JonBenét Ramsey Case: My Theory & Key Questions

[CloudedTruth]

Whoever it was had to know about the size 12 Bloomis, and where to locate them in the huge house. This is a most puzzling aspect of the staging. How could the intruder(s) know?

Exactly.

 

[proust20]

An overarching question to 'who' and 'when" is WHY. That answer would provide information to the other two inquiries.

The RN was a clumsy attempt to provide a context for the murder. IMO its author was not fully aware of all the WC staging.

 

[australianwebsleuth]

An overarching question to 'who' and 'when" is WHY. That answer would provide information to the other two inquiries.

The RN was a clumsy attempt to provide a context for the murder. IMO its author was not fully aware of all the WC staging.

I agree RN writer not aware of exact details of staging. Two different individuals. Having trouble with “WC”.

 

[proust20]

During the 911, Patsy did not give the operator the name of her 'kidnapped' daughter. She also omitted JonBenet's height, weight, eye color and what she was last seen wearing. However, as means of identification, she only offered up JB's age, and "She's blonde."

Why was JB's hair color uppermost in her mother's mind? Of course, JonBenet's hair was likely colored. PR's friends meant to speak with her about what they viewed as the excesses of the pageantry.

By altering JB's natural shade, the girl was messaged that she was not good enough as she was. "I don't feel pretty."

Why was the blonde image of such importance to Patsy? None of the major child stars had been blonde: Shirley Temple, Jane Withers, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O'Brien, Natalie Wood. (But there is Macauly Culkin. haha) From where did this penchant arise?

At the 1977 Miss America contest, in which Patsy competed, the winner was Dorothy Bentham, who was sandy blonde and later fully blonde. Did PR associate being brunette with losing?

 

[CloudedTruth]

Interesting.

I have often looked at the 911 call as PR's first performance of the saga, once the staging was completed. She neglected to convey key aspects as you have detailed, and then hung up on the dispatcher instead of staying on the line and answering any questions that may have been asked....such as what JB was wearing, etc....all which would've been important details for LE to have for a search for her.

I do think there is a stereotype that men prefer blondes, particularly in the Western culture. It is interesting that some of the most famous blonde actresses were not naturally blonde, they lightened their hair because it was thought it would make them more popular...."Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"? Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield..."blonde bombshells"......also of note, there are pictures of JB dressed up as Marilyn Monroe at a costume party (presumably Halloween?). When I first saw those pictures, my first thought was that it was odd to dress a 5-6 year old as a sex symbol from the 50's-60's. But PR didn't seem to have any qualms about having her daughter parade around in mature costumes in a sexualized way. And yet she also tried to deny that she was coloring JB's hair. On some level she was aware of the potential of negative perceptions of her managing of JB's appearance and the pageant stuff.

And then the RN.....full of movie quotes, epically long at almost 3 pages. There is so much particularly on that first day that felt very performative and theatrical. PR's influence is all over it.

 

[proust20]

@CloudedTruth

But - Gentlemen Marry Brunettes! My list of child stars did not include the blonde and unforgettable Patty McCormack in "The Bad Seed". Though, I doubt that Patsy had this in mind.

 

[branifflady63]

And this is exactly what a movie of this case would show. But in real life, autistic children don’t randomly murder their siblings, mothers, regardless of how dramatic they are, don’t stage sexual abuse and write notes that sound like a 15 year old boy to cover up killing their child.

Yeah, they are confusing autism with psychopathy which is just wild to me.

 

[OwnedByALabrador]

The Netflix documentary was full of lies. It was a love letter to John Ramsey.
There was no intruder.
Patsy wrote the note.
It's hard to decide where to start.
How about you tell me the number 1 thing that leads you to think there was an intruder. I'll show you the evidence that proves there was no intruder.
I have been following the case since day one. It's why I got into true crime discussions forums.
Thank you,
Tricia

With the greatest of respect - because I love this site - nobody can state the above as 'fact'.

You say there is evidence of 'no intruder' - how can there be evidence of an absence?

You may well be right. It may well be that everything you say is accurate. But at this point in time, tragically we still do not know precisely what transpired with regard to the death of JonBenet.

The only person/people on earth who can know 100% what happened, are those who murdered this poor child.

