Beauty Queen Murder Mystery: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?

Amongst the evidence found, perhaps the most unusual piece of evidence was the ransom note that was found on the staircase in JonBenét’s residence. It was two and a half pages long and was written from a notepad taken from the Ramsey residence.

The note suggested only one possibility; the murder had been committed by JonBenét’s mother, Patsy, and the note had been written by her to cover her tracks. The police considered this explanation to be true because it seemed impossible that a killer would be so brash that they would spend the time writing a very, very long note at the scene of the crime. Further on, there were no fingerprints on the note except those of the missing girl. 

However, the evidence was not conclusive enough to incriminate the mother of JonBenét, since it was later verified by handwriting experts that it was not the writing of Patsy. 

Another highly suspicious quality the note had that it demanded 118,000 dollars as the ransom amount, the exact amount that the victim’s father had received as a Christmas bonus in the previous year. 

Thus, the evidence strongly pointed towards the fact that the murder was committed by someone in the family or someone who was very close with them.

Although the note warned the parents to not contact anyone, as soon as she found the note, Patsy called the police and her family. The police arrived at the scene in minutes and began to look for evidence. 

They did a thorough examination of the house to look for any evidence, with special focus on looking for areas where the criminal could have exited the house. This is the reason why the only room not searched in the house was the basement. 

However, before the forensics team could arrive and thoroughly look for more evidence, the family members and friends arrived at the scene and contaminated it with their own fingerprints, thus it was impossible to ascertain any more information. Later the police urged the family to search the house again to see if “anything seemed amiss.”

John Ramsey finally looked in the basement that was initially overlooked by the police and to his horror, he discovered the body of his daughter in one of the rooms. Again, the evidence was thoroughly contaminated when overcome by emotions, John picked up the child and took her upstairs.

The autopsy revealed that the child had died due to asphyxiation caused by strangulation. She also had blunt force trauma wounds on her head and it was possible that she had been subjected to sexual assault, since there was proof that her vagina had been cleaned before she died. 

There was DNA of multiple unknown males on JonBenét’s body, but due to the fact that the rest of the evidence had been tampered beyond revealing anything useful, the DNA did not provide any conclusive results because it could not be traced back conclusively to a known criminal or any other suspects in the case, which at one point amounted to more than 1600 people.

In a bizarre turn of events, John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old school teacher confessed to the crime of the murder, claiming that he had drugged and sexually assaulted the child and accidentally killed her in the process. However, since there were no drugs found in JonBenét’s bloodstream, it was determined that it was a false confession.

The police tried vainly to conjure up theory after theory and pointed fingers at virtually anyone who could have been connected with JonBenét. 

The devastated family of the victim was constantly harassed, since the police strongly believed they had committed the murder and their name was pulled through the dirt, even though nothing could be proved and the DA eventually apologized to them for making them suffer. But the damage had been done. 

The case was never resolved, and the answer of the question that who had killed JonBenét was never answered. The story of JonBenét ended before her life could truly begin, and she never found her justice.