Who killed JonBenét Ramsey? Murdered woman’s father believes DNA might reveal killer

She is perpetually frozen in time. JonBenét Ramsey — 6 years outdated, dressed for a magnificence pageant. And we nonetheless do not know who killed her.

The day after Christmas in 1996, JonBenét was reported lacking with a rambling ransom be aware left on the scene. A number of hours later, she was discovered lifeless in her own residence – bludgeoned and strangled. 

It was a media sensation. Suspicion fell on her dad and mom, John and Patsy Ramsey. The couple was by no means charged, however early on there was a police principle that Patsy Ramsey could have killed her daughter in a match of rage over bedwetting after which coated it up.

Now in his 80s, John Ramsey remains to be making an attempt to clear his and Patsy’s names.

“Discovering the killer … is not gonna change my life at this level, however it’s going to change the lives of my kids and my grandchildren. This cloud must be faraway from our household’s head and this chapter closed for his or her profit, so there’s a solution,” he tells “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty in a November interview.

There’s extra from that interview to come back. However first, a time capsule — a glance again at how “48 Hours” coated the story in a broadcast which initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002.

2002: A LOOK BACK AT THE JONBENÉT RAMSEY CASE

Initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002

John Ramsey:  She was the spark plug of our household due to this zest that she had. She simply saved issues alive and hopping. … It is not the identical with out her.

Patsy Ramsey: Why is it so exhausting for folks to know that we cherished this youngster with every thing in our being? We might by no means contact a hair on the top of certainly one of our kids.

Patsy Ramsey: I imply, it simply is inconceivable to me.

Their faces are immediately recognizable, however John and Patsy Ramsey are well-known in a manner nobody would need. Though they’ve by no means been publicly referred to as suspects or charged with the 1996 loss of life of their daughter, JonBenét, they’re resigned to a painful actuality.

John Ramsey: We might discover the killer tomorrow, he may very well be arrested, convicted and — and, you understand, jailed, and there’d nonetheless be — 20 p.c of the inhabitants would assume that we had one thing to do with it.

Erin Moriarty: Did your daughter have a bed-wetting incident that night time? Did you stand up, did you get indignant and did you damage her?

Patsy Ramsey: No, I didn’t.

Erin Moriarty: What’s your response when you understand many individuals assume that is what you probably did?

Patsy Ramsey: They’re mistaken. I do not know what else to say. How else do you say “no” besides “no”? “No” means “no.”

During the last a number of months, we’ve spent a substantial amount of time with the Ramseys — these favourite villains of the tabloids and have seen them in a manner few others have.

On at the present time simply this previous summer season, John and Patsy Ramsey are shifting.

John Ramsey: Life has by no means been the identical. And it has mainly ruined us financially and emotionally and every thing else. So we’re scaling again.

They’re promoting their million-dollar residence in Atlanta and shifting to a smaller townhouse simply down the street. John Ramsey, as soon as the top of a billion-dollar software program firm, hasn’t labored for 4 years. Whereas Patsy has been fairly actually preventing for her life.

In a uncommon, unguarded second, with out her make-up, with out her wig, with out even her eyebrows drawn in — you’ll be able to see the harm left by the return of her most cancers.

Patsy Ramsey: I believed I might paint throughout my most cancers therapy, however I used to be simply so sick, I could not.

Erin Moriarty: How did you discover out?

Patsy Ramsey: I used to be again in February for my annual checkup.

9 years in the past Patsy realized she had stage IV ovarian most cancers. She made what she hoped was a full restoration however earlier this yr she once more went by debilitating chemotherapy.

Erin Moriarty: You misplaced your hair.

Patsy Ramsey: Sure. It is rising again. My eyebrows are rising again. All of it comes out, however you understand what? That is little or no factor to fret about.

In truth, Patsy Ramsey has a lot greater considerations. Virtually from the second the physique of their 6-year-old daughter JonBenét was found, Boulder police believed John and Patsy killed their daughter after which staged a kidnapping full with a rambling two-and-a-half-page ransom be aware to cowl it up.

John Ramsey: They’ve by no means investigated this case. Apart from to analyze the household, they’ve by no means investigated this case.

Police say they have not dominated out different theories. To at the present time, the Ramseys stay the prime suspects, as you will note in videotape obtained solely by “48 Hours.”

