JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her parents were Patricia who went by Patsy, and John Bennet Ramsey. JonBenet’s parents made up her name by combining her father’s names and using her mother’s name for a middle name. Patsy was around 34 when JonBenet was born and John was 47. JonBenet had an older brother named Burke, and he was born in 1987.
Just as some background into the parents, Patsy was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia on December 29, 1956. Her parents were Nedra Ellen Ann (née Rymer) and Donald Ray Paugh. Donald worked as an engineer and manager at Union Carbide. Patsy graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1975. She attended West Virginia University, where she belonged to the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, and from which she graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 1978.
She won the Miss West Virginia beauty title in 1977. Her sister, Pamela Ellen Paugh, won the Miss West Virginia title at age 24 in 1980.
John was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on December 7, 1943. His parents were Mary Jane (née Bennett) (1919–1978) and James Dudley “Jay” Ramsey (1916–1992). Jay was a decorated World War II pilot.
He attended Okemos High School in Michigan. In 1966, he graduated from Michigan State University (MSU) with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. John earned a master’s degree in business administration from MSU in 1971.
He joined the Navy in 1966, served as a Civil Engineer Corps officer in the Philippines for three years, and in an Atlanta reserve unit for an additional eight years.
John had been married before. His first marriage ended in 1978. I believe he had three children with his first wife – the children’s names are Melinda, John Andrew and Elizabeth. He married Patsy on 5 November 1980.
John worked as the president of Access Graphics, a computer software company. He moved his family to Boulder, Colorado in 1991 as that is where the headquarters of his company was.
JonBenet was enrolled in kindergarten at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado at the time of her death.
Patsy encouraged her daughter to enter many child beauty pageants. She won the titles of America’s Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.
Just as a side note, John’s daughter Elizabeth Ramsey died at age 22 on January 8, 1992, following a car accident.
In 1993, Patsy was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. She underwent treatment and her cancer went into remission at this point.
We will now get into a timeline starting with the days prior to December 25, 1996.
On December 23, 1996 which was a Thursday, the Ramsey’s hosted a Christmas party at their home. Around 30 of their friends and colleagues attended.
You can see the Ramsey home here: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/749-15th-St-Boulder-CO-80302/13182008_zpid/
On Christmas Day, December 25, the family attended another Christmas Party with family friends. John said that after they got home, he put JonBenet to bed. The only people in the house at this time were Patsy, John, JonBenet and Burke.
The following day, December 26, Patsy woke up early. Some reports say that the family were going to fly to Charlevoix, Michigan that day to visit family. She said that as she was getting up, she came across a ransom note that was on the stairs. She called police at 5.52am.
This is what the note 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 posession [sic]. She is safe and unharmed and if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter.
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 delivery 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 out smart [sic] 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
When police arrived on the scene at around 6am, Jon pointed out to them that the amount requested in the note – $118k – was basically identical to the Christmas bonus that he had received the prior year.
The FBI would later examine the note and noted that it was unusually long. They told police that it was very unusual for such a note to be actually written at the crime scene. The note and a practice draft written with a pen and notepad were found in the Ramsey home.
Police conducted a basic search of the home that morning and they did not find any sign of forced entry. Officer Rick French went to the basement of the home and found that it was secured with a wooden latch. He considered opening it but did not. He said later that he was looking for an exit route used by the kidnapper and that the closed peg ruled out this location as an option.
A forensics team was sent to the house and only JonBenet’s room was cordoned off to preserve evidence. There was no attempt done to preserve any evidence in the rest of the house. Friends started arriving at the home to support Patsy and John. Visitors helped by cleaning up areas of the home, which meant that evidence was destroyed.
John started making arrangements to pay the ransom that was demanded in the note. A detective from Boulder arrived at the home at 8am, in anticipation of getting further contact from the kidnappers. There was never an attempt by anyone to claim the money.
At 1pm, a detective asked John and a family friend, Fleet White, to search the house to see if ‘anything seemed amiss.’
They started the search of the house in the basement. John opened the door which we mentioned previously had been closed with a wooden peg and he found JonBenet’s lifeless body.
Her mouth had been covered with duct tape and she was bound with a nylon cord around her wrists and neck. Her body had been covered by a white blanket. There was a boot market left in the room where her body was found.
John picked up JonBenet’s body and took her upstairs, further contaminating the crime scene.
