JonBenét Ramsey Murder Case: Evidence and Analysis

An Overview of the Case

The whole country was shocked when six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was murdered in her own home on Christmas night, 1996. Her father found her body in the basement of their home the next day, a little less than eight hours after she had been reported missing. JonBenét's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were very affluent. Her father, who had just sold his company, was the former president and CEO of Access Graphics, a computer services company John Ramsey had started in his garage. He reportedly had a net worth of $6.2 million (Maloney & O'Connor, 2003; Bardsley, 2006). JonBenét's mother, Patsy, had been Miss West Virginia of 1977. JonBenét lived with her mother, father, and nine-year-old brother Burke in a fifteen-room home in an exclusive neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado. Boulder was known to be a safe place; in fact, JonBenét's murder was the only murder in Boulder that year.

Only two days before the murder, on the 23rd of December, her parents had thrown a celebratory Christmas party. Even though they were wealthy, the Ramseys had experienced some adversity. John Ramsey's daughter Elizabeth, from his first marriage, had been killed in a car accident in 1992. Patsy had been treated for ovarian cancer during 1993 and 1994 and had temporarily lost her hair to chemotherapy. She had just found out she was free of cancer, and John Ramsey had just been named "Businessman of the Year." JonBenét was getting a new bike for Christmas. Things were going well, and an article in the Boulder Daily Camera reported the Ramseys' Christmas party as a social event. The event is mentioned here because a call was put through to 911 from someone at the party. Whoever called hung up, and when the 911 dispatcher called back, the call was picked up by the Ramseys' answering machine. Two police officers went to the Ramsey home, were assured that nothing was wrong, and left shortly thereafter.

Patsy Ramsey was known as a devout Christian and a devoted mother. She said that JonBenét was her "best friend." Her dream was that JonBenét would one day be Miss America — not an unrealistic aspiration, since Patsy herself had been a beauty queen and JonBenét was a beautiful and talented child (Bane, 1998). The little girl held several contest titles: America's Royal Miss, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, Little Miss Charlevoix Michigan, Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Merry Christmas, Little Miss Sunburst, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. JonBenét's unusual first name was a combination of her father's first and middle names, John Bennett.

On Christmas Eve, the family attended an evening Christmas service at St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder. Later that night, after JonBenét and Burke went to bed, John Ramsey retrieved the new bike from its hiding place in a neighbor's garage and placed it under the Christmas tree. Other presents for the children were brought up from the basement. On Christmas Day, the family went to their best friends' home — Fleet and Priscilla White — for Christmas dinner, where they reportedly appeared happy. On the way home, according to the parents' later testimony, both JonBenét and her brother Burke fell asleep in the car.

Exactly what time the family arrived home is uncertain. John carried his daughter up the back spiral staircase from the kitchen to her room. Her mother undressed her and tucked her in. John then helped Burke put together a toy he had received for Christmas, after which Burke went to bed. Patsy Ramsey was the last person to see JonBenét alive when she kissed her goodnight between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. John and Patsy said they both went to bed shortly thereafter because they had to get up early the next morning. They were planning to fly to Charlevoix, Michigan for a family vacation at their second home. They said they slept and "were not awakened during the night" (Maloney & O'Connor, 2003).

Early the next morning, December 26th, Patsy Ramsey stated that she found a ransom note laid across the bottom step of the spiral staircase when she came downstairs to make coffee. The family always used the back stairway when going to the bedrooms or returning. The stairway led from the kitchen upstairs, with JonBenét's room at the landing on the second floor and the parents' room on the third floor. The note was two and a half pages long (three sheets) and read:

Mr. Ramsey, Listen Carefully!

We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We do respect your bussiness (sic) but not the country that it serves. At this time we have your daughter in our possession (sic). She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter.

The Evidence

You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get home you will put the money in a brown paper bag. I will call you between 8 and 10 am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence a (sic) earlier pick-up of your daughter.

Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them. Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as police, F.B.I., etc. will result in your daughter being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You will be scanned for electronic devices and if any are found, she dies. You can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to outsmart us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back. You and your family are under constant scrutiny as well as the authorities. Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It is up to you now John!

Victory! S.B.T.C.

(Ransom note cited in Maloney & O'Connor, 2003)

Patsy Ramsey called the police at 5:45 a.m. Officers Karl Veitch and Rick French arrived within seven minutes and made a cursory search of the fifteen-room house but noted nothing unusual. They found no footprints or obvious signs of forced entry. Detective Linda Arndt arrived at 8:00 a.m. Patsy also called her family, the Whites, John Fernie and his wife, Patsy's close friend Barbara, the family doctor, and the minister from their church. By the time Detective Arndt arrived, they were all there (Maloney & O'Connor, 2003; Bardsley, 2006).

