She is without end frozen in time. JonBenét Ramsey — 6 years previous, 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 note left on the scene. Several hours later, she was discovered useless in her own residence – bludgeoned and strangled.
Polaris
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 lined it up.
Now in his 80s, John Ramsey continues to be attempting to clear his and Patsy’s names.
“Finding the killer … is not gonna change my life at this level, however it can change the lives of my youngsters and my grandchildren. This cloud must be faraway from our household’s head and this chapter closed for his or her profit, so there may be a solution,” he tells “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty in a November interview.
There’s extra from that interview to return. But first, a time capsule — a glance again at how “48 Hours” lined the story in a broadcast which initially aired on Oct. 4, 2002.
2002: A LOOK BACK AT THE JONBENÉT RAMSEY CASE
Originally 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’s not the identical with out her.
Patsy Ramsey: Why is it so arduous for individuals to know that we beloved this baby with every little thing in our being? We would by no means contact a hair on the pinnacle 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 means nobody would need. Although they’ve by no means been publicly known as suspects or charged with the 1996 demise of their daughter, JonBenét, they’re resigned to a painful actuality.
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John Ramsey: We might discover the killer tomorrow, he may very well be arrested, convicted and — and, you recognize, jailed, and there’d nonetheless be — 20 % 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 is your response when you recognize many individuals assume that is what you probably did?
Patsy Ramsey: They are unsuitable. I do not know what else to say. How else do you say “no” besides “no”? “No” means “no.”
Over the final a number of months, we now have spent quite a lot of time with the Ramseys — these favourite villains of the tabloids and have seen them in a means few others have.
On today simply this previous summer time, John and Patsy Ramsey are transferring.
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 are promoting their million-dollar dwelling in Atlanta and transferring to a smaller townhouse simply down the highway. John Ramsey, as soon as the pinnacle of a billion-dollar software program firm, hasn’t labored for 4 years. While 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’ll be able to see the injury left by the return of her most cancers.
Patsy Ramsey: I believed I might paint throughout my most cancers remedy, 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.
Nine 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 12 months she once more went via debilitating chemotherapy.
Erin Moriarty: You misplaced your hair.
Patsy Ramsey: Yes. It’s rising again. My eyebrows are rising again. It all comes out, however you recognize what? That’s little or no factor to fret about.
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In reality, Patsy Ramsey has a lot greater considerations. Almost 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. Other than to analyze 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 notice 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 Department: Publicly, right.
While testifying beneath 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-about suspects.
LIN WOOD: Both of them —
CHIEF BECKNER: Yes.
LIN WOOD: — are thought-about to have most likely been concerned within the demise of their daughter?
CHIEF BECKNER: Probability, 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’s proper.
Patsy Ramsey: I got here nearer to him within the face than I’m to you, Erin, and I stated, “Tell me what it’s that makes you assume I killed my lovely, treasured baby.” And he stated, “Well—nicely, it is simply quite a lot of little issues.” I believe he actually does not know.
But 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 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 Wood: They satisfied the general public of guilt.
Lin Wood is John and Patsy Ramsey’s legal professional.
Lin Wood: 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. Absolutely false.
Lin Wood: Headlines that John and Patsy Ramsey have been pornographers. Absolutely false.
Headlines that they have been satan worshipers. Absolutely false.
The Ramseys consider that the Boulder Police nonetheless to today proceed to disregard proof pointing to different suspects.
John Ramsey: It’s 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: Well, we’re not cleaning soap opera actors. I imply, I — I suppose if I used to be an actor, I might act actually indignant. But I’m not. That’s who I’m is what you see, and I’m indignant. This is indignant for me.
Angry 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 us take a look at the remainder of the image guys.
THE 1998 POLICE INTERROGATION OF JOHN AND PATSY RAMSEY
Originally 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 identical 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 quite a lot of hypothesis by lots of people that perhaps you did not know something concerning the homicide, however perhaps Patsy did.
