Chris's Crime Forum

Chris
posted may 09, 2006


JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was an American murder victim.

Ramsey was a child beauty pageant queen who was found murdered in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado, United States, eight hours after being discovered missing. The case drew national attention when no suspect was charged and suspicions turned to possible family involvement. The tantalizing clues of the case have inspired numerous books and articles that attempt to solve the mystery.

Clues
Police investigations within and around the residence discovered the following clues which were by some interpreted as evidence of intrusion:

two dissimilar footprints in the wine cellar that did not match to any of the shoes in the residence
a third footprint of unknown match on the outer part of the window of the room by the wine cellar (John Ramsey claimed that the window was malfunctioning)
a possible footprint on a suitcase, placed directly below the same window
a rope that was foreign to the residence found on the bed of the guestroom located near JonBenét's room
physical marks on JonBenét's body that suggest the use of a stun gun
blood sample on JonBenét's underwear that did not match any known suspect

The note
Investigators determined that the lengthy ransom note was written on a pad of paper that belonged to the Ramsey family. A Sharpie felt-tip pen similar to the one used to write the note was found in a container on the Ramseys' kitchen counter, along with other pens of the same type. Information regarding matching ink can be found at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/handbook/intro8.htm According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, on the same pad of paper, a practice sheet of the ransom note was found. No fingerprints could be detected on the note. The text of the note had many odd features, including the fact that $118,000 was demanded. Perhaps coincidentally, John Ramsey earned a bonus that year of $118,117.50. Also during investigation of the home, police reported that Jon Ramsey's bible was found on his desk in his office open to Psalm 118. The police regarded the ransom price a suspiciously low amount of money in respect to John Ramsey's income. The parents have invariably held that the crime was committed by an intruder, and a group of investigators favour that theory.

Several handwriting samples were taken from a number of suspects who might have written the ransom note. Forensic analysis cleared everyone except for Patsy Ramsey, whose writing style bore some resemblance to the ransom note.

Case speculation by experts, media and the parents has supported different theories. For a long time, the local police supported the theory that her mother had accidentally killed JonBenét in a fit of rage after the girl had wet her bed on the same night. Another theory was that John Ramsey murdered his daughter because he had been sexually abusing her. Police suspicions were initially concentrated almost exclusively on the members of the Ramsey family, as they had statistically a 90% chance of finding the murderer (according to the data obtained from similar cases). Yet, the girl's parents had never shown any prior signs of aggression, nor any suspicious behaviour towards their children.

The Ramseys have invariably held that the crime was committed by an invader. Some police investigators and private detectives support the Ramsey's theory. John Douglas, former head of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, was hired by the Ramseys to examine the case. He contended that the Ramseys were not involved in the murder, and that it was unlikely that anyone would resolve the case.

With such contradictory evidence, a grand jury failed to indict the Ramseys or anyone else in the murder of JonBenét. Not long after the murder, the parents moved to a new home in Atlanta. Two of the lead investigators in the case resigned, and there have been accusations of a cover-up in the district attorney's office. To this day, the case remains unsolved.

meerkat1
posted july 10, 2006


june 25 2006: Patsy Ramsey dies of cervical cancer. She was 49. I agree this case will never be solved because any evidence that could be definitively used to point to someone, anyone, was destroyed or hopelessly contaminated by the boulder Police. Meerkat1

Chris
posted july 11, 2006

That is very true Lee.Some believe the murderer has now died,and others believe a psycho is still running around.We will probably never know the truth.

Chris
posted august 17, 2006


An American primary school teacher has been arrested in Thailand over the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

It is 10 years since the child beauty queen's grisly death triggered a media frenzy that transfixed much of America.

The suspect was not named by authorities but US media identified him as 41-year-old John Mark Karr, a second-grade school teacher.

He was travelling in Thailand and "was arrested following several months of a focused and complex investigation," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said in a statement.

