involve himself in the case out of narcissism, and when I read through threads he had posted in he was erratic and clearly delusional. His confession caused a spectacle but there were many inaccuracies in his story, including no drugs being found in JonBenét’s system during autopsy. Karr was dismissed as a suspect after it was concluded he was not in Colorado at the time of the murder and it was speculated his confession was an excuse for extradition from Thailand to escape imprisonment there on his previous charges. Other suspects have included Chris Wolfe, a local who was turned in by his girlfriend after she saw him react strangely to a news story about the murder, and Michael Helgoth, a loner who had committed suicide the day of a televised press conference stating that law enforcement were close to closing in on the killer. Both were cleared, as all other potential leads have been. From the days, nights, weeks, and months I have poured into this case, what follows is my personal theory on what truly happened to JonBenét and, to me, is the most logical sequence of events given what I know: The Ramsey’s left their friends’ Christmas party around 8pm, stopping on the way to drop off presents at other houses while the children were in the car. John says he carried JonBenét out of the car and put her to bed, after which Patsy put her into her bed clothes. John went downstairs to the basement and helped Burke set up a gift he had received earlier. Patsy claims she stayed up a little longer than usual packing clothes for the family’s trip the next day, but I believe she was slightly tipsy from the Christmas party and fell asleep early. John went to bed soon after and if Burke went to his room, he did not go to sleep. Bored, he woke up his sister to see if she wanted to play and tempted her with a snack—one of her favourites, pineapple. During autopsy pineapple was found in JonBenét’s digestive tract indicating she had eaten it one to two hours before her death. In the Ramsey’s kitchen a bowl of pineapple and milk, along with a glass with a teabag in it, was found (an attempt at making ice tea). While fruit and milk (or cream) would make a good snack, pineapple curdles milk and, along with an oversized spoon in the bowl, I believe this indicates the meal was prepared by a child. Both Burke and JonBenét tried the pineapple but left it largely uneaten when they didn’t enjoy the taste. Burke’s prints were found on both the bowl and glass (Patsy’s were also found, but I believe they would be from stacking dishes). It has long been maintained that nobody in the Ramsey house left their rooms after Burke was put to bed but the pineapple places JonBenét and Burke in the kitchen at this time. The siblings go down to the basement to play, where they find some wrapped presents that Patsy had organized for their ‘second’ Christmas in Atlanta. Burke decides to unwrap these gifts and JonBenét is upset with him and says she will tell their parents. Angry, Burke grabs a nearby flashlight and strikes her over the head. JonBenét is instantly knocked unconscious and her breathing and pulse all but stop. Burke tries to wake her but she remains still. He then prods her with a part of his train and is still
including a public appeal on CNN on January 1, 1997. John chided those who believed they were guilty of the crime while a heavily medicated Patsy begged viewers to “keep their babies close.” The Boulder Police Department began to strongly suspect that someone in the Ramsey family had murdered JonBenét and staged a faux-kidnapping scene; the court of public opinion seemed to agree. Little focus was placed on Burke, age nine, as under Colorado law a person under the age of ten can not be tried for murder. It was theorized that Patsy had killed JonBenét in a rage after she had wet the bed one too many times, or perhaps that John had been sexually assaulting his daughter and the abuse escalated to murder. A closer look at the three-page ransom note, bizarre in both language and length, showed many similarities to Patsy’s handwriting and contained phrases she was known to use. The paper and pen used to write the note were both found in the Ramsey home and had been returned to their original placements. John seemed unemotional and was caught booking flights out of Boulder for his family shortly after finding his daughter’s body. The Ramseys have always insisted on their innocence and after Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006 neither John nor Burke changed their story. Homicide detective Lou Smit is a proponent of the “Intruder Theory” and speculates that someone broke into the Ramsey house through a window in the basement and then went upstairs to JonBenét’s bedroom, either incapacitating her there to kidnap her or luring her back downstairs. Next the ransom note was written and the killer took her down to the basement intending to smuggle her inside a suitcase off the property, but when this proved too hard or time ran out she was strangled and her body abandoned while the intruder escaped back out the basement window, ransom note forgotten. While the window was broken, during questioning John claimed to have broken the glass himself months earlier after he had locked himself out of the house. In photos a scuff is seen on the wall under the window that could potentially be from someone climbing in, but around the window sill there were undisturbed cobwebs though the window was too small for these not to have been damaged while entering. Smit also theorizes that marks found on JonBenét’s body were left by a taser gun, but there is no further evidence to support this and the marks were also found to match points on a toy train belonging to Burke. In 2006 police took 41-year-old elementary school teacher John Mark Karr into custody after he confessed to the killing of JonBenét. Karr had been living in Thailand and was facing child pornography charges at the time of his arrest. He claimed to have been in Boulder on Christmas Eve, 1996, and that he drugged and sexually assaulted JonBenét, but maintained her death had been accidental. Karr was obsessed with JonBenét and had long professed his love for her online under the username “Daxis” in early net forums devoted to the case. Upon his confession many users asserted they did not believe Karr had committed the murder and he simply wanted to
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