Responding to the emergency call, two police officers arrived separately at 755 Fifteenth Street and looked around, but they did not see any evidence of breaking and entering. Ramsey had found on the kitchen stairs warned that alerting authorities would result in her daughter being killed ditto talking to anyone else, although she also called friends. What I present here is not an accusation but an exercise in trying to select and interpret the best evidence for “One of the greatest unsolved crimes in history” ( Murder 2016).Īt about 5:52 am on December 26, the girl’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, called 911 to report her daughter missing-although a ransom note Mrs. Still, much essential evidence in the Ramsey case has now become publicly available. Unfortunately, I lacked the direct access (to police files, crime-scene evidence, etc.) that I had when I was enlisted to investigate homicide cases (e.g., Nickell 2007 Nickell with Fischer 1992, 107–129 Nickell and Fischer 1999, 39). I have worked privately on this case over the years.
The case is a complex puzzle-not only with many pieces to sort out and fit into place but with some bogus pieces tossed into the mix. As police vied with the district attorney’s office over incompatible theories, the mystery of the little girl’s death became a national media sensation, but it never led to an arrest. On the day after Christmas 1996, child beauty-pageant star JonBenet Ramsey, age six, was found dead-garroted and her skull broken-in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado.