What
Happened to JonBenet Ramsey?
JonBenet Ramsey,
a child beauty pageant queen of only six years old, is most famous for the
mysterious circumstances surrounding her death instead of her successful beauty
pageant career. On December 26, 1996, instead of celebrating the holidays with her
family in her Boulder, Colorado home,
JonBenet’s body was found by her father in their basement the same day she was
reported missing by the family. The suspect of her murder remains undetermined
, yet many have speculated their suspicions towards many surrounding figures in
JonBenet’s life, including her own family.
JonBenet was
only a toddler when she discovered her love for participating in pageants. Her
love for pageants started when she excitedly saw her mother, Patsy Paugh, on
stage during a pageant reunion. For JonBenet’s mother being a former pageant
queen and having won the title of Miss West Virginia in 1977, it would only
have been natural for little JonBenet to want to have followed in her mother's
footsteps (McGuire). JonBenet quickly adapted to the life of child pageants and
was quite successful having already won five titles by the age of six thanks to
her bouncy blonde hair, heart-warming smile and elegant, sparkly wardrobe
(Worthen).
On stage,
JonBenet was known as being fun-loving by her former pageant friends (“20 Years
After”...).Thumper Gosney, who once competed alongside Ramsey for the Little
Miss Sunburst title in 1996, remembers sneaking off with JonBenet backstage
during pageants to play Barbies (“20 Years After”...) . Thumper Gosney often
contemplates about her late friend, particularly during major milestones of
life such as college. She recalls dreams she had about her former pageant rival
about what would it have been like if she was still living, “She was grown up
and she was this crazy happy girl it was awesome to see her doing cheerleading
and all kinds of stuff. I’ve had multiple dreams about her” (“20 Years
After”...).
John Ramsey,
a multi-millionaire businessman and JonBenet's father, thought of his daughter
as being somewhat of a tomboy (Oliver) .Years after the passing of her beloved
daughter, John’s memories of his daughter are not of a child pageant queen
covered in makeup and wearing elegant dresses but of a kid with scruffy hair
dressed in a regular T-shirt and shorts (Oliver) . John regrets involving
JonBenet in pageants and claims it was actually something Patsy encouraged for
fun (Oliver). Is it possible JonBenet
might have still been alive if she had not competed in pageants?
In the
early morning hours of December 26, 1996, Patsy awoke to find her daughter missing and nowhere to be found. A three-page
note addressed to her husband left on the kitchen counter requesting $180,000
for the safe return of JonBenet was also found by Patsy (Worthen). The family
quickly called the police despite the ransom notes warnings of JonBenet being
killed if police got involved. The police lead an extensive search for the
missing girl but it wasn’t until later in the afternoon when John found
JonBenet's lifeless body in their basement.
JonBenet was found under a white
blanket, a blanket that was discovered to have recently came out of the dryer
(Crime Museum). She had a nylon cord around her neck with both wrists tied up above her head (Crime
Museum). Duct tape was also found to be covering her mouth. Based of the
autopsy performed, it was determined she had died of strangulation and a
fractured skull (Crime Museum). The autopsy also suggested a possibility of
sexual assault (Crime Museum). At first glance this would seem like a regular
case of a ransom gone wrong but the mysterious circumstances surrounding her
death lead many to believe it was more than just that.
To begin
with, the first responding officers who arrived on the scene had made crucial
mistakes that had compromised the crime scene which contributed to the case
going cold (Crime Museum). Among the many mistakes made was the moving of
JonBenet's body, when John found JonBenet's body he was allowed to touch and
move her, altering the authenticity of the scene (Crime Museum). Another major
mistake was John and Patsy were not separated for interviewing and initial
questioning (JonBenét). Many of the evidence found at the scene was questionable as
well such as the ransom note being written on the very same stationery kept in
the Ramsey home. Particles of fiber found on the duct tape that was used to
bound JonBenet's body was also matched to the very same fibers on Patsy's
clothes (JonBenét).
The controversial evidence mentioned
above leads many to believe in the first theory: the Ramsey family was
responsible for the murder of JonBenet. This theory is the most popular due to
most of the evidence found being against the family. A bowl of sliced pineapple
containing the fingerprints of Burke Ramsey, JonBenet's older nine-year old
brother, had been found on the kitchen countertop. This was significant
evidence because an autopsy on JonBenet found that she had consumed pineapple
shortly before her death. Despite the fingerprints, the Ramseys claimed they
had never served pineapple that night and Burke had slept upstairs throughout
the whole events of the crime (Crime Museum).
Another major contribution to this
theory is that during separate interviewing on various occasions, John and
Patsy’s stories would never line up with each others and always remain
inconsistent. Along with this, the police also asked all three members of the
immediate family for handwriting samples for comparison with the ransom note.
John and Burke were both cleared from suspicion but Patsy’s sample remained
uncleared (Crime Museum). Could it have been Patsy who accidentally murdered
her own daughter?
From an outsiders point of view,
Patsy was just your average, pleasant suburban mother of two who was known for
throwing extravagant Christmas parties each year. But many of the evidence gathered seems to
suggest she might have been more involved with the crime than she actually let
on to believe. JonBenet was known to have had frequent bed-wetting accidents
which Patsy frowned upon (Lovitt).
Linda Hoffman-Pugh,the Ramsey family's
housekeeper, even made a statement against Patsy Ramsey where she exclaimed, “I
think she had multiple personalities. She would be in a good mood and then she
would be cranky. She got into arguments with JonBenet about wearing a dress or
about a friend coming over. I had never seen Patsy so upset” (Lovitt). Having
to clean up yet another one of JonBenet's accidents might’ve caused Patsy to go
into yet another fit of rage (Lovitt). With her temper lost , Patsy could have
thoughtlessly slammed her daughters head against a hard surface instantly
killing little JonBenet.
