True Crime with Kendall Rae - The Unsolved Murder of JonBenét Ramsey

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

This episode is sponsored by: Magic Spoon - promo code: KENDALLRAE Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Hey guys and welcome back to my channel. So I know I've been starting to do a lot of videos on conspiracy theories and things like that on my channel and I really enjoy those topics. I really enjoy things like conspiracy theories and like mysteries. So I've decided I'm going to kind of broaden that topic and today we're going to be talking about an unsolved mystery that I have been obsessed with for years, and that is the JonBenet Ramsey case. This is definitely one of my most requested videos. People are always asking me to do a conspiracy theory video on JonBenet,

which there is like one conspiracy about it, but it's not really a conspiracy. It's like I said, an unsolved mystery. So I have been following this case for so long because it happened here in Colorado. And I was, I think, around four when it happened. And then it was just all over the tabloids and everything like for years. So I always like knew of it since I was a kid. So I've always been really interested in it. It's really fascinating and it's, just warning you, it's a little frustrating even. If you've never heard of this case

or don't know the details of it, when I start explaining the details, you're just going to be so annoyed because they still have not solved the case. JonBenet, who we're gonna be talking about, who was murdered, she would be 25 now. So it's been a long time. So I will go ahead and explain the case, the evidence.

It's so, so intricate so I really can't like cover the entire case. There will definitely be details that I'm gonna have to leave out because there's just not enough time. This happened relatively soon after the OJ Simpson trial which people were just obsessed with. So it really started the tone of people following like murder investigations.

So that's why this was such a huge news story. The Ramsey family includes brother Burke, JonBenet, the mom who's Patsy Ramsey. Hello, I'm Patsy Ramsey. Daddy's not here, but this is JonBenet. She's four, Burke is seven. And we'd like to welcome you to our home and wish you a very Merry Christmas. And the dad who is named John Bennett Ramsey, and that's actually how John Bennett got her name. They like kind of put a French twist on John Bennett. So she's named after the dad. So John worked for a company called Access Graphics and he was very high up there. So he was very rich and they lived in a 15 bedroom mansion in Boulder, Colorado,

which is a nice area in itself. So they were very well off. So Christmas day, 1996, the Ramsey family went to another family's house for dinner, for Christmas dinner. And according to them, JonBenet fell asleep in the car on the way home and they just, you know how little kids fall asleep in the car and bring them just like right upstairs and they kind of just stay asleep and go right into bed that's what they say happened but the next morning at 5 52 a.m police dispatch

received a call from patsy ramsey a frantic call and the person who answered this call at the dispatch was kimberly archuleta um and she's done interviews recently. 911 emergency. What's going on? What's going on there, ma'am? We have a kidnap. All right, please. Explain to me what's going on, okay? There's a note left in our daughter's phone. A note was left in your daughter's phone?

How old is your daughter? Six years old. She's gone. Six years old. How long ago was this? I don't know. I took him a note. And my daughter said... Is it saying the gender?

What? Is it saying the gender? I don't know. There's a ransom note here. It's a ransom note? It says FBTC. Victory. It says FBTC. Victory. Please.

Okay, what's your name? Are you... I'm the lover. Oh, my God. Please. Okay, I'm sending you an officer over, okay? Please. Do you know how long she's been gone? No, I don't.

Please, we just got out. Did she run here? Oh, my God. Please. Okay, come. I am, honey. Please. Take a deep breath for me, okay?

