However, he was released when his DNA did not match that found at the crime scene, and police believe Karr fabricated his confession, which he later retracted. The only person to be arrested over the death was 41-year-old John Mark Karr, who initially confessed to killing JonBenet.
Could she have attracted the dangerous attention of a paedophile? Or did her wealthy family make her a tempting proposition for a would-be kidnapper?ĭNA found on the girl's underwear was confirmed not to belong to any of her family, although critics of the intruder theory have pointed out that the DNA of clothing factory workers and packers can be transmitted onto items they handle. Media speculation over the disappearance and death was intensified by the fact that JonBenet was a regular performer in child pageants, often made up to look far older than her age. The intruder theoryĪ&E's take on the case – The Killing of JonBenet: The Truth Uncovered – leans towards the theory that JonBenet was killed by someone who broke into the house. However, the 2008 DNA evidence exonerated Burke along with his parents. James Kolar, a former lead investigator on the case, later wrote a book in which he strongly suggested that Burke had – either deliberately or accidentally – been responsible for his sister's initial head injury, with one or both parents staging the subsequent crime scene to protect him. There was never an explanation for how JonBenet had apparently eaten several hours after her parents said she was in bed, nor for why Burke's fingerprints were on the bowl. Detectives discovered that the DNA on a bowl of half-eaten pineapple in the kitchen belonged to Burke, JonBenet's nine-year-old brother. Pineapple was found in JonBenet's stomach and it is believed to have been consumed only a few hours before her death. Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006, aged 49. They were officially exonerated in 2008 after DNA evidence recovered at the scene of the crime pointed to an unrelated male as the killer. Would a kidnapper really arrive at the house so unprepared?Īmid theories of family dysfunction and even sexual abuse as a potential motive to kill their daughter, the Ramseys always maintained their innocence. Several details around the case have served to arouse investigators' suspicions, however: not only was JonBenet strangled with a garrotte partially made with Patsy's paintbrush, the ransom note was written inside the house using the family's own stationery – the pen even neatly replaced in the pen pot. Given that JonBenet's body was discovered at home, eyes immediately turned to her family as the potential culprits in her death, although police have never named them as suspects. So what are the main theories behind the girl's murder? Patsy and John Ramsey
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A third, The Killing of JonBenet: The Truth Uncovered, produced by the American TV network A&E, aired on Monday. Two documentaries about the JonBenet Ramsey murder are scheduled to be screened later this month, with CBS and Investigative Discovery both giving their take on the case. Twenty years later, the murder remains unsolved and continues to fascinate amateur sleuths. She had been struck on the head and strangled with a garrotte made from cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush belonging to her mother. The six-year-old's hands were bound and her mouth covered with duct tape.
Later that day, JonBenet's father John was searching the basement of the large house when he made the gruesome discovery of his daughter's body. When she discovered that JonBenet was not in her bedroom, Patsy called the police. On Boxing Day morning in 1996, Patsy Ramsey came down the stairs of her home in Boulder, Colorado, and found a ransom note from a kidnapper demanding $118,000 for the safe return her six-year-old daughter, JonBenet.