JonBenet was taken for an autopsy where her cause of death was established as strangulation and a skull fracture. The official cause of death was “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma.” Her death was ruled homicide.
Sexual assault could not be ruled out but the investigation showed no signs of conventional rape. No semen was found on her body but there was evidence that JonBenet had a vaginal injury. The pathologist said it appeared her vaginal area had been wiped with a cloth.
The garrotte that had been used to strangle JonBenet was made from a length of nylon cord and the handle of a paintbrush. The paintbrush had been broken into three pieces and the bristle end was found amongst Patsy’s art supplies. The bottom part of the paintbrush was never found.
The contents of JonBenet’s stomach were examined and a ‘vegetable or fruit material which may represent pineapple’ was found. JonBenet had eaten the fruit a few hours before she died. There are photos from the Ramsey home that were taken on December 26 that show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon in it. Both Patsy and John said they did not give JonBenet the pineapple to eat.
A glass with a teabag was also found near the pineapple bowl.
The clear drinking glass had fingerprints belonging to Burke. No fingerprints of Patsy on the clear drinking glass. The white bowl had “one print belonging to Burke and the other to Patsy.” There were no fingerprints of Burke or Patsy on the spoon.
JonBenet was buried on December 31, 1996 at the Saint James Episcopal Cemetery and Cremation Gardens in Marietta, Georgia. Her grave is next to the resting place of her half sister Elizabeth.
In terms of the investigation into JonBenet’s murder, Boulder police began by focusing exclusively on John and Patsy.
On March 7, 1997 it was announced that following a handwriting analysis, it had been determined that John did not write the ransom note found in the home. The same analysis did not rule out Patsy.
On April 18, 1997, an investigator named John and Patsy officially as suspects in their daughter’s murder.
In June 1997, Burke Ramsey was questioned for the first time.
Police did eventually widen their investigation and by October 1997, they had over 1,600 people in the index of persons of interest. This is an excerpt from an article in the Daily Camera about the case:
Contrary to allegations that authorities have focused entirely on the Ramsey family as suspects, investigators have discussed the crime with several people and contacted sex offenders registered in Boulder. They have obtained handwriting, blood and hair samples from the Ramseys, family friends and others.
The investigation was bungled from the start due to the contamination of the scene of the crime – the Ramsey house.
A grand jury for the case convened on September 15, 1998. The purpose of the grand jury was to consider indicting John and Patsy for charges relating to JonBenet’s murder.
In 1999, the grand jury returned a true bill to charge the Ramseys with placing the child at risk in a way that led to her death and with obstructing an investigation of murder due to John Ramsey’s tampering with the crime scene, based on the probable cause standard applied in such grand jury proceedings. But Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter did not prosecute them, because he did not believe that he could meet the higher standard of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that is required for a criminal conviction.
On December 26, 2002, Mary Lacy who would be the next Boulder County DA took over the investigation.
That same year, Patsy’s ovarian cancer returned.
In April 2003, Mary Lacy agreed with a federal judge who said that evidence in the suit is “more consistent with a theory that an intruder murdered JonBenét than it was with a theory that Mrs. Ramsey did”.
Patsy died from ovarian cancer at age 49 on June 24, 2006. John was by her side when she passed away. Patsy was buried next to JonBenet.
On August 15, 2006, John Mark Karr was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand after he confessed to murdering JonBenet.
He said that he had drugged and sexually assaulted her before accidentally killing her.
“I was with JonBenet when she died,” Karr told reporters afterward, visibly nervous and stuttering. “Her death was an accident.”
Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: “No.” “I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident.”
Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: “It would take several hours to describe that. It’s a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It’s very painful for me to talk about it.”
Karr’s ex-wife, Lara Karr, was quoted by KGO-TV in California that she was with her former husband in Alabama at the time of JonBenet’s killing and she did not believe he was involved in the homicide.
Lara Karr, who lived with him in Northern California, said her ex-husband spent a lot of time studying the cases of Ramsey and Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home and slain in 1993.
John attempted to communicate with Patsy before her death. She never replied to him but she gave the information to investigators.
There was no evidence linking John Mark Karr to JonBenet’s murder. JonBenet had not been drugged as per his claims and his DNA did not match what had been found on her body. John would later transition to a female who goes by the name Alexis Valoran Reich or Delia Alexis Reich.
