On the night of December 25, 1996, six‑year‑old JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was killed in her family's home at 755 15th Street in Boulder, Colorado. She was reported missing early on December 26, and her body was found about seven hours later in the basement of the house. Her skull had a 8.5 inch fracture on the right side of her head, and a garrote was tied around her neck. The autopsy determined that the cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma, and the case was ruled a homicide.
The Boulder Police Department initially focused on the Ramsey family, particularly a handwritten ransom note found in the house, which investigators believed had been written by JonBenét's mother, Patsy Ramsey. Police theorized that the note and the condition of JonBenét's body had been staged by Patsy and her husband, John Bennett Ramsey, to conceal responsibility for the killing. In 1999, both the police and the district attorney stated that JonBenét's nine‑year‑old brother, Burke, was not a suspect. That same year, a grand jury voted to indict the Ramseys for child abuse resulting in death and for accessory to a crime. Then-district attorney Alex Hunter declined to sign the indictment, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove the charges at trial.
In 2002, a new district attorney, Mary Lacy, assumed control of the case and advanced the theory that an intruder had entered the home and committed the killing. In 2003, trace DNA recovered from JonBenét's clothing was found to belong to an unidentified male, and the Ramseys were excluded as contributors. In 2008, Lacy sent the family a letter stating that they were cleared by the DNA results. Subsequent district attorney Stan Garnett would say, in 2016, that Lacy's decision was not legally binding, and that Lacy never should have written the letter. In 2009, the Boulder Police Department resumed control of the investigation and continues to treat the case as an open homicide.
The killing drew extensive national and international media attention, fueled by JonBenét's participation in child beauty pageants, the family's wealth, and the unusual evidence associated with the case. Media coverage scrutinized the police response, advanced competing theories, and prompted multiple defamation suits by Ramsey family members and associates. The case remains unsolved, and the Boulder Police Department provides periodic public updates.
JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia, the younger of two children of Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey (1956–2006) and John Bennett Ramsey (born 1943). She had an older brother, Burke (born 1987), and three older half-siblings from her father's first marriage.
Her given name was created by combining her father's first and middle names, while her mother's first name was used as her middle name. During the 1996-97 school year she was enrolled in kindergarten at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado.
On December 26, 1996, JonBenét's body was discovered in the basement of her family's Boulder home. She was buried on December 31, at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, where she was interred beside her half-sister Elizabeth Pasch Ramsey, who had died in a car crash nearly five years earlier at age 22.
John Ramsey is a businessman who was the president of Access Graphics, a computer company that later became a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1978. In 1991, John had moved with Patsy, his second wife, and family to Boulder, where Access Graphics' headquarters was located.
Patsy Ramsey entered JonBenét in various child beauty pageants, where she won the titles of America's Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. JonBenét's active role in child beauty pageants and Patsy's reported "pageant mother" behavior were reported by the media after the murder.
Six months after JonBenét's death, the Ramseys moved to a new home in Atlanta after a summer at their vacation retreat in Charlevoix, Michigan. Patsy died of ovarian cancer at age 49 in 2006. She is interred next to her daughter.
911 call and initial search for the child
The only people known to be in the house on the night of JonBenét's death were her immediate family: Patsy and John Ramsey and their son Burke. The ransom note contained specific instructions against contacting police and friends, but Patsy telephoned the police at 5:52 a.m. MST. She also called family and friends. Two police officers responded to the 9-1-1 call and arrived at the Ramsey home within three minutes. They conducted a cursory search of the house but did not find any sign of forced entry.
Officer Rick French went to the basement and came to a door that was secured by an additional wooden latch at the top of the door frame. He paused for a moment in front of the door, but walked away without opening it. French later explained that he was looking for an exit route used by the kidnapper; since the wooden latch was holding the door closed from inside the house, the kidnapper could not have used this door and then closed the latch from the inside, ruling this out as a possible exit. JonBenét's body was later found behind the door.
With JonBenét still missing, John made arrangements to pay the ransom. A forensics team was dispatched to the house. The team initially believed that the child had been kidnapped, and JonBenét's bedroom was the only room in the house that was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. No precautions were taken to prevent contamination of evidence in the rest of the house. Meanwhile, friends, victim advocates, and the Ramsey family's minister arrived at the home to show support. Visitors picked up and cleaned surfaces in the kitchen, possibly destroying evidence. Boulder detective Linda Arndt arrived at about 8:00 a.m. MST, in anticipation of receiving further instructions by the kidnapper(s), but there was never an attempt by anyone to claim the money.
At 1:00 p.m. MST, Detective Arndt asked John Ramsey and Fleet White, a family friend, to search the house to see if "anything seemed amiss." They started their search in the basement. John opened the latched door which Officer French had overlooked; his daughter's body lay in one of the rooms. JonBenét's mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was found around her wrists and neck, and her torso was covered by a white blanket. John picked up her body and rushed upstairs. When JonBenét was moved, the crime scene was further contaminated, and critical forensic evidence was disturbed for the returning forensics team.
Each of the Ramseys provided handwriting, blood, and hair samples to the police. John and Patsy participated in a preliminary interview for more than two hours, and Burke was also interviewed within the first couple of weeks following JonBenét's death.
Scott Gibbons, a neighbor, claimed that around midnight, while looking from his kitchen window, he saw the upper kitchen of the Ramsey residence lit up with dimmed lights. Neighbor Melody Stanton reported that she awoke shortly after midnight to the sound of a child's scream coming from the Ramsey residence.
Patsy Ramsey reported that she found a two-and-a-half-page handwritten ransom note on their kitchen staircase. The note demanded US$118,000 for JonBenét's return. John pointed out to the first police on the scene that the amount was nearly identical to his Christmas bonus of the prior year, which suggested that someone who would have access to that information would be involved in the crime. Investigators looked at several theories behind the dollar amount demanded, considering employees at Access Graphics who might have known the amount of John's prior bonus. They also considered the possibility that the ransom demand was a reference to Psalm 118 and spoke to religious sources to determine possible relevance.