John Ramsey made arrangements with the bank to obtain the ransom money, and his friend John Fernie picked it up later in the morning (Maloney & O'Connor, 2003). Boulder Police Detective Linda Arndt stayed and waited with the family for the ransom call; however, the call never came. At about 1:00 p.m., Detective Arndt asked John Ramsey to search the house for "anything unusual." John and his best friend Fleet White started in the basement — first the bathroom and "train room," then the wine cellar room (which was not used for wine). There they found JonBenét's body under a white blanket. Fleet White ran upstairs and shouted to call an ambulance. According to the search warrant affidavit filed that day, "Detective Arndt ran to the front of the house, where the door leading to the basement stairs is. John Ramsey was carrying a young girl in his arms. Both arms of the girl were raised above her head. There appeared to be a string hanging from the girl's right wrist. The girl's lips were blue; she appeared to have livor mortis on her back side of her body; she had rigor mortis; she was not breathing" (cited in Maloney & O'Connor, 2003). Witnesses reported a noticeable odor of decay and dried mucus on one of her nostrils. The child was dressed in a light-colored long-sleeved turtleneck and light-colored pants similar to pajama bottoms. Her distraught father placed her on the floor by the front door. A white cord was tightly embedded around her neck, similar to the string around her wrist. On her neck, at the base of her throat, was a red circular mark about the size of a quarter.

Based on her own experience, Detective Arndt believed the child was dead and had been dead for some time. John Ramsey told Detective Arndt that he had found JonBenét in the wine cellar under a white blanket, that her wrists were tied above her head, and that a piece of duct tape was over her mouth — which he had pulled off before bringing her upstairs (Maloney & O'Connor, 2003).

Detective Linda Arndt had not secured the crime scene. Because she believed it was a kidnapping rather than a murder, she waited for hours before ordering a search of the house. She had allowed the Ramseys and their supporters to walk freely through the house, contaminating the evidence. In violation of police procedure, she ordered the father — rather than a trained officer — to search the house, which resulted in the body being moved. When the coroner, Dr. John Meyer, arrived, he had to push his way through the gathered people to reach the body (Church, 1997). These initial blunders greatly complicated the investigation of the crime scene and the collection of evidence.

JonBenét's body was taken to the morgue, and the following day Dr. John Meyer performed an autopsy with Detectives Linda Arndt and Tom Trujillo observing. In his report, Dr. Meyer stated that when he examined JonBenét's body in the home the day before, he observed a ligature around her neck and another ligature around her right wrist, along with "a small area of abrasion or contusion below the right ear on the right cheek" and "a prominent dried abrasion on the lower left neck." Dr. Meyer's report stated that JonBenét had suffered "ligature strangulation" and a "comminuted fracture of the right side of the skull" with a displaced bone fragment approximately 8.5 inches long, as well as "subarachnoid and subdural hemorrhage" in the brain. He also reported that the vaginal mucosa contained "vascular congestion and focal interstitial chronic inflammation," which he stated indicated chronic sexual abuse. Dr. Meyer concluded: "Cause of death of this six-year-old female is asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma" (Autopsy report, JonBenét Ramsey documents web site). He was unable to determine which injury came first.

Evidence turned over to police after the autopsy included fibers and hair from clothing and body surfaces; ligatures; clothing; vaginal, rectal, and oral swabs and smears; paper bags from hands; fingernail clippings; jewelry; paper bags from feet; a white body bag; samples of head hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows; thigh and cheek swabs; and blood tubes. During the days and weeks after the murder, the police department removed 1,058 items of evidence from the Ramsey home. They tested 500 pieces, interviewed 590 people, consulted 64 outside experts, investigated and cleared more than 100 suspects, gathered handwriting and non-testimonial evidence from 215 people, processed more than 3,400 letters and 700 telephone tips, and recorded their findings in a 40,000-page case file. The more significant evidence is as follows:

