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When the body of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home in the winter of 1996, her murder captivated and horrified the US. The tragic and premature death of a young girl, the investigative errors associated with the case, the false confession from a would-be killer, the conspiracy theories about who the killer really is, and the odd behavior of her family make it one of the most famous and widely speculated-upon crimes of the 20th century. Nobody has ever been convicted of Ramsey's murder.
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The body of six-year-old child beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey, was found in the basement of
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her family's home on the day after Christmas in 1996. The notorious crime has never been solved
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but investigators have spent the last three decades delving further into the Ramsey family
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for possible leads. Their work has brought to light strange facts and connections that make
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the tragic case of JonBenet all the more mysterious. So, today we're uncovering some
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little-known facts about JonBenet Ramsey's family. Okay, time to reopen this cold case
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JonBenet Ramsey was slain in her home in Boulder, Colorado, sometime between December 25th and
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December 26th, 1996. Apart from some inconclusive trace DNA and a bizarre ransom note, there was very
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little evidence for police to go on, so the Ramsey family themselves immediately drew the attention
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of both investigators and the media. JonBenet's immediate family included her father, Jon Ramsey
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her mother, Patsy Ramsey, and her nine-year-old brother, Burke Ramsey. Also in the picture was her older stepbrother
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Jon Andrew Ramsey, who was Jon's son from a previous marriage. And at one point or another
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all of them were under suspicion. And rumors of a family member's potential involvement
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are swirling in the court of public opinion to this day. Four years prior to JonBenet's murder, her father, Jon, lost another young daughter, Elizabeth Pash Ramsey
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Elizabeth was one of Jon's children from his first marriage to Lucinda Pash
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and she worked as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines before she died at the age of 22 in a car accident in January 1992
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By all accounts, it was simply a freak accident. Her boyfriend lost control of his car in a rainstorm, and their vehicle was hit by a truck
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But after JonBenet's death, investigators pulled Elizabeth's autopsy report on the off chance there was any link to her death and JonBenet's
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There wasn't, but because of the case's shocking nature and the lack of any official suspects, some speculation still exists
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Nearly 20 years before JonBenet's murder, her mother Patsy Ramsey was crowned Miss West Virginia in a 1977 beauty pageant
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Patsy grew up in the pageant circuit, and what was a way of life for her soon became fodder
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for criticism during the murder investigation of her daughter. Critics and investigators alike implied that JonBenet Ramsey never really wanted to do pageants and that Patsy was just trying to live vicariously through her daughter pressuring JonBenet and fostering a negatively competitive environment There has been no evidence of this or of anything that directly links Patsy to the crime
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but the pageant mom characterization cast Patsy in a negative light and led to speculations of abuse
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John Ramsey stated multiple times the beauty pageants in which JonBenet participated were
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just a way for her and Patsy to bond. But in retrospect, he admitted he wished they'd never
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entered their child in them. Allegedly, Patsy Ramsey saw the pageants as the center of JonBenet's
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young life. Although the media characterized JonBenet as a toddler beauty queen, and virtually
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every single public image of JonBenet is a pageant photo, she only ever participated in nine pageants
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In fact, many who knew JonBenet, including her parents, referred to her as a tomboy at heart
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Investigators from the Independent would later draw attention to how involved the Ramseys were
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in their daughter's career and would rightfully question whether it is appropriate or even safe
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for young children to participate in beauty pageants. This was a viewpoint shared by many
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and it continued to paint a sinister picture of the Ramseys in the public eye
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John Benet's older brother Burke, who was nine years old at the time of her death
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doesn't seem like an obvious suspect. However, he drew suspicion from investigators after they
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learned of some of his troubling behavior. For example, Burke had a scatological obsession and
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would smear his feces throughout the house. Crime scene evidence found his feces smeared on a box
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of candy he gave JonBenet for Christmas. The family housekeeper recalled Burke covering a
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bathroom wall with his excrement, and during the murder investigation, she recounted finding fecal
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matter the size of a grapefruit in JonBenet's bed, which she believed had been left there by Burke
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According to a report in Vanity Fair, fingerprints found at the scene indicate that on the night of
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the murder, Burke made himself a snack of pineapple with milk and tea. Theoretically, JonBenet may have
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stolen a piece of the fruit because it was her favorite dessert, and that minor offense may have
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been the catalyst for the grisly events that followed. However, this is just speculation
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John Andrew Ramsey was an older son from John Ramsey's first marriage
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and he played an unexpected role in the murder investigation. Police found John Andrew's suitcase near the crime scene
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which was strange because it was not where the Ramseys typically kept their luggage
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Even more strange was the suitcase's contents, which included a blanket with John Andrew's semen on it