JOHN RAMSEY: No, that is preposterous. I imply, Patsy loves each her youngsters dearly. But frankly she and JonBenét have been extraordinarily shut.
Detective Tom Haney questioned Patsy, who on the time was taking remedy for each anxiousness and melancholy.
DET. HANEY (from police interrogation tapes): If I instructed you proper now that we now have hint proof that seems to hyperlink you to the demise of JonBenét, what would you inform me?
PATSY RAMSEY: That is completely inconceivable. Go retest.
DET. HANEY: How is it inconceivable?
PATSY RAMSEY: I didn’t kill my baby. I did not have something to do with it. And…
DET. HANEY: And — and I’m not speaking, you recognize, any individual’s guess or some rumor or some story. I’m speaking …
PATSY RAMSEY: I do not care what you are speaking about.
DET. HANEY: I’m speaking about scientific proof.
PATSY RAMSEY: I’m — I do not give a flying flip how scientific it’s. Go again 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 begin 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. While the tapes present how strongly prosecutors believed John and Patsy Ramsey have been liable for the demise of their daughter, frankly, there is not quite a lot of bodily proof that hyperlinks them. So questioners appeared for inconsistencies and targeted on minute particulars from the crime scene.
DET. SMIT: What have you ever heard about pineapple?
JOHN RAMSEY: Well, we have been requested, did JonBenét eat pineapple and — and — as a result of, apparently, it was present in her system. I believe a part of the query was, too, “When did she eat it? When she bought dwelling?” You know? I’m certain 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 dwelling. But 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: But, OK, let’s return to your line of reasoning right here. If they weren’t — now discuss
to me. Look at me.
PATSY RAMSEY: OK. All proper.
DET. HANEY: If they don’t seem to be yours and so they’re not John’s, then they might be any individual else’s.
PATSY RAMSEY: Right.
DET. HANEY: Now I’m telling you they don’t seem to be any individual else’s. Those prints belong to one of many two of you.
PATSY RAMSEY: They do? You’re certain? Well, 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 if Patsy did give it to JonBenét, and is mendacity about it, then investigators questioned — might she be mendacity about every little thing?
DET. HANEY: You know, typically the only, most obscure little factor —
PATSY RAMSEY: I do not know.
DET. HANEY: — may very well be so vital.
PATSY RAMSEY: Right. 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 just did it. Do you do not forget that?
JOHN RAMSEY: I do not forget that. But I’m not right here to show my innocence. I’m right here to search out the killer of my daughter.
With John, prosecutors requested questions largely about leads he had uncovered on different suspects. But with Patsy, interrogators have been extra accusatory, suggesting they’d new proof — clothes fibers that might tie her on to the homicide.
BRUCE LEVIN | Boulder D.A.’s Office: You have been proven … in images … sporting a crimson coat.
PATSY RAMSEY: It’s type of a black and crimson and grey fleece.
BRUCE LEVIN: More like a blazer?
PATSY RAMSEY: Like a pea coat.
Bruce Levin from the Boulder District Attorney’s Office 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 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 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 aside from your crimson jacket.
LIN WOOD (Ramseys’ legal professional): Well, once more, that is — come on. I imply, they — what different sources did they check?
Patsy’s legal professional, Lin Wood, requested prosecutors to supply the proof. When they would not, he refused to let Patsy go on the document. But she did go on the document with us.
Erin Moriarty: What do you concentrate on these fibers?
Patsy Ramsey: After John discovering the physique and she or he was delivered to the lounge, once I laid eyes on her, I knelt down and hugged her … But 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 individual 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 may be some dialogue or one thing occurs, there’s an accident, any individual …
PATSY RAMSEY: You’re happening the unsuitable path, buddy.
DET. HANEY: OK. Somebody unintentionally or any individual will get upset over bed-wetting, that is one of many issues that is been proposed, OK?
PATSY RAMSEY: Didn’t occur. If she bought up within the night time and bumped into any individual, it was any individual 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 one among her three members of the family that have been additionally in that home. Period. End of assertion.
