Criminology - JonBenét Ramsey Part 1

Episode Date: March 24, 2024

The Ramsey family, 53-year-old John, 39-year-old Patricia, 9-year-old Burke, and 6-year-old JonBenét, lived what appeared to be an idyllic life in Boulder, Colorado. That happy family life was shattered on December 26th, 1996, after JonBenét was found dead in the home. Join Mike and Morf for this first episode covering the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Patsy discovered a ransom note as she went downstairs to make coffee. This led to a 911 call, the police arriving, and a frantic search for JonBenét. She was eventually found in the basement of the home. This case immediately garnered national headlines and continues to intrigue many people today. You can help support the show at pareon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Everyone and welcome to episode 300 of the Criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morph, how you doing, man? Can you believe that it's episode 300? I can, in one respect, on the other hand, I don't think it seems like 300. You know, it seems like in some ways we started this just yesterday, but then when you think back through all the different cases we've done, the different seasons, it's

really a long road. Yeah, it has been a long road. It's been a fun road, a hard road. I mean, all those different things. But it really is an accomplishment that we're proud of. I just never thought ever that when we started out, you know, we would be here so many years down the road getting to episode 300. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's, it's, It's been fun getting to know people, getting to hear from listeners, getting to interact with them that love the show and have supported it over the years and told people about it. It's something to be really proud of. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Rosalie Mince and Ashley Zerly.

So great new support. We really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time to support the show. It means a lot to us. And for anyone else out there that like to, you can go to patreon.com slash criminology to sign up. So we're jumping right in to episode 300 and we mentioned it last week. This is a big one. The December 1996 murder of John Bonae Ramsey.

As we talked about, we wanted to cover a really big case for episode 300 and we're doing that over three parts, a deep enough dive to cover all of the relevant details and explore some theories, but not stray too far off into the weeds and go down. too many rabbit holes. Yeah, I think, Mike, this is one of those cases for listeners that were really jar their crime memories, sort of like getting news on the Golden State Killer when he was arrested. We're watching the O.J. Simpson slow speed Bronco chase. I think John Bonaise case is one that people can really think back to and remember the case like it was yesterday.

For me, I remember thinking that it was so unusual and unheard of for someone to enter a home to do something like this with family members there. And of course, all these years later, I realized that this kind of crime isn't that unusual. But for me, it was one of those cases that the national media got a hold of and really put it front and center. So from that perspective, it was different. What are your memories from this case when you first heard about it? Well, like you, I did think it was very odd, right, from the beginning, that someone could commit this type of crime, you know, by entering someone's, home while everyone was there. But like you said, this was before we started doing all the research

that we do now. I was fascinated by true crime from an early age. I think what I remember most is just the media blitz and how much coverage this case got. I mean, you couldn't turn on the TV. You couldn't stand in line at the supermarket without seeing some type of. of magazine or tabloid with John Bonnet's picture on it. Yeah, it was definitely sensationalized and there were a lot of things put out, maybe not all that accurate. And it really, over the past three decades, it's divided a lot of people that think one way or another about the case and who

was responsible. And of course, we're going to get into all of that. And I'm sure that most listeners here know the John Bonnet Ramsey case pretty well. They'd probably watch a TV show about it. listen to other podcasts or maybe even taking part in a Reddit or web sleuth discussion about the case. One thing that we want to say up front is that we're not here to tell you exactly what happened or who we think did what all these years ago. This is a case like you said morph that most people

have a very strong opinion on. And those opinions likely won't be swayed by what we have to say. But what we do want to do as best as we can is walk list. through the case from the minute the 911 call was made and keep going all the way through to where the state of the investigation lies today. And let's face it, this case is unsolved for reason and whether you believe that reason is because the perpetrators are unknown or because the investigation was convoluted or even possibly mishandled. The fact is that no one has ever been formally charged or arrested with the murder of this little girl. Older Colorado police chief Tom Kobe once said in a media release,

Our allegiance is solely to John Bonnet Ramsey. We have dedicated ourselves to bringing to justice the person or persons responsible for her death. Everything else is secondary. We will not be deterred. Our goal here with these episodes is similar. We're here for John Bonnet to tell her story as best we can with the information available, with no agenda and no embellishments. It all officially started with a phone call.

It was 5.52 a.m. on Thursday, December. December 26th, 1996, most people in the town of Boulder, Colorado nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, were still sound asleep in their beds recovering from the excitement, early wake-ups and late nights that Christmas brings. For many people, the day after Christmas is one of those days that you don't really do all that much. But for one family, the Ramses, they were waking up early because they had a post-Christmas trip and flight plan. 53-year-old John Ramsey was the patriarch of the family. His wife, 39-year-old Patricia Ramsey, who went by Patsy, was the matriarch.

The couple had a son, 9-year-old Burke, and a daughter, 6-year-old John Bonnet. The four of them lived in an upscale five-bedroom home, located at 749 15th Street, a home described by many as a mansion. the entire third floor of the home was the master suite. And John and Patsy each had their own bathroom. John Ramsey, a successful and wealthy businessman, had adult children from a previous marriage, and he along with Patsy, Burke, and John Bonae,

were all set to celebrate the holiday with John's oldest children at their vacation home in Charlevoix, Michigan. Sadly, the family would never make it there. At 5.52 a.m. shortly after waking, Patsy frantically called 911. A note was left, and your daughter is your daughter? Six years old. How long ago was it? I don't know. I just found the note. And my daughter is it same who took her?

