First-graders at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder and competitors at child beauty pageants knew her. But on Christmas Day 1996, JonBenét Ramsey was not a household name.
That changed quickly, however, and by New Year’s Day 1997, the little girl’s first name and face were more recognizable in the U.S. and around the world than Miss America 1996 Shawntell Smith of Oklahoma or Miss Universe 1996 Alicia Machado of Venezuala.
JonBenét quickly became the only beauty queen people talked about after the 6-year-old was brutally murdered in her family’s basement on Dec. 26, 1996. Her beaming face had been plastered on newspapers, magazines and tabloids. National TV shows featured video of the girl during pageants.
“There is no question this case has caught worldwide attention and there continues to be speculation as to who committed this crime,” Boulder police Chief Greg Testa said in a Sept. 1 videotaped statement as the 20th anniversary of JonBenét’s murder approaches.
Boulder police have been widely criticized for their handling of the case. But Testa said the reason he wouldn’t do interviews about it was to maintain the investigation’s integrity. He pointed out that the department processed 1,500 pieces of evidence, took 200 DNA samples, interviewed more than 1,000 people in eight states and investigated more than 20,000 tips, letters and e-mails.
Despite Testa’s defense of his department, a new round of anniversary-driven reports and TV shows are dredging up old stories of Boulder police incompetence and in some cases shedding new light on police missteps. The reports point out that detectives alternately accused JonBenét’s 9-year-old brother and her mother, Patsy, for her death, while hiding the fact that a drop of blood from the likely killer was found on her pajamas.
Some of the new media revelations could be groundbreaking — if the facts are confirmed.
DNA testing
For example, A & E’s two-hour documentary that appeared on Monday disclosed that new DNA testing that can identify a person’s racial background reveals that the killer is most likely of Hispanic heritage. Such evidence excludes the Ramsey family and could help detectives hone their investigation to only Hispanic suspects.
But those DNA tests were conducted by Richard Eikelenboom, who was allegedly discredited last month during a Denver trial after a prosecutor got him to admit he was self-trained to conduct DNA profiles, “that he had no direct DNA extraction or analysis experience,” and operates a lab that has not been accredited.
Besides doing DNA forensic work in JonBenét’s case, Eikelenboom has testified in high-profile cases for Timothy Masters, Casey Anthony and David Camm. All three have been acquitted of murder charges. But Eikelenboom said he is accredited in Holland and the U.S. by the American Society of Crime Lab Directors.
Two weeks ago, Eikelenboom entered the unidentified DNA profile into national DNA databases and determined that the donor of the blood found on JonBenét’s panties is 10,000 times more likely to be Hispanic than Caucasian or black. He said Boulder police should enter just the Y-chromosome DNA profile of the donor in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System to possibly get a so-called familial match.
Boulder police have not indicated whether they are focusing on Hispanic suspects based on the results of DNA tests.
Family fight?
The A & E documentary also solidifies what has already been reported about the telling sequence of JonBenet’s injuries. Boulder detectives have long suggested JonBenét’s death was the tragic result of a domestic incident. One theory presented by Boulder police was that Patsy struck her daughter after the girl wet her parent’s bed late Christmas night and that the garroting of the child’s neck was part of an elaborate cover up.
The documentary quotes a Colorado Springs forensic scientist and a team of Great Britain as saying that half-moon marks on JonBenét’s neck found during the autopsy indicate she was still alive when the chord was placed around her neck, which would show it couldn’t have been part of a post-death cover-up.
Another theory advanced by Boulder police was that her brother Burke cracked her over the head during an argument fueled by jealousy.
Doctor Phil has promised to reveal “shocking, never-before heard” details about the “nation’s most talked about cold case” in his season-opening show on Monday. It’s the first installment of a three-part series based on the first-ever media interviews with Burke Ramsey.
Other TV projects also focus on the Ramsey family as the perpetrators including an in-depth package by CBS News, which reunited some of the case’s original investigators including retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente, world-renowned forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee and James Kolar, the former chief investigator for the Boulder District Attorney’s Office.
The six-part series, which premieres on Sept. 18, quotes investigators expressing doubt that someone would use a stun gun on JonBenét. The intruder theory says a stun gun caused the marks left on the girl’s neck. A trailer for the series quotes an expert saying that he’d never seen anything like the ransom note left at the house.
Sexual sadist intruder
But many law enforcement experts, including some former Boulder police officers, now believe the killer was not a relative, but a sexual sadist who broke into the home.
In the “Dateline NBC” special, “Who Killed JonBenét?” debuting at 9 p.m. Mountain Sept. 9, correspondent Josh Mankiewicz interviews Bob Whitson, a retired Boulder detective sergeant who was in the Ramsey home the day JonBenét’s body was found.
“The behavior at the scene does not match up” with the Ramseys, Whitson tells Dateline. “It matches up with a sexually sadistic person and a psychopath.”
But despite the myriad theories and potential suspects, Boulder police remain committed to finding the killer.
“Publications and movies offer many theories about how this crime occurred and who is responsible. Facts have been surmised and often distorted, which has led to many conclusions,” Testa said. “We remain focused on this investigation and finding justice for JonBenét.”
