Your next insider to one of the most prevalent and abnormal cold cases in the country.
Welcome back to another episode of cold cases; you don’t want to miss this one. The case we are discussing in this episode is the chilling story of a 6-year-old girl who performed in child beauty pageants up until she was brutally murdered on December 26th, 1996. Who killed her? Why did this horrific incident happen? Were there multiple people involved? All the questions that are constantly asked even 20 years after the murder. Her name? JonBenét Ramsay.
To get a good understanding of this case, let me set up a timeline for you. On December 23rd, 1996, there was a reported 911 call made from inside the house of the Ramsay’s. Although very suspicious, nothing came out of this as it could have been a friend that had one too many eggnogs. Fast forward to December 26th, 1996, JonBenét Ramsay goes missing.
Around 5:30 in the morning, the mother of JonBenét, Patsy, goes to make coffee when she encounters a ransom note on the table. In this note, it requested $118,000 in small bills of cash. Want to guess the coincidence in this scenario? The amount of money that was listed in the note was the exact number as John’s, the father of JonBenét, Christmas bonus. Disregarding this slightly, Patsy calls 911, against the wishes of the note which stated not to call the police.
In the early morning, a police officer, Rick French, arrives at the Ramsay house and takes a look. He found absolutely nothing. Later in the morning, a detective named Linda Ardnt came to the house. While she was there, she recalls in a Good Morning America interview, that there were many “odd” behaviors found that morning. When she had arrived at the Ramsay house, she stated that the only behavior she had gotten from John was “cordial.” To add, in the ransom note, it had a deadline of when the “kidnapper” was going to call the Ramsay family which was 10:00 A.M. When it was after 10:00 A.M., no one had said anything. Detective Ardnt said that it was very odd that no one, not even the mother or father, had said anything about the missed phone call. You would think that the parents would be scared or nervous that the kidnapper had not called them yet. However, later on, detective Ardnt instructed John and his friend, Fleet White, to search the entire house. During this search, White found JonBenét in the basement in a little spare room. White grabbed JonBenét and ran upstairs screaming to which John grabbed her and set her down in the hallway. But wait, if there is one thing I know when it comes to crime scenes, it’s that you should never handle it without major caution. So, why did detective Ardnt let White and John search the house?
However, if we keep going, detective Ardnt had moved JonBenét’s body and kept the basement door open. John had come up to Ardnt with a throw blanket and as he asked her if they could cover her body, he already started to put the blanket on JonBenét. This contaminated any evidence found on her body. Detective Ardnt was struggling as she was the only law enforcement in that house for over two and a half hours. There was no backup for her, no help, nothing.
For the next couple of weeks, the Ramsay family was continuously complying with law enforcement by giving DNA samples and other information. But, let’s go back for a second. How did the family not hear anything from that night when JonBenét was murdered? Doesn’t that seem like something that would be obvious? It raises many interesting questions which law enforcement ask themselves later on. After a month, Boulder police receive evidence that the ransom note was written inside the house, not outside. This raised a red flag for many people as it could potentially tie one of the family members inside of that house that night to the murder. On March 7th, 1997, detectives examined the handwriting analysis from JonBenét’s brother and Patsy. Although the brother was eliminated, Patsy’s handwriting was not. This means that there was a chance that Patsy had written that ransom note. After this, the parents were consistently seen as the top suspects despite minimal evidence. But, no one knows who the killer is. Or… is this not true?
In the Good Morning America interview, Linda Ardnt, the former detective on the JonBenét Ramsay case, stated, “I know who killed JonBenét Ramsay. I just cannot say who at this time.” This raised so many questions, but it mainly directed fingers towards the father of JonBenét. However, to this day, no one has said who the killer was. No one has found any new evidence. This case is just… done. So, I guess this leaves me to ask you the question; who do you think killed JonBenét Ramsay?