What? Is it saying to him? It's a ransom note. It's an S-B-T-C. Victory. Okay, what's your name? Are you that... Patsy Ramper, the mother. Okay, I'm sitting in off the thorough room. Please.

Do you know how long she's been gone? No, I don't. Please, we just got out and she's right here. Oh, my God, please. Okay. I'm, honey. Please. Take a deep breath to me, okay.

Please. Hurry, hurry, hurry, her. Patsy, Patsy. Patsy. Although that audio quality may not be the greatest, you can clearly hear Patsy frantically say, we have a kidnapping. This wasn't simply called about a missing child,

but one that had been abducted. The presence of a ransom note, left in the home indicated that something was terribly wrong. Six-year-old John Bonnet had been kidnapped, and according to the note, she was being held hostage for ransom. The note was three pages long, sloppily scrawled and thick black marker. It was addressed only to Mr. Ramsey. When Patsy made this call, John was awake, but he was showering in his bathroom on the third floor. It had been Patsy who first headed downstairs on her way to make coffee, and she was the one to discover the note on the bottom step of a spiral staircase.

We have your daughter. We're among the opening words in the letter enough to make any parents heart drop. Apparently, this was all Patsy needed to read for her to panic and rush to the phone. Clues in the rest of the note were very important. The note included terms like not calling the police and warned that the family was being surveilled and that any attempt to notify authorities would come with great. grave consequences. Of course, the note could have been some kind of sick prank, but it seemed real to Patsy. And when she checked on John Bonae, she wasn't in her bedroom. She wasn't in

her big brother, Burke's bedroom either. Burke was, though, apparently fast asleep and unaware that anything had happened. Patsy raced to the kitchen, the sunroom, the playroom, and even check the yard, hoping that she would find John Bonae playing with a new bite. She had received as a surprise for Christmas. But John Bonae was nowhere to be found. If John Bonae had indeed been kidnapped, this was a serious situation that required the authorities. While John Ramsey, a successful businessman and CEO in the technology industry, could

certainly pay the $118,000 ransom demanded, it would take time to get the money together, especially without alerting anyone at the banks to the seriousness of the situation. With no way to contact the kidnappers and no proof of life, there was no guarantee that a ransom payment would mean the return of a safe and unharmed John Bonnet. And I think it's very important to discuss the note in a bit more detail. The note which Patsy found began with Mr. Ramsey, listen carefully. We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We respect your business, but not the country it serves. At the time, John Ramsey was the CEO of Access Graphics, a Boulder-based computer distributor, and a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed is first and foremost an aerospace company, but they work closely with the U.S. military and deal in securities and technology as well. Though John Ramsey's business was just a computer company, it could be construed that he technically worked for Lockheed Martin. and thus technically worked for the U.S. government. In this portion of the note, the word business was misspelled with an extra S. On December 21st, just days earlier, an article about access graphics passing the $1 billion sales mark

was published in the Boulder Daily Camera. The company also had a public party at Hotel Boulderado in celebration. Had this article in celebration made the Ramsey family a target? The note continued, at this time we have your daughter in our possession. She is safe and unharmed. And if you want her to see 1997, you must follow our instructions to the letter.

There were just five days until the new year, but no guarantee that John Bonnet would live that long, especially if the instructions in the letter were not followed. After all, the writer did start with listen carefully. Curiously, the word possession was misspelled, this time with a missing S. The note went on, you will withdraw $118,000 from your account.

$100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Make sure that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank. When you get home, you will put the money in a brown paper bag. This part of the note gives most people pause. First, $118,000 is a very odd number for, a ransom. Why not 100,000 or 150,000?

Even $120,000 is less odd of a number. We also see the peculiar use of the word attache here. Not wallet, bag, briefcase or suitcase, but attache. It also

almost seems that someone was expecting this to be more bills than it would be. It would be a pretty fat stack of cash, but but you wouldn't need a special case for it. The writer of the note seems to know this as they seem to know that a brown paper bag would be inadequate size for the amount.

So again, why instruct John to bring an attach? And more if I've been on this earth for a while now, I don't know that I've ever used the word attache. There are so many other words to describe what you're, talking about, that it makes it seem very odd. Yeah, that's definitely not a word that most Americans use. I think most people would just say briefcase, suitcase, something along the lines, but attache is just is very strange. The note then switches from a group narrative to that of a single person. It's no longer we. It read, I'll call you between 8 and 10 a.m. tomorrow to instruct

you on delivery. The delivery will be exhausting, so I advise you to be rested. If we monitor you, getting the money early, we might call you early to arrange an earlier delivery of the money, and hence an earlier pickup of your daughter. This is very vague, as tomorrow could mean December 26th, if the kidnapper had left it on the night of Christmas, or it could mean December 27th, if the writer knew the note wouldn't be discovered until the morning of the 26th. When you look at all the circumstances, December 27th starts to look more likely. The banks wouldn't even be open before 9 a.m. So call at 8 a.m. wouldn't be a good idea. How was John Ramsey supposed to get the money early if the banks weren't even open until well within their call window?

