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Killing of JonBenét Ramsey

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File:Jonbenet2.jpg
JonBenét Ramsey
This file may be deleted after 2006-08-24.

JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was a six-year-old girl and beauty pageant queen who was found murdered in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado, United States, eight hours after being reported missing. The case drew national attention when no suspect was charged and suspicions turned to possible family involvement. The tantalizing clues of the case have inspired numerous books and articles that attempt to solve the mystery.

On August 16, 2006, the case returned to the news with the arrest of an unemployed American schoolteacher in Bangkok, Thailand. The suspect was identified as 41-year-old John Mark Karr, who is reported to have admitted being present when JonBenét died. He is to be extradited to the US and charged with 1st degree murder. [1] Karr was seemingly obsessed with JonBenét and described her death as an accident.[2]

Life

File:JonBenet.jpg
A pageant picture of JonBenét Ramsey

Ramsey was born at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and moved with family to Colorado when she was a year old. Her name is a combination of her father's first and middle names, John Bennett. Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, enrolled her daughter in a variety of different beauty pageants in several states. In addition, she funded some of the contests in which Ramsey was involved. Patsy Ramsey was herself a former beauty queen, having held the title Miss West Virginia 1977; her sister was Miss West Virginia 1980. John Ramsey, JonBenét's father, is a wealthy businessman, president, and chief executive officer of Access Graphics, a computer services company. The family had a lakefront summer home in Charlevoix, Michigan.

Ramsey held a number of child beauty contest titles, including (in alphabetical order): America's Royal Miss, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, Little Miss Charlevoix Michigan, Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Merry Christmas, Little Miss Sunburst, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.

John Ramsey stated that he found his daughter's body in the basement of their fifteen room home in Boulder on the day after Christmas, December 26, 1996.

Ramsey's grave lies in Saint James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, next to the grave of her mother Patsy Ramsey (died 2006), and Elizabeth "Beth" Ramsey (died 1992), a child from John's first marriage who was killed in an automobile accident. JonBenét's grandmother is also buried nearby. A total of thirteen Ramsey headstones lie in the cemetery.

Murder case

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On December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey (according to her own testimony) discovered that her daughter was missing after finding a three-page ransom note demanding $118,000 inside the family residence. Despite specific instructions that the police and friends not be contacted, she telephoned the police and invited over family and friends. The local police conducted a cursory search of the house but did not find any obvious signs of a break-in or forced entry. The note suggested that the ransom collection would be monitored and JonBenét would be returned as soon as the money was obtained.

In the afternoon of the same day, Det. Arndt asked Fleet White, a friend of the Ramseys, to take John Ramsey and search the house for "anything unusual." John Ramsey and two of his friends started their search in the basement first. There in the wine cellar John found his daughter's body covered in a white blanket. He carried her body up the stairs and placed her onto the floor of the foyer. Det. Arndt then moved the body to the base of the Christmas tree. Later that evening, the police authorized the removal of the body by issue of a search warrant. Typically, this procedure would be performed under consent of the parents.

The results of the autopsy revealed that JonBenét was killed by strangulation and a skull fracture. A garrote made from a length of nylon cord and the handle of a paintbrush had been used to strangle her; her skull had suffered severe blunt trauma; she may have been sexually assaulted. The official cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma. The other half of the paint brush was found in a tub of Patsy Ramsey's art supplies. [3] It was noted by experts that the construction of the garrote required a special knowledge of knots. Autopsy also revealed that the child had eaten pineapple only a few hours before the murder, of which her mother claimed to be unaware.

Clues

Police investigations within and around the residence discovered the following clues which were, by some, interpreted as evidence of intrusion:

  • two dissimilar footprints in the wine cellar that did not match any of the shoes in the residence
  • a third footprint of an unknown person on the outer part of the window of the room by the wine cellar (John Ramsey claimed that the window was malfunctioning)
  • a possible footprint on a suitcase, placed directly below the same window
  • a rope that was foreign to the residence found on the bed of the guestroom located near JonBenét's room
  • physical marks on JonBenét's body that suggested the use of a stun gun
  • blood sample on JonBenét's underwear that did not match any known suspect

Note

Investigators determined that the lengthy ransom note was written on a pad of paper that belonged to the Ramsey family. A Sharpie felt-tip pen similar to the one used to write the note was found in a container on the Ramseys' kitchen counter, along with other pens of the same type [2]. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on the same pad of paper, a practice sheet of the ransom note was found. No fingerprints could be detected on the note. The text of the note had many odd features, including the fact that $118,000 was demanded. Perhaps coincidentally, John Ramsey earned a bonus that year of $118,117.50. Also during investigation of the home, police reported that John Ramsey's Bible was found on his desk in his office open to Psalm 118. The police regarded the ransom price a suspiciously low amount of money in proportion to John Ramsey's income.

