10 Most Chilling Moments in Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re breaking down the moments from the Netflix true crime docuseries “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey” that will send chills down your spine. Out of respect for those involved, this video is unranked. Due to the extremely dark and sensitive nature of the Ramsey case, viewer discretion is strongly advised.

The Day Of, In the Ramseys’ Own Words

We’ll avoid getting into the hard-to-stomach details of exactly what happened to 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey — there’s plenty of information out there about that, including at the beginning of director Joe Berlinger[a]’s “Cold Case” mini-docuseries. For the uninitiated, a brief recap: Ramsey, born in 1990 to parents John and Patsy, was found lifeless by her father on December 26th, 1996. The subsequent media frenzy saw the two named as key suspects in JonBenét’s death. The opening scene of “Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey” finds John Ramsey recounting the day they discovered JonBenét’s body with input from archival footage of the late Patsy Ramsey. It’s still gut-wrenching to watch John discuss that day, as he’s had to do many times before.

The Ransom Note

Patsy, narrating via interviews filmed prior to her 2006 death from ovarian cancer, recounts what’s almost definitely the most baffling part of a famously baffling case. Many people, armchair Internet sleuths and forensic experts alike, have struggled to find a reasonable explanation as to who wrote the ransom note found at the Ramsey family’s house. Even more have difficulty grasping the why of it all. Several questions are raised by the letter. For example, why did the note specify a sum of $118,000 in exchange for JonBenét’s safe return? What “foreign faction” did the author claim to represent? And why was (what appeared to be) an early draft of the note found on Patsy Ramsey’s personal notepad?

The Autopsy Report

Veteran Denver journalist Carol McKinley[b], who covered the JonBenét Ramsey case as it happened and is interviewed in “Cold Case,” makes a compelling argument to those interested in reading more about it. That would be, “Anybody interested in the Ramsey case needs to read the cause of death in the autopsy report” — she calls the document “critical.” Although this segment of the series gets into more detail than we need to get into, one thing that’s important to point out: the report revealed that the crime scene contained a broken paintbrush that came from Patsy Ramsey’s home studio. The seemingly unanswerable questions persist here, this time focusing on exactly what methods were used to tragically end JonBenét’s life.

The Beauty Pageants

As we pointed out, the sordid saga of JonBenét Ramsey’s death was seized upon by the contemporary news media. This was, as you can probably guess, the unfathomably painful, unthinkably grotesque nature of the case, and particularly the fact that JonBenét had met her end in such a way. As pointed out by investigative reporter Paula Woodward[c], the abundance of photos and videos of JonBenét turned the situation into, as she puts it, “immediate fodder” for the media. The judgment passed down by the court of public opinion was swift and harsh: JonBenét’s participation in the pageants was deemed too inappropriate and too adult for her age, and that her parents had forced her into participating.

Why Won’t John & Patsy Cooperate With the Police?

Another aspect that complicated the public’s opinion about the Ramseys? Their decision to immediately bite their tongues and lawyer up, instead of cooperating with the ongoing Boulder Police Department investigation into who had taken JonBenét’s life. And maybe it’s hard to blame them. After all, the police were harshly criticized for their perceived mishandling of the initial crime scene investigation, which led to the contamination of possible mountains of forensic evidence that might’ve helped to solve the case. However, John claims that an ominous phone call placed to him by one of his employees was what set him down this path. In the call, the unnamed employee warned John that the police considered him and Patsy to be their leading suspects.

A Lack of Footprints

One misconception that the documentary attempts to untangle is the lack of footprints leading up to the basement window. One major theory to explain JonBenét’s death is that a purported “foreign intruder” might have broken into the Ramsey home through a smashed window, based on debris later examined at the scene of the crime. However, skeptics point out that, since it was wintertime, how could the perpetrator’s footprints not have been identified? Journalist Michael Tracey fires back by saying that hardly any snow had fallen the night before, which would not have been conducive to making prints. This led to wild, seemingly baseless speculation, which “Cold Case” links to subsequent false narratives in the media.

Did Patsy Do It?

The other major theory as to what happened to JonBenét Ramsey? The “Cold Case” docuseries notably explores the possibility that Patsy Ramsey was responsible for her daughter’s death. While that may be impossible to wrap your head around, Detective Steve Thomas[d] (who the documentary paints as a staunch believer in the Ramseys’ guilt) proposes that Patsy, in a fit of rage caused by JonBenét’s bedwedding issues, lost control of herself. Thomas further suggested that Patsy, having accidentally taken her daughter’s life, panicked and staged a kidnapping based on her imagination. However, this is directly disputed by retired detective Bob Whitson, who notes that the circumstances hypothesized by Thomas contradict several real-life elements of the crime scene.

Enter: Lou Smit[e]

Smit, a highly-respected local detective, went on to become a major champion of the Ramsey family’s innocence — long before it was deemed publicly acceptable to do so. A number of Smit’s colleagues, interviewed for the film, attest to Smit’s strong moral character, as well as his uncanny knack for dissecting well-worn crime scenes to find new clues and information. Smit’s efforts and research determined that a stun gun had been used to incapacitate JonBenét, something that hadn’t been clocked by earlier investigators. Even still, the detective was able to determine that JonBenét had been pulled directly from her bed — and that her bedsheets were perfectly dry. The latter is implied to be a significant blow to the Ramsey family’s detractors.

John & Patsy Are Revealed to Have Been Indicted By a Grand Jury

A 1998 grand jury convened to consider bringing the Ramseys up on charges eventually returned a true bill recommending to indict them. However, they wouldn’t be charged with JonBenét’s death directly. Instead, they would stand accused of having been severely negligent and failing to remove their child from harm’s way, which resulted in her death. Alex Hunter, the district attorney for Boulder County at the time, ultimately declined to press charges against John and Patsy. While members of the Boulder law enforcement community have openly voiced their disagreement with this decision, Hunter justified his actions by citing a lack of sufficient credible evidence.

The Story of “Daxis”

“Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey ends on a frustrating, heartbreaking note, devoid of any closure for both everyone involved, and audiences at home. The aforementioned Michael Tracey reveals an ongoing virtual correspondence he shared with a man who only referred to him as “Daxis[f].” Tracey claims that this “Daxis” was aware of the journalist’s role in reporting on the JonBenét Ramsey case, and wanted to confess that he was the true killer. After years of false alarms, this seemed like a real lead for Tracey and the Ramseys. “Daxis” was revealed to be John Mark Karr, an American expatriate living in Thailand. However, while Karr clearly displayed signs of attraction to children, he was ultimately ruled out as a suspect after failing DNA tests.

What do you think of the JonBenét Ramsey case? Let us know in the comments below.

[a]BURLIN-jur https://youtu.be/0Jl5geeTPv8?si=BQlMpvsFyfyLD7-Q
[b]https://youtu.be/EHEelTVk5IU?si=KKivhdq-IR7eZw3q
[c]https://youtu.be/WyQUPCc4pMk?si=6BBxS04gYXAR_7Nd&t=13
[d]https://youtu.be/QdzgnTqLQPo?si=gHZRirl8_pA4utCT&t=4
https://youtu.be/IwtmCmkWPnI?si=HM9D_yFJTlgEylyU&t=393
[e]https://youtu.be/aWSmEy9izPM?si=CnoeGV1qJIq_gJdV&t=173
[f]DACK-sis https://youtu.be/Ap2NHjdys54?si=DBOmbkPnph7jf3Qj&t=2494