LIN WOOD | Ramseys legal professional (at deposition):  You haven’t categorised any particular person as a suspect?

CHIEF MARK BECKNER | Boulder Police Division:  Publicly, right.

Whereas testifying underneath oath in a civil case in November 2001, Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner admitted what he had by no means earlier than stated publicly.

CHIEF BECKNER: Internally, John and Patsy are thought of suspects.

LIN WOOD: Each of them —

CHIEF BECKNER:  Sure.

LIN WOOD: — are thought of to have most likely been concerned within the loss of life of their daughter?

CHIEF BECKNER:  Likelihood, sure.

Erin Moriarty: Why do you assume you stay most likely the prime suspect within the eyes of the Boulder Police?

Patsy Ramsey: I requested Mark Beckner that.

John Ramsey: That is proper.

 

Patsy Ramsey: I got here nearer to him within the face than I’m to you, Erin, and I stated, “Inform me what it’s that makes you assume I killed my stunning, valuable youngster.” And he stated, “Nicely—properly, it is simply a variety of little issues.” I feel he actually does not know.

However as a result of police did not have sufficient proof, sources throughout the investigation inform “48 Hours” the police tried to psychologically break the Ramseys, hoping one or each would confess.

John Ramsey:  That it was a technique that was put in place to convey immense stress on us to interrupt us.

That technique by some within the division, claims John Ramsey, included a relentless marketing campaign of leaks, fed largely to the nation’s tabloids, that had a devastating impact on public opinion.

Lin Wooden:  They satisfied the general public of guilt.

Lin Wooden is John and Patsy Ramsey’s legal professional.

Lin Wooden:  You could not go to purchase groceries for your loved ones with out passing headlines that stated that John Ramsey had — had molested his first daughter. Completely false.

Lin Wooden: Headlines that John and Patsy Ramsey had been pornographers. Completely false.

Headlines that they had been satan worshipers. Completely false.

The Ramseys imagine that the Boulder Police nonetheless to at the present time proceed to disregard proof pointing to different suspects.

John Ramsey:  It is irritating, it is disappointing. It makes me indignant.

Erin Moriarty:  You say it makes you indignant, however you do not appear indignant. Do —  do you assume that s — additionally damage you within the eyes of the general public?

John Ramsey:  Nicely, we’re not cleaning soap opera actors. I imply, I — I suppose if I used to be an actor, I might act actually indignant. However I am not. That is who I’m is what you see, and I am indignant. That is indignant for me.

Indignant as a result of John Ramsey says a killer or killers stay free.

John Ramsey: What I do know is that we did not kill our daughter so let’s take a look at the remainder of the image guys.

THE 1998 POLICE INTERROGATION OF JOHN AND PATSY RAMSEY

Initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002

On June 23, 1998 in Broomfield, Colorado — a year-and-a-half after JonBenét was murdered, John and Patsy Ramsey, sitting in separate rooms on the similar time, had been questioned by Boulder authorities in a Colorado police station. These tapes have by no means earlier than been seen publicly.

Questioning John is Lou Smit, a murder detective then working for the Boulder D.A.’s workplace.

DET. LOU SMIT: (from police interrogation tapes) There’s been a variety of hypothesis by lots of people that possibly you did not know something concerning the homicide, however possibly Patsy did.

JOHN RAMSEY:  No, that is preposterous. I imply, Patsy loves each her kids dearly. However frankly she and JonBenét had been extraordinarily shut.

Detective Tom Haney questioned Patsy, who on the time was taking medicine for each nervousness and melancholy.

DET. HANEY (from police interrogation tapes):  If I advised you proper now that we’ve hint proof that seems to hyperlink you to the loss of life of JonBenét, what would you inform me?

PATSY RAMSEY: That’s completely not possible. Go retest.

DET. HANEY: How is it not possible?

PATSY RAMSEY: I didn’t kill my youngster. I did not have something to do with it. And…

DET. HANEY:  And — and I am not speaking, you understand, anyone’s guess or some rumor or some story. I am speaking …

PATSY RAMSEY: I do not care what you are speaking about.

DET. HANEY:  I am speaking about scientific proof.