It's also important to note that it seems like the letter writer doesn't even know what they want to happen as they first wrote an earlier delivered. As if they would drop John Bonnet off somewhere, but for whatever reason, they changed their mind and crossed it out, continuing on with pickup instead. Now, the writer continues in a first person. perspective, but adds the group back in. Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for a proper barrier. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you. So I advise you not to provoke them. It's almost as though the events that will unfold are out of the author's hands. As they're just writing the note, They're not even the one holding John Bonnet hostage.

It's at this point in the note that the first mention of not calling authorities pops up. Patsy apparently didn't make it down to this point of the letter before grabbing the phone and calling 911. There's very strong violent language in this section, directly linked to the action that Patsy took out of fear. The letter continued on. Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as police or FBI, will result in your daughter, being beheaded. If we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. If you alert bank authorities, she dies. If the money is in any way marked or tampered with, she dies. You can try to deceive us, but be warned we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics. Despite the threats,

the police were called, and they did inform the FBI of the situation. The Ramses had quite the task. They were instructed to complete. Play it cool, gather $118,000. in very specific denominations in short notice without alerting bank authorities that anything is suspicious and then wait for the kidnappers call alone. The note was clear. Speak to no one, not even an animal. It read, you stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to outsmart us. Follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back.

You and your family are under constant scrutiny, as well as the authorities. The final section of the note is again speaking directly to John Ramsey. Don't try to grow a brain, John. You are not the only fat cat around, so don't think that killing will be difficult. Don't underestimate us, John. Use that good Southern common sense of yours. It's up to you now, John. Victory

SBTC. This makes it clear that the perpetrators have a goal. It also hints at a personal knowledge of John Ramsey who had moved from

Atlanta, Georgia to Colorado in 1991. The letter doesn't contain John Bonaise's name, not even once. Did the author not know her name?

Is this a possible hint that whoever wrote the note didn't know the Ramsey family very well. The letter writer urged John to use his Southern common sense. But the thing is, if the writer thought they knew John Ramsey well, implied by their good Southern common sense line, did they forget that John Ramsey wasn't a Southerner? Or was it another clue that showed that they didn't really know John all that well? John Ramsey was born in Nebraska and lived there until he was

about 12. After this, he and his family moved to Michigan. In 1966, he graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering before going on to earn his master's degree in business administration. In 1966, John married his first wife, Lucinda Pash, the same year. After graduating with his bachelor's degree, John joined the U.S. Navy. He was stationed in the Philippines as a civil engineer corps officer for three years. He was honorably discharged and continued to serve in a reserve unit for some time. He worked for AT&T in Columbus, Ohio in 1971. During their marriage, John and Lucinda had three children.

Their first daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1969. She was actually born in the Philippines. While John was stationed there, their younger daughter, Melinda, was born three years later, and their only son, John Andrew, followed in 1977. In 1978, the two divorced. That same year, John's mother, Mary, passed away due to cancer. Interestingly, his father, Jay, married Lucinda's mother, Irene Pash in 1979. John's father and his former mother-in-law were now husband and wife. They remained married until Jay Ramsey passed away.

Like his father, John was ready to fall in love again and living in Atlanta, Georgia, he met Patricia Ann Paul, better known that everyone as Patsy. Unlike John, she was a southerner. Patsy was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia in 1956, just after Christmas. In 1975, she graduated from Parkersburg High School and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in journalism from West Virginia University in 1978, the same year that John Ramsey and Lucinda had divorced. The year prior to graduating, Patsy was crowned Miss West Virginia. Patsy was just 23 years old on November 5th, 1980, when she married John, who was 37. John's children with Lucinda were still young, and it took a while for John and Patsy to have any children of their own. John was a businessman,

and Patsy was very involved in helping him with his work. Late nights and deadlines for him meant late nights and deadlines for her. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. On January 27, 1987, John and Patsy's only son together, Burke was born. Despite having to care for a baby, the couple continued to work hard.

at building their business. In 1989, John was head of a company called Advanced Product Group, based out of Roswell, Georgia. This would later merge with the Boulder-based CAD Distributors Incorporated and CAD Sources, Inc, Piscataway, New Jersey. Their youngest child and only daughter, John Bonnet,

was born on August 6, 1990. John began to commute to Boulder more after the merger, while the rest of the family stayed in Atlanta. In 1991, Calcomp, Inc. purchased access graphics. And John stayed on as CEO. By mid-1991, the Ramses were living full-time in Boulder. Life for the Ramses in Colorado before John Bonnet's murder wasn't always happy, and they had their sure of heartbreaks.