Please, hurry, hurry. Patsy, Patsy, Patsy. As you can hear, Patsy was very distraught, or at least it sounds like it, frantically saying that her daughter was kidnapped and there was a ransom note left and to please hurry and get there. So at first, that's what the police thought. They thought it was a kidnapping, so the family called a bunch of their friends over right away, which was kind of odd. The Boulder police, in my opinion, didn't do a great job because

first of all, they let a bunch of these random people just like hang out in the house in a crime scene. Later that day, one of the police officers actually suggested that John and one of his friends go search through the house because the house was so big that they wanted to do a final check. So they went downstairs to what they called the wine cellar. And that's where they found John Bonnet wrapped in a blanket on the floor, dead. John claims that he was completely beside himself and was screaming and was so, so upset that he just picked up his daughter's body in the blanket and brought her upstairs. Now, that was a huge issue because now the crime scene is even more tampered with than it was in the beginning

because not only are all these random friends and family just, like, walking around the whole house, but he has moved the body, which is a just major no. You know, in that circumstance, I could see how any parent would just, like, freak out and grab their kid. So it's definitely the Boulder police's fault that that even happened. Apparently he brought her upstairs. The police announced that she was dead. Patsy was apparently in complete hysterics on the ground with her daughter, just freaking out.

I guess they thought that, you know, she was kidnapped and there was a possibility that they could get her back. So now that we've talked about like the whole kind of timeline, we're going to talk about the evidence. In most crimes, especially if they happen in a home, the family are the immediate suspects that the police are most interested in. And there were no signs of forced entry into the house.

It was Christmas and there was no footprints, but there were pathways, so it's possible that they just walked on places where there wasn't any snow if someone did intrude into the house but there was no sign of forced entry there was a broken window in the basement where John already knew that the window had broke like months before but he thought they lived in a safe neighborhood and didn't think anything of it so the family's idea of how everything happened is that someone broke in their house. And the biggest thing at play here is that JonBenet was a pageant girl.

She did all kinds of pageants. Her mom was a pageant queen as well. So those pageants are like hotbeds for pedophiles. They really sexualize these kids. I mean, nothing against people who have their kids in pageants or like hotbeds for pedophiles. They really sexualize these kids. I mean, nothing against people who have their kids in pageants or anything, but they put makeup on them. They look a lot older than they are. They sometimes sing kind of like provocative things.

I want to be a cowboy sweetheart. I want to learn to ride. So a lot of people thought that maybe it was a pedophile from the pageant that snuck in their house and murdered her. But it was very strange because what's up with this ransom note, right? So that's when things start to really get weird. Like I said, there's no sign of forced entry or anything. They weren't able to find any connections to the pageant world with the whole thing. And so the parents became the prime suspects pretty much.

So let's talk about the ransom note. So the ransom note was like three pages long, very, very long and drawn out. And the crazy part is it was written on a notepad from their kitchen. So it's almost like someone sat down and wrote the whole thing. Like that seems weird to me because who would come into a house and like murder someone and then decide to write a ransom note just sitting at the kitchen table? Like, if you were to do something like this, wouldn't you write a ransom note in advance or something like that?

So that was very strange. The ransom note said to get their daughter back, they would need to give them $118,000, which was exactly John's bonus that year, Christmas bonus. So it was very strange that they knew that exact number. So I thought maybe it was someone from his work that would know that. But the thing is, is they were like very, very rich. Why would someone only ask for $118,000 for a child ransom from like these extremely rich people? That was very odd. So when experts looked over the ransom note, they thought it was a sign of some type of staging which basically means that someone is trying to like alter what really happened or

you know that it was a fake ransom note because I guess the handwriting in the beginning sort of slightly changed throughout like someone had tried to make it very different in the beginning and then kind of like got sloppy and just changed it throughout the whole thing there were lines in the ransom note that were directly pretty much the same lines from popular movies with ransom notes. So investigators took handwriting samples from John and Patsy

and from the same notebook that it was actually written in, which was like their phone, like just jot down, you know, back in the day when they had like voicemail machines. Normally there was a pad next to it that people would just like jot notes down or whatever. So they took that and they analyzed it and they were able to rule out that John did not

write the letter, but they were not able to prove that Patsy did or didn't. And some of the handwriting experts have said that the handwriting was similar to some of the things that Patsy does. For example, the way that she writes her cues was very, very unique and it was the same way in the ransom letter. So things like that There's tons of more examples online if you look it up possession was spelled wrong a business was spelled wrong Just sounded like someone who had no idea what they were doing wrote this And like I said, how strange is it for someone to write a ransom note on the scene of a crime? Especially after the person had already died and the ransom note is signed

