Who Trolled Amber? - Introducing..Crime Junkie - MURDERED: JonBenet Ramsay

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

We are partnering with Audiochuck, so that we can continue to bring our listeners brilliant investigations like Elon's Spies. You can join Tortoise as a member to get early and ad-free access to new series and support our investigations at www.tortoisemedia.com/invite.Introducing...Crime Junkie - MURDERED: JonBenet Ramsay The morning after Christmas Day 1996, six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was reported missing... only for her body to be discovered hours later in her family’s home. Nearly three decades later, the questions remain: What really happened that night? Who is responsible for her death? And why has this case gone unsolved for so long? For years, Ashley Flowers vowed never to cover this infamous case – unless she could hear directly from the Ramsey family. In this episode, Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat explore the chilling details of JonBenét’s case, the infamous ransom note, and the lingering theories surrounding the investigation. With exclusive insights from JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, this is a story you won’t want to miss. Listen to the full episode here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the number one true crime podcast worldwide, Crime Junkie is the destination for anyone ready to dive into a new case every week. Every Monday, Crime Junkie host Ashley Flowers, alongside her best friend Britt, takes listeners deep into the details of a captivating case. From headline-making stories to those you've never heard, it's the ultimate destination for true crime enthusiasts. And now, Crime Junkie explores a case Ashley vowed never to investigate. Murdered, John Bonet-Ramsey covers the case of 6-year-old John Bonet, who was found murdered

in her home the day after Christmas 1996, sparking countless questions. What happened that night, who's responsible and why has this case remained unsolved? Ashley Flowers and Britt reveal exclusive insights, including a rare interview with JonBenet's father, Jon Ramsay. You can listen to this episode of Crime Junkie now wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can watch both this episode and the exclusive interview with John Ramsay on the Crime Junkie YouTube channel. Ashley Flowers Hi Crime Junkies, I'm Ashley Flowers.

Brit And I'm Brit. Ashley Flowers And I'm finally freaking doing it. I am doing the case that I said I would never do. The case that is our Crime Junkie origin story. Brit Yeah, we've said it a million times, but I mean, never say never, right? Yeah. And like for a, I think it is for a long time, I just didn't think that there was anything that I could add.

Right. Like it's been done, you know, seven ways to Sunday. I literally feel like there are more like, or less versions of the Bible than there are of like books written by people who like maybe even tangentially touched this case. So like, what would we have to add? Right, that's kind of how I always felt.

But what I didn't realize is I didn't know the whole story. And I, of course, am talking about the case of Jean-Bernie Ramsey. In all of that time, it was a media frenzy. I mean, in an era of tabloids, Jean Benet reigned supreme, next in line only to a literal, almost queen Princess Diana. Like, I don't know if you remember, we talked about this being our origin story,

but it was all over, all the time. You could not go to the grocery store. It was everywhere. And not see her face. And it was all over, all the time. You could not go to the grocery store. It was everywhere. And not see her face. And it was all over the news, even in a time when we weren't paying attention to news. And I think it garnered so much attention because it was this perfect storm of Christmas time, a beautiful child, a rich family. And then, I mean, put the pageant stuff on top of all of that.

There were not only a plethora of images of Jean Bonnet like being sold to tabloids and newspapers and magazines because these photographers had so much footage of her, but the pictures they had of her were of this little girl made to look like a young woman. And people had a field day with it. And even though there was plenty of talk of people asking the questions of whether or not the pageantry put JonBenet in the path of someone dangerous, which, spoiler

alert, like, yeah, the conversations always kind of came back to the parents. Yeah, but they made her do those pageants, which the family says is an inaccurate statement. They're like, no, this is something she liked to do with her mom. Like, Patsy was a former Miss West Virginia. But all of the tabloids were all about the family. So like, the family was right in saying that they were out to get them. Yes, but like, which came first, right? Like, it's a very chicken and egg situation. If they talked to the police and the police had cleared them, would there be the tabloid

that put them in the center of things? Or are they in the center of things? It definitely fed it. Like, again, I think that it started so early, like surprisingly early. But yeah, I think it definitely fed the monster to be like, they're not talking to police. Like, oh, they left Colorado and now they're in Georgia. And things don't get better. Like the more time that passed, the more contentious

things got, not just between the Ramses and the police, but also between the police and the DA's office. Like things are being leaked seemingly from every which way. I mean, it was so bad that at one point her autopsy photos were leaked to the globe and those actually plan to print those autopsy photos. And it's like the police, they had become convinced that the Ramses were involved. And so it actually came out in a deposition at one point, like years down the line, that the police were giving information to reporters

to try and put external pressure on the Ramses, hoping that they would crack. Like they couldn't do the thing they wanted to do inside of the interrogation room, so they were going to have the media do it. So at this point, it sounds like police are relying on other details almost, like not just we don't like how the family is acting to support all these suspicions that they have. Correct. Because like during this time, like things are getting leaked. Like I said, you have the police department

Things are coming out of the DA's office to the Ramses had their own team So like who is leaking what like it is a messy messy game but let me actually give you a little bit of the lay of the land of Some of the stuff that we were learning in the time after Jean-Bernice death. I'm gonna go into her autopsy I think that's a big part of it before I do that I think we just need to talk about some of the physical evidence at the house, some of the observations that were made, because I think all of that, like, was informing police's opinion on the situation very early on. Right. So one of the big ones, one of the ones that the Ramses say kind of, like, defines the

case is that police just didn't like how they were acting. Linda Arn, I'll talk about her probably a lot in this episode. She was the first detective there that day. And she does this like one really infamous interview with Good Morning America in 1999. And the interviewer asks her like, how was John that morning? And she just keeps saying cordial. And she's like, okay, but cordial, what does that mean? It's the only word she would say, cordial, cordial. So she didn't like how he was acting. Now John tells me, he's like, and told everyone,

like I was trying to keep my wits about me. Like I don't like, Patsy was deeply upset. Like she was just in the room with her friend. She's laying down, she's crying. He's like, I had to like go into action mode. Like autopilot almost. Exactly. Which like, I had to like go into action mode. Like autopilot almost. Exactly. Which like I truly I understand a little bit.

I look at me and my husband and we're very different that way where I think Eric would be the one like in the chair crying laying on the floor and I'm going to be like, okay, I've got to get the money. I'm going to get this. Like I'm lining everything up to be like, what can I do to fix this situation? Because I can't just sit here. Yeah. John's a CEO of a company.

Like, I see him going in that way. But the other thing that Linda talks about is that they're like in separate rooms the whole time. So she just found that strange. And people have like weighed in over the years, like put their own spin on it. I don't know that you could say one way or another if that means anything. Like, I don't think people could say conclusively, but she just felt it was

strange that like Patsy's in one room crying. Again, John is like over here in action mode. But in this giant house. In a giant house, but she, I think she expected them to be like- A unit. Yeah, a unit and comforting each other. But that's not what she saw that day, which I think played into the beliefs that first day. The other thing that gets talked about a ton and that she really, and I think Officer Frinton and a lot of people there that day honed in on, was the fact that so John had just been like freshly showered when he had just gone out of the shower when passing me that 911 call.

And so he he's fresh in the morning. She has like fresh makeup, but she's also wearing the same clothes that she'd worn the night before. So they say, it depends on who you talk to, right? Like they thought it was really weird that at five something in the morning she's got full hair and makeup but wearing the same clothes. To listen to this episode in full, find Murdered John Benet Ramsey on Crime Junkie wherever you're listening or watch this episode and Ashley's exclusive interview with John Ramsey on the Crime Junkie YouTube channel now.