Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey is an upcoming exploration of the chilling case of JonBenét, a 6-year-old girl who was found dead in the safety of her own house in Boulder, Colorado.
This is one of the most shocking cold cases where the actual killer was never found. The chilling details of this case soon spread to other parts of the nation, but the culprit was never brought to justice.
On December 26, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey woke after having a family dinner to find their 6-year-old daughter Jon missing. Patsy then found a ransom note for $118,000 for JonBenét’s safe return.
Around six hours later, John found his daughter's body in the basement of their home, only to discover that Jon was not kidnapped but murdered and s*xually assaulted in the safety of her own home.
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger is revisiting this Colorado cold case after nearly 30 years in his three-part docuseries titled Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey on Netflix.
Here is everything you need to know before watching Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey.
Shocking details from JonBenét's murder before watching Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey
1) The ransom note hinted that the killer is someone close to the Ramsey family
Before finding their daughter dead in the basement, Patsy found a ransom note demanding $118,000 in return for Jon's safe return. While ransom notes are often a part of such kidnappings, the amount was suspicious.
The ransom note found on the kitchen staircase demanded the exact amount Jon's father received as a Christmas bonus the year before. This could not be a mere coincidence, and the police suspected that the killer must be someone close to the family who knew about their financial problems well.
2) JonBenét was reportedly s*xually assaulted before murder in Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey
Jon's father was the first to discover his daughter's body in the basement. Her mouth was duct taped, and her neck was tied around by a garrote, which is a weapon used for strangulation.
The cause of her death was revealed as asphyxia, which detectives determined was the result of strangulation.
While there was no clear evidence of s*xual abuse in the autopsy, it was reported that she was assaulted before the murder.
According to a report by People Magazine, her torso was covered by a blanket and her p*ivate parts were wiped with a cloth.
3) The 911 call looked 'rehearsed,' and JonBenét's parents were the primary suspects by the police
John was a computer executive, and his wife Patsy was a former model who also made her daughter participate in multiple beauty pageants.
Her 9-year-old brother was ruled out of the suspicion, but the police made the parents primary suspects in the case, as they found no break-ins to their residence.
According to Kim Archuletta, the 911 dispatcher who took Patsy's call on the night of the incident, she felt that the call was rehearsed,
"I just remember having that sunken feeling, like something wasn’t right. The problem was, if you hear the frantic in her voice when she’s speaking to me, where she couldn’t even answer my questions, it immediately stopped. I had a bad feeling about this. To me, it seemed rehearsed… that’s never changed."
4) There were several theories and suspects relating to Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey
While the parent's involvement is the top theory, it was also circulated that Patsy wrote the ransom letter herself as evidence.
The police also investigated another suspect, Michael Helgoth, who owned a pair of boots that were the exact match to a print they found on the crime scene. However, he committed suicide in 1997.
The police received a confession in 2006, which was later termed false. Another suspect, who worked as Santa Claus and had visited Jon's home days before, was considered. However, he, too, was later ruled out by the police. The new Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey is expected to shed light on more such theories.
5) The Ramsey Family was cleared out of the case with a formal apology letter
The police could not charge Jon's parents with her murder because of lack of evidence, and they were let off eventually. In 2023, medical investigators discovered an unknown DNA sample from Jon's blood, which matched neither of her parents.
The former Boulder Chief Police Mark Becker expressed his regrets about the case,
“It was the Christmas holiday and we were short staffed, we faced a situation as I said earlier that no one in the country had ever seen before or since, and there was confusion at the scene as people were arriving before we had enough personnel on the scene.”
Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 because of cancer, and John remarried again in 2011. But the killer behind JonBenét’s murder remains a mystery still.
Tune into Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey on Netflix on November 25, 2024.
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