On July 9, 2008, the Boulder County DA’s office announced that as a result of new DNA techniques, the Ramsey family members were excluded as suspects in the case.
The testing was conducted on a different area of JonBenet’s clothing, and it matches previous DNA tested from her panties in 1997.
“That genetic profile belongs to a male and does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey family,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement. “The unexplained third party DNA on the clothing of the victim is very significant and powerful evidence.”
As part of its investigation of the JonBenet Ramsey homicide, the Boulder Police identified genetic material with apparent evidentiary value. Over time, the police continued to investigate DNA, including taking advantage of advances in the science and methodology. One of the results of their efforts was that they identified genetic material and a DNA profile from drops of JonBenet’s blood located in the crotch of the underwear she was wearing at the time her body was discovered. That genetic profile belongs to a male and does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey family.
This info is from a press release issued by Mary Lacy’s office:
As part of its investigation of the JonBenet Ramsey homicide, the Boulder Police identified genetic material with apparent evidentiary value. Over time, the police continued to investigate DNA, including taking advantage of advances in the science and methodology. One of the results of their efforts was that they identified genetic material and a DNA profile from drops of JonBenet’s blood located in the crotch of the underwear she was wearing at the time her body was discovered. That genetic profile belongs to a male and does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey family.
The police department diligently compared that profile to a very large number of people associated with the victim, with her family, and with the investigation, and has not identified the source, innocent or otherwise, of this DNA. The Boulder Police and prosecutors assigned to this investigation in the past also worked conscientiously with laboratory analysts to obtain better results through new approaches and additional tests as they became available. Those efforts ultimately led to the discovery of sufficient genetic markers from this male profile to enter it into the national DNA data bank.
Prosecutors said at the time that they were deeply sorry for putting the family under suspicion for more than a decade.
“To the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry,” Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote in a letter to John Ramsey. “No innocent person should have to endure such an extensive trial in the court of public opinion.”
John spoke to the media after the family was cleared. “I think the people that are in charge of the investigation are focused on that, and that gives me a lot of comfort,” he told KUSA-TV, an NBC affiliate in Denver. He added: “Certainly we are grateful that they acknowledged that we, based on that, certainly could not have been involved.”
“But the most important thing is that we now have very, very solid evidence — and that’s always been my hope, at least in the recent past — that would lead us to the killer eventually.”
In 2015, Boulder police chief Mark Beckner spoke about how he disagreed with the Ramseys’ being cleared.
“Exonerating anyone based on a small piece of evidence that has not yet been proved to even be connected to the crime is absurd.” He also stated that the unknown DNA from JonBenet’s clothing “has got to be the focus of the investigation” at this point in time and that, until one can prove otherwise, “the suspect is the donator of that unknown DNA.”
In 2016, Gordon Coombes, a former investigator for the Boulder County District Attorney’s office, also questioned total absolution of the Ramseys, stating, “We all shed DNA all the time within our skin cells. It can be deposited anywhere at any time for various reasons, reasons that are benign. To clear somebody just on the premise of touch DNA, especially when you have a situation where the crime scene wasn’t secure at the beginning … really is a stretch.”
A pedophile named Gary Oliva was imprisoned in 2016 for possessing child pornography. He received a ten year term.
Since he has been in prison, he has confessed multiple times to killing JonBenet. Gary has written to an old classmate and has many times mentioned JonBenet. The classmate Michael Vail spoke to the media about a phone call he had with Gary.
“In that phone call – I hadn’t talked to him for quite some time – I was on friendly terms and I wasn’t bringing up JonBenét,” he said.
“But right away, he brings up that he wants more photographs of JonBenét. He wants me to send him photographs of JonBenét. And I told him, ‘I don’t think I can do that.’
“And he told me, ‘But she’s my Jesus Christ. She’s my religious right. And people in prison have a religious right to pursue their religious beliefs.’
“He just has this fascination with this girl,” added Vail. “It’s bizarre.
“I can’t believe he hasn’t been arrested for [her murder].
“To me, there’s no doubt in my mind that he did this.
“I’m puzzled and there’s so much evidence.”
These are some excerpts from other letters that Gary has written:
“I never loved anyone like I did JonBenét and yet I let her slip and her head bashed in half and I watched her die,” Oliva wrote in one message.