SBTC which to this day no one knows what that stands for after the person had already died and the ransom note is signed SBT seat which to this day no one knows what that stands for okay as far as how they found her she's strangled with a garrotte that was actually part of a paintbrush from Patsy Ramsey's hobby kit a broken paintbrush that's you know you can look up what a garrotte is it's pretty graphic so I'm not gonna tell you guys also hit in the head with some type of very heavy object that is still unknown as to what it was. She had some marks and some somewhat signs of sexual abuse. So it was, it was pretty crazy, but her actual cause of death was strangulation. What's very interesting to me is that evidence

shows that the strangulation happened 45 minutes to two hours after she was hit in the head so it's very possible that that's what not that something knocked her out she didn't actually die and someone just kind of finished the job with the strangulation so that's very odd as well she also had duct tape over her mouth and later they found that there were fibers from Patsy's sweater on that duct tape And what's also very strange is Patsy was wearing the same outfit that she wore to those people's house for dinner the next day She like never changed and she just said she put her clothes back on

But I think that's pretty weird too Another strange thing that happened is when she was buried the parents put December 25th as the day that she died. And a lot of people are critical about this because if they don't know when she died, how do they know that it happened on the 25th or the 26th in the early morning hours? So very weird as well. So very quickly after she was found, the Ramseys stopped cooperating with the police. So they stopped getting interviews from them. And they actually did an interview on TV without even telling their lawyers or the police.

And so the police were really frustrated, like, okay, so you won't talk to us, but you'll talk to the TV. And so here's the interview. It seems very, very strange to me. You guys will have to just see for yourselves. I will tell my friends to keep keep your baby close to you there's someone out there and a huge missing link of this is the brother Burke where was Burke when this all happened he was nine years old and he was apparently sleeping in his bed the whole time, was sleeping up until police came, even though she apparently went in his room

frantically freaking out. And Burke was just on the Dr. Phil show talking about this. First thing I remember is my mom, first thing in my room, really frantic, saying like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Running around my room looking for JonBenet. I remember her saying, where's my baby, where's my baby? And the next thing I remember is a police officer

coming to my room and shining a flashlight. And you never get up and say, what is going on here? I guess I kind of like to avoid conflict. Critics would say you weren't curious because you already knew. People find it extremely odd that this nine yearyear-old kid just stayed in bed when there was like her mom screaming and all these strange things. And more evidence has come out because Kimberly Archuleta claimed that she heard more voices during the 911 call,

because at the end of the call, Pathy had thought she hung up, but she didn't. And you can hear muffled voices. So, now that we have better technology, people have been going through the call and they're hearing that there's possibly a third voice in the call, which means the only other person that was there was the brother Burke. So it's quite possible that he wasn't actually sleeping. And that certainly doesn't mean he did it, but it does mean that they possibly altered their story or had some type of staging going on. So the police ended up finding a heavy-duty black flashlight in their house that no one ever claimed. They said that it didn't belong to them. That definitely could have fit the murder weapon.

And experts have looked at it now and said that they're almost positive that that's what actually hit JonBenet. that that's what actually hit JonBenet. Another huge element to this case is that there was a bowl of pineapple sitting on the dining room table of pineapple and milk, which was apparently JonBenet's favorite dessert. And the fingerprints on the bowl are from Patsy and from Burke. And it was from the night before.