PATSY RAMSEY: I am — I do not give a flying flip how scientific it’s. Return to the rattling drafting board. I did not do it. John Ramsey did not do it. And we did not have a clue of anyone who did do it. So all of us received to start out working collectively from right here — at the present time ahead to attempt to discover out who the hell did it.

“48 Hours Investigates” has acquired the tapes — hours upon hours of footage that take you contained in the investigation. Whereas the tapes present how strongly prosecutors believed John and Patsy Ramsey had been chargeable for the loss of life of their daughter, frankly, there is not a variety of bodily proof that hyperlinks them. So questioners regarded for inconsistencies and targeted on minute particulars from the crime scene.

DET. SMIT: What have you ever heard about pineapple?

JOHN RAMSEY: Nicely, we had been requested, did JonBenét eat pineapple and — and — as a result of, apparently, it was present in her system. I feel a part of the query was, too, “When did she eat it? When she received residence?” You recognize? I am certain she did not as a result of she was completely snoozing.

The Ramseys advised police that JonBenét had gone straight to mattress that night time and had not eaten at residence. However post-mortem outcomes did discover undigested pineapple in JonBenét’s abdomen. And police found fingerprints on a bowl of pineapple left within the household’s eating room on the morning of the homicide.

PATSY RAMSEY:  I did not put the bowl there, OK? I didn’t put the bowl there.

DET. HANEY: OK.

PATSY RAMSEY:  I might not do that set-up like this. All proper.

DET. HANEY:  However, OK, let’s return to your line of reasoning right here. In the event that they weren’t — now speak

to me. Have a look at me.

PATSY RAMSEY:  OK. All proper.

DET. HANEY:  If they are not yours they usually’re not John’s, then they might be anyone else’s.

PATSY RAMSEY: Proper.

DET. HANEY: Now I am telling you they are not anyone else’s. These prints belong to one of many two of you.

PATSY RAMSEY: They do? You are certain? Nicely, I do not know. I didn’t put that there.

The fingerprints on the bowl are Patsy’s, in line with police, suggesting that she’s the one who gave the fruit to her daughter. But when Patsy did give it to JonBenét, and is mendacity about it, then investigators questioned — might she be mendacity about every thing?

DET. HANEY:  You recognize, generally the only, most obscure little factor —

PATSY RAMSEY:  I do not know.

DET. HANEY:  — may very well be so important.

PATSY RAMSEY: Proper. I didn’t feed JonBenét pineapple, OK? So I do not know the way it received in her abdomen and I do not know the place this bowl of pineapple got here from. I am unable to recall placing that there.

After three days of questioning, the interrogation in 1998 ended. And despite the fact that the Ramseys weren’t indicted, Boulder authorities continued to imagine they had been responsible. So in August of 2000, prosecutors flew to Atlanta, the place the Ramseys had been dwelling, asking to see and listen to new proof. “48 Hours” has additionally acquired these tapes.

MICHAEL KANE (2000 interview with prosecutors): If ever there have been going to be an intruder on trial, the protection goes to be that you just did it. Do you keep in mind that?

JOHN RAMSEY: I keep in mind that. However I am not right here to show my innocence. I am right here to seek out the killer of my daughter.

With John, prosecutors requested questions largely about leads he had uncovered on different suspects. However with Patsy, interrogators had been extra accusatory, suggesting that they had new proof — clothes fibers that might tie her on to the homicide.

BRUCE LEVIN | Boulder D.A.’s Workplace: You had been proven …  in images … sporting a pink coat.

PATSY RAMSEY: It is form of a black and pink and grey fleece.

BRUCE LEVIN: Extra like a blazer?

PATSY RAMSEY: Like a pea coat.

Bruce Levin from the Boulder District Lawyer’s Workplace led the questioning.

BRUCE LEVIN: Mrs. Ramsey, I’ve scientific proof from forensic scientists that say that there is fibers within the paint tray that match your pink jacket.

The paint tray is critical as a result of a brush from it, together with some rope, was used to strangle and sexually abuse JonBenét.

BRUCE LEVIN: And we imagine that fibers from her jacket had been discovered within the paint tray, had been discovered tied into the ligature discovered on JonBenét’s neck, had been discovered on the blanket that she’s wrapped in, had been discovered within the duct tape that is discovered on her mouth. … I’ve no proof from any scientist to counsel that these fibers are from any supply apart from your pink jacket.

