JonBenet Ramsey Case Study: An Analysis of the Evidence and Theories

This case study examines the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey, focusing on the investigation's failures and potential suspects. The author analyzes the crime scene, highlighting the lack of police resources and the contamination of evidence. The study explores the evidence, including the ransom note, the presence of pineapple in JonBenet's stomach, and the DNA found at the scene. The author suggests the Ramsey family, particularly the son, as the potential perpetrators, due to the ransom note's details, handwriting analysis, and the brother's fingerprints on the pineapple plate. The author also speculates about the possibility of the parents' involvement in the sexual assault to mislead investigators. The case study concludes that the case will likely remain unsolved without new evidence or witnesses.

Maryeh Talabah
PSC 107
10/22/2020
JonBenet Ramsey Case Study
Jon Benet Ramsey was murdered on December 25, 1996, in the basement of her family
home. The police crime scene for the Jon Benet Ramsey homicide investigation was a major
disaster. One of the many wrong things was the shortage of police officers. Since it was
Christmas morning, many officers were unavailable to get to the crime scene. Another mistake
was the police officers not shutting down the crime scene. This led to the occurrence of
contaminated evidence because when Jon Benet Ramsey was found dead in their home
basement, her father wrapped her in a blank, causing contamination. The police officers also
failed to take statements from the Ramsey family upon arriving at the crime scene. The police
officers did a poor job at protecting and securing the crime scene causing this 24-year-old case to
go unsolved.
Although no one was ever convicted for this crime, I believe that the Ramsey family is
responsible for the death of their daughter. I believe that the older child, Burke Ramsey killed his
sister and the parents helped cover it up. His motive to kill her would probably be jealousy
because his sister was always in the spotlight and probably got more attention from their parents
because of her fame and beauty pageants. I feel that the parents didn’t want to lose their only
child so they covered up the crime to make it look like a kidnapping/murder. A piece of evidence
that convinced me it could be the brother was the fact that JonBenet Ramsey was found with

pineapples, partially digested, in her stomach and the detectives ran the plates for prints and the
brother’s fingerprints were found on the plate used. However, the parents claimed they never
gave her pineapples before she went to sleep. This tells me the victim could’ve been woken up
after her parents put her to bed and ate pineapples, possibly with her brother because there was
no sign of force. Also, forensics found DNA on the victim that didn’t match anyone from the
family. That could be because the Ramsey Family was at a Christmas party the night before,
which probably could explain the unidentified DNA. Something I found really sketchy that made
me believe it could’ve been the family was because the ransom note included something
personal, the bonus money that Jon Benet’s father received, $118,00. This kind of information is
private and something that the Ramsey family would only know. Also, the suspect used
Patricia’s notepad, which was a bit suspicious to me because out of any type of paper the suspect
could’ve used, the suspect used Patricia’s notepad which she probably wouldn’t keep out in the
open. One last key detail in this investigation that made me see her family as the people that
killed their daughter and tried to cover it up is the handwriting of the ransom note. Although 6
experts examined the note handwriting to the handwriting of the father and son in the Ramsey
family and ruled them out 100%, the experts couldn’t rule out the mother. The experts did not
rule out the mother because they said they are not 100% sure that Patricia Ramsey didn’t write
the note. This made me think that Patricia used her notepad but made the writing very sloppy to
try to unmatch the writing to how she actually writes. As for the unexplained sexual assault, my
opinion is that her parents could have done that to her to throw the detectives off into thinking it
was the family. At the end of the day, this case will probably remain cold if no evidence or
witness comes to light and the suspect is walking free.