My theory is outlined below.
In summary, it is that JBR was killed by psychopath and sadistic pedophile who had probably killed before.
The killer is a complete stranger to the Ramsey's. A male, 30-50 (in 1996), Hispanic or Caucasian, dark hair, right handed, probably has an arrest record and/or criminal record for sexual offenses (especially related to children), trespass/home invasion/burglary offenses and impulsive acts of violence. Has likely killed before but was not caught for that either (more on this later).
A Fatal Attraction
The killer developed a fatal attraction to Jonbenét Ramsey by seeing her at one of her public performances (or via the attendant publicity (e.g., newspaper reports) from one or more of these performances).
Consider that in the three weeks before she was killed, JBR appeared in a parade through downtown Boulder with her name and 1995 title of "Little Miss Colorado Sunburst" on the side of the car she was riding in (6th of December, 'Lights of December Parade'), won a Denver-area Christmas pageant (Colorado's Little Miss Christmas, 17th of December) and sang in a busy mall in Littleton (a small segment of her performance can be seen here, December 22nd:
).
There is a report from Ramsey family friend Pam Archuleta that a strange man approached JBR's float which they both were riding in at the 'Lights of December Parade':
"As they went past one of the town's leading banks, a strange man walked from the crowd toward the BMW. Archuleta says he looked "creepy" and had "a face full of anger and hatred" that she will never forget. She had the impression that the man had seen JonBenet before and recognized her.
"Well-dressed in a tweed jacket and jeans, the man was in his 40's, tall and thin with graying hair. He stared at JonBenet and walked to within two feet of the car.
"For Archuleta, the staring man's behavior marred what until then had seemed an innocent Christmas event that could have taken place in any town in America."
5/3/04 National Examiner: Pam Archuleta May Have Seen Killer
That was from a tabloid but the Ramsey's also wrote of this incident more briefly and in less detail in their 2000 book 'Death of Innocence':
"When 1996 rolled around, our friends Mike and Pam Archuleta drove a Christmas-red BMW convertible with JonBenet and some of her little friends riding on the top of the back seat and waving at people. Pam was director of the Boulder United Way, and the parade gave her a way to promote the organization. As always, almost as many people walked in the parade as watched it from the sidewalk. Nevertheless, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from everywhere marched down the street. It was a neat small-town family activity....or so we thought.
Could one of the people watching the parade have been the killer, perhaps, a pedophile who was attracted to the little girl riding on the red convertible? Pam did report that a strange man approached the car during the parade. My instincts later told me it was a terrible idea to put your kids on display like that; but that thought never occurred to me at the time.
When I think back to those events, I know they were conceived in innocence and intended to be nothing but fun. Yet, now that I look back across the fabric of the 1996 season, I am disturbed by the bumps under the cloth. Strange and unexpected people appear. Events and details that Patsy and I had never noticed emerged in frightening ways that now terrify us.
A killer was standing somewhere in the shadows. And we had no idea."
s-parade-float-stranger.htm
That person may or may not be a valid suspect (I think he is), but the story illustrates how JBR was appearing frequently in public as a star attraction and how this made her vulnerable to grabbing the attention of a depraved pedophile.
The possibility that this individual first saw JBR in a more 'mundane' setting (e.g., in a mall with her mother, outside of school, etc.) can, of course, not be ruled out.
I think the killer likely acted on his psychopathic desires relatively quickly (probably within a month) after focusing in on JBR and did not spend months on end obsessing over and stalking or surveilling the Ramsey family. That's not to say he did not do 'reconnaissance' missions of outside of the home and neighborhood before December 25th - he likely did.
How did he find out where she lived? He could have and followed her or one of her parents home. The Ramsey's address was also in the phone book, so if he knew the name of the parents, he could have found out where they lived that way.
Now that he knows where she lives, he needed to decide when to act. It obviously had to be a time when he would be sure that JBR would be at home. Most families spend the Christmas holidays at home together, especially the 24th and 25th, so this period would make sense but Christmas Eve would be too risky because the timing of when in the night the parents would retrieve the presents to put under the tree is unpredictable, as would the time when the children get up (much earlier normally).
