A murder case that remains unsolved some near-three decades on, the slaying of 6-year-old beauty pageant phenomenon JonBenét Ramsey still can’t but help earn speculative interest today. And it’s through Joe Berlinger‘s three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, that new theories, old wounds and investigative frustrations come to light, resulting in an enveloping, oft-unsettling and, sadly, open ended narrative that only furthers the unanswered fascination around her demise.
On December 26th, 1996, in Boulder, Colorado, Patsy Ramsey woke early in the morning and uncovered a supposed ransom note, reading that someone had kidnapped her young daughter, JonBenét, and should she or her husband, John Ramsey, make any movements to involve authorities and delay the demanded sum – $118,000 (the first of many oddities in the case) – they would take fatal action. After getting police involved and seeing the hours tick by, JonBenét’s body was ultimately found in the Ramsey residence’s basement by a probing John; she had sustained a broken skull, and a garrote was tied around her neck.
It was a horrific discovery for the family, but as much as it ended the speculation surrounding her whereabouts, it proved only the beginning of an investigation that survived on predominant theories and suspicion, yet very little evidentiary truth. John and Patsy were near-immediately painted as suspects, with the ransom note itself earning doubt in its authenticity, the demanded amount being alarmingly close to John’s end-of-year bonus from the tech company he ran, and the perceived convenience in the police searching an entire household, yet it was John who found the body; as the documentary shows, the Ramsey’s house was spectacularly expansive, and John’s immediate beeline for the basement raised further questions.
As we have seen across history with murder cases that bare any type of resemblance to this, police pointing the finger at the Ramseys makes sense. In addition to John finding the body – and, in doing so, he tampered with evidence as he carried the body up the stairs before the scene could be processed – Patsy’s behaviour was placed under the microscope when she went on national television to discuss her grief in the aftermath, as well as their son, Burke (who was 9 at the time of JonBenét’s death), being questioned and having his own supposed motive around a theorised argument between the two that led to Patsy covering the death up to protect him. They’re equally outlandish as they are plausible, and the series continually plays fast and loose with such theories.
Where things prove most fascinating though is through the exposed incompetence of the Boulder police. It’s uncovered that DNA found on JonBenét’s body didn’t match any of the Ramsey family, but they held such facts from both the media and the district attorney in their seeming plight to maintain the narrative around the Ramsey’s guilt. It doesn’t make a great case for authoritative proficiency, but it only adds further intrigue to this story.
Though all these years later it’s easy to argue against as to why such a case needs to be probed – there’s been nothing revealed in the 28 years since – with even the supposed ending JonBenét’s murder almost had in the alleged confession of John Mark Karr, who claimed he sexually abused her on multiple occasions before accidentally killing her, being debunked off non-matching DNA. The real crux as to why this story should remain of interest is that it’s never been solved. Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? goes beyond the structure the media fed the world in the 90s, and though it doesn’t offer up anything definitive regarding her murder, we come away from this series with a better understanding.
The “pageant parent” narrative and all the negative connotations that implied is still a throughline here, but these episodes give us a less one-sided view, and, as much as it shakes any faith people may have in the police and their supposed quest for justice, it’s refreshingly bold to see the people in power have their positions questioned – even if, unjustly, they don’t answer for their decisions.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? is now streaming on Netflix.