These tapes do not at all times present the Ramseys at their finest. But 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’s very arduous to be right here. But it’s a rattling sight tougher to be sitting at dwelling in Atlanta, Georgia, questioning each second of each day what you guys are doing out right here. You know. Have you discovered something? Are we any nearer? Is the man out right here watching my home? You know, is my son protected? My life has been hell from that day ahead. And I need nothing greater than to search out out who’s liable for this.
RULING OUT THE RAMSEYS AS SUSPECTS IN JONBENÉT’S MURDER
Originally aired on Oct. 4, 2002
One hundred miles away from the place JonBenét Ramsey was murdered, in a modest dwelling in Colorado Springs, 67-year-old Lou Smit works each day alone looking for her killer.
Det. Smit: I maintain an image of her in my pockets.
Erin Moriarty: You have JonBenét in your pockets?
Det. Smit: Sure. I maintain it on a regular basis.
This is similar Lou Smit you noticed interrogating John Ramsey again in 1998.
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A veteran detective with such a powerful 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 Department slightly 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.
But 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 unsuitable suspects.
Det. Smit: John Ramsey got here via 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: When I left that interview, there was little doubt 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 might not like what I say, however I’m gonna say it. I do not assume the Ramseys did it. And I believe they ought to begin on the lookout for the those that did.
Erin Moriarty: How would you describe Lou Smit?
Patsy Ramsey: He’s my hope find out who killed my daughter.
Det. Smit: As a detective, I’m on the lookout for clues.
What is it that convinces Smit that somebody aside from the Ramseys killed their 6-year-old daughter? First and foremost, the brutality of the crime. Nearly each medical knowledgeable who has seen the post-mortem report agrees on one factor: this was not an unintentional demise. JonBenét Ramsey was cruelly and intentionally murdered.
JonBenét was strangled not as soon as, says Smit, however twice, with an intricately made machine referred to as a garrote that needed to have been made by the killer throughout the homicide.
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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’s a tool, 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 so much like scratches on her neck.
Det. Smit: She did have her personal DNA beneath her fingernails. I’m fairly certain that is the scratch to get that off. I believe she was struggling then
At some level the kid was then hit over the pinnacle with such power 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’s 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’s not a mom waking up in the midst of the night time saying, “Oops, I believe I damage my baby. Oops, I bought to deliver her downstairs and style one among this stuff. And then I’m going to place it round her neck and I’m going to tighten it a pair instances 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****.
But 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: Sure.
Erin Moriarty: But does that shake your religion that the Ramseys weren’t concerned?
Det. Smit: No … You simply cannot depend on fiber proof. Because 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 baby.
Det. Smit: This is without doubt one of the finest clues left behind by the killer. This reveals what is going on on in his thoughts. This is a sexual machine. I’m on the lookout for a pedophile that is a sexual sadist. That’s what Lou Smit’s on the lookout for.
Smit’s not the one one.
Colorado personal detective Ollie Gray and his associate, John Sangustin, have been employed by the Ramseys in 1999.
Even when the Ramseys ran out of cash, Gray and Sangustin stayed on the job.
Ollie Gray: We’d most likely do one thing on it, two or 3 times every week.
Erin Moriarty: Even although you are not getting paid?
Ollie Gray: Sure.
John Sangustin: Yeah.
They grew to become satisfied of the Ramseys’ innocence after seeing this lab report.
Ollie Gray: 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.
Just days after JonBenét was murdered, her mother and father have been requested to provide DNA samples to the Boulder Police.
Erin Moriarty: The two of you might have given DNA proof to the police?
Patsy Ramsey: Absolutely.
John Ramsey: Absolutely. 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 beneath 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 Gray: No. This evaluation eliminates the Ramseys.
Patsy Ramsey: If our DNA matched something vital, 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
Originally 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 dwelling and killed their 6-year-old daughter.
Det. Smit: This is why I consider that the killer bought in. … He opened the grate, he went in.
