Three months after JonBenét’s death, he brought Smit into the fold. “I thought there was something drastically wrong and that there was a gross injustice in this case,” he said in the tapes. Now, in the house, the ransom note is written on a pad that belongs to Patsy.”, He said police began to suspect that maybe the Ramseys had “harmed their child in some way, then panicked and tried to create basically a kidnapping scenario.”. They were in the kitchen, they were in the living room. 5 people, including pregnant woman, fatally shot in Indianapolis, Capitol riot latest: Man accused of stealing documents from McConnell's desk charged, Biden's COVID relief package presents 1st test of his deal-making skills. “When he got sick with cancer … he knew that his time was limited and so, during that time, he just talked to others about not letting this case die,” said Cindy Marra, Smit’s daughter. In an interview with USA TODAY, JonBenét's father John Ramsey, who appears in the documentary along with Smit's daughter, son and others connected to the investigation, said he … We’re just not going to do it.”. “We went through the people of interest ... and came up with our top 20. A former Boulder, Colo., police detective who spent almost two years investigating the killing of JonBenet Ramsey says in a new book that he and other investigators concluded that the 6 … “We are just trying to eliminate people from that list and we just figure, if we keep at it, hopefully, we’ll finally whittle it down to one person remaining on that list,” said Marra. It was after this test that Lacy wrote a letter to John Ramsey stating that her office does not consider him, his wife Patsy Ramsey or anyone in their immediate family to be under suspicion for the death of JonBenét. For someone to get through a small window like that and not disturb the cobwebs “would be remarkable,” he said. There could’ve been fingerprints there.”. JonBenét Ramsey was killed in her family's Colorado home in 1996. “It was really important to him.”. “The police did a terrible, terrible job securing that scene … and if you don’t secure the scene, you don’t get good evidence,” said Diane Dimond, an investigative reporter who covered the case. The day after Christmas — Dec. 26, 1996 — JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of her family’s Colorado home. I got a pen and paper and he gave me a name, and he said, ‘Start with this name.’”. The $118,000 figure also seemed suspicious to authorities. While JonBenét’s half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said his father has remarried and is focusing on life, he also said their fight for justice on behalf of his half-sister is not over. They returned for another one in June 1998, but this time, the investigators recorded it on video. The Case of JonBenet Ramsey. But speaking to JonBenét’s parents, the main suspects in the case at that point, as part of a formal interrogation at the police station was challenging. The three-page ransom note, for example, was written on Patsy Ramsey’s notepad with a pen that had come from the house. “But [the police] are trying to say Patsy did it. JonBenét’s murder came on the heels of the O.J. The three-page long note said in part that if JonBenét’s parents called the authorities, she would die, and asked for $118,000. He said that this evidence “was not something that was made public for quite a long time.” An analysis found that it didn’t match anyone in the Ramsey family. 'JonBenet Ramsey: What Really Happened' explores the iconic JonBenet Ramsey case with a fresh perspective. 2016. Now, out of that top 20, what our team has been doing is focusing on collecting DNA and testing DNA,” Anderson said. Twenty-four years after the beauty queen was killed in her Boulder, Colo. home at the age of 6, ABC’s 20/20 is devoting its Friday, Jan. 15 episode to the ongoing investigation of the still-unsolved crime. John Ramsey said he brought his daughter upstairs and laid her on the floor, hoping she was alive. “I think the answer to that is ‘maybe.’ … But the other important point is how soon was this picture taken after JonBenét was killed because spiders can replicate webs very fast.”. But when 10 a.m. passed and there still wasn’t a call, Arndt said “there was no acknowledgment” from either of JonBenét’s parents that “the deadline imposed by the author of the ransom note [had] come and gone.”. “What we all share in common is that commitment to fulfill Lou’s dying wish that this case doesn’t die with him,” said John Anderson, a friend of Smit’s and former sheriff of El Paso County in Texas. But like police, the jury didn’t believe someone could’ve entered the window with the cobwebs remaining intact. In the aftermath of their daughter’s murder, John Ramsey went on to lose his job and claims he spent millions of dollars on private investigators, lawyers and security. It also said that JonBenét’s parents would receive a call from the supposed kidnapper “tomorrow” between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. “It was awful,” John Ramsey told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in 2000. “First of all, we didn’t know whether the kidnapper was going to call that day because the note said, ‘I will call you tomorrow. In a 911 call just before 6 a.m., her mother Patsy Ramsey was inconsolable as she told the dispatcher that her daughter was missing and that she’d found a ransom note at the bottom of her stairs. First detective to respond in JonBenet case resigns. A mystery man told him "JonBenét was accidentally killed by a high class pedophile ring that all the famous politicians, Hollywood stars and Royal families belong. Maxwell behind JonBenét Colorado detective had received a mysterious telephone call about JonBenét murder case. Storm timeline: Here's when rains, winds arrive to Bay Area, Here's what's reopening in every Bay Area county this week. “How could they think that? She was killed accidentally while they were using garrote (choking torture tool). Smit also spoke about the DNA evidence that police had found underneath JonBenét’s fingernails and in her underwear in the video diaries. Two granddaughters of the longtime detective in the JonBenét Ramsey case are keeping his legacy alive and doing what they can to honor the slain girl's memory as well. Cold case investigator Lou Smit talks about the case of confessed serial killer Robert Charles Browne at the El Paso County Sheriff's Department in Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 4, 2006. Jessa concurs, pointing out that the goal with their podcast and research is to finally offer clarity for those who continue to grieve. Any information that we come up with a match will be turned over immediately to the Boulder [district attorney] and Boulder Police Department, and they will follow that.”