1. The ransom note was written on a pad of paper belonging to the household, using a Sharpie pen also found in the house.
2. Two false starts to the ransom note were found.
3. Missing pages 17–25 from the tablet were never recovered.
4. Writing samples were taken from dozens of people, including John Ramsey, Patsy Ramsey, Burke Ramsey, John's children from his first marriage, Fleet White, Bill McReynolds (who played Santa Claus at the Christmas party), and neighbor Joe Barnhill, among others.
5. A 5" × 8" legal pad was found that investigators believe was used to write the ransom note, and a Sharpie felt-tip pen was found with other pens and pencils in a container on the kitchen counter. Five or more handwriting samples were collected from Patsy, including historic samples. CBI handwriting expert Chet Ubowski wrote that "there is evidence that indicates the ransom note may have been" written by Patsy, but that "the evidence falls short of that necessary to say definitively that she is." According to the FBI, a practice draft of the ransom note was found on the same pad. No fingerprints were found on the note. The text was unusually long for a ransom note, and the $118,000 demand was an odd and relatively low amount given John Ramsey's net worth.
6. CBI handwriting experts eliminated John Ramsey as the author of the ransom note but did not eliminate Patsy Ramsey.
7. Investigators hired Donald Foster, a Professor of English at Vassar College, to analyze the content and rhetorical style of the note. According to ABC's 20/20, he told police that the ransom note "bears Patsy's rhetorical stamp" (cited in Bane, 1998). However, before being hired by the county police department, Foster had believed that an Internet poster named "jameson" was actually JonBenét's half-brother John Andrew Ramsey, and that he was the killer — a conclusion that proved false, as "jameson" was a 48-year-old housewife in North Carolina named Sue Bennett. Foster also wrote a letter to Patsy Ramsey stating, "I know you are innocent — know it absolutely and unequivocally," and offering his services to the family. After the Ramseys rejected his offer, he went to work for the police department and subsequently claimed the note bore Patsy's rhetorical stamp ("Donald Foster gets it wrong, again and again," 1998; CBS 48 Hours transcript, April 8, 1999).
8. When Dr. Meyer examined JonBenét's body, he observed she was wearing a long-sleeved white knit shirt with a silver star embroidered on the front and a gold necklace with a cross. Her hair was in two pigtails. She wore a yellow metal band on her right middle finger and a gold ID bracelet with "JonBenét" engraved on one side and the date 12/25/96 on the other.
9. Someone had drawn a red ink heart on the palm of her left hand.
10. Detective Linda Arndt, who attended the autopsy, said green Christmas garland was tangled in the child's hair — garland similar to that decorating the spiral staircase in the family's home.
11. JonBenét was wearing long underwear. Underneath she wore a pair of white panties with rosebuds and "Wednesday" on the waistband. The panties were stained with urine and had several red stains on them. According to the search warrant affidavit, Dr. Meyer told Detective Arndt the stains appeared to be blood.
12. A pink Barbie nightgown was found near her body.
13. No semen was found on the body. The coroner found evidence of vaginal injury, however, and reported that "the pubic area appeared to have been wiped with a cloth." The coroner also reported that her hymen was partially torn and there was blood from it.
14. The coroner reported that a white cord was tied around her right wrist and another similar cord around her neck. Seventeen inches of cord hung from the knot, with the end tied in multiple loops around a length of a round tan-brown wooden stick — a garrote. The cord was expertly knotted.
15. The tan-brown wooden stick used to fashion the garrote had paint spots and varnish on it. It was broken from a paintbrush found in Patsy Ramsey's art supplies. A third piece was never found.
16. Dr. Meyer found that "a deep ligature furrow encircles the entire neck" with associated hemorrhages and abrasions.
17. The coroner noted a skull fracture 8.5 inches long. He was unable to determine whether the skull fracture or the strangulation came first, nor could he pinpoint the precise time of death.
18. DNA was recovered from the child's underpants and fingernails. The DNA did not match samples provided by family members, friends, or other people who might have had contact with JonBenét before she died.
19. Photos of the child taken on Christmas night at the Whites' home reveal no marks on her neck.
20. Photos taken at the autopsy reveal physical marks on JonBenét's neck and back consistent with stun gun contact. No stun gun was found, but the autopsy shows the presence of reddish, burn-type marks on her neck and back. The marks are an equal distance apart — approximately 3.5 centimeters — consistent with the prongs of a stun gun. Dr. Michael Dobersen, a stun gun expert and the coroner of Arapahoe County, concluded that the marks were made by a stun gun, based on experiments conducted on the skin of an anesthetized pig that produced marks "similar in size, shape, and color and a certain distance apart" (Dobersen cited in Friends for JonBenét web site).
21. No evidence of a struggle was found in any of the bedrooms in the Ramsey home.
22. Investigators found a Spanish-language videotape catalog related to electronic bugging in the household. The catalog contained an advertisement for a stun gun.
23. Detectives found a footprint near JonBenét's body that they believe was made by a Hi-Tec hiking shoe. No family member, friend, or acquaintance owned a shoe matching the print.
24. Investigators found a broken window in the basement. John Ramsey told them he had broken the window when he was locked out of the house. A police report noted that there were several open windows and at least one open door, so an intruder would not necessarily have needed to break in. One possible point of entry was the basement window, which had been broken sometime before Christmas and could not be secured.
25. Investigators found a piece of broken glass under the basement window. The window was open and the sill showed signs of disturbance.
