Who was JonBenét Ramsey? 6-year-old child beauty pageant queen killed in her own home

JONBENÉT Ramsey was a child beauty queen who was tragically murdered at the age of six in 1996. 

A Netflix documentary named Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey will explore the details related to her tragic murder, which took place on Christmas Day. 

A life in child beauty pageants 

JonBenét was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia, to Patricia and John Bennet Ramsay.

Her name was chosen because it combines her father’s first and middle name. 

John was the president of Access Graphics, a computer software company, who had already been married before he tied the knot with Patricia. 

Patricia, known as Patsy, entered their daughter into various child beauty pageants. 

JonBenét took home the titles of America’s Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl and National Tiny Miss Beauty. 

JonBenet’s tragic murder

JonBenét was murdered on the night of December 25, 1996, or the early hours of December 26 and her body was not discovered for seven hours after she was reported missing. 

The exact events of her death, which took place in the family's Colorado home, were shrouded in mystery for some time.

A neighbor, named Melody Stanton, claimed that she was awoken after midnight on the eve of JonBenét’s death to the sound of a child’s scream. 

According to Patsy, she realized that her daughter was missing when she found a two-and-a-half page handwritten ransom note on the kitchen staircase. 

The length of the note raised suspicions, as did the money that the letter demanded which matched John’s prior Christmas bonus. 

However, these lines of questioning led to a dead end with Patsy’s handwriting not matching the writing found in the letter. 

There were no signs of forced entry into the house and a search uncovered very little evidence. 

A second search of the basement uncovered JonBenét’s body behind a door with enough evidence for her death to be ruled a homicide. 

A slow investigation

By October 1997, over 1,600 people were listed in the police force’s persons of interest index. 

Although evidence continually pointed away from JonBenét’s parents being responsible for the murder, the police kept returning to this theory which delayed investigations. 

The DA’s office tried to take control of the investigation which led to animosity between the DA and the police. 

These conflicts in the investigation made progress slow.

Two conflicting theories

There are two primary theories about JonBenét’s death, one which suggests she was killed by a family member and another theory which said that an intruder was responsible.

The Ramsey family were publicly exonerated by Mary Lacy, the Boulder County District attorney who took over the investigation in 2003. 

Burke, JonBenét’s older brother, was found to not be a suspect and a child psychologist even said that the Ramsey’s had a “healthy, caring family relationships”.

The intruder theory was inspired by an unidentified boot mark left in the basement and the fact that two windows were left open to allow wires for Christmas lights to pass through the house. 

There was also a broken window in the basement and one unlocked door, but an unbroken cobweb suggested that the window hadn’t been used. 

It was suggested that the intruder was a pedophile who could have been affiliated with the child pageant scene. 

A man named Gary Howard Oliva was publicly named as a suspect in 2002 and was arrested for “two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child and one count of sexual exploitation of a child” in 2016. 

A CBS program reported that Oliva may have been near the Ramsey home when she died and the convicted sex offender even claimed that he wrote a poem named Ode to JonBenét.

Much of the investigation centered on a phone call he made hours after JonBenét’s death, in which he said: ";I just hurt a little girl."

A false confession

John Mark Karr was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 15, 2006, after he made a false confession to murdering JonBenét.

He claimed to have drugged her, before assaulting and killing her but his recollection of events only covered basic and publicly known facts.

There was almost no evidence linking him to the crime scene and his DNA did not match evidence found on the six-year-old’s body.