A better choice would be Christmas Day night. The unpredictability of nocturnal activity is reduced and the family are likely to be tired after a busy day eating and socialising (and perhaps drinking alcohol in the case of the adults). It would be the night of the 25th and 26th of December.
Putting Together his Crime 'Kit'
Now with a date set in his mind, he needs to prepare for the crime. He needs to put together a 'kit' consisting of items he intends to use to carry out the crime. We know for sure that a duct tape and a cord were used that were not sourced from within the Ramsey home. I believe a stun gun was also used. He'll need gloves; fiber evidence indicates that light brown cotton gloves were probably used. A torch is also essential.
Did he wear any headgear (e.g, ski mask, some type of hat)? Unexplained beaver hair strands were found on the duct tape and JBR's hands. Could the killer have worn something containing beaver fur, such as a trapper-type hat which would serve as a non-suspicious way to obscure his identity on a cold December night should he be seen in the neighborhood?
An example of a beaver fur Trapper-style hat.
If there are any readers from Colorado, could you comment on how common these type of hats are there?
A strange out of place rope was found in John Andrew's bedroom and was probably brought into the house by the intruder. Photographs show that this is not a new rope so was not recently purchased.
One possible use could be to tie up members of the family other than JBR if he was disturbed and managed to overpower them.
Another suggestion I have seen is that it could have been brought by the intruder so he could try and climb up to a balcony if he could not gain access the house by another means.
The piece of duct tape used to cover her mouth and the cord used to tie her hands and strangle her are critical pieces of evidence.
The duct tape was identified as having been made in North Carolina in late November in 1996 and probably made it to the shelves in Boulder from the second week of December. Tape of the same kind, possibly even from the same batch, was sourced in McGuckin's Hardware store in Boulder. The same type of nylon cord used as ligatures on JBR could also be purchased at McGuckin's and at the Boulder Army Store.
I believe the killer purchased both the tape and the cord (and possibly other items) in McGuckin's Hardware store in Boulder within the two week period before the murder with the intent that they would be used in the crime.
Entering the Ramsey Home
He watched their movements on Christmas day, probably from a vehicle parked with a view of the garage/driveway.
Seeing them leave, enters their garden.
He tried various entry points, eventually finding the broken basement window under a grate, which he opens and enters.
He then explores the house, familiarising himself with its layout, identifying the bedrooms of the family members, considering his chances of taking JBR from the bedroom without disturbing the parents based on the distances of the bedrooms, looking for potential hiding places for when the Ramsey's return, snooping around in general (there is a pattern throughout the house evident from crime scene photos and videos of drawers open or not fully closed) and probably writing the 'ransom' note.
The 'Ransom' Note
The note is a red herring, a device to obscure the true motives of the crime. There was never any intention to kidnap for ransom, although the intruder may have planned to take JBR out of the house (not for ransom, but to do what he ultimately did to her in the basement) but changed his mind (, he was comfortable enough to in the basement)
I believe the idea of writing the ransom note was an impulsive and spur of the moment decision that he had not planned before entering the house. The idea may have come to him as he was snooping around the Ramsey home, seeing uncashed cheques for thousands of dollars lying around and perhaps some related to the $118,000-odd bonus John Ramsey had received. Support for the fact that such financial information can be seen readily by anyone looking around the Ramsey home can be seen in the crime scene video linked here (1.30 to 3.05) where the crime scene tech. zooms in on cheques and cheque stubs, including one from 'Jay L. Elowsky' for over $7,000:
The trade-off the killer had to make for creating such confusion was that he revealed his own handwriting, a brazen move which tells me that it is highly unlikely that the killer knew the Ramsey's or worked for them because the risk of his handwriting being recognised would simply be too high. It goes without saying that the killer was not someone who would have sent the Ramsey's a Christmas card. I don't believe he made any attempt to his disguise natural handwriting style, although there are indications on the first page of the note that he may have been anxious or nervous to such an extent that his hand may have been trembling as he was writing the note (more on this later).
