The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey By: Aariellynn Viera

Who could murder a young child? This was the question asked when JonBenet Ramsey, a six-year-old beauty pageant queen, was murdered in her own home and found the morning after Christmas day (Death of a Six-Year-Old Beauty Queen) Ramsey was found in her basement that morning with a garrote around her neck, blunt force trauma to her head, with possible signs of sexual abuse and wrapped in a blanket. Ramsey's parents found a ransom note which would have ruled them out as suspects, if not for the little evidence the police found in their media-clouded investigation.   This unusual case drew an enormous amount of media attention and lead the public drawing their own theories as to who killed the young girl. Could JonBenet's own parents have killed her? Or her older brother Burke? Maybe the Santa Claus from the Christmas party the night before? Or, the most likely theory, could the entire family have been involved in JonBenet's murder? Let's examine what could have happened that Christmas night in 1996.

JonBenet Ramsey was the ideal Southern six-year old, complete with blond hair, blue eyes, a captivating smile. She exuberated confidence at every beauty pageant, and often won first place. (Worthen). In fact, the entire Ramsey family appeared to be so picture perfect: An extremely successful businessman father; a mother who supported her children through all that they did; a sweet reserved son and a talented daughter. How could anything bad, let alone a murder, happen in their family?

JonBenet  appeared to be confident little girl at the young age of six. She excelled in her pageants and showed no fear on the stage. She became well known in the pageant world as she won title after title including Little Miss Colarado in 1995, just a year before her death (Poppen). LaDonna Greigo, a pageant organizer who knew JonBenet, said, "She really liked being up on stage. You could see it." (Poppen).  In an interview 20 year after her death, her old pageant friends recall their memories of themselves playing with her during their competitions and describe her as spunky, smart, fun loving and claim, "she had a bright light about her" (Gibson). She knew how to work the crowd and impress the judges while on stage. Of the people that saw JonBenet do what she did best, all had only positive things to say of her talent and personality and were impressed with her confidence.

Externally, Jonbenet was the embodiment of confidence. But, could that confident smile on stage have been plastered on to appease her overbearing mother? With the competition she went against, and the pressure to win by her previously pageant queen mother, it can easily be assumed that despite JonBenet's façade of a happy and carefree child, that she was actually stressed internally.

JonBenet's relationship with her mother, Patsy, and her passion for pageants would have definitely been a factor to JonBenet's stress. Patsy knew the ins and outs of beauty pageants because she had been in them herself in her youth, and she groomed her daughter at a young age for them. JonBenet would have been practicing her routines, trying on dresses and makeup, and competing at weekend long competitions, missing out on a normal childhood. Patsy was known to order expensive and extravagant costumes. JonBenet's costumes were notably more expensive than many of her competitors, revealing how dedicated Patsy was to making sure her daughter had the best and was the best. In a vast majority of the articles written after the little girl's death, her personality was rarely mentioned. Instead, the authors spoke of her beauty and success in the pageant world. This seemed to be all that mattered to the media, and quite possibly all that mattered to her mother.  It is uncertain if JonBenet actually wanted to be so competitive in these contests, or if her mother forced her to be to live through her daughter. It has been proven that beauty pageant participation can have several detrimental mental effects, such as narcissism, depression, eating disorders and an increase in self-awareness (Hassan). It was also said that JonBenet was having problems with wetting her bed at night around the time just before her murder, and that her mother would become furious (Hodges). Pediatric urologist, Steve Hodges, says that bedwetting is a leading cause of child abuse as well as parental frustration (1). This suggests there may have been tension at home as well as at the pageants. JonBenet had the stress of an everyday six-year-old, like learning to adjust to her new school for kindergarten, on top of the stress from her mother to keep her high status in pageants. JonBenet's mental state prior to her murder remain a mystery, just as the identity of her murderer. But regardless of her mother's innocence, or lack thereof, regarding her murder, it is clear to see how her involvement in her daughter's life and pageants had controversial effects to her JonBenet's personality and mental state.