LIN WOOD (Ramseys’ legal professional): Nicely, once more, that is — come on. I imply, they — what different sources did they take a look at?

Patsy’s legal professional, Lin Wooden, requested prosecutors to supply the proof. After they would not, he refused to let Patsy go on the document. However she did go on the document with us.

Erin Moriarty: What do you consider these fibers?

Patsy Ramsey: After John discovering the physique and she or he was delivered to the lounge, after I laid eyes on her, I knelt down and hugged her … However I used to be — had my complete physique on her physique. My sweater fibers, or no matter I had on that morning, are going to switch to her clothes.

In all of the questioning, the prosecutors targeted extra on Patsy than John, following their perception that she was the killer.

DET. HANEY: JonBenét received up, and anyone in that home legally, lawfully, in that home, one of many three of you, additionally occurs to be up, or will get up, as a result of she makes noise. And there’s some dialogue or one thing occurs, there’s an accident, anyone …

PATSY RAMSEY: You are taking place the mistaken path, buddy.

DET. HANEY: OK. Anyone by chance or anyone will get upset over bed-wetting, that is one of many issues that is been proposed, OK?

PATSY RAMSEY: Did not occur. If she received up within the night time and bumped into anyone, it was anyone there that wasn’t purported to be there. I do not know what transpired after that, whether or not it was an accident, intentional, premeditated or whatnot …

DET. HANEY: OK.

PATSY RAMSEY: … it was not certainly one of her three relations that had been additionally in that home. Interval. Finish of assertion.

These tapes do not all the time present the Ramseys at their greatest. However remarkably, it was the Ramseys who made them out there, saying they need all the data on this case out within the open. As for the Boulder Police and prosecutors, they denied repeated requests from “48 Hours” to debate these tapes or any of the problems we’re elevating tonight. Their solely touch upon the Ramsey homicide investigation is “no remark.”

PATSY RAMSEY: (from police interrogation tapes) I imply, I admire being right here. I admire it. It is very exhausting to be right here. However it’s a rattling sight tougher to be sitting at residence in Atlanta, Georgia, questioning each second of every single day what you guys are doing out right here. You recognize. Have you ever discovered something? Are we any nearer? Is the man out right here watching my home? You recognize, is my son secure? My life has been hell from that day ahead. And I would like nothing greater than to seek out out who’s chargeable for this.

RULING OUT THE RAMSEYS AS SUSPECTS IN JONBENÉT’S MURDER

Initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002

100 miles away from the place JonBenét Ramsey was murdered, in a modest residence in Colorado Springs, 67-year-old Lou Smit works every single day alone looking for her killer.

Det. Smit: I preserve an image of her in my pockets.

Erin Moriarty: You may have JonBenét in your pockets?

Det. Smit: Positive. I preserve it on a regular basis.

This is identical Lou Smit you noticed interrogating John Ramsey again in 1998.

A veteran detective with such a formidable document for fixing homicides that the Boulder district legal professional employed him on the Ramsey homicide case.

DET. SMIT: (from police interrogation tapes) I’ve to stay up for the Boulder Police Division slightly bit.

Erin Moriarty:  And whenever you began, who did you imagine killed JonBenét Ramsey?

Det. Smit:  My intestine feeling was her dad and mom did it.

However as Smit adopted the proof and questioned the Ramseys, the extra he turned satisfied that the Boulder Police had been specializing in the mistaken suspects.

Det. Smit: John Ramsey got here by very, very honest.

JOHN RAMSEY: (from police interrogation tapes) So after I first discovered her, I used to be, like, “Thank God, I discovered her.”

Det. Smit: After I left that interview, there was little doubt in my thoughts that he had nothing to do with the loss of life of his daughter.

Smit stop the investigation in disgust.

Det. Smit: They’d employed me as a detective to try this case. They might not like what I say, however I am gonna say it. I do not assume the Ramseys did it. And I feel they ought to start out searching for the people who did.

Erin Moriarty: How would you describe Lou Smit?

Patsy Ramsey: He is my hope find out who killed my daughter.

Det. Smit: As a detective, I am searching for clues.

What’s it that convinces Smit that somebody apart from the Ramseys killed their 6-year-old daughter? In the beginning, the brutality of the crime. Almost each medical skilled who has seen the post-mortem report agrees on one factor: this was not an unintentional loss of life. JonBenét Ramsey was cruelly and intentionally murdered.

