JonBenét Ramsey Murder

On the day after Christmas in 1996 JonBenét Ramsey was reported missing by her parents John Bennet and Patsy Ramsey seemingly kidnapped from their Boulder, Colorado home. Upon arrival 3 minutes after the 911 call, Patsy presented detectives with a two-and-a-half-page ransom note she had found demanding a reward in exchange for JonBenét’s safe return. Police performed a cursory search of the home but found no sign of forced entry. At 1 PM after securing the ransom, John Ramsay was asked by police to ensure that nothing in the home was a miss. Accompanied by family friend, Fleet White Jr., John searched the home. In the basement behind a latched door, the pair found JonBenét’s dead body.

Background

At the time of her death, JonBenét Ramsey was six years old. She was known throughout the children’s beauty pageant industry as the winner of titles such as America’s Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, and Little Miss Colorado. She was enrolled in the advanced program for kindergarten at High Peaks Elementary School. Her teachers described her as thoughtful, courteous, and respectful and said her maturity provided a great example for other students. JonBenét’s older half-brother, John Andrew, described her as a tomboy who followed her brother Burke around. She and Burke assisted their mother in entertaining, particularly during the Boulder Christmas Tour of their home which attracted 1,500 – 2,000 guests annually. When the media circulated allegations of sexual abuse suggested by her bed-wetting and later autopsies, her pediatrician Dr. Francesco Beuf denied reports insisting she was a loved child. However, he did concede that she reported pain while urinating which he thought was from poor bathroom hygiene.

Facts of the Case

Autopsy

When her body was found JonBenét’s mouth was covered by duct tape which her father removed. The duct tape was found to have beaver hair not found within the defendants’ home. She was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and long white underwear. John Bennet reports that when he found his daughter, she was covered by a blanket and a Colorado Avalanche hockey team sweatshirt. In the blanket, a single Caucasian public hair was found not belonging to any of the Ramsey family members.

Coroners determined her cause of death to be strangulation by asphyxiation; her vagus nerve was pinched by a garrote made from a broken paintbrush belonging to Patsy Ramsey that was kept in the wine cellar in the basement. The garrote contained trace amounts of blood, urine, and fibers from Patsy’s jacket. JonBenét’s pony-tailed hair was also tangled in the garrote suggesting that it was made in JonBenét’s presence. Her skull was cracked and there were stun gun injuries below her right ear and on her lower back. There was also temporal lobe bruising which suggests that someone tried to shake her to regain consciousness. Coroners struggled to establish a time of death, using different methodologies. They estimate it to be between 10 PM and 2 AM, but closer to midnight than 2 AM.

JonBenét had been sexually assaulted with some forensic scientists believing a previous wound was retraumatize suggesting she was sexually assaulted previously. Her genitalia contained silica, suggesting her assailant used lubricated gloves or materials. However, there were no white blood cells found, suggesting she died less than an hour after her assault. Her stomach contained undigested pineapple in her upper intestines above the cracked crab she ate for Christmas dinner the previous night. The placement suggests she ate it 2 hours before she died however this timing is very imprecise.

Crime Scene

It is difficult to give much detail as the crime scene was compromised early in the investigation. There were no footprints found in the snow outside of the Ramsey home; however, there were faint pry marks on the exterior of the rear kitchen door. The narrow basement window was broken and there was a suitcase placed below it. In the kitchen nook, there was a bowl of pineapple and milk with Patsy’s fingerprints on the spoon.

Ransom Note

The ransom note was addressed only to John Bennet Ramsay and said it was authored by “members of a small foreign faction” who did not mind Mr. Ramsay but hated his company. The note was contradictory, containing misspellings of common words in the first paragraph like “business” but using more complex words like “attaché.” The note also asks for a specific amount: $118,000. This was the same amount that John Bennet had received as bonus shortly before Christmas.

The materials used to pen the letter were a legal pad from Patsy’s office and a Sharpie pen borrowed from and returned to its place in the kitchen beside the phone. The note was placed on the back stairwell. Independent graphologists have had differing levels of success matching the letter to Patsy Ramsey because of the imprecise nib of the Sharpie pen used.

Theories

Family

A possible theory is that John Bennet and Patsy Ramsey were responsible considering Patsy’s belongings were heavily used in the crimes. Fleet White searched the basement somewhere between 6-7 AM and did not find Jon-Benét’s body granted he had not turned on the lights. However, when the body was later found, Detective Arndt noted the stench of the decomposition. John Bennet left the home between 10:30 AM and 12 PM to go for the mail. An hour after his daughter’s body was found, John Bennet attempted to take his private jet to Atlanta.

Santa

Another more tenuous theory involves Bill McReynolds who played Santa at the Christmas party JonBenét attended every year. She gave him a vial of glitter which he requested be mixed in his ashes upon his death. He also had a 9-year-old abducted under mysterious circumstances. McReynolds’ DNA did not match any of the DNA at the scene.

The Colorado Police Department is still investigating JonBenét Ramsey's murder.

This draft is a reasonably accurate capsule summary of some of the material about an old murder. The way to improve the draft is to use the factual material to say something of your own, of which there is nothing in this draft. You could reduce your summary by using the references as actual links in the text, so that the reader could get the facts you need for whatever you're going to say out of your text, and drill down as far as they want by following your links. But the point of the essay, what idea the case generated for you and how the reader might think about that idea would be the real topic of the next draft.

Sources:
Burke Ramsey Defamation Suit
Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime
Dr. Cyril Wecht, Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? (Electronic edition, 2016)
Last Podcast on the Left Ep 167, Ep 168
My Favorite Murder, Ep. 1: JonBenét Ramsey
Ransom Note
Time Magazine, 25 Years Later, the Murder of JonBenet Ramsey Remains Unsolved—and Issues It Highlighted Persist

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-- NereeseWatson - 22 Apr 2022