Could JonBenet have been killed by Santa Clause? Bill McReynolds was hired by the Ramsey family to dress up as Santa Clause at their Christmas part a week prior to JonBenet's death (Lovitt). It was said that McReynolds paid an odd amount of attention to JonBenet , calling her his "special friend" and telling her she would get "a special gift from Santa" on Christmas (1). He even went as far as to keep a jar of glitter JonBenet gave him and kept it near him during his heart surgery and asked to be cremated and have the glitter mixed in with his ashes (1). "I felt very close to that little girl. I don't really have other children that I have this special relationship with - not even my own children or my own grandchildren. "When I die...I've asked my wife to mix the star dust JonBenet gave me with my ashes. We're going to go up behind the cabin here and have it blow away in the wind" said McReynolds. His attention to her was certainly suspicious and could be even considered obsessive. His behavior would illicit pedophile rumors, which not only ruined his yearly Santa gig, but also made him an easy target to blame for the unidentified male DNA, signs of sexual abuse and broken window found at the crime scene. McReyolds claimed he was innocent and was appalled by the accusations, as he would ever harm a child (Flanagan). Interestingly, he could relate to the grief of the Ramseys, as his own daughter had once been kidnapped and witnessed her friend being molested (1). While McReynolds behavior did draw suspicion to him, he was never convicted of the crime as the male DNA was not his and there was no other substantial evidence to connect him to the crime other than speculation (Wood).

JonBenet's brother Burke has also faced many accusations regarding the death of his little sister. JonBenet being murdered by her brother may be the most widely believed theory, according to a survey conducted on Twitter (Image 1). The most popular theory regarding Burke is the pineapple scenario in which JonBenet ate pineapple slices that were meant for Burke, the boy became angry and struck his sister's head with a flashlight, explaining the blunt force trauma to her head, and hitting her back with his train track set (Lovitt)..It was discovered that Burke had smeared feces on his sister's Christmas presents and bed and had once hit her with a baseball bat, likely due to jealousy and resentment felt towards her (Reynolds). Patsy, the children's mother, devoted lots of time, energy and money into her daughter's pageants, dance classes and other hobbies. It is very easy to see how Burke would develop resentment for his sister for stealing his mother's attention and affection and how the rage could build to eventually the last straw, the pineapples. The 911 call reporting JonBenet missing also created more speculation about Burke. It is claimed that Patsy can be heard saying "What have you done? Help me Jesus " and Burke answering "What did you find?"(Reagan). This call leads many to believe that Burke killed his sister and his parents took forensic countermeasures to hide his crime by writing the ransom note, making the garrote and hiding her body so as not to lose both children. Psychologists became suspicious of the brother's mental state when, just a couple weeks after the death of his sister, Burke drew pictures of his family without his sister and even twenty years later in interviews, when his body language and facial expressions seemed inappropriate and odd for the topics discussed (Post). Given his aggressive history, the incriminating 911 call and his behavior after the murder, Burke may have been guilty for the death of his sister. However, Burke was never considered a serious suspect by the investigators and it is unlikely he would have been strong enough to kill his sister with one hit.