On January 8, 1992, John's 22-year-old daughter Elizabeth and her boyfriend Matthew Darrington were killed in a car accident near Chicago, Illinois. Matthew was driving his BMW on Interstate 55 on a rainy day when he collided with a delivery truck. In 1993, Patsy was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. She was just 36 years old at the time. Due to her young age and the late stage of her illness, Patsy was eligible for an experimental chemotherapy treatment through the National Institutes of Health. During her treatment and recovery, she stayed in a separate bedroom with its own bathroom on the second floor. It wasn't as many stairs as getting to the third floor suite, and she and John wouldn't keep each other up with different schedules. It also offered Patsy more of a

chance to hear her two young children play when she couldn't be around them due to her suppressed immune system. Her mother, NEDRA, would stay with them to help care for Patsy and watch the children. After two surgeries and nine months of grueling treatment, Patsy's cancer went into remission. The worst had to be behind them after all that, right? It felt like it was until Patsy walked downstairs and saw that ransom note. By 6 a.m. just minutes after Patsy's 911 call, two officers from the Boulder Police Department were at the Ramsey home. Despite the instructions in the ransom note, they parked right out front in their marked squad car. To be fair, they hadn't seen the letter yet mentioning a threat if police got involved in a deposition much later.

It would come out that Patsy was apparently upset at the first officer being in uniform and wearing a gun. It turns out the police weren't the only ones that Patsy had called in her panic. Two of the Ramsey's closest couple friends in Boulder, the whites and the Fernies, were also called. It was clearly serious due to the hour, even before anyone heard Patsy's tone of voice or learned what was happening. In fact, the Fernies only had her tone to go off of. She didn't give details. She just asked that they come as fast as they could. Their first thoughts as they rushed over to the Ramsey home were of, you know, some type of health emergency.

Not that one of the kids was missing. The Ramsey home quickly became quite chaotic with many people in and out of it. If there was evidence left behind by the perpetrator, there was now a good chance that it would be lost or contaminated by those moving throughout the home. John Fernie arrived, parking in the alley behind the home, and ran up to the patio door. He looked through the glass pane and saw a document on the floor, but for him it was upside down, facing the interior of the home. It turned out it was the ransom note. According to John Fernie, he tried to read it, and he could make out that it had something to do with a ransom. When Patsy first saw it that morning, it had been placed across one step

to the bottom of the spiral staircase. Now it was laid out on the floor outside of the kitchen. This is where John Ramsey had hunched over it examining it while Patsy was on the phone with 911. According to ABC News, John Fernie read it and after the first few lines realized something very strange was happening. The door was locked and he rushed around to the front door and was quickly let inside. Fleet White Jr. and his wife Priscilla were already inside the home with Patsy,

Reverend Rall Hoverstock. Their pastor soon arrived to pray with the family. Victim advocates were also called to the scene. John Bonaise's bedroom was empty. The lamp on her nightstand was on and her bed was unmade. A pillow was at the foot of the bed on top of the blankets. Fleet went around the home, calling John Bonaise's name. He figured that if she heard him looking for her,

she would either come out or her giving him. Digling would give away her hiding spot. His own daughter, who was John Bonnet's age, and a close friend of hers had recently gone missing, but was found hiding at home. It's not clear whether or not he knew about the note at this point, since it seems like he came in through the front door, where Fernie ended up having to enter, and the ransom note was laid out by a different door. It's pretty clear that if John Bonnet was in the house and simply hiding or playing a game, she couldn't have written the ransom note at just six years old. In the storage room in the basement, Fleet saw a suitcase. It was awkwardly placed and

caught his attention. Above the suitcase, the basement window was open. The glass was broken, but there wasn't much glass around. Fleet looked for glass but only found a tiny kernel, which he placed on top of the suitcase. John Ramsey would later tell police that he himself had broken that window during the summer when he accidentally locked himself out of the home. He broke the glass out and climbed through the window, but never got it repaired. Officer French searched the home too. He wasn't calling out John Bonaise's name. He was looking for ways that the kidnapper could have left the home with her.

When he got to the door to the wine cellar in the basement, he noticed the latch was engaged, keeping the door from opening. So he moved on to search the rest of the home. Fleet had done a cursory search of the wine cellar, opening the door and calling out for John Bonae, but he couldn't find the light switch, so it was pitch black. He figured a child wouldn't hide somewhere like that anyway. It was pretty creepy. He relatched the door and went to join the others. Upstairs, Patsy was hysterical. She kept repeating between hyperventilating breaths. Why didn't I hear my baby? When she wasn't sobbing,

she was vomiting. Burke Ramsey was soon woken up and taken to the White's home. Later that day, an officer questioned him briefly, but didn't learn anything new. Officers found no sign of forced entry in the home. The phone was tapped, recording all calls and also gathering the information of any callers. John Ramsey called Broad Westmoreland, his banker in Atlanta. John Fernie called one of his friends, president of a bank in Boulder. Together, the group found a way to make the quick money transfer happen. John Ramsey's visa card was given a credit line of $118,000, and John Fernie went to the local bank to collect the cash. It never made it back to the Ramsey home, though. Authorities were photocopying the serial numbers. 8 a.m. came and then 10 a.m. with no call from the kidnappers. There was still

confusion over whether the kidnappers meant the 26th or the 27th, as they advised John to be well-rested. But the note would obviously be uncovered the morning of the 26th. Every call that did come had Patsy practically cowering away from the phone, bracing for impact. Eventually, all officers at the scene left except for Detective Linda Arndt. She was left at the home full of people while other officers attended a briefing and got ready to work with the FBI. Detective Arndt was trying to keep everyone together so that she could keep an eye on them. But it was increasingly difficult as they became more and more restless. At one point, she lost track of John Rams.

who she eventually found reading mail. Unsure whether it had come through the door slot or an external box, John had to leave the home to check. Detective Arant felt that the people inside the home were not contained enough. She finally ordered John and Fleet to search the entire home again from top to bottom. Focusing them on a task together would keep them inside the home, and who knows, they may find something that might help the investigation. This seems to be a big mistaken protocol here.