 

[su5ie]

With the greatest of respect - because I love this site - nobody can state the above as 'fact'.

You say there is evidence of 'no intruder' - how can there be evidence of an absence?

You may well be right. It may well be that everything you say is accurate. But at this point in time, tragically we still do not know precisely what transpired with regard to the death of JonBenet.

The only person/people on earth who can know 100% what happened, are those who murdered this poor child.

I feel the only facts in this case is jonbenet was murdered and her body was staged and the ransom note also .
One of the facts supporting a no intruder in the traditional sense is the open window bore cobwebs that were unbroken , I don't often comment on this case but I do follow and I seem to recall there was also no signs of footprints in the snow indicating an intruder leaving the premises after the murder .

We do know the ransom note was not brought to the house as it was written on notepaper torn from patsy"s own pad . I don't know much about the pen used to write the note as my focus was on the ransom note itself . Can someone more knowledgeable update me on that ? Was it fingerprinted ? Was it actually written from patsy's biro ?


Although circumstantial at times evidence seems to point to jonbenet being killed by one or two people within the family ,there is very little fact if any exists of somebody entering the home . There is a ton of contamination on her body from patsy and John but not a single strand of hair or fibre from a stranger on it . Obviously there is the unknown male DNA on her underwear but even this is disputed as coming from the factory that made the pants .

As I stated I'm not an expert on every detail but one has to admit patsy acted very shady from the start and she was known to hit jonbenet and become angry with her . I cannot have sympathy for this woman because even if she didn't directly and intentionally kill her , she most certainly put her daughter in the firing line for all manner of predator interest. Patsy was living her unfulfilled desires through her daughter and her desire for perfection and to have herself viewed as sexually attractive was festooned onto a child who was dolled up to be a sex symbol for the gratification of patsys sick and twisted mind set so imo if she did not directly kill her she indirectly did .

Even after jonbenet's murder patsy continued to focus on the child's beauty and not what was on the inside imo jmho

 

[OwnedByALabrador]

My understanding is that there was no snow just outside their house so there could not have been footprints.

Please link to proof that Patsy 'hit' her daughter.

I'm not a fan of pageants but I certainly don't feel that a parent who lets their children do them, in any way deserves this terrible experience so I disagree with your comments about Patsy regarding this.


The reality is that we don't know what happened and nobody does, other than the killer/killers.

 

[CrimeTheorist]

I don't remember ever hearing that Patsy hit her. As for snow, I believe there was some beside that window in pictures.

 

[Lebowski]

AIUI:

there was snow, but it was light, and had mostly melted by the time the police took photos outside the house, to the point you wouldn't necessarily expect to see footprints. so the absence of footprints in the snow, at that time, doesn't mean anything. neither helps nor hurts either theory.

i think (?) it's also true that the officers who responded at ~ 6AM said they didn't see footprints outside at that time. the snow would have been thicker then, *maybe* thick enough that you'd expect to see footprints if there had been an intruder. but i believe no photographs were taken, and i don't know how thoroughly you'd expect the officers to have checked.

as with almost everything in this case, i believe snow/footprints turns out to be frustratingly inconclusive.

 

[CloudedTruth]

AIUI:

there was snow, but it was light, and had mostly melted by the time the police took photos outside the house, to the point you wouldn't necessarily expect to see footprints. so the absence of footprints in the snow, at that time, doesn't mean anything. neither helps nor hurts either theory.

i think (?) it's also true that the officers who responded at ~ 6AM said they didn't see footprints outside at that time. the snow would have been thicker then, *maybe* thick enough that you'd expect to see footprints if there had been an intruder. but i believe no photographs were taken, and i don't know how thoroughly you'd expect the officers to have checked.

as with almost everything in this case, i believe snow/footprints turns out to be frustratingly inconclusive.

The officers who were the first responders did not see any footprints in the snow that was on the ground at that time. They did not take pictures as it was still dark. The pictures that were taken were taken later in the day after the sun came up and after time had passed so that snow in particular on paved areas had melted. The fact that Lou Smit pushed the theory of "no footprints" based upon the photos he saw IMO is pretty disingenuous for someone who was supposed to be a crack investigator. He was not on the scene that morning. Looking for footprints left behind by the mystery intruder who at that point was believed to have entered the house and kidnapped JB would be usual protocol for responding LE. There was enough snow on the grassy areas the someone could've walked through, and there was still a dusting of snow on the paved areas at that time of the morning. It is part of the official police reports that no footprints were observed by the responding officers, and that's plural.....not just one. As such, IMO there is significance.