26. In the window well was "peanut" Styrofoam packing material and other debris.
27. A third footprint was found on the outer part of this window.
28. A scuff mark on the basement wall was found below the window.
29. Leaves and debris from the window well were observed on the basement floor directly below the open window.
30. No footprints were found outside the window.
31. A picture taken by police officers before 9:00 a.m. on the morning JonBenét was reported missing shows most of the perimeter of the house, including walkways, to be free of snow.
32. A possible footprint was found on a suitcase placed directly below the same window. John Ramsey said the suitcase had not been kept in that part of the basement.
33. Inside the suitcase was a pillow sham, a comforter, and a Dr. Seuss book. A CBI examiner issued a report indicating that fibers from the pillow sham and comforter were found on JonBenét's shirt, on her vaginal area, on the duct tape from her hand, on the hand ligature, and inside the body bag.
34. An FBI examiner said some fibers on the child came from a source other than the pillow sham and comforter, and none of those fibers matched anything else in the house.
35. Red fibers were found on the body, which police thought came from the dress Patsy Ramsey wore on Christmas Day. However, Patsy's dress contained both red and metallic black fibers, and no metallic black fibers were found on the body.
36. One "peanut" of Styrofoam — matching the material found in the window well — was found in a footprint in the wine cellar room, approximately sixty feet from the window. Laboratory analysis confirmed it was the same material.
37. A palm print found on the wine cellar door did not match any family member or friend.
38. A dried leaf was found in the wine cellar near the footprint close to where the body was located — similar to leaves in the window well.
39. A pubic hair found on the blanket covering JonBenét's body did not belong to any family member.
40. John and Patsy Ramsey said they put the child to bed immediately upon arriving home, but the coroner found fragments of pineapple in her small intestine. A bowl of pineapple was on the kitchen table, raising questions about the accuracy of the parents' account and potentially helping to narrow the time of death.
41. A flashlight was found on the kitchen counter. Some investigators believed it could have caused the skull fracture. It had been wiped clean, leaving no fingerprints.
42. Rope found in the guest room near JonBenét's room was foreign to the household.
43. The duct tape and cord used in the murder were not found in the Ramsey home or anywhere in the neighborhood.
44. John Ramsey removed a piece of duct tape from JonBenét's mouth when he found her. The FBI analyzed the tape and purchased identical tape from McGuckin Hardware in Boulder. According to Lawrence Schiller's book Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, a hardware store clerk in Atlanta told investigators she had helped Patsy find duct tape in December 1996; however, no record of such a purchase was found in the store's receipts.
45. Because the coroner suspected chronic sexual abuse, the Ramseys' computer, discs, CD-ROMs, videotapes, and other items were searched for child pornography. A CBI investigator examined all the computer evidence, but no pornography of any kind was found.
46. John and Patsy Ramsey gave police the clothing they were wearing when they put JonBenét to bed on Christmas night. These items were not collected until more than a year after the child's death.
47. Other notable items of evidence included the white blanket covering her body in the wine cellar; a Santa Claus suit; newspaper and magazine articles; a sleeping mask; golf clubs; a U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School book; a toilet seat lid; cigarette butts; a letter to Santa; a "My Science Project" from Burke's room; a window grate and pieces of broken basement window; JonBenét's bedding; a broken paintbrush; rope from the backyard; the pink Barbie nightgown; carpeting; green garland; articles of JonBenét's clothing; baseball bats; a flashlight; and door locks.
48. A large number of tradespeople had worked in the Ramsey house during an extensive remodeling project (Bardsley, 2006).
49. The Ramseys had given out several house keys to friends.
50. A neighbor told Detective Barry Hartkopp that the Ramseys' safety light was not on on Christmas night — unusual, as it normally burned all night at the southeast corner of the home. A second neighbor confirmed this, noting it was the only time in several years she had seen the light off.
51. A neighbor who lives directly across the street from the Ramsey home reported that she heard a scream during the early morning of December 26, 1996, estimated between 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. Experiments demonstrated that a vent from the basement may have amplified the sound to be audible outside but not three floors up, where the parents were sleeping. She stayed awake and listened for five to ten minutes but heard nothing further — no cars, voices, or footsteps — before going back to sleep (Thomas and Sauers, cited in JonBenét Ramsey Case Encyclopedia web site). She had initially been reluctant to report what she heard, and her husband suggested she had imagined it, but a second neighbor reported the scream to police after a conversation with her.
52. The first neighbor's husband heard a scraping sound, like metal on concrete, sometime after the scream.
53. A third neighbor to the west said her dogs, which "barked at everything," never barked that night.
54. An unknown person was observed in a blue van parked across the street from the Ramsey residence on December 24th.
55. More than 100 burglaries had taken place in the Ramseys' neighborhood in the year before JonBenét's death.
56. Thirty-eight registered sex offenders lived within two miles of the Ramsey home at the time of the killing.
57. JonBenét's friend Megan Kostinak and her mother reported that JonBenét told them she was going to receive a special visit from Santa after Christmas and that it was a secret. When they argued that Santa always comes before Christmas, JonBenét emphatically insisted the visit was to be after Christmas. When questioned, Patsy Ramsey said she had no knowledge of any such visit or conversation.