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

She is without end 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 JonBenét Ramsey — 6 years outdated, dressed for a magnificence pageant.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 word 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 mother and father, John and Patsy Ramsey. The couple was by no means charged, however early on there was a police principle that Patsy Ramsey might have killed her daughter in a match of rage over bedwetting after which coated it up.

Now in his 80s, John Ramsey continues to be attempting to clear his and Patsy’s names.

“Discovering the killer … is not gonna change my life at this level, however it would 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 return. 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 laborious for individuals to grasp that we beloved this little one with every little thing in our being? We might by no means contact a hair on the top of one among our youngsters.

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 approach nobody would need. Though they’ve by no means been publicly referred to as suspects or charged with the 1996 demise of their daughter, JonBenét, they’re resigned to a painful actuality.

John Ramsey: We may discover the killer tomorrow, he may very well be arrested, convicted and — and, , 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 offended and did you harm her?

Patsy Ramsey: No, I didn’t.

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

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

Over the past 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 approach few others have.

On today simply this previous summer season, John and Patsy Ramsey are shifting.

John Ramsey: Life has by no means been the identical. And it has principally ruined us financially and emotionally and every little 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 highway. 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 combating 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 possibly can see the injury left by the return of her most cancers.

Patsy Ramsey: I assumed I’d 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 what? That is little or no factor to fret about.

The truth is, Patsy Ramsey has a lot greater issues. 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 word to cowl it up.

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

Police say they have not dominated out different theories. To today, 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 categorized any particular person as a suspect?

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

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 mentioned publicly.

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

LIN WOOD: Each of them —

CHIEF BECKNER:  Sure.

LIN WOOD: — are thought-about to have most likely been concerned within the demise of their daughter?

CHIEF BECKNER:  Chance, 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 mentioned, “Inform me what it’s that makes you assume I killed my lovely, valuable little one.” And he mentioned, “Effectively—properly, it is simply a number of little issues.” I feel he actually would 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 method that was put in place to deliver immense strain on us to interrupt us.

That technique by some within the division, claims John Ramsey, included a relentless marketing campaign of leaks, fed principally 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 mentioned that John Ramsey had — had molested his first daughter. Completely false.

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

Headlines that they have been satan worshipers. Completely false.

The Ramseys consider that the Boulder Police nonetheless to today proceed to disregard proof pointing to different suspects.

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

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

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

Offended 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, have 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 number of hypothesis by lots of people that possibly you did not know something in regards to 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 have been extraordinarily shut.

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

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

PATSY RAMSEY: That’s completely unattainable. Go retest.

DET. HANEY: How is it unattainable?

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

DET. HANEY:  And — and I am not speaking, , any person’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 bought to start out working collectively from right here — today 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 have been answerable for the demise of their daughter, frankly, there is not a number 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: Effectively, we have 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 bought residence?” You recognize? I am positive she did not as a result of she was completely sleeping.

The Ramseys instructed 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’d 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 discuss

to me. Have a look at me.

PATSY RAMSEY:  OK. All proper.

DET. HANEY:  If they are not yours and so they’re not John’s, then they might be any person else’s.

PATSY RAMSEY: Proper.

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

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

The fingerprints on the bowl are Patsy’s, based on 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 puzzled — may she be mendacity about every little 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 bought in her abdomen and I do not know the place this bowl of pineapple got here from. I can not 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 consider they have been responsible. So in August of 2000, prosecutors flew to Atlanta, the place the Ramseys have 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 simply 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 principally about leads he had uncovered on different suspects. However with Patsy, interrogators have been extra accusatory, suggesting that they had new proof — clothes fibers that will tie her on to the homicide.

BRUCE LEVIN | Boulder D.A.’s Workplace: You have been proven …  in images … carrying a crimson coat.

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

BRUCE LEVIN: Extra like a blazer?

PATSY RAMSEY: Like a pea coat.

Bruce Levin from the Boulder District Legal professional’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 crimson jacket.

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

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

LIN WOOD (Ramseys’ legal professional): Effectively, 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 provide the proof. After they would not, he refused to let Patsy go on the file. However she did go on the file with us.

Erin Moriarty: What do you consider these fibers?

Patsy Ramsey: After John discovering the physique and she or he was dropped at the lounge, once I laid eyes on her, I knelt down and hugged her … However I used to be — had my entire 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 bought up, and any person 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, any person …

PATSY RAMSEY: You are happening the flawed path, buddy.