JonBenét was strangled not as soon as, says Smit, however twice, with an intricately made system often known as a garrote that needed to have been made by the killer throughout the homicide.

Erin Moriarty: What will we see right here?

Det. Smit: You see hair, proper contained in the windings of that wire; that is JonBenét’s hair.

It is a system, says Smit, that was not left there for present. Whoever killed JonBenét used the garrote to strangle her. Smit believes she was preventing for her life. There have been marks that look so much like scratches on her neck.

Det. Smit:  She did have her personal DNA underneath her fingernails. I am fairly certain that is the scratch to get that off. I feel she was struggling then

Sooner or later the kid was then hit over the top with such drive it crushed her cranium, however her nightmare wasn’t over. Shortly earlier than she died, investigators imagine she was sexually assaulted with a chunk of the paintbrush that was used to make the garrote.

Det. Smit: There is no motive for the guardian to do this.

The proof, says Smit, merely doesn’t assist the favored principle that the Ramseys struck their daughter after which tried to cowl it up.

Det. Smit:  It is not a mom waking up in the course of the night time saying, “Oops, I feel I damage my youngster. Oops, I received to convey her downstairs and trend certainly one of these items. After which I’ll put it round her neck and I’ll tighten it a pair occasions whereas she’s struggling.”  Now, if you wish to imagine that, go forward. I am unable to say this on the air however that is bull****.

However what about these fibers from Patsy Ramsey’s jacket that police say had been within the paint tray and on the sticky aspect of duct tape overlaying JonBenét’s mouth?

Erin Moriarty: Is the actual fact that there have been fibers that had been according to Patsy Ramsey’s jacket incriminating?

Det. Smit: Positive.

Erin Moriarty:  However does that shake your religion that the Ramseys weren’t concerned?

Det. Smit: No … You simply cannot depend on fiber proof. As a result of fibers might come off with a jacket or one thing much like the jacket.

What’s extra, says Smit, there have been additionally dozens of unidentified fibers that did not come from the Ramseys. And Smit is unaware of a single case the place a guardian used a garrote to kill a toddler.

Det. Smit: This is without doubt one of the greatest clues left behind by the killer. This reveals what is going on on in his thoughts. This can be a sexual system. I am searching for a pedophile that is a sexual sadist. That is what Lou Smit’s searching for.

Smit’s not the one one.

Colorado personal detective Ollie Grey and his associate, John Sangustin, had been employed by the Ramseys in 1999.

Even when the Ramseys ran out of cash, Grey and Sangustin stayed on the job.

Ollie Grey: We would most likely do one thing on it, two or thrice every week.

Erin Moriarty: Although you are not getting paid?

Ollie Grey: Positive.

John Sangustin: Yeah.

They turned satisfied of the Ramseys’ innocence after seeing this lab report.

Ollie Grey:  I acquired a doc that you just see proper right here that names John and Patsy Ramsey as suspects was submitted for evaluation reference DNA.

Simply days after JonBenét was murdered, her dad and mom had been requested to provide DNA samples to the Boulder Police.

Erin Moriarty: The 2 of you may have given DNA proof to the police?

Patsy Ramsey:  Completely.

John Ramsey:  Completely. Blood, hair, DNA, every thing — we have given them every thing they’ve requested for.

Their DNA was in comparison with overseas DNA discovered underneath their daughter’s fingernails and in her panties, which can have been left by the killer.

Erin Moriarty: Does any of that DNA match anybody within the Ramsey household?

Ollie Grey: No. This evaluation eliminates the Ramseys.

Patsy Ramsey:  If our DNA matched something important, they might have arrested us in a New York minute. And do not ever assume they would not have.

If not the Ramseys, then who killed JonBenét?

THE INTRUDER THEORY

Initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002

Retired murder detective Lou Smit was nonetheless engaged on the official investigation when he concluded {that a} stranger got here into the Ramsey residence and killed their 6-year-old daughter.

Det. Smit: Because of this I imagine that the killer received in. … He opened the grate, he went in.

Det. Smit: There’s three home windows there. The middle one was the one which was open. Have a look actual intently on the window on the left … What you are going to see is leaves and particles pressed proper up in opposition to the window … Now let’s check out the one once more within the heart — no leaves or particles …

Erin Moriarty: Which says?

