days after the murder, two to represent Patsy and two to represent John. Ramsey stated they complied with requests for DNA samples and other individual tests to examine against the evidence. But the Ramseys refused to talk to the police. At that point, they hired a public relations firm to communicate with police, which seemed like an odd way to correspond. On January 1, 1997, a day after the funeral, Ramseys did a CNN interview in which it was noted that Patsy appeared heavily medicated.
The Ramseys
Even though JonBenet was buried in Atlanta in January 1997, Ramseys orchestrated what has been called an “appearance memorial. " During this memorial, Patty wore large sunglasses throughout, was extremely cordial to everyone, and seemed to be physically protected from the public eye by individuals in attendance. The public saw this endeavor as a setup and stated that Patty’s behaviors seemed rehearsed.
DNA samples were returned on January 15, 1997, and offered no connection with the Ramseys. However, Steve Thomas, a chief investigator in the case, said, “No one is ruled out as suspects, even the Ramseys.” Steve Thomas was known to have the opinion that Patsy was implicated. He reported that Patsy changed her story about where and when the ransom note was discovered. He reportedly left his position because of the case and wrote a book about it. He believed it was the result of a bed-wetting incident during which Patsy lost her temper and hurt the child. Steve Thomas was interviewed with the Ramseys by Larry King, during which he attempted to blame Patsy for the murder.
JonBenet reportedly did have some urinary issues and was seen by doctors for the condition before her death. She supposedly had a leakage problem that her mother felt interfered with the pageant because, while on stage, she would put her hand there. Patsy was upset over that issue.
JonBenet’s mother and aunt were beauty queens, and their mother pushed them into it. Patsy reportedly pushed the child into performing and padded resume pageant entry forms with information about JonBenet knowing another language, playing a musical instrument, and wanting to be an Olympic ice-skating champion.
JonBenet was prone to accidents. She fell in a grocery store and landed on her nose. The treating physician gave her ice and popsicles for the injury. She reportedly fell again six months later, hurting her left eye. JonBenet reportedly visited the doctor eighteen times in the 24 months before her death.
The Grand Jury
Michael Kane, a Grand Jury specialist, was hired to convene a group of jurors. On September 15, 1998, twelve jurors met in Boulder and returned a verdict of child endangerment and obstruction against the Ramseys. However, it was not returned because the District Attorney did not feel there was enough evidence to make a conviction. The jury felt that Ramseys had placed the child in a situation that caused her death and failed to get her help.
Other Suspects
In February 1997, the Boulder Police Department strongly stated that they were close to arresting the perpetrator. Two days later, a Boulder resident, Michael Helgoth, committed su***de with a gun. There were rumors that he had made a taped confession of the crime. Some people believed that he had been killed to hide information about the case.
In March of 1997, John Brewer Eustice, a drifter who had kidnapped a two-year-old boy from his home, was found to have a shrine of JonBenet. However, he had a good alibi for the night in question, so he was no longer considered suspicious.
In 2006, John Mark Karr, a known s*xual offender involved in child po*******hy and obsessed with JonBenet, was arrested but released when the DNA did not match anything from the crime scene. At that point, his computer with identifying images was mysteriously lost. A few years earlier, 36-year-old Richard Bryce Thomas, a child pornographic collector living 45 minutes from Boulder, committed su***de, but the Boulder Police Department never looked at his hard drive.
On June 17, 2016, the Boulder Police Department arrested Gary Oliva, 52, for uploading graphic photographs of child po*******hy. He was a homeless, registered s*x offender who had been arrested in 2000 for ma*****na and possession of a stun gun. When arrested, he carried a photograph of the victim and a poem, “Ode to JonBenet.”
In June 2016, a Los Angeles operation called Broken Heart discovered and arrested 250 child pornographic suspects. They found one photo with a noose around the girl’s neck and a banner that read Miss Colorado. The photo was a dead ringer for JonBenet. They then discovered a photograph of JonBenet on the wall behind it.
Randy Simon was a known child photographer who reportedly moved across the state to be in the same vicinity as JonBenet. His studio contained some borderline inappropriate photos on his wall. Shortly after, he called and said, “I did not kill JonBenet.” About a year later, he was found walking down the street naked, and when picked up, he offered, “I did not kill JonBenet Ramsey.”
September 10, 2022, an individual investigator, Michael Tracy, was contacted by an unidentified person who knew the case well. He started to explain that he had killed JonBenet, that it was a love affair and an accident. He said he knew what JonBenet called her grandmother and was correct. This communication via the Internet went on for about four years. Then he requested that he be able to telephone Patsy Ramsey to apologize for killing her daughter. The arrangements were made, but the phone call never came, and Patsy Ramsey passed away.
Conclusion
People don’t like uncertainties or being in the unknown. They don’t like being in a situation in which there is a state of limited knowledge where it is impossible to describe the circumstances that occurred. They like answers. Another reason this case is so unique is because it’s the only kidnapping case in the United States in which the ransom note was in the same location as the body.
The case raises questions about human behavior, morality, and the darker aspects of life. People are often drawn to stories that describe or explore the complexity of human nature, especially when it involves crime, justice, and psychological effects. As noted by the book titles, this case has evolved into more than beauty pageants for youth and has created a focus on cyberspace and photographs of children especially. Because of the capability of manipulating photography to show a body with a different head, the existing photography has become a legal nightmare. Artificial intelligence makes this even more concerning.
Goodreads reported that at least fifteen books have been written about the JonBenet Ramsey case, including:
Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? by Charles Bosworth, 1998.
Listen Carefully: Truth & Evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey Case, by True Crime Detective Guild, 2016
JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation by Steve Thomas, Don Davis, 2010
Foreign Faction: Who Kidnapped JonBenet, A. James Kolar, 2012
Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: The Uncensored Story of the JonBenet Murder and the Grand Jury’s Search for the Truth, Lawrence Schiller, 2009
We Have Your Daughter: The Unsolved Murder of JonBenet Ramsey Twenty Years Later, Paula Woodward, 2016
The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI’s Legendary Mindhunter Unravels the Mysteries That Won’t Go Away, John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker, 2000
The Other Side of Suffering: The Father of JonBenet Ramsey Tells the Story of His Journey from Grief to Grace, John Ramsey, Marie Chapian, 2012
The Death of Innocence, John Ramsey, 2001
Presumed Guilty: An Investigation into the JonBenet Ramsey Case, the Media, and the Culture of Po*******hy, Lawrence Schiller. 1999
Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey, Charles Bosworth, Jr., 2016
Injustice: Why JonBenet Ramsey Was Murdered by a Sadistic Psychopath—Not Her Parents, Robert A. Whitson, Andrew Lou Smith, 2012
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