Several handwriting samples were taken from a number of suspects who might have written the ransom note. Forensic analysis cleared everyone except for Patsy Ramsey, whose writing style bore some resemblance to the ransom note.

Later developments

In December 2003, forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on JonBenét's underwear to establish a DNA profile. The DNA belongs to an unknown male. The DNA was submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database containing over 1.6 million DNA profiles, mainly from convicted felons. The sample has yet to find a match in the database, although it continues to be checked for partial matches on a weekly basis.

Later investigations also discovered that there were more than 100 burglaries in the Ramseys' neighborhood in the months prior to JonBenét's murder, and that 38 registered sex offenders were living within a 2-mile radius of the Ramsey's home.[4]

JonBenét's mother, Patsy Ramsey, died of ovarian cancer on June 24, 2006[5], at the age of 49. She had been battling cancer off and on after first being diagnosed in 1993. She had a recurrence in 2003. She was aware at the time of her death that the Boulder County (Colorado) District Attorney's Office was investigating a suspect in Bangkok, Thailand.

August 2006 arrest

Main article: John Mark Karr

On August 16, 2006 a suspect was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. The suspect is 41-year-old John Mark Karr, a former second grade teacher.[6] Authorities reportedly tracked him down through the internet. [7] Karr admits to having been with Ramsey when she died, but he claims that her death was an accident. When asked if he was an innocent man, he responded, "No." [8] Karr was seemingly obsessed with JonBenét and stated that he had fallen in love with her.[9] Karr claims it was a kidnapping gone wrong, saying he was going to demand ransom in the amount of $118,000. This goes along with the claim of the Ramseys that they had found a ransom note near their daughter's body. Currently, Karr is being extradited to Colorado for further investigation. John Ramsey has said that he does not think the family knows the suspect, but declined to elaborate. He also stated that before his wife died, authorities had made them aware they were very close to an arrest. [10]

Authorities have not revealed any evidence they have linking Karr to the murder other than his confession, and they have refused to publicly discuss the possibility of a false confession. Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, has said that she was with him in Alabama at the time of the murder. [11]

Defamation lawsuits

Several defamation lawsuits have ensued since JonBenét's murder. Lin Wood was the attorney for John and Patsy Ramsey and has prosecuted defamation claims on their behalf against St. Martin's Press, Time, Inc., The Fox News Channel, American Media, Inc., Star, Globe, Court TV and The New York Post.

Speculations

In 1999, the Republican Governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, told the parents of JonBenet Ramsey to "quit hiding behind their attorneys, quit hiding behind their PR firm". Bill Owens has not made a public apology for his allegations to JonBenet's father John Ramsey or his disceased wife.[3]

Case speculation by experts, media and the parents has supported different theories. For a long time, the local police supported the theory that her mother had accidentally killed JonBenét in a fit of rage after the girl had wet her bed on the same night. Another theory was that John Ramsey had been sexually abusing his daughter and murdered her as a cover. John Ramsey's son Burke Ramsey was also targeted by speculation, and asked to testify at the grand jury.[4] Police suspicions were initially concentrated almost exclusively on the members of the Ramsey family, yet the girl's parents had never shown any prior signs of aggression, nor any suspicious behavior towards their children.

The Ramseys have invariably held that the crime was committed by an intruder, and hired John Douglas, former head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, to examine the case. He concluded that the Ramseys were not involved in the murder, and that it was unlikely that anyone would resolve the case. He detailed his arguments in his 2001 book, The Cases That Haunt Us.

Due to the lack of evidence, a grand jury did not indict the Ramseys for any crime. Not long after the murder, the parents moved to a new home in Atlanta. Two of the lead investigators in the case resigned, and there have been accusations of a cover-up in the district attorney's office.

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ "Suspect says Ramsey death 'an accident'". AP via Yahoo!. August 17 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ JonBenét: Anatomy of a Cold Case - Court TV
  4. ^ Erin Moriarty, JonBenet: DNA Rules Out Parents, 26 March 2005.
  5. ^ "JonBenét Ramsey's mother dies". MSNBC/AP. 7 April 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Arrest Sources: Arrest made in JonBenét Ramsey case". CNN. August 16 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Man arrested overseas in JonBenét Ramsey slaying". Boston Herald. August 16 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/17/ramsey.arrest/index.html
  9. ^ "Suspect says Ramsey death 'an accident'". AP via Yahoo!. August 17 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Arrest made in JonBenét Ramsey case". Reuters. August 16 2006. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4190797
  • Hickey, Eric. Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime.
  • M., Ronald and Stephen T. Holmes. Profiling Violent Crimes.

External links

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