Det. Smit: That window was opened. Straight under that opened window you may have a suitcase…. … Straight round that suitcase you may have leaves and particles from that window properly round that suitcase … Additionally see — should you look very intently, you are going to see a mark that goes proper down the wall…

A scuff mark that Smit believes was left by somebody both climbing in or climbing out.

Erin Moriarty: You may match by that window?

Det. Smit:  Oh, with none downside.

Det. Smit: It’s a lot simpler to exit that window should you stand on one thing … You place the suitcase in entrance, you step on the suitcase and also you’re proper out into the window properly. Raise the grate, you are gone. It is that simple.

However why would an intruder who meant to kill JonBenét go away the weird two-and-a-half-page ransom be aware written with paper and a pen belonging to Patsy? Boulder police have all the time believed that Patsy used it to make the killing appear to be a kidnapping.

Erin Moriarty: But when somebody had been focusing on JonBenét Ramsey, would not he no less than convey the — the paper and the pencil to write down this ransom be aware? I imply …

Det. Smit:  Nicely, if you wish to have a look at it from a complicated felony’s thoughts, they most likely would not convey it in. Why would you usher in one thing that may very well be traced again to your home the place you may have precise — the pen and the ink and you’ve got the — the paper proper there that it was written on?

Erin Moriarty:  However you’ll be able to’t depend on discovering that in the home.

Det. Smit:  Cannot depend on it; most homes have that.

Erin Moriarty: No skilled might get rid of Patsy Ramsey as the author of the ransom be aware … That is damning, is not it? 

Det. Smit: No, in no way … You all the time are going to have similarities in handwriting. To take a seat down and write a be aware like that with all of these particulars in there after you brutally killed your daughter, you’d by no means performed that earlier than. Come on, give me a break.

However greater than some other proof, Smit believes small marks left on JonBenét’s face and again show an intruder killed her.

Det. Smit: The killer had a stun gun. I’m certain the killer had a stun gun.

A stun gun, {an electrical} weapon used to incapacitate the little woman to be able to transfer her to the basement. Smit believes solely an intruder would want to make use of one.

Det. Smit: There is no motive in any respect for the dad and mom to have used a stun gun to assist stage the homicide of their daughter.

Erin Moriarty: Was there any indication that — that the Ramseys had ever owned a stun gun?

Det. Smit: There’s nothing to point the Ramseys ever owned a stun gun.

What’s important about these accidents, says Smit, is that these on the kid’s face and people on her again look like an equal distance aside, very similar to the prongs of this a stun gun.

Det. Smit: They’re roughly 3.5 centimeters. And so they’re roughly 3.5 centimeters aside.

Dr. Michael Doberson, the coroner for neighboring Arapahoe County, additionally believes the marks on JonBenét had been left by a stun gun.

Dr. Doberson:  And if I push this … you’ll be able to see the electrical energy arching.

Dr. Doberson:  If it isn’t a stun gun, I might prefer to know what it’s.

Three different pathologists agreed, however the Boulder Police are relying as an alternative on this man’s opinion.

Dr. Werner Spitz:  They do not look …

Erin Moriarty: How certain are you that it isn’t a stun gun on her again?

Dr. Spitz: Nicely, I am 100% certain, as a result of stun gun accidents do not look that manner.

Dr. Werner Spitz, a nationally identified forensic pathologist who has labored on main instances together with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Dr. Spitz: A stun gun harm is a — is {an electrical} burn, is a burn, primarily, and these do not appear to be burns.

Sadly, with solely images to go by, no skilled, not Spitz nor Doberson, may be 100% certain.

Erin Moriarty: Would not which have been one of the best ways to know or come the closest to figuring out is should you might have exhumed the physique and line up a stun gun and see if it matches these accidents?

Det. Smit: Positive. I imagine that — that might have most likely been probably the most correct technique to do it.

Smit admits that within the months following JonBenét’s loss of life, investigators thought of going to courtroom to have her physique exhumed however determined in opposition to it.

John Ramsey: We had buried our youngster. She was at peace. That was simply an – a — an abhorrent thought.

Erin Moriarty:  However, John, that may have been the one technique to know for certain. That would have resolved the entire problem. As a result of if a stun gun was used, it was not the dad and mom.

