JonBenét Ramsey
JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was an American child beauty queen who was murdered aged 6 in her family’s home in Colorado. The case remains unsolved and open. The case received heavy local and international media coverage due not only to the bizarre evidence found but also the police handling of the case. JonBenet’s beauty career and her parents wealth
JonBenet’s mother states that she realised her daughter was missing after finding a 2.5 page long ransom note demanding money. The note was unusually long, was written using stationary from they Ramsey home and had unusual use of punctuation. Police later stated this note was probably staged.
The only people known to be in the house were JonBenet’s two parents and older brother. Following the discovery of the note JonBenet’s mother called the police at 5.52am, police found no signs of forced entry however the locked basement was not searched and no precautions were taken to prevent crime scene contamination in the house. Visitors entered and exited the house disrupting any potential forensic trails. At 1pm a detective asked JonBenet’s father and a family friend of the Ramseys to search the house, JonBenet’s father unlocked and searched the basement and found his daughters’s body. JonBenet’s mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was wrapped around her wrists and neck and her torso was covered by a blanket. Her body was taken upstairs, further contaminating the crime scene.
The autopsy showed JonBenet has been killed by strangulation and a skull fracture, a garrote was still tied around her neck when her body was found. Sexual assault could not be ruled out and there was evidence of a vaginal injury. The autopsy also revealed JonBenet had eaten pineapple a few hours before her death- photographs of the home show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table but neither her mother nor father remembered putting the bowl there or giving JonBenet pineapple, JonBenet’s brother’s fingerprints were on the bowl despite her parents maintaining that he slept through the entire night until the police arrived.
In December 2003, investigators established a mixed blood DNA sample from blood found on JonBenet’s underwear, it did not belong to any of her family members but also did not match positively to any DNA sample on record. It was revealed that the DNA contained genetic markers from two individuals other than JonBenet.
Initial investigations focussed on the Ramsey parents as suspects but by 1997 had over 1,600 people of interest. Despite many theories and vast media speculation the case remains unsolved to this day.