When was the ransom note written?
Possibilities are:
a) He wrote the note while the Ramsey's were away, folded it (was the paper folded? I can't find any publicly available information on this - it is important) and put it in his pocket or backpack (the possibility of the intruder having a backpack with him would be consistent with the need to bring items into the house to carry out the crime). He the placed the note on spiral staircase either:
- (i) After the Ramsey's had all gone to bed and before he went into JBR's room;
- (ii) After he had taken JBR from her bedroom but before taking her down to the basement;
- (iii) After he had killed JBR, he went back upstairs to place the ransom note before leaving.
(i) and (ii) run the risk of the note being found while he is still in the house, although if the his initial plan was to take her out of the house via the basement, that may explain the willingness to leave it then.
(iii) is the 'safest' option.
b) After he killed JBR, he went back upstairs, sourced the pad and pen, and wrote the note, placing it on the spiral staircase before leaving the house.
This seems highly unlikely, but I am not willing to rule it out because there are indications from the somewhat jittery handwriting on the first page of the note which diminished with the length of the note to more free flowing writing that the writer started off anxious or nervous, perhaps due to having just killed JBR.
There are no obvious indications from the text of the note as to whether it was written before, during or after JBR was taken from her room to the basement and killed. The writer states that "at this time we have your daughter in our possession", indicating that she has already been taken from her room but he may well have wrote that in anticipation of what he planned to do and in any event, the content of the note is essentially one big oversold kidnapping hoax based on movies he's seen to muddy the motive.
Regarding the substantive content of the note, the killer's basic idea of the note is to convey that the motive behind the kidnapping is John Ramsey's business interests which have sparked the ire of a "small foreign faction" a term possibly inspired by the actions of a small group of foreign terrorists in the 1988 movie
Die Hard. He is a fan of action movies and he weaves various parts from various well known movies that involve ransom demands into his rambling note to try and make it seem credible - he is trying too hard, however and overselling it, which is why the note is so long. There are segments from movies such as
Dirty Harry (the theme of an "exhausting" ransom drop),
Speed ("don't grow a brain") and
Ruthless People.
Coming to the end of the note and satisfied with his story and to convey a slogan he thinks a terrorist group might shout, he writes "Victory!"
He signs off with "S.B.T.C." which may or may not mean something significant to the intruder. It doesn't really matter as long as it keeps the authorities guessing.
The most important part of the note is undoubtedly that he has left his handwriting and someone who knows him well should recognise the handwriting.
I don't understand why the Boulder police did not issue an appeal to the public to try and identify the author via the handwriting of the note.
The Garrotte
Strands of JBR's hair was entangled in the knot of the stick end of the garrotte. This is highly significant because it indicates that the person who was making the garrotte was doing so with his hands very close to or more likely in direct contact with JBRs head and neck area. Why would this be the case? I believe it is because JBR was alive and moving around on the ground at the time he was making the knots for the garrotte and he was simultaneously forcing her to remain still in a prone (face down/stomach on the floor) position with his hands and arms. This is the only logical explanation for how the hair could become entangled in the garrotte in my view.
The Urine Soaked Long Johns and Underwear
I believe there are compelling reasons that evidence from these clothes point to an intuder as the killer for two main reasons:
1. DNA findings
As part of initial DNA testing in 1997, unidentified male DNA was found on JBR's underwear.
In 2008, contact or touch DNA testing was done on the Long Johns at the waistband level (four different test areas: exterior top right half of long johns, exterior top left half of long johns, interior top right half of long johns, interior top left half of long johns) where one would normally pull up or down the Long Johns. DNA from the same unidentified male was found.
The report states:
“Notably, the profile developed by the Denver PD, and previously uploaded to the CODIS database as a forensic unknown profile and the profiles developed from the exterior top right and left portions of the long johns were consistent.”