Steve Thomas, Boulder PD’s former
co-leading investigator, speculated that once Patsy came to realization of what
she had just done, she was stricken and overcome with panic which lead to Patsy
writing the ransom note herself (Lovitt). John and Patsy could have then easily
schemed up a plan together to protect and mask themselves as the victims. Years
after the crime surfaced, Patsy became extremely defensive towards any finger
pointing and at one point during a public interview on Larry King Live she even lashed out on an accusing member of the
audience (Lovitt). Unfortunately, Patsy passed away due to an ongoing fight
with ovarian cancer and along with her passing she took whatever secrets she
held of that morning to the grave (Lovitt).
Moving forward, another potential
suspect was 32-year old Gary Oliva. Gary Oliva was a known sex offender in
Boulder, Colorado (Lovitt). At the time of Jonbenet's murder, he was living
just one street away from the Ramsey home (Townsend). Years after the murder,
the sex offender and convicted pedophile was apprehended on drug charges by the
Boulder police while wandering around the area. During the search,police found
him in possession of a magazine cutout of
JonBenet Ramsey but despite this, he was released shortly thereafter
leaving many people suspicious of Oliva (Townsend).
One of those people is Michael Vail,
an old high school friend of Gary Oliva, who claimed that less than a week
after the murder, Oliva called him and confessed that he had “hurt a little
girl. I hurt a little girl” (Townsend). Later in an interview with Star magazine, Vail reported, “Gary’s
account of this murder is actually one of the most logical explanations I have
heard in 20 plus years” (Townsend). Oliva was reportedly cleared off as a
suspect of the murder via DNA testing but Vail disagreed stating the testing
methods were flawed.
Currently, Oliva is behind bars
under two counts of possession of sexual exploitive material. According to
Vail, Oliva continues to maintain a disturbing obsession with JonBenet. Oliva
frequently asks for a picture of JonBenet for his cell and when Vail told him
it wasn’t allowed he nonchalantly replied, “I don’t see why not, it’s my
freedom of religion” (Townsend).
The next theory, known as the
Hoffman-Pugh theory,speculates that the family housekeeper, Linda Hoffman-Pugh,
was the perpetrator of the horrific crime (Lovitt) . This theory is reasonable
and one to consider due to Linda being familiar with both the home and family’s
schedule. As the housekeeper, she was also given and carried around a spare key
to the Ramsey home. In an interview with investigators, Patsy claimed that
Linda was in need of money and had even asked John Ramsey for a loan of several
thousand dollars, which John had declined (Lovitt).
The theory suggests Linda lured a
trusting JonBenet down the basement stairs and proceeded to write the ransom
note in hopes of tricking the family into giving up the money (Lovitt). Even
though Linda Hoffman-Pugh was cleared through DNA testing, she still makes a
reasonable suspect as she knew her way around the home and she had no alibis.
In the end, she was never formally accused of the crime and plenty of room was
left for speculation (Lovitt).
All in all, the JonBenet Ramsey case
is filled with mystery and many more theories could easily stem from it. From
just reading through the case it is understandable how it can remain unsolved
after so many years. It certainly is intriguing and hard to believe that with
several suspects named and many potential as well, there has yet to no definite
suspect. Currently, no one has ever been charged in the case and the
investigation remains open and unsolved (CNN).
Works Cited
Lovitt, Bryn. “Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? 8 Possible
Suspects.” Rolling Stone, 25 June
2018, www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-lists/who-killed-jonbenet-ramsey-8-possible-suspects-129125/the-town-drifter-129341/.
McGuire, Jen. “How Did JonBenet Ramsey Get Into Pageants?”
13 Sept. 2016, www.romper.com/p/how-did-jonbenet-ramsey-get-into-pageants-it-was-a-family-tradition-17847.
Oliver, Mark. “10 Strange
Little-Known Facts About JonBenet Ramsey's Family.” Listverse, 1 Oct. 2016, listverse.com/2016/10/02/10-strange-little-known-facts-about-jonbenet-ramseys-family/.
Townsend, Catherine. “Is
This the Man Who Killed JonBenét? Magazine Claims That Murder.” Investigation Discovery, CrimeFeed, 5
Oct. 2018, www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/murder/is-this-the-man-who-killed-jonbenet-magazine-claims-that-murder-has-been-solved.
Worthen,
Meredith. “JonBenét Ramsey: A Beauty Queen Whose Death Immortalized Her Life.” Biography.com, 26 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/news/jonbenet-ramsey-murder.
“JonBenét Ramsey-Biography .” Edited by
Biography.com, Biography.com, A&E
Networks Television, 2 Apr. 2014, www.biography.com/people/jonbenet-ramsey-12986606.
“JonBenet Ramsey Murder Fast Facts.” CNN, Cable News Network, 12 Dec. 2017, www.cnn.com/2013/08/29/us/jonbenet-ramsey-murder-fast-facts/index.html.
“JonBenét Ramsey.” Crime Museum, Crime Museum, www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/cold-cases/jonbenet-ramsey/./
“20 Years After JonBenet Ramsey's Death, Her Pageant
Friends Remember 'Fun-Loving Kid'.” Inside
Edition, 12 Sept. 2016, 12:50 PM PDT, www.insideedition.com/headlines/18595-20-years-after-jonbenet-ramseys-death-her-pageant-friends-remember-fun-loving-kid
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