And there was also like a glass of tea. And the strange part about that is when they did JonBenet's autopsy, there were still remnants of pineapple, like undigested pineapple. So like recently eaten pineapple in her stomach. So that's really bizarre because they said that she fell asleep at the neighbor's house and they brought her right upstairs and she went right to bed. So, um, some people have said, well, if someone did break in, maybe they fed her pineapple, but it's just so strange. There's all kinds some people have said, well, if someone did break in, maybe they fed her pineapple, but it's just so strange. There's all kinds of crazy, crazy alternative things other

than the parents that like people have that don't believe the parents or Burke had anything to do with it. There's like, there's tons of people they investigated. But for example, there was a Santa that came to their house and was a fake Santa guy, but they've proved that there was no way he did it. He had just had heart surgery and there's just no way. Um, and then there's another person named Michael. He apparently confessed to a coworker and then killed himself two months after her death, but they were never able to prove that either. Um, and then there was DNA evidence, which is important to know. And I think a lot of these, I've been watching a lot of TV shows about this and some of them just like straight up leave this out but um but there was evidence of an

unidentified person and there was DNA from this person underneath her fingernails which could mean she was clawing at someone trying to get away from them and there was also that same DNA found in her underwear but they've still never figured out what is, and it is not anyone from the Ramsey family. It's important for you guys to know that. In 2008, you may remember that this man named John Mark Carr came forward saying that he killed JonBenet, but that was crazy because he ended up making up the whole thing. He was just obsessed with JonBenet and decided to fake that he was the one who killed her, but they proved that it was impossible. So that was just another weird thing. So there's been so many different things over the years that this story has just continued on for 20 years.

Like I said, she'd be 25 now. And then in 2008, Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer, which she had had trouble with before. So all that's left is Burke, who I think is about 29 now, and John. So Burke never did any interviews. He did this interview recently with Dr. Phil and was acting very, and John. So Burke never did any interviews. He did this interview recently with Dr. Phil and was acting very, very odd.

Did you go to John Bonet's funeral? Yeah. I remember the viewing. I remember the casket was small and her eyes were closed. I think one of her eyes was a little bit droopy or something. I thought that was weird. At the same time, though, you do have to consider this is someone who's been through you know

media scrutiny for years, also lost his sister, probably experienced a lot of trauma so he could be acting strange because of that but he is acting very very odd. He's smiling a lot, he seems really nervous like moving his fingers and it's it's very strange to me. It's very strange because with all of this like resurfacing lately, I've noticed a lot of media outlets have the exact same theory that I did in documentaries and things like that. And my theory, which I want to say, I'm not saying this is 100% true. If the family obviously lost their child some way or another, and if they weren't involved with it, I'd feel very bad like accusing them of doing it. But this is just, like I said, a theory. It may or may not be true.

A lot of people think this, though, too. So a lot of people have claimed that Burke was sort of a violent kid. Apparently, he had hit his sister in the past with things. That's obviously very concerning. Siblings can be extremely harsh on each other. I know me and my sister used to, like, tackle each other and punch the shit out of each other. And we were just little girls. So I know it's very possible for little boys

and little girls to hurt their siblings. So I always thought that maybe it's possible that Burke somehow hurt his sister on accident and it killed her or they thought it did. And the parents didn't want to lose both kids. So they staged the whole thing. And here's how experts think it went down and how I actually thought it went down as well it goes back to that bowl of pineapple people think that JonBenet

may have woken up maybe she was excited about you know Christmas and everything went downstairs and Patsy and Burke were having a bowl of pineapple milk which was like her favorite dessert the theory goes that she possibly took one's why her, you know, DNA wouldn't be on anything but to do with the pineapple. Cause it was only the DNA of Burke and, uh, Patsy that were on the pineapple. So it's possible that she just took one out with her fingers and that Burke was mad that he, you know, she took some of his pineapple and grabbed a flashlight and hit her in the head with it. Obviously not meaning to kill her, but definitely knocked her unconscious. And we know now that that was not actually what killed her, but it's quite possible that Patsy or Johnny

