JonBenet RamseyInvestigation
ByCharles Montaldo,About.com Guide
JonBenet Ramsey:
Around 5:30 a.m. the morning after Christmas Day, 1996, Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note on the family's back staircase demanding $118,000 for her six-year-old daughter, JonBenet, and called 911. Later that day, John Ramsey discovered JonBenet's body in a spare room in the basement. She had been strangled with a garrote, and her mouth had been bound with duct tape. John Ramsey removed the duct tape and carried her body upstairs.
The Early Investigation:
From the very beginning, the investigation into the death of JonBenet Ramsey focused on members of the family. Boulder, Colorado investigators went to the Atlanta home of the Ramseys to search for clue and served a search warrant on their summer home in Michigan. Police took hair and blood samples from members of the Ramsey family. The Ramseys tell the press "there is a killer on the loose" but Boulder officials downplay the prospect that a killer is threatening city residents.
The Ransom Note:
The investigation into the murder of JonBenet Ramsey focused on the three-page ransom note, which was apparently written on a note pad found in the house. Handwriting samples were taken from the Ramseys and John Ramsey was ruled out as the author of the note, but police could not eliminate Patsy Ramsey as the writer. District Attorney Alex Hunter tells the media that the parents are obviously the focus of the investigation.
Expert Prosecution Task Force:
District attorney Hunter forms an Expert Prosecution Task Force, including forensic expert Henry Lee and DNA expert Barry Scheck. In March, 1997 retired homicide detective Lou Smit, who solved the Heather Dawn Church murder in Colorado Spring, is hired to head the investigation team. Smit's investigation would eventually point to an intruder as the perpetrator, which conflicted with the DA's theory that someone in the family was responsible for JonBenet's death.
Conflicting Theories:
From the beginning of the case, there was a disagreement between investigators and the DA's office about the focus of the investigation. In August 1997, Detective Steve Thomas resigns, saying the DA's office is "thoroughly compromised." In September, Lou Smit also resigns saying he, "cannot in good conscience be a part of the persecution of innocent people." Lawrence Schiller's book, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, describes the feud between police and prosecutors.
Burke Ramsey:
After 15 months of investigation, the Boulder police decide the best way to solve the murder is a grand-jury investigation. In March 1998, police interview John and Patsy Ramsey a second time and do an extensive interview with their 11-year-old son Burke, who was reported as a possible suspect by some in the press. A leak to the news media indicate that Burke's voice could be heard in the background of the 911 call Patsy made, although she said he was asleep until after police arrived.
Grand Jury Convenes:
On Sept. 16, 1998, five months after they were chosen, BoulderCounty grand jurors began their investigation. They heard forensic evidence, analysis of handwriting, DNA evidence, and hair and fiber evidence. They visited the Ramsey's former Boulder home in October 1998. In December of 1998 the grand jury recesses for four month while DNA evidence from other members of the Ramsey family, who were not suspects, can be compared to that found at the scene.
Hunter and Smit Clash:
In February 1999, District Attorney Alex Hunter demanded that detective Lou Smit return evidence that he collected while he worked on the case, including crime scene photographs. Smit refuses "even if I have to go to jail" because he believed the evidence would be destroyed if returned, because it supported the intruder theory. Hunter filed a restraining order and got a court injunction demanding the evidence. Hunter also refused to allow Smit to testify before the grand jury.
Smit Seeks Court Order:
Detective Lou Smit filed a motion asking Judge Roxanne Bailin to allow him to address the grand jury. It is not clear if Judge Bailin granted his motion, but on March 11, 1999, Smit testified before the jury. Later that same month, district attorney Alex Hunter signed an agreement allowing Smit to keep the evidence he had collected in the case, but prohibited Smit from "relaying prior conversations" with Ramsey prosecutors and not interfere with the on-going investigation.
No Indictments Returned:
After a year-long grand jury investigation, DS Alex Hunter announces that no charges will be filed and no one will be indicted for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. At the time, several media reports suggested that it was Smit's testimony that swayed the grand jury to not return an indictment.
The Suspicions Continue: In spite of the grand jury decision, members of the Ramsey family continued to remain under suspicion in the media. The Ramseys adamantly proclaimed their innocence from the very beginning. John Ramsey said the thought that someone in the family could be responsible for JonBenet's murder was "nauseating beyond belief." But those denials did not keep the press from speculating that either Patsy, Burke or John himself were involved.
Burke Not a Suspect: In May 1999, Burke Ramsey was secretly questioned by the grand jury. The following day, authorities finally said that Burke was not a suspect, only a witness. As the grand jury began to wind down its investigation, John and Patsy Ramsey are forced to move from their Atlanta-area home avoid the onslaught of media attention.
Ramseys Fight Back: In March 2002, the Ramseys release their book, "The Death of Innocence," about the battle they have fought to reclaim their innocence. The Ramseys filed a series of libel lawsuits against media outlets, including the Star, the New York Post, Time Warner, the Globe and the publishers of the book A Little Girl's Dream? A JonBenet Ramsey Story.
Federal Judge Clears Ramseys: In May 2003, an Atlanta federal judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against John and Patsy Ramsey saying there was no evidence showing the parents killed JonBenet and abundant evidence that an intruder killed the child. The judge criticized the police and the FBI for creating a media campaign designed to make the family look guilty.
Evidence voluminous but tricky
By Karen Augé
Denver Post Staff Writer
Oct. 14, 1999 - They're not even sure how she died. Or when.
And not having the how and when is just one thing that's made it difficult to prove the who in the mystery of JonBenét Ramsey's death.
With no witnesses, no confession and no obvious motive for ending the first-grader's life, the grand jurors probablyly found it difficult to indict a suspect.
But, by all accounts, there are literally roomsful of physical evidence - as of June 1998, Boulder police had logged 1,058 pieces of evidence, tested 500 pieces, interviewed 590 people and logged all their findings in a 30,000-pages case file. That's when police made its pitch to Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter to take the case to a grand jury.
According to search warrant affidavits, investigators removed a veritable warehouse of items from the Ramsey homes in Boulder and Charlevoix, Mich.
Some of the more noteworthy evidence in the case includes:
- The ransom note. The three-page message from "a small foreign faction'' demanded the odd sum of $118,000 for sparing JonBenét from beheading; it urged John Ramsey not to "try to grow a brain'' but to "use that good southern common sense of yours'' and be rested before making the "exhausting'' delivery.
Detectives quickly determined that the note had been written on a pad of paper found in the Ramseys' house, with a Sharpie pen also found in the home.
Convinced that the ransom note had most likely been written at the house, investigators next took writing samples from dozens of people, including John, Patsy Ramsey and Burke Ramsey, John Ramsey's children from his first marriage, former friend Fleet White, Bill McReynolds, who portrayed Santa Claus at the Ramseys' Christmas party, neighbor Joe Barnhill, and others.
Handwriting experts from CBI eliminated John Ramsey as the note's author, but they couldn't do the same for Patsy. Although they collected at least five handwriting samples from Patsy, along with "historic'' samples of things she wrote before JonBenét's death, they could neither eliminate her as the writer, nor say definitively that she was.
Chet Ubowski of CBI wrote of one of her samples that "This handwriting showed indications that the writer was Patsy Ramsey.'' Ubowski told investigators that the samples she gave "do not suggest the full range of her handwriting.''
- The autopsy findings.
When he examined JonBenét's body, Boulder County Coroner John Meyer noted she was wearing a long-sleeved, white knit shirt with a silver star embroidered on the front, and a gold necklace with a cross on it. Her blond hair was in two ponytails and she wore a yellow metal band on her right middle finger, a yellow ID bracelet that bore the name "JonBenét'' on one side and the date 12/25/96'' on the other side.
On the palm of her left hand, someone had drawn a red ink heart.
According to Det. Linda Arndt, who witnessed the autopsy, green Christmas garland, like the garland decorating the spiral staircase in the house, was tangled in her hair.
JonBenét was wearing long underwear, and Benath the long underwear was a pair of white panties with printed rosebuds and the words "Wednesday'' in the waistband. There were urine stains and several red stains. According to a search warrant affidavit, Dr. Meyer told Arndt the stains looked like blood.
Meyer found evidence of vaginal injury, but no semen was found on the body. The coroner also reported that the pubic area appeared to have been wiped with a cloth.
He also noted that a white cord was tied around her right wrist, a similar cord was tied around her neck. Seventeen inches of cord hung from the knot, and the end was tied "in multiple loops around a length of a round tan-brown wooden stick'' according to the coroner's report.
The stick was stained with paint spots and varnish.
He found "deep ligature furrow encircles the entire neck'' and there were hemorrhages and abrasions around the marks, the autopsy report notes.
She had a skull fracture 8.5 inches long. Dr. Meyer was not able to determine whether JonBenét died of a skull fracture or strangulation. And he could not pinpoint a time of death.
- "Foreign'' DNA taken from JonBenét's underpants and fingernails. The DNA left in a stain found in the child's underwear reportedly doesn't match DNA samples provided by dozens of family and friends.
As of May, detectives were collecting additional samples from people who might have had contact with JonBenét before her death, in what sources said was an effort to eliminate as many potential suspects as possible.
- Motive - or lack thereof. Even those convinced that a member of her own family killed JonBenét can't say for sure why they would have done that.
- An imprint, found near JonBenét's body, that detectives believe was made by a Hi-Tec hiking shoe. Reportedly, no one in her family, no one among the family's friends and acquaintances owns a shoe that matches that print.
