The Case That Shocked The World

This is surely a case that a lot of people know about and although millions might know it, no one knows what really happened on the night of December 25, 1996.

It is said that John and Patsy Ramsey awoke early on December 26, 1996, to find their daughter, JonBenét Ramsey, missing. Before we get into the details of what might or might not have happened, let's dive into the beginning.

Patsy Ramsey, born December 29, 1956- June 24, 2006, as Patricia Ann Paugh, participated in and won many pageants, including Miss West Virginia, where she took home first place. John Bennet Ramsey, born December 7, 1943, was the CEO of a computer services company named ‘Advanced Product Group'. John was married once before to Lucinda Pasch, where he had three children, John Andrew Ramsey, Elizabeth Pasch Ramsey, and Melinda Ramsey.

John, 37, and Patsy, 23, met in Atlanta in 1980, where they had dated for a few months before getting married. In 1987, John and Patsy had a son, Burke Ramsey. Then, in 1990, Patsy gave birth to JonBenét Ramsey, who was named after her father John Bennet. In 1991, they moved from Atlanta to Boulder, Colorado.

Let's get back to December 26, 1996. There were a lot of things with this case that didn't quite make sense, which sent many people, including myself, into a ray of conspiracy theories.

Let's start with the ransom note. Patsy and John woke up early to start packing for a trip when the note was found. It was left on the stairs, which sounded strange to me, demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet. Now, $118,000 doesn't really sound all too strange except when you throw in the fact that was the exact amount John had gotten as a bonus earlier that year. So that threw into my head, whoever did this, had to have known John personally.

Now, let's move into when Patsy called the police. Of course, they show up, but they found no signs of forced entry, which again furthers my theory that whoever had done this knew the Ramseys and knew Ramsey's house.

But, now I'm no cop, but from watching a bunch of crime shows, I know the saying, leave no rock unturned, leave no door closed. So now tell me why the police searched everywhere but the basement. From watching documentaries, there's a key fact that blew every theory I had out of the water! In the basement, was a door left closed that led to a back room, I believe. Now if they had searched the room, they would've found JonBenét that morning!

Now, let's move on to the many, MANY mistakes that were made during the investigation.

The only part of the house that was closed off was JonBenét's room. The rest of the house, family, and friends of the Ramseys were allowed to roam. This 100% completely destroyed evidence. I wanna know why, if this was a potential kidnapping because at this time they hadn't found her yet, why would you let people walk around the crime scene?

Another thing is they didn't interview the parents right away and they shared every piece of evidence with the Ramseys. Now again, I'm not a cop, but tell me, isn't that strange?

Okay, this piece of information really made me so confused. At 1:00 P.M., mind you, I believe the cops showed up around 6:00 A.M, the detectives told John and a family friend to go look around the house and see if anything was missing. The first place they go to is in the basement. Now I find that strange because it almost seemed as if, quite quickly, he found his daughter's body.

The one thing that potentially ruined the entire investigation, was when John Ramsey picked up his daughter's body and brought her upstairs, destroying all possible evidence left behind where her body was found.

Now, I want to throw it out there, I do not blame John for doing what he did. He was hurt and upset and most likely was not thinking straight.

Let's fast forward a little while to the autopsy. Now, this autopsy is something that haunts me, to this day. Whoever did this to that poor 6-year-old girl, is a terribly sick individual.

The Autopsy showed that JonBenét Ramsey had passed away from asphyxiation due to strangulation, in addition to that, she had a skull fracture from a blow to the head.

Her mouth was covered in duct tape and her wrists and neck were wrapped with a white cord. Her torso had been covered in a white blanket. A sexual assault occurred, although there was no conclusive evidence of a rape. There was no semen and her vagina looked as though it was wiped clean. The makeshift garrote, which is a weapon usually made of chain, rope, scarf, wire, or fishing line, and it's usually used to strangle someone, was made using a cord and part of a paintbrush. The coroner also found pineapple in her stomach, although her parents do not remember giving her any the night she died, there was a bowl of it in the kitchen that had her 9-year-old brother, Burkes, fingerprints on it.

The Ramseys had said Burke was in his room all night, and no evidence was given to prove they were lying, but how did they know that? The way the house was set up there is no logical way they would've known he was in his room the entire night. Now, I'm not blaming Burke, I'm just saying things don't make sense.

Besides that, with this case came A LOT of theories as to what could've happened. But the two main ones are the family theory and the intruder theory.

In a case like this, it's always known that the investigator would focus mainly on the family of the victim. There were many reasons the police heavily looked into the Ramsey family. For one, going back to the ransom note they said it seemed staged. How it was unusually long and it was written with pen and paper from the Ramsey house.

Also, it was very strange how the Ramseys were reluctant to cooperate because they feared the police wouldn't do a full investigation and just name them as the main suspects. I get fully where the Ramseys were coming from but in a case where your daughter was murdered in your house and you don't really cooperate with the police, that looks really bad.

But when the police had the immediate family members submit handwriting samples to the police so it could be compared to the ransom note, John and Burke were cleared of any suspicion. Patsy, however, could not be conclusively cleared. Which again, made a lot of people think, she might have had something to do with her daughter's death.

Now onto the intruder theory.

This is a theory that has a lot of physical evidence.

For example, there was a boot print found next to where JonBenét's body was found. The boot print did not belong to anyone in the family.

There was a broken window in the basement which could've been the point of entry for the intruder. It also could've been where they would've attempted to take JonBenét out of the house.

Also, there was DNA evidence!

On her underwear was a single drop of blood from an unknown male. But in 2010, when the case was reopened, further testing of the DNA samples now shows that the blood sample found on her underwear that night is from two individuals!

“There is evidence of an intruder. I say this over and over again. Nobody wants to listen. There is absolutely no motive for the Ramseys to do it." This was a quote from veteran cop Lou Smit in the documentary JonBenét: What Really Happened.

Going off of this quote I wanted to talk about when District Attorney Mary Lacy took over the case in 2006. Investigators were able to create a DNA profile from touch, DNA left behind by skin cells. That specific DNA was found on the long johns she was wearing the night of her murder.

In 2008, Mary Lacy released a statement exonerating the Ramsey family.

“The Boulder District Attorney’s office does not consider any members of the Ramsey family, including John, Patsy, or Burke Ramsey, as suspects in the case.”

When researching this information, for me, this was crazy to hear. In the back of my mind, I had always thought that maybe the family had something to do with it or at least that they knew who did it. Even if, by chance, they do know who did it, DNA evidence does not lie.

Going off the research I had done, the name John Karr came up quite a bit.

John Karr was a suspect who, in 2006, was arrested when he claimed to have murdered JonBenét. He went off on this whole story and claimed that he had drugged and sexually assaulted her and that it was a complete accident. But ultimately, he was eventually released because there were no drugs found in JonBenét's system and his DNA did not match the DNA found at the scene.

This struck me as very strange because why would a random person admit to such a gruesome crime like this? But it got me to thinking and it always seems to go back to my main theory which is that maybe the family knew who did it and possibly whoever had actually done it paid off Karr to try and convince the police that it was him so the case would be closed. But again this is just my theory and I'm not accusing anyone of anything.

This is a case that, to this day, still remains open and unsolved. All anyone really has to go on is the information we are all given from documentaries, the internet, and the never-ending conspiracy theories that have formed.