THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF JONNBENÉT

Christmas…a lovely time for friends and family to come together to enjoy. Isn’t it? And just like everyone else, the Ramsey’s threw a party, a lot of people came over to their house. But this Christmas won’t be the Christmas they expected. 

CASE OF JONNBENÉT RAMSEY

On 26th December 1996, at about 5:52 am, a distressed mother, Patsy Ramsey, called the police and claimed that her daughter, JonBenét Ramsey, then 6 years old, had gone missing. A ransom note was found by Patsy on the stairs a few moments ago. 

In about less than 8 hours, JonBenét was found, but it was unsettling. Her father, John Ramsey, discovered her dead body in the utility room in the house’s basement. She died due to strangling by a smooth wire cord. There was also a wound on her head. But the biggest clue found on the scene was DNA found in her underwear and two sets of footprints. Let’s break down the case. 

First of all, a lot of things were wrong with the ransom note. The letter was about two and a half pages long, which is just too long. I don’t think any murderer would take their time and write such a long letter. And if you take a look at the ransom amount, it’s a bit too unusual. $118,000? That 18 is just too weird. And what’s wielder is that is the exact amount John got as his Christmas bonus.

 With this, we can conclude; the suspect was either the parents or someone close enough to the Ramsey’s to know this piece of information.

And interestingly, the handwriting was, later on, said to be of Patsy’s. On autopsy, an undigested pineapple was found. And in the kitchen, there was a bowl of pineapples which had both JonBenét’s and Burke, the younger brother’s fingerprints. Another conclusion was made that JonBenét might have stolen a pineapple, and due to this act, the younger one might have hit her with the flashlight. 

And the parents somehow might have helped to cover the crime. 3 But the Ramsey’s were cleared because the DNA didn’t match theirs. Later on, three more suspects came. First was Bill McReynolds, who Patsy hired to be the Santa at the Christmas Party.

The second was Gary Oliva. He was also carrying the little girl’s photo in his bag and was already held in prison for child pornography and drugs. But again, these two were also ruled out due to the DNA not matching up. 

WHO DID IT

And the last suspect was John Mark Karr, who was labeled a suspect in 2006. Michael Tracey, a journalism professor, talking to John Mark for four years via mail, came to know about the whole truth. John Mark confessed in those emails that he had hit the little girl in the head using a flashlight. Later it was found that John Mark Karr wasn’t even in Colorado on the day the murder happened, and a lot of small details in his story didn’t match up with the crime scene. But that wasn’t all…this case still had a shocking surprise. In 2015, Dr. Henry Lee, a DNA expert, said that the DNA in the underwear wasn’t the suspects,’ but it belonged to a factory worker from where the underwear came from. And from this, everything went back to level 1, and the case still remains unsolved. What are your theories about this case?

Who do you think…killed JonBenét Ramsey?

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