The case of JonBenet Ramsey is commonly presented as a murder without a back-story. As part of this pattern JonBenet is portrayed as a child who was happy as a lark until the day she died. The evidence does not support these ideas, however, but rather suggests a troubled child in the weeks and months before the end. Of course there has always been a school of thought that held JonBenet’s bedwetting meant she was an abused and “deeply troubled” child.The weakness of this interpretation is that it relied almost exclusively on the bedwetting for support. Yet in reality the bedwetting is only one of at least four different signs of distress that can be traced in JonBenet. The best way to present them is in the form of a timeline:
1 The earliest known indication of distress is due to what Pam Archuleta (the wife of Michael Archuleta, the Ramsey’s pilot), had to say in a Daily Beast article: Pam Archuleta saw a fatigue in JonBenet during the last months of her life. “She had this haunted, defeated look. She looked frozen when she got that beauty queen attitude on. I think she was just plain worn out.”
John Ramsey Has Lingering Suspicions in the Murder of JonBenét
JonBenet had a haunted look the last months of her life? This is a stunning revelation from someone who was a firm supporter of the Ramsey family. Pam uses the kind of language appropriate for horror stories. To be sure Pam attributes the haunted look simply to pressure to perform in pageants. But is Pam’s interpretation reliable? Most observers say JonBenet enjoyed the pageants. This suggests the real cause of the haunted look was elsewhere.
2 The traditional red flag of bedwetting is the next sign to appear (or re-appear). According to Steve Thomas:
“ there were some dark secrets. She had a continuing problem with wetting her bed, regressing in her toilet training in the months before her death.” (page 6)
Later in his book Thomas offered a more detailed timeline
"For the first 6 months Hoffmann-Pugh worked there, she said, JonBenet wet the bed every night, and Patsy even had the girl in pull up diapers. Then the bed wetting had stopped, but it resumed about a month ago. When Hoffman-Pugh arrived for work, she said, Patsy already had the bed stripped and the sheets going in the washing machine.” (page 38)
So according to the housekeeper JonBenet had a bedwetting problem that seemed to disappear, but resurfaced near the end of November. Whatever the cause of her earlier bedwetting may have been its resurgence “about a month” before the end suggests increased stress on JonBenet at that time.
3 As we go into December JonBenet’s distress seems to intensify. From the Bonita papers:
“The teachers did note that sometime in December 1996, JonBenet developed a clinginess to her mother which they thought unusual for the ordinarily independent, self assured child. It had always been apparent that there was an extreme closeness between JonBenet and her mother, appeared to be overly protective, but this change in JonBenet appeared to be an even more exaggerated degree of closeness.”
The picture this suggests is that of an insecure child seeking reassurance (or protection?) from her mother.
4 Near the end JonBenet may have been starting to buckle under the strain. Here is how she appeared at the Ramsey’s Christmas party just two days before her death:
during a party at her parents' home a family friend came across a JonBenet who was seldom seen. The child was immaculate in a holiday frock, and her platinum blond hair was done perfectly, but she sat alone on a staircase in the butler's kitchen, crying softly. The friend sat beside her.
"What's wrong honey?"
Little Miss Christmas sobbed, "I don't feel pretty." (page 7 of Thomas)
Thomas said JonBenet was “seldom seen” like this, but her crying is evocative of the haunted look, only this time her distress has escalated into tears. And this episode couldn’t have occurred more than a few weeks after the teachers noticed a change in her. Whatever the meaning of her explanation “I don’t feel pretty” may have been, it rules out trivial causes such as a broken toy or watching a sad movie.
The bottom line? During her mother’s illness JonBenet could show signs of distress related to that situation. However, if we limit our attention to the last year of JonBenet’s life signs of distress appear predominantly near the very end, in the last few weeks. One or two such signs might not mean much, but a bunch of them is a different story. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that late in her life, especially the last month, JonBenet was a deeply troubled child.
1 The earliest known indication of distress is due to what Pam Archuleta (the wife of Michael Archuleta, the Ramsey’s pilot), had to say in a Daily Beast article: Pam Archuleta saw a fatigue in JonBenet during the last months of her life. “She had this haunted, defeated look. She looked frozen when she got that beauty queen attitude on. I think she was just plain worn out.”
John Ramsey Has Lingering Suspicions in the Murder of JonBenét
JonBenet had a haunted look the last months of her life? This is a stunning revelation from someone who was a firm supporter of the Ramsey family. Pam uses the kind of language appropriate for horror stories. To be sure Pam attributes the haunted look simply to pressure to perform in pageants. But is Pam’s interpretation reliable? Most observers say JonBenet enjoyed the pageants. This suggests the real cause of the haunted look was elsewhere.
2 The traditional red flag of bedwetting is the next sign to appear (or re-appear). According to Steve Thomas:
“ there were some dark secrets. She had a continuing problem with wetting her bed, regressing in her toilet training in the months before her death.” (page 6)
Later in his book Thomas offered a more detailed timeline
"For the first 6 months Hoffmann-Pugh worked there, she said, JonBenet wet the bed every night, and Patsy even had the girl in pull up diapers. Then the bed wetting had stopped, but it resumed about a month ago. When Hoffman-Pugh arrived for work, she said, Patsy already had the bed stripped and the sheets going in the washing machine.” (page 38)
So according to the housekeeper JonBenet had a bedwetting problem that seemed to disappear, but resurfaced near the end of November. Whatever the cause of her earlier bedwetting may have been its resurgence “about a month” before the end suggests increased stress on JonBenet at that time.
3 As we go into December JonBenet’s distress seems to intensify. From the Bonita papers:
“The teachers did note that sometime in December 1996, JonBenet developed a clinginess to her mother which they thought unusual for the ordinarily independent, self assured child. It had always been apparent that there was an extreme closeness between JonBenet and her mother, appeared to be overly protective, but this change in JonBenet appeared to be an even more exaggerated degree of closeness.”
The picture this suggests is that of an insecure child seeking reassurance (or protection?) from her mother.
4 Near the end JonBenet may have been starting to buckle under the strain. Here is how she appeared at the Ramsey’s Christmas party just two days before her death:
during a party at her parents' home a family friend came across a JonBenet who was seldom seen. The child was immaculate in a holiday frock, and her platinum blond hair was done perfectly, but she sat alone on a staircase in the butler's kitchen, crying softly. The friend sat beside her.
"What's wrong honey?"
Little Miss Christmas sobbed, "I don't feel pretty." (page 7 of Thomas)
Thomas said JonBenet was “seldom seen” like this, but her crying is evocative of the haunted look, only this time her distress has escalated into tears. And this episode couldn’t have occurred more than a few weeks after the teachers noticed a change in her. Whatever the meaning of her explanation “I don’t feel pretty” may have been, it rules out trivial causes such as a broken toy or watching a sad movie.
The bottom line? During her mother’s illness JonBenet could show signs of distress related to that situation. However, if we limit our attention to the last year of JonBenet’s life signs of distress appear predominantly near the very end, in the last few weeks. One or two such signs might not mean much, but a bunch of them is a different story. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that late in her life, especially the last month, JonBenet was a deeply troubled child.