To this point, instead of ordering everyone from the home in order of preserve, and look for clues and evidence, everyone is moving around the house, and now instead of trained police looking for clues and evidence, Detective Arndt has enlisted the very people that shouldn't be there in the first place. And I think more if there's no doubt. This is a big facet of this case. And one that has perplexed a, you know, a lot of people for many, many years. you just think about the number of people inside this home that through the letter is thought to have been a crime scene. Why were all these civilians in the home essentially allowed free rank? I think that's the question a lot of people ask.

I mean, they're walking around the home. They're opening doors, closing doors, checking rooms. You know, you talk about evidence and the destruction of evidence, well, police are trained, supposed to be trained, right, in the protocols. Civilians are not. And they don't think about that stuff. You know, they find out that a little girl is missing. They're running around the house without a thought in the world about contamination of evidence

anything like that. Yeah, and I'm sure they weren't wearing gloves and whatever other and whatever other protective stuff detectives would be wearing when they're in the situation. It definitely seems like a failure on protocol. And I think it speaks to just how this police department wasn't used to that kind of crime because it simply didn't happen in that city. And not to bad mouth detective aren't here, but it really seems like poor judgment at the very least. I get it, you know, she's trying to corral all of these people. Well, a great way to do that would have been to, you know, get some of those people out of the home. But instead, she assigns them tasks of, you know, looking around the home further. It just doesn't seem like the best course of action.

John and Fleet started with the basement, and some find this suspicious move due to it being the opposite of Detective Arnsworths, which were top to bottom. But others think that it was more of a saying, meaning thoroughly than really a literal instruction. John Ramsey had woken up in his master suite on the third floor that morning, and John Bonae had been missing from the second floor. she would have had to have gone unnoticed by so many people on the first floor that the basement seemed like a much more likely hiding spot. If she had been fooling around and gotten stuck somewhere, the basement was also the most likely area for this since they would have likely been able to hear her cry out if she were in

any of the living spaces above ground. And all of this makes sense if we forget for a second about the race. ransom note because by this point with the ransom note in hand, it seems very clear that this was not a little girl playing hide and seek. The basement had multiple rooms in different nooks and crannies. John and Fleet checked a few spaces in the basement before moving on to the latched wine cellar door. As John turned on the light, he screamed. Just after 1 p.m., the search for John Bonnet suddenly ground to a hole. John saw John Bonnet's body, somewhat covered by a white blanket she was lying on. There was duct tape over her mouth, a rope tied tightly around her neck, and another

length of rope with each end tied around her wrist. John ripped the duct tape off her mouth and tried to take the rope off her of her wrist. But after he removed the loop around her left wrist, he just picked her up and ran upstairs with her. He placed her on the floor and summoned Detective Arndt. Fleet White, who had tried to check the basement room earlier, was shocked. How could he have missed this? He picked up the piece of duct tape to inspect it. in disbelief before throwing it back down on the floor and following John upstairs. He ran to a phone, clearly in a panic, attempted to dial 911, hung up, and then yelled for someone to call an ambulance. Detective Arndt picked John Bonae up and carried her to the living room,

placing her down again, this time in front of the Christmas tree. She then placed a sweatshirt over John Bonae's neck to hide the obvious wound and the... the ligature before she could tell him not to, John threw a blanket over her body, aren't then rearranged the blanket so that she was only covered from the neck down. And again, I don't want to harp on this. But all of these people in the heat of the moment and in shock are contaminating and disturbing evidence, something that wouldn't have happened if the case was handled properly early on. And for me, it's hard to blame the parents in a lot of these situations.

You know, most people can sympathize if you saw your baby in that situation. Most likely your first thought would be to pick her up, to cradle her, to take the duct tape off, to get that stuff off her. But as we know, when it comes to an investigation, that's the last thing you want to have happen. Yeah, as a grieving parent in shock, you're not thinking about what is protocol here. How do I handle this situation and not disturb any evidence? You just want to see if your child's okay.

So, I mean, I certainly don't blame him for rushing John Bonay upstairs and wanting her to be okay and putting her down and not thinking of all the evidence aspect of the case. But again, if you had a house full of investigators, checking the house top to bottom, then most likely a trained professional would have found John Bonnet's body and then the protocol would have kicked in. And I think that's what, you know, irks many people about this case.

