On 26 December 1996, the Child Beauty Queen, Jon Benet Ramsey, was found dead in her Colorado home. Decades have passed, but the murder of the little girl remains unsolved.
She was found dead in the basement of her family’s Colorado home and the case is termed as one of the high profile case.
JonBenét was 6 years old when she was found dead, having been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled with a garrote the day after Christmas in 1996. An investigation that continues to fascinate and perplex was launched on December 26, 1996, after a call reported a missing and possibly kidnapped girl.
In their Boulder home that morning, parents John and Patsy Ramsey had found a ransom note, which was handwritten on a pad with a black Sharpie that belonged to the family.
Even after twenty-seven years, the authorities could not find any clues about the Child Beauty Queen’s death. In 2021, some of the authorities said that the DNA evidence they’ve gathered so far is too small. Investigators are still searching for the murderers of the young girl, and they have not yet ruled out DNA evidence as the clue to solving the case.
Though DNA testing will still be a part of the investigation, Boulder police said they are now seeking help from the specialist Colorado Cold Case Review Team and will be working with the agency next year. The Cold Case Review Team comprises of professional investigative, analytical, and forensic experts from across the state.
There have been many theories as to who could be responsible for the young pageant princess’s death, ranging from her parents to a mystery intruder.
Who could be the murderer?
The investigators have still not found the culprit who was behind Jon Benet Ramsey’s death. There was no evidence that led directly to the murderer. But many speculated that one of the family member could be the culprit.
When Jon Benet was found dead, the only people who were confirmed to have been in the house were her parents, John and Patricia Ramsey, and her older brother Burke, who was nine at the time.
Her father also found a ransom note written with a sharpie that belonged to the family. The ransom demanded by the person was the exact amount John had received as a bonus. Later that morning, Jon Benet’s body was found beaten and strangled, with a garrote around her neck and duct tape covering her mouth in the basement of the family’s Tudor brick home.
The parents did not attend any of the formal interviews, and they hired criminal lawyers to deal with the case. Though Burke was never suspected by the police, one of the docuseries put forth a theory that the then-9-year-old hit his sister in the head with a flashlight.
There were also many speculations on whether the young lady was murdered by an outsider. The existence of a ransom note seemed to lend credence to the theory that an intruder was responsible for Jon Benet’s murder.
Over the years , several people was termed as the suspect but none was punished. One of the suspects was Michael Helgoth, who owned the same pair of shoes that appeared to match a print found at the scene. But after he died by suicide in 1997, investigators stopped crucifying him.
A private detector who was hired by John and Patsy believed that Helgoth’s family had possessed a taped confession about his crimes. Later in 2006, a suspect confessed that he was the murderer, but the investigators proved it to be a lie.
Alexis Reich confessed that he was with Jon Benet when she died and her death was an accident. But Reich’s former wife claimed that they had been in Alabama during Christmas of 1996.
There were many other suspects, like the one who had worked as Santa Claus, and he had also visited Ramsey’s home days before the incident happened. However, his name was never taken into account.
Till now, the case of the Child Beauty Queen, Jon Benet Ramsey, murder remains unsolved. The family is now hoping that the DNA technology may lead to a break in one of the country’s most notorious unsolved mysteries.
