Stolen innocence: Death of jonbenét ramsey.

“JonBenét Ramsey would have been 30 this year: Where’s her killer?”

JonBenét Ramsey was an American child beauty queen. The daughter of affluent parents, JonBenét was only six years old when she was murdered in her Boulder, Colorado residence. In December 26, 1996 JonBenet went missing from her bed at their home.

JonBenét’s mother patsy and the father John had woken up early to prepare for a trip, when Patsy discovered a ransom note on the stairs demanding $118,000 for their daughter’s safe return.

Despite the note’s warning not to involve police, Patsy immediately called them, as well as friends and family in order to aid in the search for jonbenet.
Police arrived and found no signs of forced entry, but did not search the basement, where her body would eventually be found.

During the autopsy it was discovered that jonbenét had died from asphyxiation due to strangulation, in addition to a skull fracture. Her mouth had been covered in duct tape and her wrists and neck were wrapped with a white cord. Her torso had been covered in a white blanket.

There was no conclusive evidence of rape as no semen was found on the body and her vagina appeared to have been wiped clean, although a sexual assault had occurred.

The coroner also found what was believed to be pineapple in JonBenét’s stomach. Her parents do not remember giving her any the night before she died, but there was a bowl of pineapple in the kitchen which had her nine-year-old brother Burke’s fingerprint on it, however this meant little since time cannot be attributed to fingerprints. The Ramseys maintained Burke was in his room all night asleep, and there was never any physical evidence to reflect otherwise.

Despite a larger pool of suspects, the media immediately focused on JonBenét’s parents, and they spent years under the harsh limelight of the public eye. In 1999, a Colorado grand jury voted to indict the Ramseys on child endangerment and obstruction of a murder investigation, however the prosecutor felt that the evidence did not meet the beyond a reasonable doubt standard and declined to prosecute.

JonBenét’s parents were never officially named as suspects in the murder.
No one has ever been charged in the case and the investigation is still open. Early suspicion fell on her parents, but they were exonerated after DNA at the scene was found to belong to a male unrelated to the Ramsey family.

In 2010 the case was officially reopened with renewed focus on the DNA samples. Further testing has been conducted on the samples and experts now believe that the sample is actually from two individuals rather than one. In 2016 it was announced that the DNA would be sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to be tested using more modern methods and authorities hope to develop an even stronger DNA profile of the killer.

In 2016, CBS aired The Case of JonBenét Ramsey which implied her then nine-year-old brother Burke was the killer despite the fact he was cleared by the DNA evidence that proved the existence of an intruder. Burke filed a $750 million-dollar lawsuit against CBS for defamation. The case was settled in 2019, and while the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, his lawyer stated the case was “amicably resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.”