Young JonBenet Ramsey is murdered
Six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey is killed in her Boulder Colorado home.John and Patsy Ramsey her parents called police at 552 the following morning to report that their daughter was missing.Although police found a ransom note demanding 118000 the money would never be necessary because JonBenets body was found under a blanket in the basement that afternoon.
The crime soon became a national sensation.JonBenet who had been beaten and strangled was found with tape over her mouth and her hands tied together with a cord.There were also some signs of sexual assault.However Boulder detectives did a poor job of preserving the evidence and actually allowed John Ramsey to disrupt the crime scene by removing his daughters body from the basement.With no signs of an intruder suspicion quickly fell on JonBenets parents.The ransom note seemed suspicious to authorities.
Not only did the strangely specific amount of the ransom118000match the exact amount of John Ramseys bonus from his employer the paper that the ransom note had been written onpaper found in the Ramsey home.The note also seemed to be unusually wordy.For the curious public the fact that John and Patsy Ramsey failed to cooperate with the investigation fueled speculation about their guilt.In addition JonBenets active participation in beauty pageants which required her to wear heavy makeup and sophisticated clothing was widely considered to be inappropriate.The investigation into JonBenets murder continued for more than two years.
But in October 1999 the grand jury hearing evidence in the case was finally dismissed with no recommendation for filing charges.In 2006 former schoolteacher John Mark Karr was arrested after confessing to the murder however Karrs DNA did not match samples found on JonBenets body and he was released.
