By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-07 02:04:39 | Updated at 2024-12-23 06:34:37
2 weeks ago
When six-year-old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey woke on Christmas Day 1996 she was thrilled to find that Santa Claus had left her a new shiny pink bicycle.
The little girl, holder of pageant titles including Little Miss Colorado, tried it out later that day, cheered on by her nine-year-old brother, Burke.
Later, the family went to dinner at the house of some friends. And when JonBenet fell asleep on the way home to their sprawling five-bedroom Tudor-style house in an affluent suburb of Boulder, Colorado, her father John carried her to bed and her mother Patsy tucked her in.
Next day the Ramseys had planned to take a 7am flight, on their private plane, from Colorado to their second home in Michigan, to continue Christmas celebrations with John's two older children from his previous marriage.
New year was going to be spent on a Disney cruise. A snapshot of family life living the American Dream, it seemed.
John, a successful businessman, whose computer company had just passed the $1billion revenue mark, had also been named Entrepreneur of the Year by his local chamber of commerce. Patsy, meanwhile, a traditional stay-at-home mum, was relieved to be in remission from stage four ovarian cancer.
What the couple could not have known, however, was that they had just experienced the last truly joyful and carefree moment of their lives. Instead, they were plunged into a nightmare that continues to blight the family even to this day.
Not only was JonBenet murdered and sexually assaulted – her tiny body left in the basement of the family home and a bizarre ransom note left behind – but the couple, and even their young son Burke, instantly became suspects. In the media frenzy that followed, each was torn apart in the court of public opinion.
Six-year-old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was holder of pageant titles including Little Miss Colorado before she was murdered and sexually assaulted
Nearly three decades on, not only does the murder remain unsolved but the family finds itself dragged before that court once again, with the broadcast of the new Netflix three-part documentary: Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?
While the series is a sober recreation of the tragic events of that day and highlights the ineptitude of the local police force, it has led to the evidence and reputations of surviving family members being raked over and trashed anew.
So-called TikTok armchair detectives, who were not even born when JonBenet was killed, have been spouting their theories on social media about who they believe really was responsible for the death of this little girl. Fingers are pointing once again at her immediate family, who for 12 years lived under a cloud of suspicion.
It took until 2008 before the Ramseys were publicly exonerated after new DNA evidence, taken from JonBenet's clothing, identified the involvement of an 'unknown male' in her death.
You have to admire, therefore, the bravery of John Andrew Ramsey for speaking out now about the case that has haunted his family for 28 years.
In an exclusive interview with the Mail, the older, half-brother of JonBenet, who was 23 at the time of her murder, described his family's torment and his conviction of their innocence. Speaking from his home in Colorado, he tells me, 'If I'd thought for a minute my father or Patsy or Burke was capable of murder, I'd have flipped on them in a heartbeat.
'There's someone out there who knows something that could help catch my sister's killer. The narrative is that this is an unsolved homicide. We want to keep the pressure on law enforcement and encourage anyone who might have information to come forward.'
John Andrew, now a 48-year-old father of two, believes it is crucial that his 80-year-old father finally knows the truth about his daughter's death. Sadly, it's too late for JonBenet's mother. Patsy died of cancer in 2006, at the age of 49, two years before prosecutors publicly cleared her name.
Understandably keen to protect his own young family, John Andrew is reluctant to reveal details of his life now but tells me he has given up his position in healthcare technology sales to focus on finding the killer, or killers, of his little sister.
JonBenet with her father John, mother Patsy and brother Burke at Christmas in 1993
JonBenet's half-brother, John Andrew, a father of two, is focused on finding his sister's killer
'As crazy as it sounds, it's a full-time job,' he says. His voice still falters as he relives the events of that dreadful day. The facts, as told and re-told by the Ramseys, are as follows:
In the early hours of December 26, 1996, Patsy had gone downstairs to make coffee when she found a handwritten three-page note on the stairs. Claiming to be from 'a foreign faction', the author said JonBenet had been kidnapped and demanded the precise sum of $118,000 in $100 and $20 notes for her return.
The author went on to instruct John to withdraw the money from his bank and on returning home to put the money 'in a brown paper bag'. At an arranged drop-off point he would be 'scanned for electronic devices.'
He or she went on to write: 'Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter.'
Patsy screamed, waking John. He checked JonBenet's bed and found it empty. At 5.52am, Patsy dialled 911.
Within minutes, local police arrived and carried out a cursory search of the three-storey house, assuming this was a kidnap and that JonBenet wasn't there.
John Andrew and his sister Melinda were alerted, and made plans to divert to Colorado.
Meanwhile, John and Patsy waited by the phone. The ransom note had told John to wait for a call, but it never came. It was clear from the outset, he says, that the local police were out of their depth. 'This was a small town police department the day after Christmas when the best and brightest were on holiday,' John Andrew says.
Nine hours later, a female police officer suggested another search of the house. 'I think she was trying to keep Dad busy,' says John Andrew. But when his father John, accompanied by a friend, went to the basement, he made a terrible discovery in a disused boiler room.