Why didn't it happen that way? Friends helped Patsy walk to John Bonay's body. She couldn't walk on her. own. She threw herself down, wailing. Practically lying on top of John Bonnet, she yelled, according to the Daily Camera, Jesus, you raised Lazarus from the dead, raise my baby from the dead. Detective Arndt asked Reverend Hovastock to lead the group in prayer, what she called for backup. Paramedics arrived to check on Patsy. She wasn't doing well emotionally and was in shock, but she didn't require any actual medical treatment. In the basement wine cellar, there was a white

blanket. John Bonnet's favorite Barbie nightgown was lying on the blanket, but it's not clear if it was stuck to it like they had been washed together, or if John Bonnet, or perhaps her killer, had been holding it. John Benet's pediatrician prescribed Patsy the tranquilizer volume. John worked on hiring lawyers for the family, a move that some people would later find suspicious, so soon after finding his dead child. At 8.20 p.m., while everyone in the Ramsey home was shocked and in disbelief, trying to comfort each other. John Meyer, the Boulder County corner, arrived to examine the body. John Bonae was lying on her back. Her arms were outstretched above her head, but her body was covered by a blanket and a Colorado avalanche sweatsher. She was still wearing a long-sleeved

white shirt with a silver star on the front of it. A white cord had been tied around her right wrist loosely over the sleeve. John Ramsey had removed the similar loop from her left wrist when he found her body in the basement. Both ends of this cord were free. She was also wearing long underwear style pajama bottoms and a pair of underwear that was too big for her. Both were stained with urine on the front, as if she had been lying on her stomach when her bladder released. She had been found on her back in the basement and again placed on her back when she was brought upstairs that afternoon. There were multiple contusions or abrasions visible on her body.

There was a small one near the right ear and a larger one on the lower left side of her neck. Dried mucus and saliva stained her right cheek. The cord tied around her neck had dug deeply under her skin. According to the Daily Camera, the furrow was almost completely horizontal with slight upward deviation from the horizontal towards the back of the neck.

The other side of the cord was wrapped around part of a thin paintbrush, broken at both ends. It was four and a half inches long. The word Korea was stamped on the wood. John Bonae's hair was tangled in the knot tied around the stick. Meyer was surprised to find an 8-inch skull fracture caused by someone striking John Bonae with an object on the right side of her head. There had been no blood or outward signs of this injury.

There's a photo of this injury that you can find online, and we should warn you, it's very graphic, but it demonstrates just how severe the wounded John Bonae's head was. There were also injuries to her genital area. these details are disturbing, but paint a picture of what happened. It was clear that an assault had taken place. The report read on the anterior aspect of the perineum, along the edges of closure of the labia major, is a small amount of dried blood. A similar small amount of dried and semi-fluid blood is present on the skin of the foreshed

and in the vestibule. Looking at the diagram of this area, this appears to mean that just underneath the vagina, there was both dried and semi-fluid blood. The report continued inside the vestibule of the vagina and along the distal vaginal wall is reddish hyperemia. This hyperemia is circumferential and perhaps more noticeable on the right side and posteriorly. The hyperrema, Euremia also appears to extend just inside the vaginal orifice. A one centimeter red purple area of abrasion is located on the right postural lateral area of the one by one centimeter hymenal orifice.

Hyperemia is an excess of blood going to a tissue or organ. So on the outside of the vagina, approximately the 7 o'clock position, and on the far vaginal wall, something scraped or hit the area to cause, in very simplified terms, inflammation. And finally, the report read, on the right labia major is a very faint area of violet discoloration, measuring approximately one inch by three-eighths of an inch. This is a red stain, not a bruise. These were obvious signs that a sexual assault had taken place near the time of John Bonnet's murder. There was still blood on her body and in her underwear. But there were also signs of possible prior abuse.

Dr. Robert Kirshner, a child abuse specialist and a retired deputy chief medical examiner from Cook County, Illinois, was curious about the findings. He told the Daily Camera, the thing that concerns me is that the hyminal opening is measured at one centimeter, which is too large. Almost skeptically, he continued, if in fact that's the real measurement. That's about twice the diameter it should be. Kershner was going solely off the report, so he couldn't definitively say what caused this measurement. He said without seeing the autopsy photographs, it's hard to say whether it could be an inaccurate measurement, prior injury, or normal anatomic variation.

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Growtherapy.com slash book now. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Dr. Cyril Wet, coroner for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and a well-known medical legal consultant backed up these suspicions. He told the Daily Camera, there's a... absolutely no question. She was abused. There's blood and contusions and the hymen has been torn. He also concluded that the panties were put on after the superficial injuries occurred. So someone had redressed her. After the assault, there was blood on the blanket. She was found

on the nightgown next to her body, the shirt she was wearing, and in her underwear. There were also pieces of green plastic from the garlic. strung on the spiral staircase in her hair. John Bonaise's official cause of death was listed as asphyxia by strangulation associated with cranio-cerebral trauma. The head injury she suffered would have been fatal on its own if left untreated, but the ligature had clearly been pulled tight while she was still alive. The sequence of events is disputed, but both are associated with her death.