Dr Angela Williamson, the DNA expert who oversaw the 2008 testing informed a DA investigator that the serological source of the unidentified male DNA found on JBR's panties was "probably saliva".
Did part of the sexual assault involve the killer performing an oral sex act on JBR?
With that question in mind, consider the following opinion from the pathologist who carried out JBR's autopsy.
"Dr. Meyer stated to Det. Arndt that his opinion is that the evidence observed is consistent with the child's pubic area having been wiped by a cloth." [Note: no such cloth was found at the scene - the killer took it with him when he left]
Why would the killer wipe JBR's pubic area with a cloth?
Possibly because part of his sick fantasy involved performing an oral sex act on JBR and her urinating necessitated the killer cleaning her pubic area before doing so.
2. Urine Staining
Both the underwear and Long Johns are heavily urine stained on the front and this is most notable on the larger Long Johns. This indicates that JBR's bladder was relatively full at the time she urinated. This would be consistent with her not having gone to the toilet before bed as John Ramsey stated that she had fallen asleep in the car during the journey home and he had put her straight to bed without waking her.
The urine soaked Long John's that JBR was wearing when her body was found
I believe that if JBR had woken up herself during the night or was woken by someone she knew or was comfortable with, her first act would have been to go to the toilet to relieve herself. Because this did not happen, I believe she was taken out of her bed by the intruder, whose first act on entering her room was to ensure she couldn't scream so he put the tape on her mouth. He then tied her hands with the cord, covered her with the white blanket and carried her down to the basement (I do believe a stun gun was used on JBR but not in in her bedroom). Fibers consistent with the cord used to make the garrote were found in JonBenet's bed, supporting the contention that she was initially restrained and taken from her bed and did not get up voluntarily.
Back to the urine stained underwear and Long Johns, I believe that the pattern of staining is also of note. Firstly, it is on the front and not the back, so JBR was prone or lying face down when she urinated. I believe she urinated out of fear as part of the body's 'fight or flight' response as she was being attacked. The location of extensive urine staining should therefore point to the area in the house where she was attacked. A crime scene photo of her bed, with a good view of her sheets does not show any urine staining so I do not believe she wet the bed 'normally' (i.e. as part of a pattern of child bed wetting) that night or while being subdued in the bed.
JBR's bed. There are no apparent urine stains, which would be expected if she had soaked the bed as extensively as her undergarments are soaked.
Extensive staining of what was believed to be urine was found in the boiler room area, to the left of the wine cellar room door (it appears as if a segment of the stained carped was cut out by police for further analysis but public information on this is scant). This is also in the same room as where the killer sourced the paintbrush to make the garrotte.
Notice that the staining of the Long Johns in the front is not equally distributed but more so on her left (the underwear shows the same pattern) indicating JBR was not exactly prone (i.e., not full flat on the ground) but her body was at an angle - could this be because she urinated as she was being strangled and partially lifted off the ground? Looking at the autopsy photos of JBR (I will not post in the thread), the knot on the neck part of the ligature or garrotte appears to be not exactly in the center of JBR's neck, but offset somewhat to the right and if the killer was pulling on the garrotte with his right hand, JBR's body would be unevenly lifted off the ground at an angle consistent with the urine staining pattern on the underwear and Long Johns.
Attack in the Basement
Once the killer got her into the basement, he may have tried and failed to place JBR in the suitcase to remove her from the house via the basement window (he did not go out a door because he did not want to risk triggering the home alarm system [which John Ramsey did not set that night, but the killer would not have known this]) but ultimately he decided he would carry out his heinous acts here because he did not think he would be disturbed (and he was right, unfortunately).
I believe JBR was killed in the boiler room and the attack went something along these lines:
The killer is a psychopathic sexual sadist and wanted to see JBR suffer, so simply killing her and leaving was not enough for him (he could have done that in her bedroom). That is why he made the garrotte. He may well have "toyed" with JBR in a manner similar to serial killer Rodney Alcala as described below:
"...Alcala "toyed" with his victims, strangling them until they lost consciousness, then waiting until they revived, sometimes repeating this process several times before finally killing them." (
Rodney Alcala - Wikipedia) [Note: For those wondering if it could be Alcala, it couldn't have been - he was in prison].