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

PATSY RAMSEY: Did not occur. If she bought up within the night time and bumped into any person, it was any person there that wasn’t alleged 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 one among her three relations that have been additionally in that home. Interval. Finish of assertion.

These tapes do not all the time present the Ramseys at their finest. However remarkably, it was the Ramseys who made them accessible, saying they need all the knowledge 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 laborious to be right here. However it’s a rattling sight more durable to be sitting at residence in Atlanta, Georgia, questioning each second of day-after-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 need nothing greater than to seek out out who’s answerable 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 day-after-day alone looking for her killer.

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

Erin Moriarty: You’ve got JonBenét in your pockets?

Det. Smit: Certain. I maintain it on a regular basis.

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

A veteran detective with such a powerful file 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 a little bit bit.

Erin Moriarty:  And once you began, who did you consider killed JonBenét Ramsey?

Det. Smit:  My intestine feeling was her mother and father did it.

However as Smit adopted the proof and questioned the Ramseys, the extra he grew to become satisfied that the Boulder Police have been specializing in the flawed suspects.

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

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

Det. Smit: Once I left that interview, there was little question in my thoughts that he had nothing to do with the demise of his daughter.

Smit stop the investigation in disgust.

Det. Smit: They’d employed me as a detective to try this case. They could 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 on the lookout for the those who did.

Erin Moriarty: How would you describe Lou Smit?

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

Det. Smit: As a detective, I am on the lookout for clues.

What’s it that convinces Smit that somebody apart from the Ramseys killed their 6-year-old daughter? Initially, the brutality of the crime. Practically each medical knowledgeable who has seen the post-mortem report agrees on one factor: this was not an unintended demise. 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 twine; 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 combating for her life. There have been marks that look quite a bit like scratches on her neck.

Det. Smit:  She did have her personal DNA underneath her fingernails. I am fairly positive 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 pressure it crushed her cranium, however her nightmare wasn’t over. Shortly earlier than she died, investigators consider 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 help 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 midst of the night time saying, “Oops, I feel I harm my little one. Oops, I bought to deliver her downstairs and vogue one among this stuff. 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 consider that, go forward. I can not say this on the air however that is bull****.

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

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

Det. Smit: Certain.

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 may come off with a jacket or one thing just 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 baby.

Det. Smit: This is likely one of the finest clues left behind by the killer. This exhibits what is going on on in his thoughts. This can be a sexual system. I am on the lookout for a pedophile that is a sexual sadist. That is what Lou Smit’s on the lookout for.

Smit’s not the one one.

Colorado non-public detective Ollie Grey and his companion, John Sangustin, have 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 3 times per week.

Erin Moriarty: Though you are not getting paid?

Ollie Grey: Certain.

John Sangustin: Yeah.

They grew to become satisfied of the Ramseys’ innocence after seeing this lab report.

Ollie Grey:  I acquired a doc that you simply 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 mother and father have been requested to present DNA samples to the Boulder Police.

Erin Moriarty: The 2 of you’ve given DNA proof to the police?

Patsy Ramsey:  Completely.

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

Their DNA was in comparison with international 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: That is why I consider that the killer bought 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 carefully 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. Instantly under that opened window you’ve a suitcase…. … Instantly round that suitcase you’ve leaves and particles from that window properly round that suitcase … Additionally see — for those who look very carefully, 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 drawback.

Det. Smit: It’s a lot simpler to exit that window for those who 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 straightforward.

However why would an intruder who meant to kill JonBenét go away the weird two-and-a-half-page ransom word 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 like a kidnapping.

Erin Moriarty: But when somebody had been focusing on JonBenét Ramsey, would not he at the least deliver the — the paper and the pencil to write down this ransom word? I imply …

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

Erin Moriarty:  However you possibly can’t depend on discovering that in the home.

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

Erin Moriarty: No knowledgeable may remove Patsy Ramsey as the author of the ransom word … That is damning, is not it? 

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

However greater than another 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 positive the killer had a stun gun.

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

Det. Smit: There is no purpose in any respect for the mother and father 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 seem like an equal distance aside, very like the prongs of this a stun gun.

Det. Smit: They’re roughly 3.5 centimeters. They usually’re roughly 3.5 centimeters aside.