No time of death was listed in the autopsy report. And we mentioned it more if these details are absolutely horrific. I mean, we're talking about, you know, a very young girl here. There are signs of sexual assault. There was a massive head injury and then a ligature around her neck. I mean, it's tough stuff. There's no way around it. Yeah, hearing these details, even about an adult.

adult would be bad enough at hearing these, these things happen to a child. It makes it all the worse. And it's just, it also jumps out to me how this case has gone from a kidnapping suddenly to a sexual assault and murder. Well, and also in the span of what was really a pretty short amount of time. You know,

we've done cases where someone is thought to be missing or have been kidnapped and then later found dead. But this is same day. And John Bonae is found dead in the family home where everybody is. And I think it's part of, just part of the reason why, you know, this case garnered so much attention. And even so many years later, people continued to be fascinated by it. One of the first, if not the very first, published articles about the crime ran in the Boulder Daily camera on December 27, 1996. The headline was Missing Girl Found Dead. The article was so hastily published that John Bonae was written multiple times as John Bonnet, with a space where there is none and an O instead of an E in Benet. According to Boulder Police Chief Tom Kobe, John Bonae's murder was the first

homicide in the town that year, and there was less than a week until the year ended. All that was revealed in this article is that John Bonae had been found in the basement. The neighborhood was shaking, by the news. One neighbor who wished to remain anonymous told the Denver Post, there just isn't much crime here, which is why it's so terrifying to think that somebody really entered that house and killed her. And until they figure out what happened, I don't think I'll ever feel safe here again. Joe Barnhill, who lived across the street from the Ramses, told the Denver Post, we feel that this has been a very secure and quiet neighborhood, and that's why it's such a shock. Another neighbor, Patty Limerick, said that the neighborhood has always been very pleasant, safe, and convivial.

And still another neighbor said, I just won't be able to sleep until they figure out who killed this girl. I mean, there could be a killer on the loose. This upscale community was clearly unnerved by the little girl's murder. This kind of thing just didn't happen there. It wasn't until the 28th, two days after the murder, that the public finally learned how John Bonae was killed. All that had been disclosed before this was that she had not been shot.

or staffed. The existence of the ransom note was also revealed, as was the dollar amount, demanded by the suspects. Authorities were clear. No one had been ruled out. John Eller, who was head of the Boulder Police Department's detective division, told the Daily Camera, it's still a very delicate and sensitive issue. Residents of that community continued to be shocked and on edge as more and more details emerged. Also on the 28th, there was a very important. Also on the 28th, there There was a detail in an article about neighbor Joe Barnhill, claiming to have seen John Bonnet's older half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, arrive at the Ramsey home on December 25th. It's an interesting detail because John Andrew was not at the Ramsey home that day. In fact, he wasn't even in Colorado.

On Christmas night, he had been in Atlanta, Georgia, visiting with his friends and family. He saw a movie with some friends at night and even happened to still have the stub. On the morning of the 26th, around 8.30 a.m. Eastern time, he and his sister Melinda were at the airport, catching a flight to Minneapolis. Whoever Barnhill saw, it couldn't have been John Andrew because he wouldn't have had time to get to Colorado and back to Atlanta in time to board the plane in the morning with his sister. Detectives checked and rechecked the timing. Any deviation from the plane would have been noticed by the family. John Andrew and Melinda were set to meet John Patsy. Burke and John Bonnet in Minneapolis, where they would then take the family's private jet and continue on to Charlevoix, Michigan. The family would celebrate Christmas together there until

December 28th, when the Ramses would fly back home and finish packing for their next trip. On the 29th, they would fly from Denver to Florida to catch a Disney cruise as a celebration of Patsy's 40th birthday. So it's not entirely clear. who neighbor Joe Barnhill saw on Christmas at the Ramsey home, but it couldn't have been John Andrew Ramsey. On December 29th, a service was held for friends and family of John Bonnet at St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder. To this point, the public didn't know that it was John Ramsey

who had discovered his daughter, John Bonay's lifeless body in the basement. Neighbor Joe Barnhill told the media that he didn't feel that Ramsey's would ever return to their home on 15th Street. He told the Daily Camera. Patsy told me she doesn't ever want to come back to that house. I have the feeling we've lost a neighbor. And a family friend of the Ramses told the Daily Camera, there's no way they ever want to live in that house again.

So they're going to put it on the market. Another friend told the news outlet, they've been looking at private schools for Burke around Atlanta, and Patsy's family is still down there, so it makes sense to consider moving there and selling the house. This was all in the span of a few days following John Bonaise murder. On December 30th, memorial services were held for John Bonnet in Atlanta at the Mays Ward Dobbins funeral home. By the 31st, it had been publicly revealed that John Ramsey and an unnamed family friend had discovered John Bonnet's body.

The same day, funeral services were held at Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, where the Ramsies had gotten married. Reverend Frank Harrington told the Daily Camera, when a child is lost, one feels that a part of a future promise is gone. It was clear that John Bonnet's murder had far-reaching effects, whether in Colorado or in Georgia, a lot of people were mourning for this little girl. John Bonnet's body was then interred at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta. As people said, their final goodbyes to John Bonnet, investigated. continued trying to find her killer. They had already obtained blood, hair, and handwriting samples from John, Melinda, John Andrew, Burke, and multiple family friends.