This brutality included zapping JBR with the stun gun (probably with his right hand if JBR were prone as I posit below) as part of his sadistic urge to inflict pain and probably also to gain compliance and stop JBR moving about.
Location of the stun gun marks on JBR's body.
I believe the most likely position during most of the attack was JBR prone with the killer kneeling over her body, using his bodyweight to keep her down as he was strangling her with the garrotte. The drawing below is the closest depiction I could find to what I'm referring to:
This is a diagram of a prone restraint technique. Instead of the victim's arms being held in the manner shown, JBR's attacker would instead be pulling on the garrotte. I believe the attacker was in a similar position over JBR as the garrotte was being made but this time his hands were forcing her head down and keeping her from moving.
As part of the attack, the killer sexually assaulted JBR (discussed in more detail below). He removed his gloves for this part of the attack, as evidenced by the touch DNA found on JBR's Long Johns in the waistband area where one would pull them up or down.
When he decided he'd done enough with JBR, he pulled one last time (harder and longer than previously) on the ligature until JBR was finally dead.
To ensure that she was dead, he then struck her on the head with a massive blow from a blunt object. What this object is is unknown. It could be a torch. Given the killer has already shown himself willing to use items to hand in the house for the attack (i.e., the paintbrush), it could be something that was in the room, such as a golf club.
Finally, he wrapped her in the white blanket and placed her in the Wine Cellar room to delay the body being discovered.
Evidence of Sexual Assault
The autopsy found "abrasion and vascular congestion of vaginal mucosa" and small wood fragments in JBR's vagina, consistent with the wood that made up the paintbrush used for the garrotte. The killer inserted the third (upper) piece of the paintbrush into JBR's vagina and then removed it and took it with him when he left the scene (it was not found).
Claims that there was no sexual assault and that the wood fragments got into JBR's vagina by "secondary transfer" are far fetched in the extreme.
Claims that the vaginal trauma was indicative of a history of sexual abuse were dismissed by Pediatrician Dr. Francesco Beuf who said "there was never any evidence of prior abuse of any kind."
Possible Timing
5.30 - 5.45 pm: Intruder enters Ramsey home shortly after observing them leave the house.
11.30 - 11.45 pm: Intruder emerges from his hiding place about 30 minutes after the Ramsey's are all in bed, takes JBR from her room and down to the basement. Attack begins.
11.45 pm - c. 1 am: Intruder continues attack and sexual assault of JBR. Ends with JBR being placed in the wine cellar after the head blow before the killer leaves the house. This may seem very long but bear in mind that the killer would probably take his time satisfying his perverse desires. He also spent 20 to 30 minutes writing the ransom note, indicative of him taking his time with things related to this crime.
Did JBR's killer kill before?
The brazenness and brutality evident in the break in and attack on JBR indicates that it is unlikely that this was his first killing.
I looked at the Colorado cold case database online for unsolved homicides involving girls aged from 3 to 12 that had at least three of the following five characteristics:
- strangulation or asphyxiation
- was sexually assaulted
- was bound with ligatures
- suffered blow to the head
- happened in own home
In addition, a case meeting the above criteria with a link to Boulder county would be more significant.
I identified two cases that met the criteria, one of which happened partially in Boulder (the kidnapping was in Thornton but the body was found in Boulder county) which I will start with.
Similar Case #1: The Murder of Tracy Marie Neef in 1984
On March 16th 1984, 7 year old Tracy Marie Neef was running late for school. After her mom dropped her off outside the school, she was intercepted by a kidnapper.
Her body was found near the Barker Dam in Boulder county off Highway 7 at 2.45 pm the same day. She was fully clothed with the exception of a shoe which was found nearby. There was no indication of external injuries save for scratches on her cheek and striations which investigators viewed as indications that her wrists had been bound and she had possibly been gagged.