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Det. Smit: There’s three home windows there. The middle one was the one which was open. Take a glance 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 middle — no leaves or particles …
Erin Moriarty: Which says?
Det. Smit: That window was opened. Directly under that opened window you might have a suitcase…. … Directly round that suitcase you might have leaves and particles from that window nicely round that suitcase … Also 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 can match via that window?
Det. Smit: Oh, with none drawback.
Det. Smit: It is far simpler to exit that window should you stand on one thing … You put the suitcase in entrance, you step on the suitcase and also you’re proper out into the window nicely. Lift the grate, you are gone. It’s that simple.
But 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 at all times believed that Patsy used it to make the killing appear to be a kidnapping.
Erin Moriarty: But if somebody had been focusing on JonBenét Ramsey, would not he at the very least deliver the — the paper and the pencil to put in writing this ransom be aware? I imply …
AP/Boulder Police Department
Det. Smit: Well, 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 own home the place you might have precise — the pen and the ink and you’ve got the — the paper proper there that it was written on?
Erin Moriarty: But you’ll be able to’t rely on discovering that in the home.
Det. Smit: Can’t rely on it; most homes have that.
Erin Moriarty: No knowledgeable might eradicate Patsy Ramsey as the author of the ransom be aware … That’s damning, is not it?
Det. Smit: No, in no way … You at all times are going to have similarities in handwriting. To sit 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 executed that earlier than. Come on, give me a break.
But greater than every 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 lady with a view to transfer her to the basement. Smit believes solely an intruder would want to make use of one.
Det. Smit: There’s 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 is nothing to point the Ramseys ever owned a stun gun.
What’s vital 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 like the prongs of this a stun gun.
Det. Smit: They’re roughly 3.5 centimeters. And they’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’ll be able to see the electrical energy arching.
Dr. Doberson: If it is not a stun gun, I’d 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 certain are you that it is not a stun gun on her again?
Dr. Spitz: Well, I’m 100% certain, as a result of stun gun accidents do not look that means.
Dr. Werner Spitz, a nationally recognized 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.
Unfortunately, with solely images to go by, no knowledgeable, not Spitz nor Doberson, might be 100% certain.
Erin Moriarty: Wouldn’t which were the easiest way to know or come the closest to understanding is should you might have exhumed the physique and line up a stun gun and see if it matches these accidents?
Det. Smit: Sure. I consider that — that might have most likely been essentially the most correct solution to do it.
Smit admits that within the months following JonBenét’s demise, investigators thought-about going to court docket to have her physique exhumed however determined in opposition to it.
John Ramsey: We had buried our baby. She was at peace. That was simply an – a — an abhorrent thought.
Erin Moriarty: But, John, that may have been the one solution to know for certain. That might have resolved the entire subject. Because if a stun gun was used, it was not the mother and father.
John Ramsey: No, we — definitely. And we have those that have instructed us that know what they’re doing that with 95% medical certainty {that a} stun gun was used. No query.
Erin Moriarty: But you’ll have recognized with 100% certainty should you had exhumed the physique, as robust as that might have been.
John Ramsey: This is my baby you are speaking about. It’s not a physique. It’s completely different.
Still, 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?
Originally 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 outdoors the Ramsey dwelling. One man specifically caught investigator Lou Smit’s eye.
Det. Smit: Many instances criminals do return to the scene, and that was on the anniversary. That places him proper there on the Ramsey home a 12 months later.
He’s 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 lady in Oregon. He hung out in jail for that.
Smit is satisfied {that a} pedophile got here into the Ramsey dwelling 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 information he is retaining on intercourse offenders in Boulder, Oliva’s identify stands out. In 1991, the 12 months after he sexually assaulted the little lady, police studies say he tried to strangle his mom with a phone wire. And in December 1996, Oliva might have been only some homes away from JonBenét’s bed room window.
Ollie Gray: This is the alley that runs behind the Ramseys’ dwelling. 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 Gray, the Ramseys’ personal investigators, say Oliva frequented buildings (within the alley) owned by an area church.
Ollie Gray: You have quite a lot of transient individuals come right here for meals and likewise to select up their mail.
Erin Moriarty: But why is that this related?
Ollie Gray: The Ramsey house is — What? — 10 homes?
Erin Moriarty: Right up this alley.
Ollie Gray: Right up this alley.
What did the Boulder police do with this? Nothing. According to 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 almost 4 years after JonBenét Ramsey’s demise, when he was caught with medication. 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.
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Erin Moriarty: Did you damage or kill JonBenét Ramsey?
Gary Oliva: No. No, I did not …
Erin Moriarty: Didn’t you inform your good friend that you just have been drawn to little ladies?
Gary Oliva: I do not assume I wish to reply that.
Erin Moriarty: OK. You have been dwelling in Boulder on the time JonBenét was killed.
Gary Oliva: Yeah.
Erin Moriarty: Just down the road.
Gary Oliva: Yeah.
He will 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.
As it seems, we’re not the one ones excited about Oliva. A Boulder police officer confirmed as much as take notes.
Alex Hunter | Former Boulder District Attorney: I might be involved if any lead was not totally taken to floor.
Former Boulder district legal professional, Alex Hunter, says police tried to observe up on pedophiles, however admits that early on the power was clearly overwhelmed.
Erin Moriarty: Didn’t your workplace have to inform cops, “You’ve bought to take a look at these different leads? You cannot simply deal with the Ramseys.”
Alex Hunter: Well, it — it was stated, most likely not in fairly that language, however sure.
Why did not authorities take a intercourse offender like Oliva extra significantly? Just 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 believe it is a double commonplace. Don’t 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 inexpensive doubt?
Alex Hunter: There is not sufficient to convict anyone past an inexpensive doubt.
But Hunter believes this case sometime might be solved, though he does 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 believe 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 perhaps you’ve got gotten too near the Ramseys?
Det. Smit: Well, let’s put it this manner, I do not assume I did. If the Ramseys did this and I came upon, I’d be the primary one standing in line on the Boulder Police Department.
JonBenét Ramsey would have been 12 years previous this 12 months and in sixth grade. Instead, 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. But 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 believe again about Patsy. And I bear in mind Patsy saying that your lives couldn’t go on till the killer was discovered.
John Ramsey: Well —
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 form particular person, an exquisite mom. She bought fairly vilified of the media, which was horribly unfair. … I believe 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 consider this case may very well be solved …?
John Ramsey: Yes, I do. If the police will benefit from all of the know-how that is accessible 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 believe 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’m 80 % assured it may very well be solved. … however you gotta do it.
In November 2024, the Boulder Police Department released a statement 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 may be an ongoing investigation, and they’re trying into the suggestions made by a latest Cold Case evaluate workforce.
CHIEF STEPHEN REDFEARN | BOULDER POLICE DEPARTMENT: … we now have completely 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 to detectives.
CBS News
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 dwelling from dinner that Christmas night time.
John Ramsey: — we have been informal with our safety in our dwelling in Boulder. We thought it was a protected place … and we bought informal and — and complacent.
Erin Moriarty: When you look again, are there any belongings you want you had executed otherwise?
John Ramsey: Well … the little magnificence pageants they participated in. … I would not have executed that. You have to maintain your youngsters 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 know the way lengthy, to spend along with her youngsters and to boost her youngsters. … I believe she tried to pack quite a lot of mother-daughter time in that time frame that she knew she had forward of her.
Polaris
Erin Moriarty: Do you ever dream about JonBenét?
John Ramsey: Once shortly.
Erin Moriarty: Or marvel what she would’ve been like now?
John Ramsey: Well, I dream … I often have desires and so they’re actually great 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 lady. And that is how I bear in mind her.
HAVE INFORMATION?
If you might have details about the case, please name the Boulder Police Department at 303-441-1974 or electronic mail BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov.