Karr was taken into custody in Bangkok and KUSA-TV in Denver said he had confessed to elements of the crime that were unknown to the general public.

He was expected to be returned within days to the United States, which has an extradition treaty with Thailand.

MSNBC said Karr had lived in Boulder Colorado at the time of the December 6 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet, whose body was found in the basement of the family home.

A note was left on a staircase saying she had been kidnapped by a "small foreign faction" who wanted $US118,000 ($A154,000) in ransom.

Both JonBenet's father, John, and mother, Patsy, were consulted during the course of the investigation that led to Karr's arrest. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in June.

"So Patsy was aware that authorities were close to making an arrest in the case and had she lived to see this day, would no doubt have been as pleased as I am with today's development almost 10 years after our daughter's murder," John Ramsey said in a statement.

Ramsey told US media that to the best of his knowledge he was not acquainted with the suspect.

http://snipurl.com/v212

Chris
posted august 17, 2006


BANGKOK, Thailand - A former American school teacher said publicly Thursday he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she was killed and called the 6-year-old's death "an accident," a stunning admission that should help answer 10 years of questions in the unsolved murder case. "I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," he told The Associated Press.


"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr told reporters afterward, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. "Her death was an accident."

Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: "No."

Later, as he was escorted to his guesthouse to pick up his belongings, he told the AP: "I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident."

Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: "It would take several hours to describe that. It's a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It's very painful for me to talk about it."

Karr also told the AP he contacted JonBenet's mother, Patsy Ramsey, before her death in June and that he wrote her letters about "many things." He said he hoped that she received the letters.

Karr confessed to the killing after his arrest Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok guesthouse by Thai and American authorities, said Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand's immigration police.

He said Karr insisted his crime was not first-degree murder but that JonBenet died during a kidnapping attempt that went awry.

"He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional," Suwat said.

"He said he loved this child, that he was in love her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet," Suwat said.

Karr declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family. Dressed in a turquoise polo shirt and khaki trousers, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.

An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Ga.

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/15294999.htm

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Chris
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Joined: 19 Feb 2006
Posts: 2230
Location: Alberta
Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 1:34 pm Post subject:

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While the investigation of John Mark Karr, the suspect arrested Wednesday in connection with JonBenet Ramsey's 1996 murder, is still ongoing, some disturbing facts about his past have come to light, including the fact that he was twice married to teenage brides.

• In 1984, Karr, who is now 41, married his first wife, then 14-year-old Quientana Shotts. "I got scared by his ways," Shotts told the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Thursday. "He never was real violent, just pushy." The couple's marriage ended after nine months and was annulled in March 1985, the paper reports.

• In September 1989, Karr married his second wife, Lara Knutson, who was then 16. The couple have three sons.

• Police in Sonoma County, Calif., where Karr had been working as a teacher, said he was charged in 2001 with five misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography. He was jailed for six months, then released on the condition that he stay off the Internet and away from schools, according to the New York Times. He later jumped bail and failed to appear in court.

• In October 2001, Knutson filed for a protective order to keep Karr away from her and their sons, citing his child pornography arrest, reports CNN. In her divorce petition, Knutson said when she married Karr she was unaware of his Internet habits or propensity for "kiddie porn."

• In court documents, Knutson also stated that, in August and September 1996, an Alabama school district dismissed Karr from his job as a substitute teacher after complaints from parents that he had been "too affectionate" with children. (Bravell Johnson, school superintendent in Alabama's Marion County, confirmed that parental complains led to Karr's dismissal, reports CNN.)

• Karr's father, Wexford Karr, told the Denver Post that his son had been deeply interested in the JonBenet case and had researched a book on the subject. He was also fascinated with the death of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home and killed in 1993.

• Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy said Karr was arrested at approximately 6 a.m. local time Wednesday in Bangkok, where he was living and had begun his employment as a second-grade schoolteacher the day before.

