JonBenet Ramsey Case

[robhouse]

Coming up on the 15th anniversary of the JonBenet Ramsey murder. The parents have been exonerated by negative DNA match results. There are no suspects that I am aware of. To me, the most likely scenario is a botched kidnapping attempt by an intruder to the house. I think this is one of the most fascinating unsolved mysteries. Does anyone have any thoughts?

[sdreid]

Has it only been 15 years? It seems more like 50.

If you don't want people to think you're guilty then don't act like you're guilty.

[mariab]

The DNA-based "exoneration" and the DA who initiated this are a complete joke. With a new DA in Boulder, Colorado the case has been reopened since 2010, with the parents and the son as suspects.
Both parents are connected to the murder/staging of the body through fibers, plus Pat Ramsey's handwriting fits the ransom note.
There is already this casebook thread on the case: http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=1030.
A good link for information and debate on the case: http://websleuths.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23

[Tom_Wescott]

The parents have only been exonerated by the Boulder DA. There's little question based on more reliable evidence that the murder could only have been an inside job and that Patsy Ramsey was at the heart of it. John Bennett may have been legitimately unaware of what happened at the time, but of course he must have come to have his suspicions. It can't be a coincidence that only after Patsy passed away that the huge propaganda piece about the young man somewhere in Asia who the media claimed for a time was Jon Benet's killer (it was obvious at a glance he couldn't have been) came out in a way to get the public suspicion away from the family. A few years later a Dutch couple who are trace DNA specialists found minute traces of DNA on the underwear that did not belong to the Ramsey's. The traces were so minimal, that they could have belonged to any individual who handled the underwear at any point in its existence, including at the factor where it was manufactured, or the employee who put it on the racks at the store, etc. Much was made about the fact that an unknown DNA was found, but would Patsy's DNA as well as their maid's be found on the underwear as well? Of course! But that's also to be expected since they handled Jon Benet's clothing.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[robhouse]

Hi Tom,

Well, John Bennett is a bit of a shifty dodger, but I don't really believe he had anything to do with it. In any case, he would have been pretty young at the time of the murder. Perhaps you meant to say John Ramsey?

In all seriousness, I have to admit that I am pretty confused on the evidence, but I am not in any way convinced that Patsy had anything to do with the crimes. I think some of the so-called evidence against her (and John) was really just crap reporting by the news frenzy and the fact that the police investigation seemed convinced from the outset that the parents were guilty. They really had the blinders on to following up other avenues of investigation, and there is some convincing pieces of the puzzle that support the theory of an intruder.

I read a bit of the other thread on this but did not get a real sense of the evidence in the case either way. It is a hard one, because you don't know who to trust for facts... they are all quite confusing. I mean the various books on the subject etc.

Can you outline why you think Patsy was guilty, and why the DNA evidence is not conclusive?

Rob H

[Whitechurch]

Also Tom,
What about the ransom amount being the same as the father's yearly bonus?
Any thoughts?

[Wickerman]

I think this is one of the most fascinating unsolved mysteries. Does anyone have any thoughts?

I must admit this is a case I lost interest in. At the time, and for years after, I thought the parents had attempted to create the kidnapping scenario to cover up for the other child, the brother, who had possibly killed Jon-bennet by accident.

Regards, Jon S.

[ChainzCooper]

Also Tom,
What about the ransom amount being the same as the father's yearly bonus?
Any thoughts?

I think a dead giveaway that the parents are involved. No one would have known about this amount except them
Jordan

[tji]

Hi Chainz

I think in all possibility a few people could have found out if they tried hard enough, however analysis of the ransom note does look very damning towards Patsy, from memory I believe even using mistakes that she had made the week before in a letter to the Church wishing people Merry Christmas. I will try and find the piece, it has been a while now.

Even without that though I believe that some letters were very similar to hers and the style not an common one people use. I realise this doesn't mean she personally killed JonBenet but it does seem to indicate it was a family member.


Tracy

[Tom_Wescott]

Ugh, did I write John Bennett again? That's a combination of the fact that I've been reading his book, am on pain killers for an eye problem, and the name Jon Benet is in fact a derivative of John Bennett, which is her father's first and middle name.

