On Christmas night of 1996, a participant in children's beauty contests was killed in her own house. This case is considered one of the most high-profile crimes that occurred in the United States in the nineties, but it has not yet been solved. However, last year there was information that the killer of a six-year-old girl had been hiding from justice all this time in a most unexpected place - in prison.
Biography of the young beauty queen
The girl was born on August 6, 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her parents are computer tycoon John Bennett Ramsey and his wife Patricia Ann Poe. These are quite influential people who were suspected of abducting and murdering their own daughter (after a DNA test, all doubts of law enforcement agencies disappeared). The girl also had an older brother Burke. At the time of birth in the girl's family, the first-born was three years old.
When the baby was only nine months old, her family moved to Boulder. A rather strange (even for American hearing) name of the girl came from the merger of the first and second names of her father, and the second came from the name of her mother. Johnbenet Patricia Ramsey regularly recorded in the number of participants in beauty contests and children's competitions. The girl managed to visit several neighboring states.
Mother Johnbenet Ramsey (photo of the girl above) independently organized several contests. She was the holder of the title "Miss Virginia" and a participant in the contest "Miss America", so this area was close to the woman. By the age of six, Johnbenet Ramsey won the titles “Tiny Beauty of the Nation, ” “Little Miss Colorado, ” “Cover Girl from Colorado.” The girl also played the violin and was actively involved in rock climbing.
The abduction and murder of Johnbenet Ramsey
On Christmas Eve 1996, Johnbenet Ramsey and her parents went to visit family friends. After a short party, they returned home. Patricia put the girl to bed and went about her business. This was the last time Johnbenet was seen alive. The next morning, the girl did not wake up.
According to Patricia Ramsey herself, who was recorded by the police who arrived at the crime scene, in the morning she found a ransom note on the stairs. After that, she immediately checked that the girl was not in her bed. The note said that Johnbenet was abducted. The criminal demanded a ransom of 118 thousand dollars.
It is worth mentioning that just such an amount recently received the girl’s father as a bonus. The note also contained standard requirements not to contact the police. But mother Johnbenet Ramsey immediately contacted law enforcement. Arriving at the scene, the police found no signs of hacking.
The ransom letter was unexpectedly verbose. Police have not yet suspected that the girl’s body is in the house. John Ramsey fairly quickly prepared the amount needed for the ransom, but so far no one had called him about the transfer of money. The next morning, his friend John Ferney took 118 thousand dollars from the bank.
Detecting a girl's body in the basement
Detective Linda Arndt invited her parents to inspect the house again. John Ramsey, along with a family friend, Fleet White, during a search, found his daughter's body in the basement. Jonbenet was covered with a white veil, a nylon cord was wrapped around her neck. The girl was tied, and her mouth was sealed with tape.
Later, an examination showed that the little beauty was strangled, her skull was broken. No rape was found, but police suspected that six-year-old Jonbenet faced sexual harassment. Two hematomas were found on the head. The girl's underwear was stained with blood.
The first suspects were the parents of Johnbenet Ramsey. Parents refused to give evidence in writing, but later underwent a graphological examination. It turned out that not one of them was the author of the note, which was found on the morning of December twenty-six.
John and Patricia refused official interrogations. They hired highly qualified lawyers to defend their interests. A lot of criticism fell on the police. Law enforcement officers were accused of an inattentive search, improper performance of official duties, and concealment of facts.
Later it was discovered that a window was open in the basement. In addition, there is reason to believe that the doors in the house remained unlocked. So who killed Johnbenet Ramsey? The police concluded that the murder was committed by an unknown attacker who entered the house through a window in the basement.
Possible killer of Little Miss Colorado
In August 2006, a certain John Mark Carr confessed to the murder of Johnbenet Ramsey. This is a former school teacher. At this time, Carr was in the child pornography case as an accused. A forty-one-year-old teacher told the police that he was with Jonbenet at the time of her death. However, Carr called it an accident.
The DNA found on the girl’s body did not match the biological materials of the criminal. John Carr said he gave the girl drugs and had sex with her. But the police did not find any traces of drugs in the blood, nor traces of sperm. In addition, the teacher lived at that time in Alabama, and the crime occurred in Colorado.
All evidence supporting John Carr's guilt was purely indirect. During the graphological examination, it was found that the handwriting of the accused is very similar to the handwriting of a real criminal. It was noted that the letters "E", "T", "M" Carr wrote in a very unusual way, but in the same way as the killer unknown to the police.
According to information released by law enforcement in 2006, the investigation continued many years after the crime was committed. It was obvious that the police were completely dissatisfied with the upfront confession of the girl’s school teacher John Carr. In February 2009, the prosecutor's office resumed the investigation into the murder of a small beauty queen from the United States.
Next to Johnbenet Ramsey, her mother, who died of cancer in 2006, as well as her half-sister Elizabeth Pash Ramsey, who died in a car accident, are buried in Marietta.
Was the killer hiding in prison?
The real criminals have not yet been found. But in the press at the beginning of the 2000s, information appeared that the girl’s killer had been hiding from the investigation in an American prison all this time. The killer was thinking about how to protect himself, so he just sat behind bars.
One of the detectives, during an active investigation, wanted to include him in the list of suspects, but the higher authorities forbade it. According to the journalist who revealed this version, the alleged kidnapper Johnbenet Ramsey is currently about 50-60 years old, he was convicted of rape.
New shocking details
In 2010, the case was opened again. The latest DNA testing methods have proven that parents are innocent. Their genetic material was not found on the girl’s body. However, the samples that were taken from the body could not be found in any database.
In 2013, documents were presented to the public that prove that in 1999 the jury, which determines the validity of official charges against someone, considered the evidence sufficient to charge the parents. But the district attorney refused to sign the charge. He said the evidence is insufficient.
A documentary about the murder of a girl
Twenty years after the tragedy, the documentary “Who Killed Johnbenet” and its sequel about the girl’s mother, “Mother Johnbenet: Killer or Victim?” Appeared. Aion Bailey, as well as Michael Gill and Julia Campbell, who played the parents of a small beauty, starred in the role of a detective. In the film, Python Python Lapinsky spoke in a voice to Janbenet:
I was "Little Miss Colorado." This Christmas I would be 26 years old - but for all I will be forever only six.
Brother Johnbenet Ramsey, who died in childhood as a beauty queen, recently gave an exclusive interview. He said that the killer was most likely a pedophile who spotted his sister at one of the many beauty contests, and then broke a window in the basement, kidnapped and killed a girl. Twenty-nine-year-old brother of the victim said he gave this interview so that little Jonbenet would not be forgotten.
Since three years, Burke had a hard time. Police officers were constantly on duty at their home, and their parents were suspected of killing their sisters. Therefore, the boy even at a young age hated publicity, and when he grew up, he began to lead a closed life.
Memoirs of parents and copyright books
Parents of the little beauty queen, many years after the tragedy, released a book dedicated to their dead daughter. They expressed their version of the monstrous crime that shocked the whole of America. Father Johnbenet wrote The Other Side of Suffering.
He lamented and asked questions. Why didn’t parents understand in time that a child who is so popular is very vulnerable? Why did they have big parties where a lot of strangers were invited? Perhaps excessive caution would have avoided the tragedy. However, the biography of Johnbenet Ramsey (the photo of the girl is presented in the article) shocked the Americans.
