MURDER: JonBenét Ramsey (PART 2)
JonBenét Ramsey was killed on 26th December 1996 in a most horrific way. In Part 1, we took a look at the at the Ramseys an their youngest daughter was found in the basement of the family residence. She was bludgeoned, strangled and sexually assaulted. Her death was not easy, or instantaneous.
In Part 2, we will explore how the police botched the investigation and what the autopsy revealed.
POLICE INVESTIGATION
Police repeatedly failed in the JonBenét case. The first instance of negligence was the fact that police officers weren't the ones who actually discovered the body. The cellar door was locked when investigators were looking through the home, and as such, they decided not go there. Behind this door, as we remember, was the covered body of young JonBenét.
When Mr. Ramsey found, picked up and brought the body of his daughter, he contaminated the crime scene. Another failure on the police's part was that they left only one investigator with the parents. She could not stop them from touching the body repeatedly and destroying the possible evidence even further.
In most crimes committed against children, the suspects are usually the parents or someone close to the family. There was no signs of forced entry in the house. Police said that no outsider could have accessed the home as there was no footprints in the snow. However, there was not that much snow around to start with.
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| As we can see from the pictures above, there was no snow covering the grass around the home. |
The basement window was broken, and this was known by the father, John Ramsey. The window had been in that condition for a few months. In an interview, he later said that he thought it was fixed. The family did not go down to the basement very often. It was John who actually broke the window a few months prior, as he was locked out of the house. He decided to break the window so he could enter inside. The Ramseys weren't too concerned about the window being damaged as the area was safe. The family felt like there was no danger of intruders coming in.
The Ramseys speculated that someone sneaked into the abode and attacked JonBenét. Maybe someone who knew of her from the pageants circuit. Unfortunately, these events tend to attract a lot of unsavory people, such as pedophiles. In my opinion, pageants sexualize children and try to make them look like adults. It forces these kids to act in a more mature and sometimes provocative manner.
There is also the notion that the perp could have attended one of the many viewings that Patsy Ramsey did of the family's Christmas decorations. Just a few days before, the Ramseys had a Christmas viewing with over 50 people in attendance. It would have been a great opportunity for a bad person to scout out the layout of the home and make a plan on kidnapping the young daughter.
These viewings were not exclusive to the Ramsey home, it was part of a tradition that people in that neighborhood did. The residents would decorate their houses, from both inside and outside, with extravagant Christmas decorations and allow the public to tour their properties.
The parents became the main suspects of the case. However, the police was frustrated that they were not fully able to investigate John and Patsy Ramsey. They weren't formally interviewed by police for a long time after the case was opened, in May 1997. This was because John and Patsy lawyered up and refused to cooperate with police.
The District Attorney asked that investigators wouldn't push the family too much. It was understandable that the community was concerned for the Ramseys, who were going through a tough time.
The family, on the other hand, thought they were being scrutinized too much and it detracted police from focusing on the real criminal. This created a sense of mistrust and noncompliance between the parents and law enforcement that tainted the investigation.
There were some instances where the police tried to make the Ramseys fit the suspicions they had, instead of them looking at the facts and focusing on finding the real killer. For example, when police spread the story to the media about no outside footsteps in the snow being an indicator of no outsiders entering the Ramsey property.
RANSOM NOTE ANALYZED
As discussed in Part 1, the ransom note found by Patsy Ramsey on the day of the murder was two and a half pages long. It was written in the home, and this could be verified because the murderer used Patsy's notepad and black Sharpie marker.
Besides the strange wording and handwriting used in the note (you can read it in full in Part 1), there were other bizarre details. The length triggered alarm bells. Experts suggested that it would have taken 21 minutes to write such a lengthy, drawn out note. If someone truly planned to kidnap JonBenét, they would have probably come with the note written up before the crime was committed.
Handwriting experts took samples from both parents. John's writing could be ruled out. However, Patsy's writing had a similarity to the handwriting used in the note. For example, Patsy's "qs" were very distinct and these could be matched both in the writing samples provided, and also the ones in the note. The font-style of the ransom note's writing was also described as feminine.
There were some strange misspellings such as the words "business" and "possession". This is a tool that can be used to disguise the writer's education level. Patsy and John both had university degrees. It is possible they wrote those mistakes in to try to hide that it was them composing the note.
Other things that point to the parents being the likely authors is that there is less emotion and threats in the ransom note than in a typical situation. This can be chalked down to the fact that the Ramseys knew that their daughter was dead in the basement, so they did not have much reason to use flowery threats.
Experts are certain the note was used to stage the crime, and served no other purpose.
One thing to say here is that, often, experts look at the dissimilarities more than the similarities in handwriting analysis. This means that, while Patsy had some near likeness to certain letters in her writing, there was more differences that discredited the notion that she wrote the note. People close to her said that the writing in the note does not look like Patsy's every day writing.
THE BODY
As discussed in Part 1, JonBenét was strangled with a garrote. The wooden handle of a paint brush from the mother's hobby kit was used to tighten the piece of string around her small neck. She also had blunt force trauma to the head, from being hit with a large object. Nobody knows what it was, although it is speculated that it was a large, industrial flashlight found in the Ramseys' home.
There were marks on the body and also the face. There was signs of sexual abuse during the attack, such as abrasions from a foreign object. Her cause of death was strangulation. Evidence showed that the strangulation happened about 45 minutes to 2 hours after she was hit in the head.
It is possible that the perp knocked her unconscious and then finished the job afterwards with the garrote. She had duct tape on her mouth. Later on, it was discovered that fibers from Patsy's sweater was on the tape.
On the morning of the murder, Patsy was wearing the same outfit as the night before. Her explanation was that she decided to wear the same clothes in that morning. This could be plausible as the family was preparing to go on cruise the next day. John said that the he and Patsy woke up and were getting everything prepared. They were going to wake up the kids when everything was ready.
One strange thing is that on the death certificate, the parents put the date of death as Christmas Day, not 26th December. People are critical of this as they wonder how to the parents know if JonBenét died on 25th or in the early morning of 26th December?
On the next part, we will discuss the DNA found and who the suspects are in this convoluted case.
References:
- Romper: What Was John Ramsey's Job? The Family Was Extremely Wealthy
- Romper: What Pageants Was JonBenet Ramsey In? She Made A Name For Herself
- All That's Interesting: Inside The Unsolved Murder Of JonBenét Ramsey — And The Chilling Evidence Left Behind
- abc NEWS: Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? An investigator's dying wish keeps the search going with his family
- Crime Museum Org: JonBenét Ramsey
- Crime Weekly Podcast - Three- part series on JonBenet Ramsey
- abc NEWS: A Look Inside the Mistakes in JonBenet Ramsey Investigation Noted by Former Police Chief
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