Monday, December 11, 2017

JonBenet Ramsey Final Essay by Stone Giles

What happened to JonBenet Ramsey? The six year old pageant queen was found murdered in her family’s house on the night of December 25, 1996, a bizarre story that captured the nation by storm, and had everyone creating conspiracies. However, a lack of evidence created a case that has remained unsolved to this day and looks like it may never be solved. In a mystery that involves kidnapping, a ransom note, and many suspects that each have a reason to be guilty, there are many conspiracies as to what happened:
Was JonBenet murdered by an intruder?
Was she murdered by Bill McReynolds, a man dressed as Santa Claus?
Did her family kill her and stage the whole thing?
Image result for jonbenet ramsey

Let’s explore the death of JonBenet Ramsey and the likelihood that her family caused her death.
            JonBenet Ramsey, the childhood beauty queen, was the exact image of a perfect child. She was 4’7 and was only six years old when her body was found in her parents’ home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996 (Worthen). It didn’t take long for the picture of the girl with the “sparkling smile, glowing blonde hair, and countless glittery costumes” to spread through the country (Gleick).
            JonBenet was the younger of two children, and had two very successful parents. Her father, John Bennett, was a multi-millionaire businessman, while her mother, Patricia, was also a former beauty queen (Worthen). JonBenet was always the center of attention, due mostly to her many pageant wins, in which she won just about every single one. She was not the average six year old, since she was always in the spotlight and lived in an extremely wealthy home. JonBenet was never known to act out, which made the reason of her murder even more unanswerable. Many of the people who saw her perform said that she was a “natural” and was always very happy (Gleick).
            Although she was very young, JonBenet may have faced an external conflict with her mother. Most child beauty pageants allow a child to enter at as young as twenty-three months, so it is very likely that Patricia began to enter JonBenet into pageants before she had a say in it. As she got older, she may have wanted to live a normal life, but was heavily pressured by her mother, who also used to be a beauty queen, to continue to keep participating in them. According to Ted Cohen, who has judged hundreds of pageants, most of the parents “are so serious about it that they take away all the pleasure from the kids” and then “if the child loses, they feel like they let the parent down” (Gleick, 1). He also said that he has seen “mothers take young girls right off the stage before the judging results even come in and yell at them in the bathroom about blowing it” (1). If the child were to suddenly win, then they become “a little angel” (1). There is also a lot of work and time that is needed to be successful in pageants, so JonBenet may not have been a fan of that. It is also thought to believe that JonBenet being known for all of her pageants and being in the spotlight may have put her out into the public and might have had something to do with her murder.
Her last morning was the typical Christmas morning filled with excitement in the Ramsey home, where JonBenet received a bicycle from Santa Claus (Casarez, 1). That night, JonBenet was asleep when they returned from dinner, “and John carried her up to her bedroom” and “Patsy helped put her to bed” (1). The next morning, they found a “handwritten ransom note, written by someone who claimed to have kidnapped JonBenet,” which also demanded $118,000 for her return (1). Thinking that she had been kidnapped, Patsy called the police to let them know that JonBenet was missing. Finally, later that afternoon, “Linda Arndt, one of the main detectives, told him to search the home to see if there was anything suspicious” (1). He eventually went to check out the basement, where the “mystery was solved – JonBenet hadn’t been kidnapped” (1). She had been murdered.
            As the murder case spread, many conspiracy theories broke out. Everyone knew the basic facts of the murder mystery. A ransom note was found on the spiral staircase of the Ramsey home on the morning of December 26. The note was ripped out of a notepad from inside of the house, and was written multiple times. JonBenet was at first thought to have been kidnapped, but her father, John Bennett Ramsey, found her body in the basement. Now the hunt for the killer was on, and the biggest conspiracies were: an intruder killed JonBenet, Bill McReynolds (Santa) killed her, and her family killed her and staged the whole thing. So who did it?
                                            Image result for jonbenet ramsey house