• Officials in Bangkok said he had traveled to the country – which is notorious for its child sex trade – five times in the past two years.

http://people.aol.com/people/article/0, ... 66,00.html

Chris
posted august 29, 2006

John Mark Karr will NOT be charged in the Jonbenet Ramsey Murder case according to the Boulder County District Attorney's office. Karr's public defender, Seth Temin, says there is no DNA match between Karr and the murder scene.

Authorities in California are now planning to extridite Karr, so that he can face child pornography charges from an unrelated case in 2001. Karr will continue to be incarcerated in Boulder while he awaits extradition.

http://www.kktv.com/news/headlines/3751427.html

Chris
posted nov 26, 2006-


JONBENET PROBE TO RE-OPEN
By Lara Gould Tv Reporter
A FORMER teacher cleared of killing child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is back under investigation for the crime.

John Mark Karr, 41, was charged last August with the murder after confessing to a British academic. But the charge was dropped when DNA tests failed to link him to the killing.

JonBenet, six, was strangled at her home in Boulder, Colorado, on Christmas night 1996.

Now a Channel 4 documentary, The Killing of JonBenet: An Evil Twist, to be screened next month, will reveal US police have reopened their investigation into Karr.

Detectives believe he may have committed the crime with an accomplice.

http://tinyurl.com/y2l7ho

John Ramsey speaks about late daughter
Ramsey said he is happy with memories he has of JonBenet
John Ramsey, father of the late JonBenet, spoke to a crowd last night in the Biology Building about his innocence in the killing of his daughter in 1996.

Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in her parents' basement in Boulder, Colo., on Christmas day after her parents John and Patsy found a ransom note earlier that morning.

John Ramsey, once a suspect, along with his wife, started out his hour-long speech with his previous experiences in the media and the memory of his older daughter who was killed in a car accident.

Ramsey said after his life was back on track from the loss of his oldest daughter, the tragic loss of JonBenet put his family on a rollercoaster ride for the next decade.

"The worst moment of my life was when she was missing, but once she was found, it made me feel better because at least I knew where she was," Ramsey said.

Ramsey said the investigation conducted by the police in Boulder accusing him and his wife was done poorly.

"The police always look for parents when a child is endangered or worse," Ramsey said.

He also said the media played a role in the horrible situation his family was enduring.

The tabloid media got involved, and they found out that by sensationalizing the news, it's easier to sell more papers, Ramsey said, so they started writing stories and finally the mainstream media picked up from that and just blew it out of the water.

"We've allowed the media to turn the justice system into entertainment," Ramsey said.

After further conversation about the logistics of the case, Ramsey shifted the focus of his speech toward strategies on how to deal with tragedy and loss.

"I think it's good to have someone like this come and speak to us because he has become a well known figure in society and it's always good to know how people like that deal with tragedy," said Jeanna Courter, a freshman majoring in pre-law.

By making light in dark situations, Ramsey said he personally used humor, sleep, faith, memories and looking toward the future to keep from severe depression.

link

New DNA Evidence Clears Family Of JonBenet's Death
DNA Does Not Match Any Male In Criminal Database

BOULDER, Colo. -- New DNA evidence from the JonBenet Ramsey murder case positively clears her parents and points the finger at a man whose DNA profile is not currently in any criminal database, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
The district attorney made that announcement in a letter, dated July 9, to John Ramsey. (Read Letter From DA To John Ramsey.)

"Given the history of the publicity surrounding this case, I believe it is important and appropriate to provide you with our opinion that your family was not responsible for this crime," the district attorney wrote.

The 6-year-old beauty queen was found dead in the basement of her home the day after Christmas in 1996. She was strangled and bludgeoned. No one has been arrested in her slaying. Her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, have always denied their involvement in their daughter's death but for years they were under an "umbrella of suspicion."