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Given that John Bonet's body showed signs of assault, John Andrew was briefly considered a suspect but he was ultimately cleared of having any involvement with the murder But what about the suitcase unusual location Investigators later theorized that the suspect tried to put JonBenet body in it but for whatever reason decided to leave her behind
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Absolutely everyone had a theory about who killed JonBenet, including her aunt, Pamela Paw
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who was the younger sister of Patsy Ramsey, as well as a fellow beauty queen
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Pa, for her part, felt certain the murderer was someone JonBenet knew and trusted
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since there was no sign of struggle in her room. That would seem to include her whole family
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But Pa, nonetheless, theorized the murderer must have been a family friend
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jealous over Jon Ramsey's wealth. And some passages from the ransom note seem to indicate
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that the killer may have been a co-worker of Jon Ramsey's, although the authenticity of the note has never been established
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In fact, several people involved with the case including investigators and prosecutors, believed the note was actually written by
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Patsy in an attempt to cover up the crime. Patsy Ramsey never fully escaped the suspicion
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that followed her after her daughter's murder, but she did do her best to start fresh in the
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subsequent years. For instance, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1993
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just a few years before JonBenet's death. After chemotherapy, Patsy's cancer went into remission
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and she lived a healthy life for nearly a decade until it came back in the early 2000s
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When the Ramseys moved to Georgia following the crime, Patsy became deeply involved with the
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local community and regularly corresponded with cancer patients, even while her own cancer was
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in remission. And when that cancer returned, Patsy still reportedly tried to lift the spirits
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of fellow patients. John and Patsy eventually moved to Charlevoix, Michigan, a place they
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vacationed before and after John Bonet's murder. Patsy again became an active member of the community
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there until her cancer returned a final time, and she passed away in 2006. In a 2012 interview
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John Ramsey told CBS that he felt Patsy wasn't an overbearing mother and that the media's poor
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portrayal of her had been an unfair angle. He said, Patsy had just come out of cancer treatments
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I think deep down she didn't know how long she had to live and how much time she had to spend
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with her child, so she tried to pack a lot into a day. Unlike his parents, Burke Ramsey managed to stay out of the public eye during much of the murder
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investigation and its aftermath. In 2016, he made some public appearances where he admitted to
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purposely trying to stay out of the spotlight As of 2018 Burke was a software engineer who reportedly worked from home Burke may have liked to put feces in his sister bed but it seems he did love her or at least he says he did In a 2016 interview commemorating the
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20th anniversary of JonBenet's murder, he even claimed that he continued to talk to his sister
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for years after her death. Burke also said he believed Patsy and JonBenet were reunited in
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heaven and that both were watching over him. He even noted that when he was in school
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he occasionally asked JonBenet for help on tests and often wished the two of them could be together
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Burke's incredibly private life may account for his odd behavior in rare interviews
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After a 2016 interview with Dr. Phil McGraw, for example, McGraw had to assure the media
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that Burke was extremely nervous on camera, which is why he kept smiling when talking
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about his sister's murder. In December of 2016, Burke Ramsey filed a $750 million lawsuit against CBS over statements
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made in the documentary The Case of JonBenet Ramsey. Burke felt the documentary falsely led viewers to believe he accidentally killed his sister
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He was so angry about it, he even filed another $150 million suit against one of the pathologists
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who appeared in the documentary stating his adamant belief that Burke was JonBenet's killer
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CBS, for their part, argued that cold case shows often point the finger at different people
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which they maintained is not the same as formally accusing someone of murder. However, the network's motion to dismiss was denied in 2018
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and the suit was later settled to the satisfaction of all parties. In 2005, 18-year-old Natalie Holloway made headlines when she disappeared during a trip to Aruba
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A few years after Holloway's disappearance, and shortly after Patsy Ramsey's death
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Natalie's mother, Beth Holloway Twitty, met John Ramsey through mutual friends. Throughout the following year, Twitty and Ramsey were seen multiple times together
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and according to a 2007 report in People magazine, the two have been seen holding hands and kissing in her hometown
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as well as attending art shows and eating in restaurants together. The relationship was short-lived, but made for a sensationalized connection in the true crime
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tabloids. In fairness to the couple, they shared a tragedy that can't be understood by most people
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However, unlike John, Beth would eventually get some closure in 2023, when Joran Vandersloot confessed to taking her daughter's life
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While his relationship with Beth Holloway Twitty came to an end, John Ramsey tied the knot for a third time in 2011, marrying Jan Russo
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a designer from Las Vegas, and a private ceremony in Charlevoix, Michigan
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Charlevoix was the same town where John and Patsy lived in the years preceding Patsy's death
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When People Magazine asked John what John Benet would think of this new marriage, he simply replied, I have no doubt she will be smiling