But not from Patsy. City of Boulder spokeswoman Leslie Ehom. They explained this away to the Denver Post saying she was distraught and in consideration for her emotional state. Police have not interviewed her yet. On January 1st, 1997, less than a week after John B'nai was murdered, five detectives from Boulder headed to Atlanta to speak to the Ramses, since the Ramses hadn't yet returned after John Meney's funeral the day before.

One unnamed source mentioned by the Boulder Daily Camera claimed that they talked to John for about three or four hours, and they talked to Patsy for something like an hour. The Ramsies hired two private investigators, H. Ellis Armistead, and David L. Williams, to work the case for them. On January 8th, Burke was interviewed by a child psychologist. The interview was videotaped for investigators who were watching behind a mirror. By January 24, 1997, it was public knowledge that John Bonae had been bludgeoned with a blunt object and also sexually assaulted.

This was revealed despite the fact that the autopsy report was not yet released and the Boulder County Coroner's Office filed a motion to seal the report. According to the Daily Camera, the motion read, during the course of investigating this death, evidence and witness statements may well be obtained that will either be contradicted or corroborated by the confidential information contained in the autopsy report. And it went on to explain that disclosure of the confidential information that will be contained in the autopsy report

jeopardizes the ability of investigators to gather evidence, and pursue leads. But to sum it up, details about the case were being leaked. In a murdered investigation, it's important to hold back some information. But in Jean Bonnet's case, lots of details were leaking out to the public. Keeping some details private, like the head wound, would have been one way of weeding out false confessions. Tom Kelly, the attorney who represented the Daily Camera at the time, argued that the public's presumed right of access to the document should prevail. People were hungry for information in this case for a lot of reasons. One was just out of plain curiosity, but also they were worried that killer might be walking amongst them in their

otherwise safe, upscale, Boulder neighborhood. By February 1997, just weeks after the murder, the costs of the investigation were already approaching $90,000 with no end in sight. On February 13th, District Attorney Alex Hunter held a press conference. He said to the press and to the people of Boulder and directly to the killer. If they were watching, I want to say something to the person or persons that committed this crime, the person or persons that took this baby from us. And he went on talking about how dedicated investigators were and that they would soon zero in on the person or persons responsible.

He continued, soon there will be no one left on the list but you. The death penalty was not out of the question here in Colorado. And it seems DA Hunter hinted that they may seek that when he said, you have stripped us of any mercy. We may have had in the beginning of this case. We will see that justice is served in this case and that you pay for what you did. And I don't think this is unusual. I mean, this is what you expect, you know, the deal.

DA to come out and say, we'll stop at nothing. We're never going to rest until, you know, we find the person or persons responsible, but you mentioned it up front, Morf, to this day. No one has been charged with John Bonaise's murder. Investigators looked closely at the people in John Bonaise's life, even those who were closest to her, including her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. And eventually many in the public would come to suspect them as well. And we'll talk about all of that and more next week in part two of our John Bonnet Ramsey coverage. So I think as we wrap up this first part more, I mean, there is a lot to dissect. First and foremost is the horrible crime committed against this little girl. It was shocking.

And I think once the details, you know, started to come out, we mentioned it, a lot of them were leaked. That made it even more shocking. And we talked about that first day, the ransom note, how many people were in the home, how much evidence was potentially destroyed. Obviously, we're going to talk about it more. As we move throughout this case, these are things that are often pointed. it out. They were back then. They continue to be as signs that maybe things weren't handled the way that they should have been. And I think it's no secret that, you know, the Boulder PD, they took and have taken a lot of heat surrounding this case. Yeah, and I think this case has really

captured the attention of so many people because there were clues, there was evidence, there was evidence, and there seem to be failures on the part of police. And it's just heartbreaking to know that, you know, nearly three decades later, there's no resolution in this case. And we talked about how much media coverage this case got. It was an exorbitant amount. You know, like I said,

you couldn't turn on the TV. Every magazine tabloid had John Bonaise picture on the front page. And a lot of those pictures, of her, you know, from some pageant. And that's something that, you know, we haven't really talked about yet. John Bonae Ramsey was very into the beauty pageant, little kids beauty pageant scene. And that's a big part of this case as well. And I think that was something that her and Patsy enjoyed doing together because Patsy had a background in that as well. So it was something that they enjoyed and bonded over.

But as I'm sure we'll talk about, a lot of people have made something of that. And that kind of became, I guess, somewhat of a focal point of the discussion. You know, the costumes, the makeup on, you know, a five or six year old. You know, we'll get into that and what people thought of it and how it could have possibly been connected to this case. And the other thing we'll talk about in much more detail is the ransom note. Because to me, the ransom note is so mystifying. Once you find out that John Bonnet was dead in the basement, then you have to have pretty much a completely different view on this ransom note. And I don't want to spoil it, but we'll get into that as well.

And of course, we'll get into suspicion of the family and other potential suspects and just some of the weird stuff that happened surrounding this case. But that's it for part one on John Bonae Ramsey. If you love the show, but haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. You can leave a review. Keep telling your friends about the criminology podcast. Word of mouth really helps us out. If you want to find us on social media, Ron X, with the handle at criminology pod.

You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion in fans. So that's it for another episode of criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with part two of the John Bonnet Ramsey case. So until then for Mike and Morph.

We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.