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?
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?
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.
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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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