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

Dr. Doberson:  And if I push this … you possibly can see the electrical energy arching.

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

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

Dr. Werner Spitz:  They do not look …

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

Dr. Spitz: Effectively, I am 100% positive, as a result of stun gun accidents do not look that approach.

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 damage is a — is {an electrical} burn, is a burn, primarily, and these do not appear like burns.

Sadly, with solely images to go by, no knowledgeable, not Spitz nor Doberson, will be 100% positive.

Erin Moriarty: Would not which were the easiest way to know or come the closest to understanding is for those who may have exhumed the physique and line up a stun gun and see if it matches these accidents?

Det. Smit: Certain. I consider that — that will have most likely been essentially the most correct technique to do it.

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

John Ramsey: We had buried our little one. 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 positive. That might have resolved the entire situation. As a result of if a stun gun was used, it was not the mother and father.

John Ramsey:  No, we — definitely. And we have got those who have instructed 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 for those who had exhumed the physique, as powerful as that will have been.

John Ramsey: That is my little one you are speaking about. It is not a physique. It is completely 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 that 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 specifically 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 positively 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 bought 25 good leads, and I most likely have one other 50 pages of different results in observe.

Among the many information 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 experiences say he tried to strangle his mom with a phone twine. And in December 1996, Oliva might have been just a few 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 journey their bicycles across the alleyway.

John Sangustin and Ollie Grey, the Ramseys’ non-public investigators, say Oliva frequented  buildings (within the alley) owned by an area church.

Ollie Grey: You’ve got a number of transient individuals 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 keeping with Smit, the police did not observe up on 95% of the greater than 3,000 cellphone ideas that got here in. In Oliva’s case, they did not examine him till almost 4 years after JonBenét Ramsey’s demise, when he was caught with medicine. And guess what else? A stun gun.

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

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 harm or kill JonBenét Ramsey?

Gary Oliva:  No. No, I did not …

Erin Moriarty:  Did not you inform your pal that you simply have been drawn to little ladies?

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

Erin Moriarty:  OK. You have 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 consider that she got here to me after she was killed and revealed herself to me.

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

Alex Hunter | Former Boulder District Legal professional:  I’d 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 pressure was clearly overwhelmed.

Erin Moriarty: Did not your workplace have to inform cops, “You have to take a look at these different leads? You may’t simply concentrate on the Ramseys.”

Alex Hunter: Effectively, it — it was mentioned, 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 mentioned Oliva isn’t a suspect. Sources say his DNA would 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 honest to say then that the state of the proof proper now, there simply is not sufficient to convict the Ramseys past an inexpensive doubt?

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

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

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

Alex Hunter: I feel a little bit 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:  Effectively, let’s put it this fashion, I do not assume I did. If the Ramseys did this and I came upon, I would 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 an alternative, 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: Effectively —

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

John Ramsey: Patsy was a really robust girl. She actually was and a really sort particular person, a beautiful mom. She bought fairly vilified of the media, which was horribly unfair. … I feel harm deeper than it confirmed.

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

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

John Ramsey: Sure, I do. If the police will make the most of all of the know-how that is accessible to ’em and that is, uh, going to 1 or two of the world’s cutting-edge labs for DNA testing. … And I feel in the event that they try this and if we’re profitable getting a pattern in the suitable 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 mentioned: “The assertion that there’s viable proof and leads we aren’t pursuing — to incorporate DNA testing — is totally false.” The division mentioned there’s an ongoing investigation, and they’re wanting into the suggestions made by a current Chilly Case evaluate workforce.

CHIEF STEPHEN REDFEARN | BOULDER POLICE DEPARTMENT: … we’ve totally investigated a number of individuals 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 in to detectives. 

John Ramsey stays hopeful that these new efforts might 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 have been informal with our safety in our residence in Boulder. We thought it was a secure place … and we bought informal and — and complacent.

Erin Moriarty: While you look again, are there any stuff you want you had carried out in a different way?

John Ramsey: Effectively … the little magnificence pageants they participated in. … I would not have carried out that. You must maintain your kids non-public. … 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 number 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: Infrequently.

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

John Ramsey: Effectively, I dream … I sometimes have desires and so they’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?

When you’ve got details about the case, please name the Boulder Police Division at 303-441-1974 or e mail BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov.