J.D. Rockefeller - JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation

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Over about 2 decades, the world has beenintrigued by the brutal murder of a 6-year-old pageant queenJnBnt Patricia Ramsey who died in 1996 in her familys home inBoulder, Colorado. Up until today, strange events surrounding themysterious case continue to make headlines and raise questionsabout the murder.

JnBnt Ramsey is the daughter of asocialite and an affluent businessman. On December 26, 1996, thebody of the 6-year-old beauty queen was discovered in the basementof her home by her father, John Bennett Ramsey. This happenedbarely 8 hours after she was reported missing. A lengthy ransomnote was also found in the house.

Results obtained from a series ofinvestigations suggest that she may have been strangled to death.Her body was found with a garrote tied around her neck, and it alsoappeared that she had a skull fracture from taking a blow to thehead. Due to the strangulation associated with craniocerebraltrauma, asphyxiation was stated as the official cause of death perher autopsy.

Before this, JnBnts mother Patsy Ramsey,who had also been a beauty queen at one time, entered her daughterinto a number of child beauty pageants. The murder case did notonly draw the interest of the media, it also generated nationwidepublic interest. Until this day, the case remains unsolved, evenafter several grand jury hearings.

JnBnt Ramseywas the second child born to the family of John and Patsy BennettRamsey. Her first name JnBnt is a portmanteau of her fathersfirst name John and his middle name Bennett. She has an olderbrother, Burke Ramsey, who was 3 years older than she was. Beforeher death, she was enrolled at High Elementary School in Boulder,Colorado, where she had started in Kindergarten.

During her short life, JnBnt had wonseveral pageant awards, including the titles of National Tiny MissBeauty, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, Little MissColorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, and Americas Royal Miss. Afterher death, the media closely scrutinized her active role in childbeauty pageants along with her mothers reported pageant motherlifestyle.

Her father, John Bennett, was the presidentof the business computer system company Access Graphics before itwas taken over by Lockheed Martin. At that time, Access Graphicswas headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. The family had only movedthere in 1991. It was while in Colorado that her mother beganentering her into child beauty pageants in different states.

On December 26,1996, Patsy Ramsey testified that she had discovered her daughtermissing after finding a two-and-a-half page long ransom note on thekitchen stairs. The letter demanded the sum of $118,000 for thesafe return of her daughter. Per Patsy Ramsey, this was almost theexact value of a bonus her husband received at the beginning ofthat same year.

A forensic report for the Daily Mail, whichwas conducted by James Fitzgerald, revealed that the 385-wordransom note, which was about three pages long, was clearly stagedand contained deliberate spelling mistakes. According to him,these mistakes were done to pretend the writer was a non-nativeEnglish speaker.

In addition, the ransom note was remarkablylong. Typically, ransom notes convey their extortion message injust 50 to 60 words or so. Further investigation revealed that manylines from the letter were taken from movies and films like DirtyHarry (1971) and Speed (1994). Fitzgerald also suggested that thenote must have been written by a maternal person.

While testing how long it would take to writethe ransom note, experts from CBS The Case of: JnBntRamsey revealed that even without having to think about what towrite, it took at least 20 minutes to complete a note of thislength. This supports Fitzgeralds claims that the note appeared tohave been written with deliberate errors in order to make it appearmaternalistic and give the impression that the writer wasnt anative English speaker.

Reports revealed by the Colorado Bureau ofInvestigation indicated Patricia Ramsey as the author of the ransomnote. Although there was no direct proof to support this claim,there seemed to be some circumstantial evidence. The pen and paperused to complete a practice draft of the ransom note were not leftout. In fact, there were indications that they were returned totheir rightful place where they belonged in the Ramsey home.

During a Reddit interview, former BoulderPolice Chief Mark Beckner revealed that he had never beforeencountered a ransom note with such strange content. Afteranalyzing samples of Johns and Patsys handwriting, authoritiesruled out John and deemed Patsys sample inconclusive.

Although it wasclearly stated in the ransom note to contact no one, including thepolice and friends, Patsy Ramsey still called family and friends,and eventually informed the police at 5:52 am.

The 911 call led to the arrival of two policeofficers who conducted a cursory search of the Ramsey home.However, they were unable to find any sign of forced entry or abreak-in. A forensics team was dispatched to the house afterarrangements were made to pay the ransom. In a bid to preventcontamination of evidence, only JnBnts bedroom was cordonedoff, since it was believed to be a kidnapping case. No furtherprecautions were taken to prevent the contamination of evidence inthe remaining parts of the house.

As part of their efforts to support theRamsey family, friends and family (including the familys minister)were present at their home. Also present at the scene were victimadvocates. During this time, evidence may very well have beendestroyed, as both advocates and friends picked up around the houseand cleaned surfaces in the kitchen.

Later in the afternoon, John Ramsey and afriend of the Ramseys, Fleet White were instructed by Linda Arndt,a Boulder Police Detective to do a thorough search of the house inorder to verify if anything seemed amiss.

Not long after starting their search of thehouse, John found the lifeless body of his daughter in a basementroom. Her torso was covered with a white blanket, nylon cord wastied around her wrists, and duct tape was used to cover her mouth.Before the body was moved into the living room, Ramsey had alreadypicked up the body and taken it upstairs. No doubt, these two movesnot only interrupted the investigation process, they potentiallycontaminated evidence for the returning forensics team.

Following JnBnts death, the familyprovided the police with hair, blood, and handwriting samples.Within the first couple of weeks, her brother Burke Ramsey wasinterviewed while John and Patsy were engaged in a preliminaryinterview that lasted for over 2 hours.

According to theresults obtained from an autopsy conducted on the body, it wasrevealed that the 6-year-old beauty queen had died of a skullfracture and strangulation. Due to the strangulation associatedwith craniocerebral trauma, asphyxiation was stated as the officialcause of death.

Although sexual assault could not be ruledout offhand, there was no evidence of conventional rape. At thetime of the autopsy, it appeared that the area around her vaginahad been wiped with a cloth. Although no traces of semen were foundaround the area, there was evidence of vaginal injury.