JonBenet Ramsey
Murdered the day after Christmas in 1996 JonBenet was only 6 years old. Her tiny body was found in the basement of her house (Boulder, Colorado) by her father. Her skull had been bashed in and she had been strangled with a garotte still tied around her neck. JonBenét's mouth was covered with duct tape and a nylon cord was found around her wrists, and her torso was covered by a white blanket.
There are two types of theories about the death of JonBenét. One is the family member theory. The only people known to be in the house on the night of JonBenét's death were her immediate family: Patsy and John Ramsey and their son Burke. The police saw no evidence of a forced entry, but they did see evidence of staging of the scene. One theory is that Patsy struck JonBenét in a fit of rage after a bedwetting episode, and strangled her to cover up what had happened, after mistakenly thinking she was already dead. A Colorado grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the parents. In 2002, the statute of limitations on the grand jury's charges expired since the DA refused to sign the indictment.
A CBS documentary surmised that Burke hit his sister in the head with a heavy object (possibly a flashlight) after she stole a piece of pineapple from his bowl, perhaps not intending to kill her. Burke filed a defamation claim against CBS, the producers of the program, and several of its participants in the documentary that was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2019. Defamation suits have been filed by the Ramseys and their friends against several unnamed media outlets. John and Patsy Ramsey were sued in two defamation lawsuits. Lawsuits were flying in all directions.
The second theory is the intruder theory. Police had found an unidentified boot mark left in the basement room where JonBenét's body was found. In December 2003, forensic investigators extracted enough material from a mixed blood sample found on JonBenét's underwear to establish a DNA profile. In 2016 it was established that the original DNA contained genetic markers from two individuals other than JonBenét. Hundreds of DNA tests were performed to find a match to the DNA recovered during her autopsy as well as running the profile through CODIS. One of the suspects a man named Michael Helgoth committed suicide. shortly after having been tested. In the end, there is no definitive forensic evidence to show that this was a stranger murder.
The crime is still unsolved. Continue reading
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