The autopsy was carried out by Dr John Meyer (the same pathologist who would carry out JBR's autopsy 12 years later). He identified her cause of death as asphyxiation and stated that there was evidence of sexual assault in the form of digital vaginal penetration.
Two hairs that could have belonged to the killer were also found during the autopsy.
One found on Tracy’s shoe was lost while it was handled over the years by Thornton detectives, FBI experts and Denver crime laboratory investigators and another found near Tracy’s pubic area was contaminated during DNA testing in 1998. The testing only proved useful in 2006 when a Denver University DNA expert was able to exclude two longstanding suspects (
First-grader vanishes after mom drops her off at school)
The similarities between the cases are two blonde girls of about the similar age, taken from places they should have felt safe (bed, near school), bound and sexually assaulted before being killed by asphyxiation (strangulation is a form of asphyxia). No real effort to conceal the bodies in either case.
Has the DNA profile developed in 2006 been compared to that discovered on JBR or was it entered in CODIS? If not, it should on both counts.
Similar Case #2: The Murder of Melanie Strum, her Mother and Brother in 1985
The injuries suffered by 10 year old Melanie Strumm in a brutal attack by an assailant in her own home in Colorado Springs are very similar to those suffered by JBR.
She was bound with ligatures, strangled with a ligature, sexually assaulted (rape in this instance) and received a blow to the head from a blunt object (hockey stick) which fractured her skull.
The major difference with the JBR case is that Melanie's mother Cassandra Susan Rundle, 37, and her 12-year-old brother Detriecht Sturm were also brutally murdered.
A Denver Post cold case article gives a good overview of the case:
On that day between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m., Cassandra Susan Rundle, 37, her 12-year-old son Detriecht Sturm and her 10-year-old daughter Melanie Sturm were strangled to death with articles of clothing and beaten in the head with a hockey stick, according to Denver Post articles at the time.
Rundle and her daughter were tied hand and foot with electric cords cut from table lamps and extension cords and raped.
Rundle was found nude, face down on her bed. She had been beaten eight to 10 times with a blunt instrument. Melanie’s body was found face down on her bedroom floor. Partially clothed in night clothes, she had a fractured skull. There was overturned furniture in her bedroom, indicating she fought her attacker.
Detriecht Sturm’s unbound body was found face down on his bedroom floor wearing street clothes, indicating he may have been outside and walked in on the killer. A blood-stained hockey stick was found in the boy’s bedroom, indicating he was likely the last one killed.
There were no signs of a forced entry to the house. [...]
Colorado Springs family beaten with hockey stick, strangled
There have been no arrests in this case.
[I came across an odd coincidence in this case: like fellow West Virginia native Patsy Ramsy, Cassandra Rundle participated in Beauty Pageants in WV and was "Miss Morgantown" (not sure what year), meaning she would have entered the "Miss West Virginia" contest, the same contest Patsy won in 1977 (Rundle is likely to have been a contestant about 10 years earlier, she didn't win the Miss WV crown). I don't claim that this is anything significant, just an interesting side note.]
To conclude this issue, there are certain similarities between the murder of JBR and two of the above cold cases from the mid-1980s in Colorado but unless there is specific evidence linking them (e.g., the same DNA profile appearing in one or more cases), no firm conclusion can be reached on the matter.
What needs to be done to catch the killer?
- Keep working the unidentified male DNA angle, using the latest techniques to try and find more sources of DNA on existing evidence and methods to profile the suspect using the DNA. Within the past two months in Colorado, two cold cases from the 1980s have been solved due to DNA:
I would not be surprised if we one day hear the news that a DNA match has been found in the JBR case, just like in the cases above.
- Seek voluntary DNA samples from sex offenders who lived in the Boulder area in 1996, if their DNA is not in CODIS already.
- Make a public appeal for help in identifying the handwriting on the 'ransom' note.
**End**
