[WARNING: Graphic Content]
(August 6 1990 - December 25 1996)
Patricia “Patsy” Ramsey found a note on her kitchen staircase December 26 1996, it was two and a half pages long and handwritten. The note demanded $118,000 for the safe return of her kidnapped six year old child, JonBénet.
The note contained specific instructions against contacting the police but Patsy called them at 5.52am. She also called family and friends. Two officers responded to the 9-1-1 call and arrived within three minutes. They conducted a cursory search of the house but didn’t find any signs of forced entry.
Patsy’s husband and JonBénet’s father, John began making arrangements to meet the ransom. A forensics team was dispatched to the house. The team initially believed that she had been kidnapped, so her bedroom was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. No other precautions were taken to prevent contamination of evidence however, in the rest of the house. Friends and the family’s minister arrived at the home to support the Ramsey's. Victim advocates also arrived at the scene. A detective arrived around 8am with the goal of awaiting kidnapper(s) instructions, but there was never an attempt by anyone to claim the money.
At 1pm, Det. Arndt asked John and a family friend to search the house and see if “anything is amiss.” They started their search in the basement, John opened a latched door previously overlooked and found his daughter’s body in one of the rooms.
John picked up his daughter and carried her body upstairs. In his apparent grief, he contaminated the crime scene by moving the body. Critical evidence was lost. Meanwhile, visitors had been picking up and cleaning surfaces in the kitchen, potentially destroying further evidence.
The family were then immediately suspects. Each of the Ramsey’s (including their son Burke [9]) provided DNA and handwriting samples to the police. All three also participated in interviews following JonBénet’s death, but no concrete evidence could be found to charge anyone and the trail went cold.
DNA evidence extracted in December 2003 was found belonging to an unknown male person and excluded the Ramsey family; the DNA was searched through C.O.D.I.S. but no match was found. John Karr, a 41-yo elementary school teacher, was arrested in Thailand on Aug 15 2006 when he falsely confessed to murdering JonBénet. He claimed that he had drugged, sexually assaulted, and accidentally killed her, however he was not a DNA match to the sample either, nor did the evidence he gave go any further than basic facts that were publicly known about the case. No charges have ever been filed for the murder of JonBénet Ramsey and her killer has sadly never been found.
Okay so I've been working on a new story (original instead of a fanfic, which is different) and I was thinking of doing a Victorian era murder mystery.
But... that topic is always overdone, so I had to add a twist. I wanted to write about high society ladies trying to solve a mystery of serial murders and discover that identity of the killer in the end. But I wanted to add a twist. The serial killer their chasing? Jack the Ripper, a killer known for brutality murdering many prostitutes in 1800s England.
But I wanted to turn it more. Instead of it being in the perspective of another prostitute who witnesses the effect of the killings first hand, I want to write in the perspective of a high society lady who reads about it in the paper and begins forming theory after theory as to who this elusive killer is, but the problem is that no one will take her seriously for she's read too many mystery novels and lives inside her mind.
But I had to figure out more of a plot. Jack the Ripper is known for having near perfect cuts and the ability to remove different body parts and organs with professional skill. But the thing that no one can figure out is how he managed to do all this without letting any blood be discovered on the victim. The only time he was ever sloppy in any way is when he was interrupted in the middle of attempting to decapitate a prostitute, leaving her body warm and head half off.
So I started thinking. No blood, elusive and mysterious, and only attacked at night.
My conclusion? Jack the Ripper was a vampire.
This is where it turned from story ideas to theories of a centuries old spree of killings that was never solved.
I'll never forget that time when I was at a Scholastic Book Fair at school and was browsing the books being the Nerd I Am and in the distance saw a book that said "ZODIAC" in big letters on the side and when I rushed over I saw it was talking about Zodiac Signs as I'm astrology and not the unknown serial killer. I was so disappointed that I didn't even bother to read the synopsis because I wanted to read about one of the most elusive serial killers alever and not star patterns.
I literally went to a book fair, at school, and thought they we're going to give elementary students a novel on the Zodiac Killer.
This story probably says a lot about me... I was a weird kid... I still haven't found a book like that on the actual Zodiac Killer...