. Cindy Mara is one of the daughters of Lou Smit, who investigated JonBenet Ramsey's case and whose dying wish was for his family and friends to find her killer. JonBenet March 19, 1999 Web posted at: 12:40 a.m. EST (0540 GMT) Marra believes her daughters, Smit’s granddaughters, will push forward his dying wish even if they’re unable to. JonBenet Ramsey’s bedroom walls and Christmas presents were ‘smeared in feces by disturbed brother Burke’—after new claims emerged he killed the child beauty queen. “The Ramsey’s said, ‘We don’t trust the police. “How many people knew that? Among the names on the list were Gary Oliva, a homeless man who frequented a church less than two blocks from the Ramsey home and who had told a friend during a phone call right after JonBenét was killed that he had just killed a little girl, McKinley said. When reached for comment, the Boulder Police Department said there is still an active, ongoing investigation into JonBenét’s murder; however, the department has never publicly commented on its handling of the case. Take a look at those case details - tonight on # ABC2020 at 9/8c. Jonathan Webb, one of the grand jurors, told “20/20” that Smit’s intruder theory didn’t make sense. “In that particular movie, a ‘fat cat’ industrialist, his son was kidnapped. The blanket was wrapped around her. Sep. 12, 2016. Michael Helgoth, who owned a pair of Hi-Tec boots and a stun gun and had died by suicide shortly after JonBenét’s murder, was also cleared after the team found his DNA did not match that found at the crime scene. But he was running out of time. “If it’s not a stun gun, what is it? Mary Lacy, the district attorney of Boulder at the time, decided to use this new test on JonBenét’s pajama leggings and the results came back positive for at least one unknown male’s DNA, possibly even two. Please don’t let it die,’” she said. CA nurses, doctors, and lawmakers question move to open up. “The big question is could you have gotten through this window -- this small window -- without disturbing this cobweb,” Garrett said. The case's lead investigator, Mark Beckner says there are “significant results” from the 1,058 pieces of evidence taken from the home. “I knew instantly what I found. A former detective on the famous cold case writes in a new book that a cobweb and a child's toy could hold the answers to the 1996 murder of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. “And he asked me to write down a name, and I did. Smit’s daughter, Cindy Marra, said the interviews “firmed up his belief that the Ramseys had nothing to do” with JonBenét’s murder. Eager diners hit SJ outdoor restaurants as state lifts lockdown, CA lifts stay at home order, will announce change in vaccine eligibility stages soon, Atmospheric river to slam Bay Area with heavy rain, winds, LIVE: Track rain in Bay Area with Live Doppler 7, Bracing for mudslides in Bay Area fire zones. There were some reasons to suspect this. Episode 10 of 'The Killing of JonBenet Ramsey: The Final Suspects' reveals two other persons of interest on late detective Lou Smit's list — listen If we leverage the evidence, we follow the facts, we will find this killer.”, 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. JonBenét's cause of death was determined … John Anderson, former sheriff of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Texas, talks about his friend Lou Smit, the legendary detective who died before he could solve 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey's case. As the investigation continued under Smit, he became concerned that authorities had totally ruled out the possibility of an intruder killing Jon Benet, and therefore weren’t looking for evidence of the possibility, Marra said. But as Smit began to investigate the case, he started to believe that police should actually be looking at a possible intruder. In JonBenet, the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail-pointing the way toward an analysis of the evidence some deem too shocking to consider. He pointed out the open window in the basement, but photographs showed cobwebs on the window that would’ve likely broken had someone snuck through. I found my daughter,” John Ramsey told Walters in 2000. “Particularly when you start with children of this age, when they die, tend to die at the hands of their parents,” Garrett told “20/20.” “So the focus is naturally gonna be on the parents to begin with. “But we’re not gonna stop investigating. After 13 years, Smit still believed that an unidentified intruder was responsible for JonBenet’s murder. Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter, however, wasn't convinced of their guilt and wanted to explore other theories. John Ramsey later found JonBenét in the basement, a part of the home that police had neglected to search. There’s a group of dedicated volunteers that work on this daily.”, “I think it’s really important for people to understand that this case can be solved,” he went on to say. MORE: Video: JonBenet Ramsey Case: Who Was Patsy Ramsey? “People were streaming through that house. Police had also found a shoe print from a Hi-Tec brand boot near JonBenét’s body -- no one in the family-owned shoes from this brand -- as well as two marks on her face and back, which he deduced had been made by a stun gun. After several hours, the police began to leave the Ramsey home. “It seemed as though the parents were probably involved,” Smit said in video diaries that he began recording while investigating the case. With the case now in the public’s view, police sought to question JonBenét’s parents. Authorities ultimately cleared Oliva as a suspect after they were unable to connect him to the crime scene. “There’s a narrative out there that this is an unsolved homicide and that we just have to accept that as a fact, and that is not the truth. Police didn’t believe it was possible to fit through the window, and then Smit showed them it was by going through it himself. JonBenét’s cause of death was determined to be strangulation with a makeshift garrote, a weapon that, in this case, involved a string wrapped around a piece of one of Patsy Ramsey’s paintbrushes. Get plenty of rest.’ I was deathly afraid that tomorrow was, in fact, the 27th.”, “You lose all perception of time, of place,” added Patsy Ramsey in 2000. I kind of joked with her, saying that, ‘If somebody did get in that house, it must’ve been Santa Claus coming down the chimney.’”. … I immediately knelt down over her, felt her cheek, took the tape off immediately off her mouth. 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