even was involved in this, uh, thought that it did kill her and decided to stage the whole rest of the thing in order to save Burke. A lot of people's argument was how could a nine year old hit a little girl hard enough? Well kids have really like pretty delicate skulls when they're younger and they've done tests and it's absolutely, absolutely possible that he could have hit her hard enough with such a huge heavy blunt object to like knock her unconscious. It kind of all makes sense because Patsy was wearing the same outfit so it's possible that they came up with this whole plan, sat there and wrote the ransom note on the pad that was in the kitchen, you know the flashlights there, it just all kind of adds up. The garrotte was made

with a paintbrush from her hobby kit and it's possible that they staged the strangulation but that's actually what ended up killing her after all. Like they said, the strangulation happened anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours after the initial head trauma. So I think that that's quite possible that that's what happened. There's other theorists that think that it was an intruder. To me, the ransom note just tells it all.

It's so bizarre that it was written on their pad and paper. Like I just don't see any type of criminal doing something like this and then trying to stage it as a kidnapping and sitting down and writing a three page ransom note that had movie quotes in it. And they knew the exact amount of the bonus and it wasn't even that much. And it looked like it was all thrown together last minute. Like it wasn't pre-planned to me. It looks like they all of a sudden had to scramble, put all this together. And then they didn't even have time to change their clothes and called the police at 5.52 a.m. when they found the ransom note and the whole thing.

And if Burke really is in that 911 call, it's possible that he was involved or wasn't sleeping or whatever. Like I said, these are just theories. They have been cleared by the police. It's, you know. However, a grand jury did look over the case and suggested that they go to trial. So that was very strange as well. The DA shot that down. They were cleared because of the DNA evidence. It's still something that may never

be solved and hasn't been solved, even though it seems like a lot of people, especially recently, think that it was Burke. Now, as you've probably noticed in this video, I've been really serious, and that's because this is an extremely sad and serious story. This little girl was, I mean, just beautiful and so young, and if something did happen like this and her parents did cover it up, I mean, it's just so extremely sad no matter what happened. So these conspiracy theories, I do want to talk about one

because people constantly request me to talk about one because people constantly request me to talk about this. Um, but I think it's personally absolutely ridiculous and really disrespectful. I've seen people talk about the theory that JonBenet is actually Katy Perry. Um, yeah. So those kinds of theories sometimes piss me off because it makes people who don't believe in conspiracy theories at all think that all conspiracy theorists believe that kind of stuff that like oh well those types of people those are just wingnuts who believe that john bonnet is actually katie perry because it's ridiculous and the only real evidence that they have of this is she looks very similar to her

katie has some songs that kind of have lyrics that could possibly sound like she was rebirthed as someone else but doesn't that just seem absolutely ridiculous to you if they has some songs that kind of have lyrics that could possibly sound like she was rebirthed as someone else. But doesn't that just seem absolutely ridiculous to you? If they really did decide that this, you know, kid who was clearly really good at singing and dancing and doing these pageants, uh, was built to be a superstar, wouldn't they just have like made her a superstar? And if it was really some weird thing where they replaced JonBenet with Katy Perry and she, you know, grew up as this pop star, uh, why would they make this huge, ridiculous murder to go along with it? Just to draw attention to the whole thing. I honestly think it's pretty disrespectful. And since so many of you have been asking me to cover it,

I'm assuming a lot of you think it might be real. Um, and personally, I just want you to know, I don't believe in that at all. So what do you guys think happened? Do you have any theories about it? Because this case keeps me up at night, man. Like this is the most fucking frustrating and confusing case that I've ever like followed. And I follow a lot of this kind of stuff because I really like crime investigation and the JonBenet Ramsey case is just so, so interesting to me. If you're really interested in this case, you should totally do more research. There's like a ton of really good documentaries and docu-series out right now. Dr. Phil did a good interview with, um, John and Burke. So there's plenty of things out there for you to see. Uh, definitely don't just watch this video. There's a lot more information than I was able to cover in this. So I do want to make sure that if you

guys are interested, they go like, you know, research it for yourself and kind of come up with your own conclusion. That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there.