The most likely explanation of JonBenet's murder is her mother, Patsy Ramsey. Patsy was no stranger to the pageant world JonBenet lived in as she had been a pageant queen herself when she was younger and was so passionate about them that she lived through her daughter (Poppen). Patsy poured money into JonBenet's dresses, costumes, classes, and spent hours of her time into making her daughter the fierce pageant competitor she was (1). She placed high expectations on JonBenet and would not tolerate failure. It was known that in the months prior to her murder, JonBenet had a problem wetting her bed at night, likely to stress from the pageants, and her mother would become infuriated (Hodges). This tension between the overbearing mother with high expectations and young daughter was likely what triggered Patsy. The theory is that Patsy became for bling with rage when she saw JonBenet had wet the bed that she struck her, accidentally killing her (1). She panicked and did all she could to keep the evidence from leading to her, like writing the ransom note, making the garrote and washing the bed sheets before calling the police to report her daughter missing. However, there have been many revelations since the murder that can be linked to the mother. The ransom note was written on stationery that belonged to Patsy, and according to writing analysts, has similarities to Patsy's normal handwriting (Wood). The paintbrush used to make the garrote around JonBenet's neck was made from a broken paintbrush that also belonged to Patsy (1). JonBenet's room was a mess along with much of the Ramsey house, which was odd because the hosted a Christmas party only a couple nights before and had a hired housekeeper (1). This could have from been Patsy looking for clean sheets to replace JonBenet's dirty ones, or just the parents making the house disorganized to hide evidence. Patsy could not bear for her, her family or daughter to be anything but perfect, making her the most likely murderer. This theory is nearly equally as believed as the Burke theories, only a 2% difference (Image 1). Authorities on the case claimed much of the evidence against Patsy was not substantial and dismissed her as a suspect, however.

On December 26,1996, six-year-old Jonbenet Ramsey was reported missing by her parents. The strange and seemingly unconnected pieces of evidence found at the crime scene and a poorly conducted investigation led to a wide range of theories of who her murderer could be, the three most likely being Bill McReynolds, her brother or her mother. Even more than 21 years later, the death of this young pageant star remains a mystery to authorities and conspiracists alike.

Works Cited

“Death of a Six-Year-Old Beauty Queen.” Crime Museum, www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/cold-cases/jonbenet-ramsey/.

Flanagan, Mara. “JonBenet Ramsey Santa Theory Clues Show Surprising Parallels Between Two  Families.” Romper, Romper, 11 Sept. 2017, www.romper.com/p/jonbenet-ramsey-santa-theory-clues-show-surprising-parallels-between-two-families-17735.

Hassan, Sana. "The Psychological Effects of Child Beauty Pageants." Tremr. Tremr, 20 July 2015. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://www.tremr.com/sanahassan/the-psychological-effects-of-child-beauty-pageants>.

Hodges, Steve. "Urologist on JonBenét Ramsey Bedwetting Theory: "Not Shocking"."Bedwetting and Accidents. N.p., 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://www.bedwettingandaccidents.com/single-post/2016/09/12/Urologist-on-JonBen%C3%A9t-Ramsey-Bedwetting-Theory-Not-Shocking>.

Johns, Gibson. "Here's What JonBenet Ramsey's Pageant Friends Remember About Her 20 Years After Her Death." AOL.com. Inside Edition, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://www.aol.com/article/entertainment/2016/09/12/jonbenet-ramsey-pageant-friends-open-up-20-years-later/21470565/>.

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.

Poppen, Julile. "JonBenet Remembered as Caring, Compassionate Child." The Daily Camera. The Boulder News, 26 Dec. 1997. Web. 30 Oct. 2017. <http://web.dailycamera.com/extra/ramsey/1997/12/26-2.html>.

Post, Denver. “JonBenét Ramsey’s Brother Burke Talks About the Murder.” The Mercury News, The Mercury News, 14 Sept. 2016, www.mercurynews.com/2016/09/14/burke-ramsey-responds-to-conspiracy-theories-accusations-about-jonbenets-boulder-murder/.

Reynolds, Emma. “JonBenet Ramsey's 'Disturbed' Brother .” The Sun, The Sun, 21 Sept. 2016, www.thesun.co.uk/news/1826692/jonbenet-ramseys-disturbed-brother-smeared-her-bedroom-and-christmas-presents-with-poo-amid-claims-he-killed-the-six-year-old-beauty-queen/.

Wood, Gaby. “Unsolved Case of JonBenet Ramsey.” The Observer, Guardian News and Media, 24 June 2006, www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2006/jun/25/features.magazine37.

Worthen, Meredith. "JonBenét Ramsey." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 22 May 2017. Web. 31 Oct. 2017. <https://www.biography.com/people/jonbenet-ramsey-12986606>.

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