JonBenet had been laid on the floor and covered in a blanket. She had duct tape over her mouth, her hands had been tied and a garotte – fashioned from cord and a broken paintbrush – tied around her neck.
Had police conducted a proper search, they would have found the body themselves and sealed off the scene, securing vital evidence. As it was, John was the first to find – and handle – his daughter's body. 'He instinctively picked her up,' John Andrew explains.
The scene of the murder of six-year-old JonBenet in Boulder, Colorado, in 1996
A week before her death, JonBenet was featured in a Boulder Christmas parade - with her name displayed along the side of her float
'He took the tape off her mouth and tried to untie her hands as he took her upstairs. It was quickly determined that she was dead.' An autopsy later revealed that the child had a fractured skull, had been sexually assaulted, and the cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation.
John Andrew and Melinda arrived at the house shortly after her body was found, and the whole family was driven to stay with friends.
The story was soon leading news programmes with videos of JonBenet, taken at beauty pageants she had competed in, winning titles such as Colorado State All Star Kids Cover Girl and National Tiny Miss Beauty.
Sashaying in high heels, her blonde hair backcombed, and her baby doll-like features adorned in heavy make-up, the videos suddenly seemed a little sinister. Many saw them as evidence of a little girl being sexualised.
Before long, media of all levels decamped to the well-to-do suburb in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. John Andrew is still clearly angry that suspicion fell – and continues to fall – on his father and stepmother.
'To the people who think Dad and Patsy killed JonBenet in some crazy accident and tried to cover it up... are you telling me that they sat in a room with the police for nine hours and kept up this ruse with their daughter lying dead on the floor below? No way.'
Both his father and Patsy were 'out of their minds' with grief, he says, but police were convinced that Patsy had accidentally killed JonBenet and John had tried to cover it up.
Outside offers of help from the FBI and Denver Police Department were turned down, as local police concentrated their efforts on pinning the crime on Patsy, he says.
'JonBenet was tortured... anyone who's seen the autopsy photographs and the deep injuries to her neck will tell you she was tortured. The idea that Dad and Patsy would do that is unimaginable. What happened fits the profile of a sadistic paedophile.'
Criticism was levelled at JonBenet's parents because they refused to be interviewed, but John Andrew says there was a reason for this.
'When JonBenet's body was found, we were with the police for the next 36 hours. They were in the house, monitoring us. We provided DNA, handwriting samples, provided statements. Melinda, Burke and I were all interviewed.
'We gave them every piece of information they wanted. We said 'Whatever you need, we're going to give it to you but we're not going to sit down just to be beat up – that's foolish,'.'
John Andrew puts forward his theory about what happened.
'I think the killer entered the home when the family was out to dinner and waited – and if you look at the behavioural characteristics of a sadistic paedophile… they stalk their victims,' he suggests. The fact that John's latest bonus had been $118,000 – the exact amount the author of the ransom note had demanded on a notepad that incidentally belonged to Patsy – made the mystery more strange and chilling.
John Andrew says: 'The guy had hours in the home before my Dad and Patsy and the kids got back and the $118,000 would have been on every single one of my Dad's pay stubs in the house.'
The film Ransom starring Mel Gibson as an airline magnate whose son is kidnapped was the number two most popular film in the US at the time, he points out.
'It fuelled the fantasy, no question,' he says.
Another bone of contention were outlandish details aired in the press. 'The headline in one newspaper was 'No Footprints in the Snow' insinuating that it must have been an inside job, but if you look at the crime scene photos you will see that there was no snow around the house. It was a total farce,' says John Andrew.
A week before her death, JonBenet was featured in a Boulder Christmas parade – with her name displayed along the side of her float. John Andrew's father was also lauded at the event for his business acumen and John himself believes this may have been a significant event.
'I don't think the killer actually knew my father, but I think he was jealous of his success and if you couple that with a sexual perversion – the way to hurt my father was through JonBenet,' John Andrew says.
Over the years, the rumours continued to swirl. In 2016, American TV station CBS suggested in a documentary that JonBenet's brother Burke, who was nine at the time of his sister's murder, had killed his sister and conspired with his parents to cover it up.
He won an out of court settlement and did not participate in the Netflix documentary.
For a long time his parents shielded him. The accusations were so outlandish that they're almost hard to take seriously, but the reality is they were hurtful and damaging, John Andrew says: 'He's now a software engineer, has a good job and a group of friends.'
John Andrew sounds emotional again when he speaks about his father, who remarried ten years ago. 'He lost his daughter and he lost his house, his job and his ability to make money. He and Patsy never wanted to go back to the house, so they sold it.'
With the 28th anniversary of JonBenet's death approaching, Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn has released a statement regarding the case.
'The killing of JonBenet was an unspeakable crime and this tragedy has never left our hearts,' Redfearn said. 'We continue to work with DNA experts. This investigation will always be a priority for Boulder Police Department.'
As it will be for John Andrew and his family, who will never give up either. He believes advanced DNA testing could crack the case or someone could finally come forward with vital information.
'We do this because we think we can catch JonBenet's killer. 'I don't think that's impossible.'
