JonBenét Ramsey was an American child beauty queen who was mysteriously murdered inside her family home in 1996.
Her father, John, found the 6-year-old found bludgeoned and strangled to death in the basement on Boxing Day.
According to the coroner’s report, her official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma" and was viewed as a homicide.
Ariana quickly responded to the backlash in a tweet, writing, "Yeah no I deleted it very quickly and understand that it’s not at all funny. This was out of pocket and I sincerely apologise."
Middlebrook –who has been friends with Grande since 2015– also deleted the Instagram post.
This isn't the first time the 26-year-old has been the subject of controversy.
Grande has been accused of cultural appropriation and “blackfishing”, because of her use of traditionally "black" language.
In 2015, the "Thank U Next" singer was caught on camera at a doughnut shop saying, “I hate Americans. I hate America!” and licking and spitting on a bunch of doughnuts.
Ariana apologised in a heartfelt statement to Us Weekly.
"I am EXTREMELY proud to be an American and I’ve always made it clear that I love my country. What I said in a private moment with my friend, who was buying the doughnuts, was taken out of context and I am sorry for not using more discretion with my choice of words...that being said to let me once again apologize if I have offended anyone with my poor choice of words."