On Wednesday, District Attorney Mary Lacy told John in the letter that "significant new evidence that has recently been discovered through the application of relatively new methods of DNA analysis" clears John, his wife, and their son, Burke, from "any suspicion in the commission of this crime."

"I wish we could have done so before Mrs. Ramsey died," Lacy wrote.

John Ramsey told reporters Wednesday that he was grateful to be exonerated, once and for all.

"I am grateful for the real professionals in the Colorado law enforcement community who continue to work quietly but effectively to find the killer of our daughter. I believe in my heart that someday we will," Ramsey said.

John Ramsey's wife, Patsy, died in June 2006 after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer. She died at the age of 49 in Atlanta, where the family moved after JonBenet's death. She never lived to see the person who killed her daughter captured.

Burke Ramsey, who was 9 at the time of his sister's death, is currently a student at Purdue University in Indiana and will be graduating in 2009.

Paulette Paugh Davis, Patsy Ramsey's sister, said in a phone interview with WGCL-TV in Atlanta, "This is a long time coming. We always knew no one in the family had anything to do with it. It's nice to hear the Boulder County District Attorney's office is finally coming forward with this information. ... I just wish Patsy was alive to hear this. I feel like it's a message from heaven. I hope the person who did this is still alive so we can meet him face to face."

Lacy explained that last summer, investigators became aware of a new method of DNA evidence collecting called "touch DNA" that would scrape places where there were no stains or other signs of DNA presence to see if genetic material could be collected. The District Attorney's Office contacted the Bode Technology Group near Washington, D.C., to scrape JonBenet's longjohns, which were probably handled by the perpetrator.

The firm confirmed that the DNA it collected on the waistband of the two sides of the longjohns matched the DNA of a blood drop on the inside crotch of JonBenet's underwear.

"The match of male DNA on two separate items of clothing worn by the victim at the time of the murder makes it clear to us that an unknown male handled these items," Lacy wrote. "That genetic profile belongs to a male and does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey family."

The police have compared that profile to a very large number of people associated with the victim, with her family, and with the investigation, and has not identified the source of the DNA.

She explained that this DNA profile is now in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is used by federal, state and local crime labs to compare and share forensic evidence. However, there's been no match to anyone in the database.

"We are comfortable that the profile now in CODIS is the profile of the perpetrator of this murder ... We hope that we will one day obtain a DNA match from the CODIS data bank that will lead to further evidence and to the solution of this crime," Lacy said. "The number of profiles available for comparison in the CODIS data bank is growing steadily. Law enforcement agencies are receiving increasing number of cold hits on DNA profiles that have been in the system for years."

She explained that the district attorney's office then contacted another DNA expert from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to confirm that the DNA from the longjohns didn't come from sources at the autopsy. The CBI confirmed on June 27 that the DNA did not come from the autopsy.

Lacy acknowledged that there has been widespread public perception that the Ramseys were involved in JonBenet's death and apologized for her role in it.

"No innocent person should have to endure such an extensive trial in the court of public opinion, especially when public officials have not had sufficient evidence to initiate a trial in a court of law. I have the greatest respect for the way you and your family have handled this adversity," Lacy said.

This is not the first time the family has been cleared in wrongdoing, but it is the most conclusive and definitive statement made by authorities. In 2003, a federal judge handling a defamation lawsuit in Atlanta involving the Ramseys said evidence in the case was more consistent with the theory that an intruder killed JonBenet, not her parents, and Lacy said she agreed.

"For reasons including those discussed above, we believe that justice dictates that the Ramseys be treated only as victims of this very serious crime. We will accord them all the rights guaranteed to the victims of violent crimes under the law in Colorado and all the respect and sympathy due from one human being to another. To the extent that this office has added to the distress suffered by the Ramsey family at any time or to any degree, I offer my deepest apology," Lacy wrote.

