By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-16 19:51:46 | Updated at 2024-11-16 21:29:16
1 hour ago
The brutal slaying of six-year-old pageant princess JonBenét Ramsey in Colorado in 1996 has been dubbed 'one of the biggest cold cases' in US criminal history.
Now, a three-part Netflix documentary is spotlighting the case, and raising hopes that a killer who has dodged justice for decades may finally be named.
The docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, takes aim at detectives for botching the investigation and the media for presenting the girl's family as the main suspects.
It also urges Colorado police to 'finally take the necessary actions' that will bring the killer to justice and 'offer her family the peace they've long sought,' says a Netflix statement.
JonBenét was reported missing after her family found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the child's return inside their Boulder home on December 26, 1996.
JonBenét Ramsey, six, was a child beauty queen and a homicide victim. Her killer has not yet been identified, but the investigation remains open
In his latest interview, bereaved dad John Ramsey, 80, recalls how the 'unbelievable' tragedy played out
Her mother Patsy Ramsey called 911 to say her daughter was missing.
The child's body was later found by her father John Ramsey in the basement of the family's upscale home, brutally beaten and strangled to death.
Detectives believe she was sexually assaulted and murdered the night before, on Christmas Day, through either a blow to the head or strangulation with a garotte.
Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted.
The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenét from her beauty pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the US.
She'd been crowned Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.
The mystery unleashed a series of true-crime books and television specials.
The district attorney at the time of JonBenét's death said her parents were under 'an umbrella of suspicion' early on.
The three-part docuseries seeks to crack open one of the most tragic cold cases in US criminal history
The crime scene at the Ramsey's upscale Colorado home following the killing of their six-year-old
The Ramsey family is pictured in a December 1993 holiday photo. (L-R) JonBenét, John, Patsy and Burke Ramsey
Convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, long a suspect in the killing, pictured at Limon Correctional Facility in Colorado.
Theorists have also questioned whether their son Burke, who was aged nine at the time of JonBenet's death, killed his sister accidentally in a moment of rage, and his parents covered it up.
But tests in 2008 on newly discovered DNA on her clothing pointed to the involvement of an 'unexplained third party' in her slaying, and not her parents or Burke.
That led former district attorney Mary Lacy to clear the Ramseys of any involvement, two years after mom Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006, calling the couple 'victims of this crime.'
Investigators had identified other suspects, and developed a theory about an intruder, or several intruders, entering the home and killed the pageant princess.
Among the suspects was convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, who allegedly confessed to the killing.
Others included the Ramsey's housekeeper, as well as the man who portrayed Santa Claus at a holiday party the youngster attended.
Officials in 2006 announced that another suspect, John Mark Karr, had been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
He'd allegedly told an American investigator that he drugged JonBenét and sexually assaulted her before accidentally killing her.
But prosecutors dropped that probe after DNA tests failed to link him to the crime scene.
Investigations are ongoing. Police and officials in Boulder in December 2021 said they'd processed 1,500 pieces of evidence and analyzed nearly 1,000 DNA samples in their hunt for the killer.
Detectives have digitized all the samples of handwriting, fingerprints, and shoe prints collected over the years, and regularly check for DNA matches in the hopes of solving the case.
But dad John has questioned whether they're doing their jobs properly. In May 2022 he called for an outside agency to take responsibility for DNA testing in the case.
The pageant star's cause of death was 'asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma,' meaning she had been choked and beaten
John Mark Karr was extradited from Thailand and arrested for the murder of JonBenét Ramsey after he confessed, but that admission was largely discredited
The new series brings together archive footage of JonBenét walking gleefully around the family home and the frantic recording of mom Patsy's 911 call declaring that her 'daughter's gone.'
The show, which streams from November 25, focuses on errors by the police, including the failure to secure the house and the potential removal of evidence.
It features an interview with Burke, who describes the Ramseys as 'just a regular family' before the fateful Christmas.
The trailer shows dad John, 80, recalling how the 'unbelievable' tragedy played out.
It also features a soundbite of an individual involved in the case, saying: 'We've been ruling people out for the wrong reasons.'
'Everybody should be back on the table. You have to go deeper,' says the person.
The show also probes whether Patsy, herself a former beauty queen, made JonBenet a target for predators by encouraging her to dress up for her beauty contests.
She was buried in Marietta, Georgia, beside her mother, and her half-sister Elizabeth Ramsey, who died in a car crash in 1992.
Director Joe Berlinger says the series takes aim at those who 'played armchair detective for three decades, often callously pointing a finger at the very people who suffered such an unthinkable loss.'
He added: 'Through unprecedented access and a comprehensive multi-year investigation, we reveal the deep flaws in how the case was originally handled, resulting in a sea of conspiracy theories that nearly destroyed the Ramsey family for a second time.'
Dionne Waugh, a spokeswoman for Boulder Police Department declined to comment on an 'open and ongoing investigation.' Anyone with information on the slaying should call the tipline at 303-441-1974, she said.
Shannon Carbone, a spokeswoman for Boulder's office of the District Attorney, said a recent case review had been 'helpful' and that investigators continued to 'make progress on this tragic case.'
'The overarching goal is to look at the facts and evidence with fresh eyes and an open mind, armed with the latest developments in forensic science,' Carbone told DailyMail.com.
