Why is JonBenét Ramsey’s murder still unsolved? Re-examine the death

It’s been nearly 30 years since JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of her family’s Colorado home.

On the morning of December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note demanding $118,000 in exchange for the return of her 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét. Hours later — after reporting her missing to police and having investigators search the house — John Bennett Ramsey found his daughter dead in their basement with a garrote (a type of hand ligature) around her neck.

An autopsy report revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and her cause of death was strangulation and a blow to the skull.

No one was ever charged in JonBenét’s death, but her parents were under a police “umbrella of suspicion” and intense media scrutiny for years, in part because the toddler had a low public profile competing in beauty pageants.

Whether or not the focus on John and Patsy, who died in 2006, affected the solving of the case is Netflix’s question Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?. The three-part documentary premiered on November 25 and analyzes the police’s alleged missteps when the toddler was first reported missing. It also highlights other potential suspects that investigators have questioned and DNA evidence that John claims has yet to be tested.

“We’re begging the police to intervene,” he told PEOPLE in November. “There are state-of-the-art DNA labs that want to help and believe they can advance the case.”

So what happened to JonBenét Ramsey? Here you can find out everything about the unsolved murder of the toddler and why the police have not yet found her murderer.

What happened to JonBenét Ramsey?

At 5:52 a.m. on December 26, 1996, Patsy called Boulder police to report her daughter missing. She had found a ransom note on the stairs leading to her kitchen, written by a suspected kidnapper, demanding $118,000 by 10 a.m. or JonBenét would die. The amount requested was close to the amount John had previously received as a bonus.

Two officers were immediately dispatched to the scene of the accident. When they first searched the Ramsey house, they didn’t find the toddler and only sealed off JonBenét’s room. The police also allowed Patsy and John to invite friends over – a decision that Cold case Apparently the crime scene could have been contaminated.

When no one called to collect the ransom at 10 a.m., former detective Linda Arndt told John to search the house and see if he noticed anything “unusual.”

Who found JonBenét Ramsey’s body?

In Cold caseJohn claimed that when he and a friend were searching the basement, they noticed an open and broken window and a suitcase left underneath. He claimed the item “shouldn’t have been there.”

Soon after, John discovered JonBenét’s body in a room where the children kept their train sets. She was tied up and had tape over her mouth. John hurriedly removed the tape and carried her upstairs, where officers confirmed she was dead.

Another alleged mistake is allowing the missing child’s father to search the house himself – which led to him tampering with potential evidence when he found her body Cold case Boulder police claims.

Who were the suspects in the JonBenét Ramsey murder?

The existence of a ransom note seemed to lend credence to the theory that an intruder was responsible for JonBenét’s murder (although some investigators believed the letter was fake). Several names have been considered over the years.

One potential intruder was Michael Helgoth, who owned a pair of boots that appeared to match a print found at the crime scene. Helgoth was initially investigated by police, but died by suicide in 1997 and investigators began looking elsewhere.

Ollie Gray, a private investigator hired by John and Patsy, believed that Helgoth’s family may have a recorded confession of the crime.

In 2006, John Mark Karr, who also went by Alexis Reich, confessed to the murder, saying he was with JonBenét when she died and that “her death was an accident.” But the claim was debunked when Karr’s family said she was with him at Christmas 1996. His DNA also did not match that found on JonBenét’s clothing.

Another potential intruder was a man who had worked as Santa Claus, Bill McReynolds, and had recently visited the Ramsey home. The man’s daughter had also been kidnapped decades earlier, but he was never officially considered a suspect.

Cold case also highlights another former suspect, Gary Howard Oliva, who has been named as a person of interest 48 hours of investigation. He never confessed to the crime, but he served eight years in prison on child pornography charges and had a photo of JonBenét with him when he was arrested in 2000.

John told PEOPLE in November 2024 that he believes police should investigate a masked intruder who raped a 12-year-old girl in Boulder nine months after JonBenét was murdered. The girl’s mother scared off the attacker and he was never found – but John believes he could have “easily been the same person” who murdered his daughter. The girl also attended the same dance studio as JonBenét.

“The police brushed it off and said, ‘No, it’s not the same,'” John said. “I think the approach was exactly the same. I think the killer was in the house when we got home and waited until we went to sleep.”

The DNA evidence found on JonBenét’s clothing so far does not match that which police have questioned.

Were JonBenét Ramsey’s parents suspects in her murder?

At the start of the investigation, John and Patsy were described by police as “suspicious”. Patsy was accused of killing her daughter over a bedwetting incident in a 2000 book by former detective Steve Thomas, and Arndt continued to claim Good morning America In 1999, she reported that she had a “nonverbal exchange” with John after he found JonBenét that led her to believe he was the murderer.

After their daughter’s murder, the former couple hired lawyers and later said they felt they were being unfairly targeted by police and the media. In 1999, a grand jury decided that John and Patsy had “unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permitted a child to be inappropriately placed in a situation that posed a threat to the child’s life or health,” prosecutors said declined to pursue a case against JonBenét’s parents on the grounds that there was a lack of evidence.

In 2008, two years after Patsy died of ovarian cancer, then-District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote to John to inform him that he, Patsy and Burke had all been cleared of DNA involvement. However, future District Attorney Stan Garnett later told PEOPLE, “I did not feel that the exoneration was warranted based on the evidence and the complexity of the case.”

Burke, who was nine years old at the time of JonBenét’s murder, was never considered a suspect by Boulder police. However, a 2016 CBS documentary theorized that he hit his sister in the head with a flashlight. Burke filed a $750 million lawsuit against CBS to “redress the lasting damage” to his “reputation resulting from defendants’ false accusation that he killed his sister.”

NPR reported in 2019 that the defamation lawsuit had been settled.

Why is JonBenét Ramsey’s murder still unsolved?

JonBenét’s murder has yet to be solved – but her father believes it is possible.

John told PEOPLE that there are “six or seven” pieces of evidence that still need to be tested for DNA, including the garrote used to strangle the toddler. He wants the Boulder Police Department to send the evidence to labs that use genetic genealogy and other advanced DNA technologies, which he says will lead to answers.

“If it stays in the hands of the Boulder Police Department, it won’t be solved, period,” John claimed. “If they accept help, all the help that is out there, that is available and offered, the problem will be solved. Yes, I believe it will be resolved.”

He continued: “We don’t ask them to do anything strange. Just do your job. Test the DNA.”