Patsy Ramsey is the only person who's handwriting could not be excluded as the author of the ransom note. Incidentally, the pad of paper and pen used to write the note were taken from the second shelf of a bureau not far from the end of the stairs where the note was placed. What's interesting is that the author then put the paper and pen back where they were found. An intruder? I think not.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Tom_Wescott]

Just for the record, I don't believe that John Ramsey had anything to do with the murder and also probably not the cover up. I think for this reason, he's been able to convince people like John Douglas, who are good at reading people. Patsy would subsequently be on drugs and let John do most of the talking. He had two children who were adults by that time and had by all accounts been an excellent father. Patsy, a former beauty queen, was turning 40 the next day. I think this was definitely a factor in whatever happened.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[robhouse]

I didn't know that about the pad and pen. Still, I am not going to come to any conclusion without seeing a more or less complete list of all the facts. I mean, wasn't a window opened in the basement, with debris around it, and a suitcase next to it. Were there bicycle tracks across the snow? I need a more complete list of the facts. I have not read a book on the subject... but the books are rather old anyway, and wouldn't include the recent DNA stuff.
Rob

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Rob. There was a small window in the basement that was broken, but John Ramsey told police he had broken the window by accident some weeks before. This window has been pointed out by investigators hired by the Ramsey's as the only likely point of entry for an intruder. However, this poses serious problems for an intruder theory. For instance, it had been snowing and no foot prints were noticed leading up to the grate outside. In order to access the window, a grate would have to first be removed, and the next morning a large spider web was noticed going across the latch of the gate, which means the gate had not been moved since the spider formed this web. While it's possible that the spider did so after the intruder left through the window and grate, this would mean accepting that in this less than 24 hour period, in very cold and snowy weather, a spider came out and created this web. Also, there's the problem of the light in the basement, which was off when investigators arrived. John Ramsey said that's how he found it. The basement of the Ramsey house was alone the size of an average house. The little room in which Jon Benet's body was found was so off the beaten track that the Ramsey maid didn't even know it existed. Yet, this is where Patsy stored Christmas decorations and she had been accessing this little room in the weeks before the murder. If an intruder came in through the little window he must have used a flashlight to navigate his way to the stairs leading into the house. Problem is, he left this flashlight behind in the kitchen and didn't think to turn on the basement light when leaving. It would be near impossible for someone to navigate the basement in the dark. Then there's the matter of the window itself. If he left through the window he came in, not only was he very agile, but he did so without disturbing the broken glass left on the window sill from when John broke it. This is all extremely suspicious. All the evidence points to there not having been an intruder.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[robhouse]

I don't understand why the DNA evidence is not conclusive. From what little I have read, the DNA scraped from the waistband of her long-johns matched that of a bloodspot found on her underwear. How is that not conclusive? What am I missing?

[robhouse]

Tom, I am just wondering... where are you getting your information from? From what little research I have done, it seems that there is a lot of rumor-type information floating around, which may have come initially from faulty news sources etc.

For example, I got the following from a site on the case:

(See: http://jonbenetramsey.pbworks.com/w/...15/The%20House)

"Snow on the Ground

What Police Reported. Sergeant Paul Reichenbach had arrived at 6:45 AM and searched the outside of the house. He reported no footprints were found in the crusty/frosty snow which covered "much of the grass" (but the brick walkways were clear of snow) (Schiller 1999a:57). Many view this as evidence there could not have been an intruder.

However:

Crime Scene Photos.

But it was later reported "In fact, police photographs taken before 9 a.m. the morning of JonBenet's death show much of the perimeter of the house, including walkways, free of snow." (see photos below)

What Media Reported. Newsweek reported that "there was only patchy snow on the property. JonBenet had ridden her Christmas present, a bike, on the backyard patio the day before" (Glick et al. 1998).

What Judge Carnes Concluded. However, "contrary to media reports that had discredited an intruder theory, based on the lack of a "footprint in the snow," there was no snow covering the sidewalks and walkways to defendants' home on the morning of December 26, 1996. (SMF P 139; PSMF P 139.) Hence, a person walking along these paths would have left no footprints" (Carnes 2003:90).

Precipitation Data. Internet poster Braveheart has done the most careful work in examining the temperature and precipitation data, concluding that one cannot rule out an intruder based on this evidence. Meteorologist Katrina Voss has reached a similar conclusion."


Including crime scene photos taken on the morning her body was found

RH