- A broken window in the basement. Investigators don't know how long the window had been broken, but John Ramsey told investigators he had broken the window once when he locked himself out of the house. Investigators found a spider web was found outside on the window-well grate.
- A palm print found on the wine cellar door. None of the prints taken from family and friends matches the one left on the door.
- Contradictions. John and Patsy Ramsey repeatedly told reporters and police that they put their sleeping daughter to bed as soon as they arrived home from visiting friends on Christmas night. But Coroner John Meyer found pineapple in her stomach, and a bowl of pineapple was sitting in the family's kitchen. The coroner's findings suggest JonBenét had eaten after the family returned home that night. And, the Ramseys both said their son, Burke, was asleep the morning of Dec. 26 until his father awakened him to take him to the Whites' house after police were called. But an enhanced version of the tape of Patsy's 911 call seems to reveal Burke's voice in the background, asking what's going on.
- Items taken from the Ramseys homes during several searches. These items include:
- A flashlight, found on a counter in the Ramseys' kitchen. Sources say investigators believe it could have cause a wound like JonBenét's skull fracture? It was wiped clean of any prints, according to sources.
- The broken paintbrush used to fashion a crude "garrotte'' was linked to Patsy Ramsey's art supplies.
- Duct tape, taken from JonBenét's mouth by her father when he found the body. The tape was analyzed by FBI and detectives purchased identical tape from McGuckin Hardware in Boulder. An Atlanta-area hardware store clerk told investigators that she had helped Patsy Ramsey find duct tape in the store sometime in December 1996, according to a book on the case, "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town.'' But a search of the store's receipts turned up no record of a duct-tape purchase by Patsy Ramsey, the book's author, Lawrence Schiller wrote.
- Computer, computer discs, CD-roms, floppy discs, videotapes and other items were taken in a search for child or even adult pornography. CBI investigator Charles Davis helped Boulder police sift through the computer evidence, but they found nothing. In September 1997, the district attorney's office stated publicly that no pornography had been found on John Ramsey's computer.
- An address book with a sailboat cover from the kitchen.
- 13 recipe cards.
- A 5-inch by 8-inch legal pad and various notepads, one of which police believe is the pad the ransom note was written on; pens and pencils; the white blanket that was over JonBent's body when she was found in the wine cellar; a Santa Claus suit; newspaper and magazine articles; a sleeping mask; golf clubs; U.S. Navy Officer Candidate school book; a toilet seat lid; cigarette butts; a letter to Santa; "My Science Project'' from Burke's room; window grate and pieces of a broken window in the basement; JonBenét's bedding; a broken paint brush; rope from the backyard; pink Barbie nightgown that was reportedly found next to JonBenét's body; carpeting; green garland, like that found in JonBenét's hair; articles of JonBenét's clothing; baseball bats; a flash light; and door locks.
- Witnesses even saw a Boulder detective carrying a door out of the Ramsey's ChautauquaPark home during the investigation.
- More than a year after JonBenét's death, her parents gave police the clothing they were wearing the night they put her to bed around 10 p.m.
A timeline of the JonBenét Ramsey case
By The Denver Post
Oct. 14, 1999
1996
Wednesday, Dec. 25
The last time JonBenét's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, say they saw their 6-year-old daughter alive. JonBenét heads to bed at the family home in Boulder's exclusive Chautauqua neighborhood. In addition to her parents, JonBenét's 9-year-old brother, Burke, is at the home that night.
Thursday, Dec. 26
Patsy Ramsey gets up to make coffee around 5:30 a.m. and reports finding a 2 1/2-page note on a back staircase of the house. The note says JonBenét has been kidnapped and demands $118,000 in cash. The Ramseys call police, who begin an investigation into what they believe is a kidnapping. That afternoon, John Ramsey searches the home and discovers JonBenét's body in a spare room in the basement that was used to hide Christmas presents. She had been strangled with a garrote, and her mouth and neck had been bound with duct tape. At 10:45 p.m. the BoulderCounty coroner's staff removes JonBenét's body from the house.
Monday, Dec. 30
Police say they have taken blood and hair samples from John Ramsey and other members of the family. Police also say that John Andrew Ramsey and Melinda Ramsey - JonBenét's adult half-siblings - were out of town the day of the murder.
Tuesday, Dec. 31
JonBenét is buried in Marietta, Ga., next to her half-sister Elizabeth, who was killed in a 1992 car crash.
1997
Wednesday, Jan. 1
In their first public comment on the case, John and Patsy Ramsey grant an extensive interview to CNN in which Patsy Ramsey proclaims "there is a killer on the loose." John Ramsey calls the idea that he or other members of his family could have committed the crime "nauseating beyond belief." That night, five detectives from Boulder fly to Atlanta.