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Podcast about JonBenet Ramsey's murder for SOC 298
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Podcast about JonBenet Ramsey's murder for SOC 298
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Joan Benet Ramsey, a child beauty queen, was found murdered in her family's home. She had a fractured skull, was strangled, and had a vaginal injury. There was a ransom note, but its origin is debated. The suspects include the Ramseys themselves or an unknown intruder. The evidence is inconclusive. The family's handling of the crime scene and lack of cooperation with police raised suspicions. The case remains unsolved, but recent efforts to analyze evidence are underway. Theories suggest unwanted attention due to Joan Benet's fame or potential involvement of pedophiles. The incompetence of the police in solving the case is also questioned. The case raises issues related to feminist criminology and conflict theory. So for my podcast, I'm going to be talking about the murder of Joan Benet Ramsey. I know this case might be a more well-known case, but while I have seen references to it on social media and just online in general, it's one that I never really learned about, so I figured that this podcast would be a good reason to look into the case more. So to start, Joan Benet Ramsey was a six-year-old girl known for being a child beauty queen. She was killed in her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. She was found to have a fractured skull due to a blow to her head as well as being strangled. The official cause of death was ruled to be asphyxia by strangulation associated with cranio-cerebral trauma. Joan Benet's mouth was covered with duct tape, and she also had a cord made of nylon and parts of a paintbrush tied around her wrists and neck. She was also covered with a white blanket. Parts of the paintbrush that made up the cord were found in their home. She also had a vaginal injury, evidence that the area was wiped with a cloth, and there was a blood sample on her underwear which belonged to an unknown male. There's not really any other details about that specific evidence. There was also a boot print found next to her body which did not belong to anyone in the family. Her death was ultimately ruled a homicide. There was also an unusual ransom note found at the scene. Boulder police initially believed that the ransom note had been written by her mother, Patsy, due to the unusual qualities of the note. First of all, the note was unusually long and handwritten. The note itself and a practice draft were written with a pen and notepad found at the home. On the note, there were no fingerprints besides for Patsy's, who found it, and that of the investigators. The note had unusual wording as well as references to a few films. The ransom itself was $118,000, which happened to be John Ramsey's Christmas bonus the previous year. Michael Baden, a forensic psychologist involved with the case, had never seen anything like the note in his 60 years of experience. Because of these details, there's conflicting views on if Patsy wrote the note or not, and beliefs that it could have been staged. Another detail is that the only people in the house at the time of the murder were Joan Bonet's parents and her brother, Burke Ramsey, and there were no signs of forced entry. Joan Bonet's autopsy revealed that she had eaten pineapple before her death, though her parents don't remember feeding any to her. However, the bowl that it was in had her brother's fingerprints on it. Besides for in Joan Bonet's bedroom, there were no efforts made to prevent contamination of evidence in the house. Family friends and others who came to show support for the family cleaned the surfaces in the kitchen, potentially destroying evidence. When the police arrived initially, they also never investigated the basement of the house, and that was where Joan Bonet's body was ultimately found after the detectives instructed John Ramsey and a family friend to see if anything was out of place. John then brought Joan Bonet's body upstairs from the basement, which also could have contaminated evidence. This would have also affected the crime scene itself, and whoever was there would not be able to see what it initially looked like because he moved the body. Ultimately, the likely suspects for this case were either the Ramseys themselves or an unknown intruder. Also the evidence for the Ramseys is that the Ramseys gave TV interviews but resisted police questionings. The Ramseys claimed that they worried that the police would not conduct a full investigation and would make them suspects. Then there is, of course, the ransom note written in the home, which could have been staged by Patsy, considering all the details. So there were only family members home at the time of the murder. Back to the note, the ransom note demanded an unusual amount of money that either family members or maybe John Ramsey's coworkers would have known. So unless whoever came into the house somehow investigated this information, it seems unusual that he would have known that. Then there's the carelessness surrounding the evidence, with the family friends cleaning surfaces and then John moving his daughter's body. I mean, if that was your own child getting murdered, wouldn't you want to make sure you could have as much evidence as possible and preserve what was there? Like, that to me seems very unusual. Another possible theory is that maybe the parents could have wanted attention. Since the child's Joan Benet was a beauty queen and that could have gotten them attention in the first place, maybe they wanted more. Then there is the theory that her brother Burke killed her over the pineapple, which that seems ridiculous. Someone theorized maybe he like hit her or something and accidentally killed her, but the brother was young and that just seems ridiculous and also unlikely. I mean, the blood sample on her underwear didn't match anyone that we know of currently. So the evidence for the intruder is, as I just mentioned, the blood sample found on her underwear, which doesn't match anybody that we know of. It's an unknown male. Also, the handwriting on the ransom note did not match any of the family members. In the house, there were two windows that were open slightly for Christmas lights and also a broken basement window and an unlocked door and while that could have given an intruder a chance to get into the house, there were also cobwebs and dust surrounding them, so those would have been disturbed if someone came in through that way. There's also the theory that Joan Benet's fame may have attracted pedophiles or child pornographers, which would have given her unwanted attention and thus a reason for them to kill her. Her brother Burke reported that the parents never laid a hand on the children, which would suggest that it was unlikely for them to be the murderers. In July 2008, the Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy says that no one in the Ramsey family is considered a suspect and formally apologized to John Ramsey via a letter. The family has filed several defamation lawsuits even after this, as both parents and her brother Burke were implicated in the murder in several books and documentaries. So persons of interest include a neighbor who dressed up as Santa Claus, a local reporter whose girlfriend reported him as a suspect, the family housekeeper, and a man who reportedly committed suicide shortly after her death. There was also the unusual happenstance in August 2006 with Alexis Valoran-Reich, who was then known as John Mark Carr, who was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand after claiming that he drugged, sexually assaulted, and accidentally killed Joan Benet. However, DNA tests failed to link him to the crime scene and the case was dropped. So some recent updates on the case are that in December 2021, the City of Boulder claims that they have processed over 1,500 pieces of evidence and analyzed nearly 1,000 DNA samples and said they are actively using new technology to analyze the evidence. In May of this year, John Ramsey petitioned the governor to let an outside agency take control over the investigation, citing incompetence of the Boulder police. As we went over the not caring about evidence, not fully investigating the house, etc. So to tie in some relevant theories from class, with feminist criminology, the label of being a beauty queen or just an attractive girl could have brought her unwanted attention. So if a pedophile or something similar came into the house, that could have been the reason why. And also since she was a child and just a little girl, obviously she could have been easily taken advantage of, manipulated, or just on a physical level, she wouldn't have been able to fight back against an adult male. And then with conflict theory, there's once again the detail of the incompetence by the police to solve the case, with the not protecting the evidence and not thoroughly searching the house and considering that they've really made no progress on the case since it initially happened. And that leaves the question, is it even in their best interest to solve the case? Does it even matter? Since the murder happened so long ago, is there even a reason to solve it at this point? Can they even solve it with the evidence that's had, considering that it's been manipulated? Like we can't really say if it's even possible to be solved at this point. So that was the case of Joan Benet Ramsey's murder, and I hope this was educational in some way. At least that's what the family was for me.
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