JonBenét Ramsey’s brother reveals ‘why pageant queen’s killer was never found’ as cops give update 28 years after murder
THE brother of murdered pageant queen JonBenét Ramsey has voiced his frustration about why his young sister's killer was never found.
The decades-long cold case of JonBenét has reemerged in the spotlight following the release of a new docuseries that puts the December 1996 homicide under a new lens nearly 30 years later.
Netflix's Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey underscored the botched investigation by the Boulder Police Department and the extensive media coverage surrounding the case.
Boulder police were widely criticized for mishandling the investigation from the start.
BOTCHED POLICE INVESTIGATION
Police failed to properly search the Ramsey family's three-story home upon arriving at the residence and did not treat it as a crime scene, allowing people to drift in and out.
Potential evidence from the house was not promptly collected.
Investigators reportedly sat on key pieces of evidence and speculated early that parents Patsy and John were involved in their daughter's murder.
Patsy and John Ramsey were initially the prime suspects in the case but were ruled out when DNA evidence found under JonBenét's fingernails on her clothing and underwear was linked to an unknown male.
John Andrew Ramsey, the half-brother of JonBenét, stressed that part of why his sister's killer has never been found is the lack of resources at the disposal of Boulder police.
"I told the Daily Camera last week that Boulder Police are stretched too thin to find JonBenét's killer. They can get help," John Andrew wrote in an X post.
John Andrew also reposted an interview from 's interview with investigator Michael Kane, who was the special prosecutor on JonBenét's case.
Kane highlighted how it's difficult to rule out anyone as possible suspects, including JonBenét's parents, because of their actions to save face after the pageant queen's body was found.
"FBI Denver will continue to coordinate with state and local partners on the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation. Boulder Police remains the lead investigative agency," the federal agency said on X.
Patsy had found a two-and-a-half-page handwritten ransom note on a staircase toward the back of the home.
The note, addressed to John Ramsey, stated a group of individuals linked to a foreign faction had kidnapped their 6-year-old daughter and demanded $118,000 in exchange for the girl's safe return.
"She was just screaming," John, 80, previously told The U.S. Sun.
"She'd found this note on the stairway and then went and checked JonBenét's room, and she wasn't there.
"I read the note as quickly as I could, and Patsy was standing by the phone, so I told her to call the police."
Several hours went by without any word from the supposed kidnappers or any sighting of JonBenét.
Eventually, John and a friend decided to search the home for clues, went down to the basement, and opened an unfinished wine cellar.
There, he found the body of his daughter with a rope tied tightly around her neck.
At the end of the rope was a broken paintbrush that investigators determined came from Patsy's art set.
Evidence indicated that JonBenét had been sexually assaulted and tortured.
The coroner who performed JonBenét's autopsy determined the little girl died from suffocation in conjunction with forcible trauma to her skull.
JonBenét had an 8.5-inch skull fracture and several markings on her neck and hands.
EERIE SIMILAR ATTACK
In the 27 years since JonBenét's body was found, a suspect has never been arrested, and it remains unclear why someone wrote the ransom note.
The new Netflix docuseries aims at bringing JonBenét's true killer to light after decades of theories swirling about the long list of suspects - including a pedophile who confessed to the crime.
The docuseries included details about an eerie similar case where a sleeping child was assaulted at her home located streets away from the Ramsey residence in Boulder in September 1997.
The suspect, who was never arrested, broke into the home while the girl's mother was sleeping and made his way to the young girl's bedroom when he attempted to attack the child.
A series of glaring similarities led both John and the family of the second victim - who is being referred to under the pseudonym "Amy" - to believe the same perpetrator could have carried out both crimes.
Before the incident involving his daughter, Amy's father was convinced her attacker targeted the 12-year-old at a local dance studio, Dance West, where JonBenét also took lessons.
He then believes his family was stalked over a period of several weeks, with the assailant waiting for the opportune moment to strike: when he was out of town for work.
John Ramsey also believes his daughter's killer had been surveilling his family for a significant period before the murder.
ELUSIVE KILLER
However, one name stuck out in the Netflix docuseries.
John Mark Karr, who fled the US after being charged with child pornography, knew an eerie number of details about JonBenét, her death, and claimed to have committed the murder.
Karr has never been charged with the young pageant queen's death because his DNA did not match any DNA found at the Ramsey home.
In the past, The U.S. Sun extensively reported how convicted pedophile Gary Oliva also confessed multiple times to killing JonBenét in letters to a high school friend.
Oliva was released from prison in January after serving less than eight years of a 10-year sentence for child pornography charges.
He was arrested in June 2016 after he was caught uploading images depicting the sexual abuse of children to his personal Gmail account.
When police searched his phone, they found over 695 images depicting child pornography.
He also possessed 335 photos relating to JonBenét, including her autopsy and images of shrines to her.
Since his arrest, Oliva confessed to killing JonBenét multiple times but has never been charged with her death.
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"I never loved anyone like I did JonBenét, and yet I let her slip, and her head bashed in half, and I watched her die," Olivia wrote in one message to his high school friend, Michael Vail.
"It was an accident. Please believe me. She was not like the other kids."