John Ramsey:  No, we — actually. And we have got people who have advised us that know what they’re doing that with 95% medical certainty {that a} stun gun was used. No query.

Erin Moriarty:  However you’ll have identified with 100% certainty should you had exhumed the physique, as powerful as that might have been.

John Ramsey: That is my youngster you are speaking about. It is not a physique. It is totally different.

Nonetheless, Smit believes a stun gun is the important thing to JonBenét’s homicide, and he is trying to find a killer or killers who personal one.

Det. Smit: The one who did this, if we’re proper, he is nonetheless on the market.

A PERSON OF INTEREST?

Initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002

On the chilly December night time that marked the one-year anniversary of JonBenét’s homicide, dozens of mourners confirmed up for a candlelight vigil exterior the Ramsey residence. One man particularly caught investigator Lou Smit’s eye.

Det. Smit: Many occasions criminals do return to the scene, and that was on the anniversary. That places him proper there on the Ramsey home a yr later.

He is Gary Oliva, a 38-year-old convicted intercourse offender from Oregon who lives in Boulder.

Det. Smit: He undoubtedly is a intercourse offender for assaulting one other 7-year-old woman in Oregon. He frolicked in jail for that.

Smit is satisfied {that a} pedophile got here into the Ramsey residence and killed their daughter.

Det. Smit:  On my laptop I’ve most likely received 25 good leads, and I most likely have one other 50 pages of different results in observe.

Among the many recordsdata he is protecting on intercourse offenders in Boulder, Oliva’s identify stands out. In 1991, the yr after he sexually assaulted the little woman, police stories say he tried to strangle his mom with a phone wire. And in December 1996, Oliva could have been only some homes away from JonBenét’s bed room window.

Ollie Grey: That is the alley that runs behind the Ramseys’ residence. It leads into the yard, to the storage space.

John Sangustin: It wasn’t unusual for JonBenét and Burke to trip their bicycles across the alleyway.

John Sangustin and Ollie Grey, the Ramseys’ personal investigators, say Oliva frequented  buildings (within the alley) owned by a neighborhood church.

Ollie Grey: You may have a variety of transient folks come right here for meals and likewise to select up their mail.

Erin Moriarty: However why is that this related?

Ollie Grey:  The Ramsey house is — What? — 10 homes?

Erin Moriarty: Proper up this alley.

Ollie Grey: Proper up this alley.

What did the Boulder police do with this? Nothing. In accordance with Smit, the police did not observe up on 95% of the greater than 3,000 telephone ideas that got here in. In Oliva’s case, they did not examine him till practically 4 years after JonBenét Ramsey’s loss of life, when he was caught with medication. And guess what else? A stun gun.

Erin Moriarty: Did you ever use that stun gun on a toddler?

Gary Oliva:  No.

Oliva, who was needed in Oregon for parole violations, turned himself in to the Boulder police two weeks in the past.

Erin Moriarty: Did you damage or kill JonBenét Ramsey?

Gary Oliva:  No. No, I did not …

Erin Moriarty:  Did not you inform your pal that you just had been interested in little women?

Gary Oliva:  I do not assume I need to reply that.

Erin Moriarty:  OK. You had been dwelling in Boulder on the time JonBenét was killed.

Gary Oliva:  Yeah.

Erin Moriarty:  Simply down the road.

Gary Oliva:  Yeah.

He’ll admit to an obsession with JonBenét.

Gary Oliva:  I imagine that she got here to me after she was killed and revealed herself to me.

Because it seems, we’re not the one ones considering Oliva. A Boulder police officer confirmed as much as take notes.

Alex Hunter | Former Boulder District Lawyer:  I might be involved if any lead was not absolutely taken to floor.

Former Boulder district legal professional, Alex Hunter, says police tried to observe up on pedophiles, however admits that early on the drive was clearly overwhelmed.

Erin Moriarty: Did not your workplace have to inform law enforcement officials, “You have to have a look at these different leads? You may’t simply deal with the Ramseys.”

Alex Hunter: Nicely, it — it was stated, most likely not in fairly that language, however sure.

Why did not authorities take a intercourse offender like Oliva extra critically? Simply this week, Boulder police stated Oliva isn’t a suspect. Sources say his DNA does not match proof on the scene.