“It was an accident. Please believe me. She was not like the other kids.”
“JonBenét completely changed me and removed all evil from me,” he wrote in another.
“Just one look at her beautiful face, her glowing beautiful skin, and her divine God-body, I realized I was wrong to kill other kids. Yet by accident, she died and it was my fault.”
Gary has been investigated for any tie to JonBenet’s case for years. He apparently called Michael on December 26, 1996 (before JonBenet’s death made the media) and said “I hurt a little girl.”
Michael has said that he called police on December 27, 1996 and told them what Gary had said.
Boulder Police Department investigators never responded to his tip. He reported the call for a second time three months later and again was met with silence.
John Ramsey has spoken about Gary to the media.
“The Boulder police were the biggest obstacle to finding the killer, that’s for sure,” said John.
“Very early on […] interesting fact, the Boulder District Attorney [Alex Hunter] called our detectives with the Oliva lead.
“He said he knew the police wouldn’t follow up but asked that we follow up on it.
“[Oliva] definitely made it to the top of my list [of suspects] when I first learned of him.“
Gary attended a vigil for JonBenet that was held one year after her death. He also had ties to an address just 13 homes away from the Ramseys’ where he collected his mail and was often spotted drinking in the parking lot.
He was one of 38 registered sex offenders found to have been living within a two-mile radius of the Ramsey family in 1996.
In 1990, Gary was charged with sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl.
The following year, he was charged with attempted murder after he tried to strangle his mother with a telephone cord in Pass, Oregon.
During this attack Gary threatened his mom, warning: “I should have killed you a long time ago.”
He also stated: “When the sheriff arrives, they will find you dead.”
“Oliva removed a butcher knife from the drawer and had it in his possession,” reads the report. “Oliva also pulled a telephone cord loose from a telephone and wrapped it around his mother’s neck and began tightening it.”
He ran off before police arrived but was later caught and jailed for 17 months.
He was arrested for a third time – this time in Boulder – on December 12, 2000. When he was arrested, he was found with a stun gun in his possession, along with a photograph of JonBenét, news clippings about the case, and a poem he’d written about the girl, titled: “Ode to JonBenét.”
When he was arrested in 2016, his phone yielded approximately 695 images depicting child pornography. Details about the images are redacted in the report.
Additionally, there were 335 photos of and relating to JonBenét.
“Some were regular photographs of her likely found online,” reads the report. “Of those photographs, 19 were images of JonBenét’s autopsy like from photographs that had previously leaked to the press in years past.
“There were also many photographs of what appear to be shrines to JonBenét Ramsey. It is unknown where these shrines are located or if they were created by Oliva or not.”
Two handwriting experts, Mozelle Martin and Dawn McCarty, analysed both the ransom note from the Ramsey house and letters written by Gary.
Martin and McCarty each conducted an independent handwriting analysis of the note and Gary’s letters and determined that Gary “most likely” authored the Ramsey ransom letter.
On a scale of 1 through 5 – with 1 being a definitive, identical match to the ransom note – both experts ranked Gary at a 1.75.
“The first thing I look for is similarities, so I start with the spacing, size, slant, margins, and things like that,” said Martin.
“And then I look for the anomalies or consistent inconsistencies; things that pop out or are very unique and different, and found so many consistent anomalies in both samples of Gary’s letters and the ransom note.
“When you overlay some of those letters and words – words and letters from different eras of writing – and they line up so well, that’s a loud pronouncement in my profession.”
McCarty added: “And you can’t make this up […] two separate sets of documents by two different authors that have the exact same spacing and all the consistent inconsistencies, how could that possibly be?
“There’s too many things that are just hard to ignore.
“That doesn’t mean to say he 100% wrote the ransom note, but it does call for a serious and more thorough investigation into Gary Oliva.”
SOURCE LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_JonBen%C3%A9t_Ramsey
http://web.dailycamera.com/extra/ramsey/1997/10/24-1.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna14379566
https://johnmarkkarr.com/
https://www.the-sun.com/news/8656286/pedophile-gary-oliva-confessed-killing-jonbenet-ramsey-prison/
https://www.the-sun.com/news/8499053/graphic-jonbenet-ramsey-drawings-killer-confessed-jail-letters/
https://www.the-sun.com/news/9797920/jonbenet-ramsey-update-ransom-note-handwriting-gary-oliva/