Lacy said she will no longer speak about the case in public

[b](Read Lacy's entire statement.)[/b]
in bold

link

JonBenet Ramsey: 12 years later and still a mystery

NEW YORK (CNN) -- It is one of the most notorious cold cases in recent memory. A 6-year-old girl, a child of beauty and privilege, was found dead in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado, on the day after Christmas 1996.The strangulation of JonBenet Ramsey is also among the coldest of cases. Twelve years have passed, and again it is Christmastime, the season of JonBenet's death.

The investigation has taken many heartbreaking twists and turns, including a false confession and baseless suspicions cast for a time on the child's parents. After years of false starts, there are no solid leads.

For many, the images of this tragic story are indelible: A doll-like child smiling flirtatiously at the camera in flamboyant costumes, heavy makeup and grown-up hairstyles parading on a beauty pageant stage. A tiny, lifeless body, dressed in long johns, found on the basement floor by her father. Watch how this case touched nearly everyone »

Just this past July, John and Patsy Ramsey were exonerated by police of having any role in their daughter's death. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June 2006.

FBI lab results confirmed that a man, yet to be identified, touched JonBenet's long underwear. This so-called touch DNA also was found in JonBenet's underpants, mixed with the child's blood.

Police believe the DNA belongs to the killer. They just don't know who he is. They are waiting for a match.

From the beginning, police focused their attention on Patsy Ramsey, placing the entire family under what authorities later would admit was a cloud of suspicion.
The investigators' working theory was that JonBenet's mother may have struck her in anger as punishment for bed-wetting, causing the little girl's death on Christmas night. Investigators theorized that a strangulation was then staged to direct suspicion toward an intruder or sexual predator.

Patsy Ramsey told police she awoke early December 26 and found a two-page, handwritten ransom note on a back staircase. It said JonBenet had been kidnapped by a "small foreign faction" and that she'd be executed if the Ramseys did not pay a $118,000 ransom.

The Ramseys checked JonBenet's room, discovered she was missing and immediately called 911.

When police arrived, they suggested that John Ramsey and a family friend, Fleet White, search the house. Shortly afterward, Ramsey and White found JonBenet's body in a wine cellar in the basement. The child's body was wrapped in a blanket, with duct tape across her mouth and white cord wrapped around her neck and wrists.

An autopsy showed the child had eaten pineapple shortly before she died. She'd been sexually assaulted, strangled by the cord and struck on the head.

Crime scene photos show two small burn-type injuries on JonBenet's head. Private investigators Ollie Gray and John San Augustin, working as consultants on the case, said the burns are consistent with marks made with a "stun gun."

Investigators also concluded that the paper the ransom note was written on came from a notepad in the Ramsey home, as did the broken paintbrush handle used to form the garrote.

However, the sources for the cord and duct tape were not found anywhere in the home.

Other nagging clues include an open basement window near where the child's body was found. A suitcase stood directly below the window, and appeared to have been used as a step. There was a scuff mark on the wall beneath the window. A footprint of a Hi-Tec hiking boot was found in the dust in the wine cellar and cannot be connected to anyone in the Ramsey family or their friends.

Police say they were initially suspicious of the Ramseys because there were no footprints in the snow outside the house.

Lou Smits, a lead police investigator on the case, resigned because, he said, the investigation "was misdirected and had developed tunnel vision, only focusing on the Ramseys as suspects and not following alternative leads."

The contradictory facts have caused problems in the case. Many experts have said they believe Boulder police botched the investigation by failing to preserve the crime scene properly.

When, for example, police arrived and directed John Ramsey to search his own home, Ramsey not only found his dead daughter but also picked her up and brought her upstairs, disturbing the crime scene. Police investigators, friends and family were allowed to walk in and out of the house freely, again contaminating evidence that could have been gathered.

The District Attorney's Office has taken over the investigation, said spokeswoman Caroline French.

"This case is still an open and active investigation," French said.

Prosecutors seek tips and ask anyone with information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for JonBenet Ramsey's death to call 303-441-1636
link