            The first conspiracy is that an intruder broke in and murdered JonBenet Ramsey. While it looked as if there was no possible evidence that someone broke in, there are a few places that showed someone could’ve broken in through. There was a broken window in the basement, and police found that it was possible someone could’ve entered through the window (Evidence of an Intruder, 1). A suitcase was also found upright directly under the window (1). Furthermore, there were leaves found inside under the window, which was another reason suggesting someone broke in (1). Police also found a baseball bat, which did not belong to the Ramsey’s, outside of the house, which were covered with carpet fibers from where JonBenet’s body was found (1). An “unidentified Caucasian pubic hair” was also found on the blanket covering JonBenet, and it did not match either of the parents (1).
            The second conspiracy theory is that JonBenet was murdered by Bill McReynolds, also known as Santa Claus. McReynolds was a close friend of the Ramsey’s, and dressed as Santa for holiday parties at the Ramsey’s several times (Family Friends, 1). Some seemed to believe that he was a pedophile, and that served as his motive (1). At the holiday party, Bill called JonBenet his “special friend” (Lovitt, 1). He even went as far as bringing a “vial of glitter gifted to him” by JonBenet with him “into heart surgery” (1). He then went a step even further, and asked his wife, Janet McReynolds, to “mix the gold glitter in with his ashes were he to die” (1). His visit for the December twenty-third holiday party at the Ramsey house gave him the opportunity to borrow the notepad that was used for the ransom note (Family Friends, 1). There were also a few more suspicious parallels with his wife that raised even more eyebrows. Bill’s wife, Janet McReynolds, had previously written a play about a child who was “abused and tortured in a basement” twenty years before JonBenet’s death (1). Although there are a lot of suspicions aimed at McReynolds, there was no hair evidence left behind from Bill, who had a full beard (1). Bill and his wife also “provided hair and handwriting samples” to the police (Reynolds).
            The third conspiracy is that her parents committed the crime and covered it up. One of the main reasons why, was because what type of criminal would take the time to write multiple ransom notes inside of the Ramsey house? The parents were also uncooperative with attorneys for the first few months following the death of JonBenet. The big conspiracy including the parents was that Patsy “strangled her daughter in a panic” after “accidentally causing a serious wound” to JonBenet’s head (Janofsky). John then “chose to protect his wife”, instead of helping the authorities. The behavior of the parents was also very odd on the morning of December 26, 1996. When John found JonBenet’s body, he just about ruined the whole crime scene, erasing any evidence that may have been left behind. While the Ramsey’s insisted that it had to be an intruder, the possibilities look very slim. The basement window had a spider web, which demonstrated that nobody could have entered without breaking it, as well as the layer of dirt outside that looked to be undisturbed (Evidence of an Intruder, 1). Also, the Ramsey’s lived in a huge house, and would be extremely difficult for a stranger to navigate quickly. The door to the basement was also much hidden and not easy to find. The tape that was on JonBenet’s mouth also had a perfect set of lips, with no “tongue impression or resistance”, indicating that it was placed after she was unconscious as a staging (1). The fact that the parents staged the whole thing, makes the lengthy ransom note on their own notepad much more reasonable. Even though the parents were found innocent through DNA, many people still believe that the family had something to do with the murder, and a recent Twitter poll reflects that. Eighty-six percent of the voters believed that the family was involved in JonBenet’s death.
            Despite the creepy parallels connecting Bill McReynolds to the case, it is unlikely that he committed the crime, especially after giving samples. That leaves an unknown intruder, and JonBenet’s family. The evidence against the parents just seems to be too much, as it seems it would be almost impossible for an intruder to sneak in under all the circumstances.
            Due to a lack of control over the evidence and crime scene, the JonBenet Ramsey case looks to have many open ends. The case created three conspiracy theories:
1.      Was JonBenet murdered by an intruder?
2.      Was she murdered by Bill McReynolds, a man dressed as Santa Claus?
3.      Did her family kill her and stage the whole thing?

The case has been open for twenty-one years, and looks like it will not ever be solved.


Works Cited
Casarez, Jean. “The Death of JonBenet: A Case That's Captivated the Country for 20 Years.” CNN,www.cnn.com/2016/12/13/us/jonbenet-ramsey-case/index.html.
“Evidence of an Intruder.” JonBenet Ramsey Case Encyclopedia / Evidence of an Intruder, jonbenetramsey.pbworks.com/w/page/11682468/Evidence%20of%20an%20Intruder.
“Family Friends.” JonBenet Ramsey Case Encyclopedia / Family Friends, jonbenetramsey.pbworks.com/w/page/11682472/Family%20Friends.
Gleick, Elizabeth. “PLAYING AT PAGEANTS.” Time, Time Inc., 24 June 2001, content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101970120-137165,00.html.
Janofsky, Michael. “JonBenet's Mother Was Killer, Detective Says.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Apr. 2000, www.nytimes.com/2000/04/10/us/jonbenet-s-mother-was-killer-detective-says.html.
Lovitt, Bryn. “Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? 8 Possible Suspects.” Rolling Stone, 12 Oct. 2016, www.rollingstone.com/culture/lists/who-killed-jonbenet-ramsey-8-possible-suspects-w443881/the-town-santa-w443889.
news.com.au By: Emma Reynolds of news.com.au Share via email Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Show more Bookmark this article Share on Facebook facebook Share on Twitter twitter Share via email email Share on LinkedIn linkedin , Emma Reynolds. “Santa and the Housekeeper: The Forgotten JonBenet Suspects.” NZ Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11715048&ref=rss.
Worthen, Meredith. “JonBenét Ramsey.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 22 May 2017, www.biography.com/people/jonbenet-ramsey-12986606?_escaped_fragment_=.

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