There is new movement in the case of JonBenet Ramsey, the six-year-old beauty queen. For over two decades, the case has remained unsolved. Here is everything you need to know.
Who is JonBenet Ramsey?
JonBenet was a six-year old beauty queen born on August 6 in Atlanta Georgia in 1996 to wealthy parents Patsy and John Ramsey.
The pretty blonde beauty queen was just six years old when she was mysteriously murdered inside her family home.
How was she murdered?
When JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement on Boxing Day by her father John, she had been bludgeoned and strangled.
While Santa Claus had gifted her a brand-new bicycle that year, JonBenet would never get the chance to ride it again.
Her body was hidden beneath a white blanket and she had a nylon cord around her neck.
Her wrists had been bound above her head and her mouth was covered by duct tape.
The previous day had been as exciting as any other Christmas for the Ramsey clan.
After trying out her bicycle for the first time, JonBenet and the rest of the family – John, his wife Patsy, and their son Burke, then nine – had gone for dinner at a friend’s home.
When the Ramseys returned home that evening, John carried a sleeping JonBenet up to her room and Patsy helped put her to bed.
But that was the last time they saw their daughter alive. The next morning, JonBenet was reported missing.
Eight hours later, her body was discovered in the basement. She had been murdered.
JonBenet suffered a fracture to the skull and had been sexually assaulted. She also had been strangled.
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.
Who killed JonBenet?
Suspicion immediately fell on the family. A ransom note found at the scene raised more questions than answers.
The three-page note – which was handwritten – claimed to be from a foreign faction that was demanding money for the return of JonBenet.
The note asked for $118,000 to avoid harm befalling the child – the sum was the exact amount of John’s bonus that year.
In a twist, the pages used for the ransom note had been torn from a pad that Patsy kept by the telephone.
A jury voted in 1999 to charge John and Patsy with child abuse resulting in the death of their daughter – but the charges were never pursued and DNA evidence taken from JonBenet’s clothes later cleared them both.
The DNA came from an unknown male and could not be matched to anyone who had been near the scene or handled
JonBenet’s body. It was not a match to John, either.
In 2008, the district attorney issued an apology to John and Patsy – saying they were exonerated of any criminal wrongdoing in relation to the death of JonBenet.
While John and Patsy faced their own battle with doubters, JonBenet’s brother Burke also came under cruel suspicion.
In a controversial CBS television show that aired in September 2016, forensic pathologist Dr Werner Spitz outrageously alleged there was reason to believe the then-nine-year-old struck JonBenet with a heavy flashlight and accidentally killed her.
Burke has since settled a $150 million defamation lawsuit in response to the unsubstantiated claim.
In a rare interview – given on Dr Phil in September 2016 – Burke gave an insight into what happened on the morning that his sister was found dead. ‘The first thing I remember is my mum bursting in my room, really frantic, saying: “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” Running around my room – now I know looking for JonBenet,’ Burke recalled.
‘The next thing I remember is a police officer coming into my room and shining a flashlight.’
The software engineer subsequently came under fire for appearing to smile as he recollected the events of that fateful morning.
Burke also told the show that his unwillingness to be in the public eye came from the chaos in the aftermath of his sister’s death.
‘For a long time, the media basically made our lives crazy. It’s hard to miss the cameras and news trucks in your front yard. And we’d go to the supermarket sometimes and there’d be a tabloid newspaper with my picture, JonBenet’s picture, plastered on the front. They would follow us around,’ he said.
JonBenet’s parents always maintained a stranger had killed their little girl, and in 2006 it seemed they may be proved right when a man confessed.
A 41-year-old teacher named John Mark Karr was arrested in Thailand after saying he loved JonBenet, was with her the night she died, and that her death was accidental.
But quickly his ‘confession’ failed to ring true. Karr claimed to have drugged JonBenet, but an autopsy failed to find any drugs in her system.
He also couldn’t explain how he had managed to gain access to the Ramsey family home.
Most compellingly, DNA evidence did not connect Karr to the crime scene, and so he wasn’t charged.
But in a bizarre interview that aired on the 2016 US TV show Investigation Discovery’s series JonBenet: An American Murder Mystery, Karr, then 51, stuck to his story.
‘Nobody wanted that little girl to die that night – nobody. Her death was an accident. I was with her when she died. But I was not the person who caused it,’ he said, explaining ‘panic’ had ensued after her death.
‘How she was found, that’s not how she died. Where she was found in that basement is not where she died,’ he added.
Karr also said JonBenet’s body was ‘tampered with in a bid to cover up who the killer was’.
‘Something happened to her [and I] had to take care of it,’ he told the program.
‘I have always been able to fix things. Nobody came in there and did a paedo-erotic thing to that little girl, but it was made to look as though it was done that way.’
Karr – who later made headlines after identifying as a female – also claimed the kidnap letter found at the Ramsey house was fake and simply there to make her death look like a ‘botched kidnapping’.
Another reported suspect includes a Father Christmas impersonator called Bill McReynolds.
Two nights before JonBenet’s death, he was at the Ramsey house dressed as the jolly old bearded man.
He reportedly gave JonBenet a card that read:
‘You will receive a very special gift after Christmas.’
The message led some to believe he was the killer.
McReynolds claimed he was innocent – and there is no evidence he was guilty – and he died in 2002.
Another reported potential suspect was the local electrician Michael Helgroth who caught wind of the fact he might be a suspect and committed suicide.
He was cleared by DNA.
In most recent news, there is finally the chance of closure after town drifter Gary Oliva allegedly confessed to the crime.
On Friday, January 11 DailyMailTV reported that the 54-year-old is responsible for JonBenet’s death.
Oliva has been a long-time suspect and was previously cleared by DNA testing.
He’s currently serving a 10-year sentence in a Colorado prison for child pornography. He is due for parole in 2020.
The publication obtained letters from the the 54-year-old convicted pedophile to his schoolmate, where he wrote that he killed the six-year-old by accident.
He allegedly wrote:
“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.”
“It was an accident. Please believe me. She was not like the other kid.”
The authorities have been notified of the findings.
Police spokesperson Laurie Ogden told DailyMailTV, “The Boulder Police Department is aware of and has investigated Mr. Olivas’ potential involvement in this case.”
“We have passed the additional information you provided onto investigators. We will not comment on any actions or the status of this investigation.”
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