John Ramsey:  Nor does ours.

Erin Moriarty:  What do you consider that?

Patsy Ramsey: I feel it is a double customary. Do not you?

Erin Moriarty: Is it truthful to say then that the state of the proof proper now, there simply is not sufficient to convict the Ramseys past an affordable doubt?

Alex Hunter:  There is not sufficient to convict anyone past an affordable doubt.

However Hunter believes this case sometime may be solved, though he does not assume Smit is the person to do it.

Erin Moriarty: Do you’re feeling that Lou Smit’s emotions for the Ramseys clouded his judgment?

Alex Hunter: I feel slightly bit.

Hunter believes Smit, a religious Christian, crossed a line. When working as a D.A. investigator, he prayed with the Ramseys.

Erin Moriarty: Do you assume possibly you have gotten too near the Ramseys?

Det. Smit:  Nicely, let’s put it this fashion, I do not assume I did. If the Ramseys did this and I discovered, I might be the primary one standing in line on the Boulder Police Division.

JonBenét Ramsey would have been 12 years outdated this yr and in sixth grade. As a substitute, she’s buried in a Georgia cemetery, whereas her brutal killer or killers go free.

2024: JOHN RAMSEY STILL HAS HOPE

Remarkably, not a lot has modified since that 2002 program. The case is at a standstill. However with the passage of a lot time comes the lack of some key figures. Most notably Patsy Ramsey, who died of most cancers in 2006. She was 49. John Ramsey remarried 5 years later.

Erin Moriarty: I feel again about Patsy. And I bear in mind Patsy saying that your lives couldn’t go on till the killer was discovered.

John Ramsey: Nicely —

Erin Moriarty: How a lot weight was that on Patsy earlier than she died?

John Ramsey: Patsy was a really robust lady. She actually was and a really sort individual, a beautiful mom. She received fairly vilified of the media, which was horribly unfair. … I feel damage deeper than it confirmed.

Investigator Lou Smit labored on the case virtually till the day he died in August 2010. His household continues to pursue leads.

Erin Moriarty: John, do you imagine this case may very well be solved …?

John Ramsey: Sure, I do. If the police will benefit from all of the expertise that is out there to ’em and that is, uh, going to at least one or two of the world’s cutting-edge labs for DNA testing. … And I feel in the event that they do this and if we’re profitable getting a pattern in the fitting format after which do the family tree analysis, I am 80 p.c assured it may very well be solved. … however you gotta do it.

In November 2024, the Boulder Police Division launched a press release which stated: “The assertion that there’s viable proof and leads we’re not pursuing — to incorporate DNA testing — is totally false.” The division stated there’s an ongoing investigation, and they’re wanting into the suggestions made by a latest Chilly Case assessment staff.

CHIEF STEPHEN REDFEARN | BOULDER POLICE DEPARTMENT: … we’ve totally investigated a number of folks recognized as suspects all through the years, and we proceed to be open-minded about what occurred as we examine the information that are available to detectives. 

John Ramsey stays hopeful that these new efforts could lastly reveal the killer — a killer he believes was already ready of their home when the household got here residence from dinner that Christmas night time.

John Ramsey: — we had been informal with our safety in our residence in Boulder. We thought it was a secure place … and we received informal and — and complacent.

Erin Moriarty: While you look again, are there any stuff you want you had performed otherwise?

John Ramsey: Nicely … the little magnificence pageants they participated in. … I would not have performed that. You have to preserve your kids personal. … it was battle for me as a result of Patsy simply recovered from stage 4 ovarian most cancers, was grateful to have some life forward of her in remission. … She did not understand how lengthy, to spend together with her kids and to lift her kids. … I feel she tried to pack a variety of mother-daughter time in that time period that she knew she had forward of her.

Erin Moriarty: Do you ever dream about JonBenét?

John Ramsey: Every now and then.

Erin Moriarty: Or marvel what she would’ve been like now?

John Ramsey: Nicely, I dream … I often have desires they usually’re actually fantastic desires, however I do not attempt to think about what she would’ve been. … She’s — she was in my life for six years and was my little woman. And that is how I bear in mind her.

HAVE INFORMATION?

In case you have details about the case, please name the Boulder Police Division at 303-441-1974 or electronic mail BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov.