Content Warning: This article touches on the topic of murder which may be triggering for some readers.
The 28-year-old cold case of the murder of JonBenét Ramsey has been thrust into the spotlight once more thanks to the new Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?
The series is helmed by Oscar nominee Joe Berlinger of Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes fame. If you’re yet to watch the series or if you’re still curious after watching Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, The Weekly has outlined the basic facts you need to know about the infamous still-unsolved case.
What happened to JonBenét Ramsey?
JonBenét Ramsey was a young American girl known for her participation in child beauty pageants.
She was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia, and lived in Boulder, Colorado, with her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, and her older brother, Burke.
Her family was well-off, and JonBenét’s pageant achievements made her a local celebrity.
Sadly, JonBenét was brutally murdered.
How old was JonBenét Ramsey when she died?
On the morning of December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note demanding USD$118,000 for the safe return of JonBenét.
She subsequently called the police and a search for the missing child began.
However, in the afternoon, John Ramsey — after being asked by detectives to thoroughly search the family home — found JonBenét’s body in the basement.
She was only six years old.
The official autopsy report ruled JonBenét’s official cause of death as “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma,” meaning she was strangled and sustained a skull fracture.
The doctors who performed the autopsy could not determine the exact time of death. She was either killed on December 25 or December 26, 1996.
Seven years later, in 2003, forensic investigators discovered DNA on the clothes JonBenét was wearing when she was murdered. It was determined that this DNA did not belong to JonBenét nor her mother, father or brother. It belonged to an unknown male.
What was unusual about the ransom note?
The ransom note, found by Patsy Ramsey on the morning of JonBenét’s disappearance, was highly unusual for several reasons:
- The note was over two-and-a-half pages long, which is atypical for ransom notes, as they are generally brief.
- The ransom amount, USD$118,000, was the same amount of money John Ramsey received as a Christmas bonus the year prior. This suggests the writer had knowledge of the family’s financial details.
- The language in the note was inconsistent. It mixed politeness with threats, and included movie-like phrases, such as, “We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction.”
- It was written using a pen and notepad from the Ramsey home. This suggests it was composed on-site which is, again, atypical for ransom notes. Also, that is suspicious as it would have taken a while to write the note without being discovered.
Who killed JonBenét Ramsey?
No one has ever been charged with the murder of JonBenét.
The case has never been solved likely because the initial investigation was bungled in several ways.
For starters, the forensics team only cordoned off JonBenét’s bedroom as they originally thought she’d been kidnapped.
Then family and friends gathered at the Ramsey house in a show of support and some of these people cleaned part of the Ramsey house to be helpful, inadvertently contaminating potential crime scenes.
And finally, when John Ramsey found his daughter’s body in the basement, he picked her up and brought her upstairs, completely contaminating the scene.
Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? is now streaming on Netflix Australia.
