Three major theories of who killed JonBenét Ramsey as new Netflix drama set to explore case
The death of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey has gone unsolved for nearly three decades, but a Netflix show has reignited theories over the child’s killing.
Ramsey, was a beauty contestant from Colorado, who was tragically killed on Boxing Day in 1996 in what became one of the US' most infamous cold cases.
The little girl was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder several hours after her mother called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been found in the house.
Her death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was charged in causing her death, with police also later criticized for mishandling the early investigation into her death.
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Netflix has since revisited the case, with their the Murder of JonBenét Ramsey premiering on December 10, per Netflix. It'll star Melissa McCarthy as mom Patsy and Clive Owen as her dad, John.
Netflix’s previous 2024 Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? looked into the following theories:
JonBenét Ramsey’s parents killed her
Per former Boulder Colorado police detective Steve Thomas’s new book JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation, he believes Patsy strangled her daughter after accidentally causing a head wound to the young girl.
He also alleges her husband, John, 'chose to protect his wife' instead of calling the police upon finding out about her death.
Thomas claims Patsy was stressed because of 'an approaching 40th birthday, the busy holiday season, an exhausting Christmas day and an argument with JonBenét over a bed-wetting incident'.
He said this led to 'some sort of explosive encounter in the child's bathroom' resulting in a serious head wound that Ramsey survived.
He said Patsy wrote a note suggesting the child had been kidnapped, and after taking her to the basement, realized she was waking up and killed her.
"Only feet away was her paint tote,'' he wrote. ''She grabbed a paintbrush and broke it to fashion the garrote with some cord. Then she looped the cord around the girl's neck."
However, Patsy's lawyer has called his theory 'fiction and utter nonsense'.
L. Lin Wood said his claim ‘is refuted in its entirety by medical evidence,’ per the New York Times.
The blame initially fell on the parents due to several factors.
One being that Patsy produced a 2 1/2-page ransom note to police which demanded $118,000 from the couple, which happened to be the same amount as John’s Christmas bonus from work.
It was also thought to have been written on Patsy’s stationary, per Rolling Stone.
The couple also alerted police to their daughter’s disappearance after the random deadline had passed and when authorities attended the home to search for her, John immediately searched the basement, where he found Ramsey’s body.
Then, there were reported fibers from the parent’s clothing found on Ramsey’s underwear and duct tape around her mouth, per Vox.
An intruder killed JonBenét Ramsey
Both Patsy and John released a book this year called Death of Innocence, in which they suggest she was killed by a stranger who entered the home.
However, the pair have also accused people they know of being involved in their daughter’s death.
DNA evidence pointed to the involvement of an ‘unexplained third party’, and despite arrests being made and lines of inquiries followed, nobody matched the DNA profile.
John has since been an active campaigner for modern DNA to find her killer.
He told NewsNation: “So, the retesting needs to be done. Hopefully, we get a good sample and in the right format that then they could do the genealogy research. I believe if we do that, there’s a really good chance we can solve it.”
Gary Oliva, a known sex offender that lived in the area at the time of the murder was accused of killing Ramsey by John, and reportedly was fixated on the young girl.
But his DNA wasn’t that of what was found on Ramsey.
Michael Helgoth was an electrician in the area, whose Hi-Tec boots appeared to match a print left at the crime scene, ABC News reported.
Again, his DNA was not a match.
Bill McReynolds, was a man who dressed as Santa Claus at the Ramseys’ home days prior to her death and was also accused by John.
However, he was ruled out.
JonBenét’s brother killed her
Another theory is that Ramsey’s brother, Burke killed her in a fit of rage that evening.
Burke was nine at the time of her death, and a CBS documentary interviewed experts who claimed a flashlight at the scene matched the head wound on the child.
However, the flashlight was ruled out as being involved in the crime.
Burke sued those who alleged he was involved in the doc for $150 million, citing defamation, and he sued CBS for $750 million, reported People, which was settled in 2019.
To this day, no definitive answer has come from Ramsey's death.
Topics: Crime, True crime, Netflix
Britt Jones