Footprints if they were present would be visible even in the case of a dusting. Additionally, moisture on the ground results in wet shoe bottoms. Which means leaves, debris present on the ground (of which there was plenty) sticks to the bottoms of the shoes and is tracked onto interior surfaces. And yet there was none of that observed in the house.

 

[Lebowski]

thanks for that. that does indeed make the lack of footprints more compelling.

next question, though... when did the snow fall? was it the previous night, wee hours, or some of both?

 

[CloudedTruth]

thanks for that. that does indeed make the lack of footprints more compelling.

next question, though... when did the snow fall? was it the previous night, wee hours, or some of both?

I have read conflicting reports about when the last snow fall occurred. Some say it lightly snowed the evening of the 25th. The recorded low for that night was 9 degrees, and by 6AM it was about 10 degrees. Some have described what was on the paved areas / walkways as frost, which would still reveal footprints if they were present. 9 degrees overnight at that time of year, frost is often present.

Boulder is situated right at the foothills of the mountains. The elevation level is at 5,430 feet. It's about 200 feet higher in elevation than Denver, famously known as the mile high city. Frost is common at higher altitudes as the air tends to be more dense, which means it sinks which causes frost to form.

 

[Meara]

thanks for that. that does indeed make the lack of footprints more compelling.

next question, though... when did the snow fall? was it the previous night, wee hours, or some of both?

Here are the links for the Boulder weather reports for December 25th and 26th in 1996. According to these records, there was light snow around 10:25 PM and no precipitation thereafter. Since it was a very cold night, and the temperature was barely above zero at 6:00 AM, the light dusting of snow would have been in tact in grassy areas when police first arrived and would have shown any footprints.

Boulder December 25, 1996 Historical Weather (Colorado, United States) - Weather Spark

Boulder December 26, 1996 Historical Weather (Colorado, United States) - Weather Spark

 

[Lebowski]

i've also seen it claimed (don't have verification) that there had been leftover snowcover on the ground from a week or two earlier.

 

[Meara]

i've also seen it claimed (don't have verification) that there had been leftover snowcover on the ground from a week or two earlier.

Yes, there was leftover snow on the ground. Here's one photo of it:
https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ajc/CBRHMTJ5UBTAWXMTEFKDSIEZXE.jpg

Additionally, there is the report made by the EMTs that notes snow cover throughout the neighborhood and the report by officers at the scene on the 26th who noted bicycle tire tracks in the leftover snow in the front yard.

 

[Lebowski]

right. ... now that snow is patchy, but the picture is obviously later in the day. you'd expect the areas that are exposed grass in the image there to have had the light dusting at 6 AM. on top of near-continuous old snow coverage over big swaths of the yard. probably enough to expect to see tracks. at least for the parts of the front yard visible in that picture.

i do also wonder how much the old snow coverage and/or new dusting varied around the house at 6 AM... if i'm not mistaken, that picture you just posted is looking due west. so the far side of the house (from this perspective) doesn't get sun until after noon. the old snow cover on brick/stone surfaces might conceivably have melted on previous afternoons, but the fresh dusting from the night before should still have been there at 6 am.

this is not a complete accounting of all approaches to the house, but i'm getting more convinced the snow cover was such that you'd expect an intruder to leave footprints.

 

[Lebowski]

sorry if these questions are too obscure, but...

do we know if there were fences between them and the neighbors on both sides, in 1996?

was the alleyway behind them there in 1996? if so, i assume they at least had a gate to the alley, if not wide-open access between the alley and their backyard.

does anyone know anything about snow coverage in the alley, on the patio, or in the backyard generally? ... my guess would be that grassy areas in the back would look similar to the front yard in that picture, and at 6 AM the bare areas would have at least had the fresh dusting.

i'm trying to constrain the possible pathways an intruder could have taken and without leaving tracks noticeable to first responding officers. not sure it's impossible, but it's looking hard.