Just The Facts, Ma'am

The JonBenet Ramsey case is both intriguing and extremely deceptive. On the surface it seems incredibly convoluted and complex. And in fact, if our intention is to recreate exactly what happened on that fateful night, we will indeed be faced with an almost intractable dilemma. On the other hand, if our intention is simply to solve it, i.e. point our finger at the murderer, the case is remarkably simple. All that's necessary is to pay attention to what we know, i.e., the facts -- and, for the moment at least, not let ourselves get distracted by all the rest, i.e., what the various principals in the case may or may not have reported; what the various "experts" and profilers have asserted; the many opinions offered by all and sundry regarding the personalities, quirks and foibles of Patsy, John, Burke and any number of the many others who have, to their misfortune, gotten caught up in the Ramsey web.



Fact: early on the morning of Dec. 26, 1996, a 911 call was placed by Patsy Ramsey, reporting that her daughter, JonBenet, was missing and that a ransom note had been found.

Fact: when the police arrived at the Ramsey home, they were informed, by John, that he had checked all the doors affording entry to the house and all were locked. A policeman checked to be sure and confirmed that indeed all the doors were locked. Upon checking the rest of the house, including a suspicious looking basement window, they concluded that "there were no signs of forced entry." Indeed, while the window contained a broken pane, none of the considerable dust and grime on the window frame showed any sign of a disturbance. Moreover, there was an undisturbed spider web on the grate leading into the window well, and police found no sign of footprints in the light coating of snow in the adjoining yard.

Fact: the ransom note, addressed to John, warned him that his daughter would be beheaded if the police were called. The note also instructed him to withdraw $118,000 from his bank account and to expect a call "tomorrow" between 8 and 10 am.

Fact: a few hours after the police arrived, John Ramsey suddenly shouted and appeared carrying the body of his daughter. He claimed he had found her in a small basement room, near the suspiciously broken window. Earlier that morning, however, his friend Fleet White, had looked into that room and claimed to have seen nothing unusual.

Fact: upon close examination, it was determined that the ransom note had been written on paper from one of Patsy's own notepads. The ink was consistent with ink from one of Patsy's Sharpie pens. It was further determined that there was no sign of an intruder having been present inside the home, nothing from outside could be found, nor was there anything missing.

We can stop right here. We already have enough information to tell us who committed the crime. In the following post, for the benefit of those unable to add 2 plus 2, I'll solve it.  But, of course, that won't be nearly enough. Because, as I know from bitter experience as a regular participant in many of the old JonBenet Internet forums, hardly anyone following the case is willing to accept a conclusion based solely on the most obvious and indisputable facts. In my view, they've been distracted or even, very possibly, deliberately misled, by a whole range of smoke and mirrors tossed up in this case, partly by the culprit, but also due to the very odd and in fact bizarre nature of the investigation itself. So solving the case will only be the beginning. During the course of this blog, I'll be laying out more of the details and explaining some of my theories regarding what happened and why.