[Music] this week combust been dissolved we discussed the death of JonBenet Ramsay a case that to this day still captivates the nation I gotta say this one really gives me the creeps it's not fun no it's not fun a child died I'm not stoked yeah no iPad stoked but everyone seems to want to hear about it so here we go on the morning of December 26 1996 in Boulder Colorado Patsy Ramsey claimed to discover a ransom note for her six-year-old daughter JonBenet Ramsey on the back staircase inside the house this prompted Patsy Ramsey to call the police at 5:52 a. m. to report JonBenet as missing the people inside the house at the time were John Ramsey her father Patsy Ramsey her mother and Burke Ramsey her nine year old brother bizarrely the body of Jon Benet Ramsey was found less than eight hours later an even stranger the body was found inside the Ramsey residence in the utility room in the basement the body was found by JonBenet's father she was found with duct tape over her mouth and a smooth cord around her neck it is widely reported that the crime scene was heavily compromised by people arriving at the scene the police later claimed that they had not searched the house after Patsy's call because there was no reason to believe from the ransom note that Jon Benet was in the house at the time of her death JonBenet Ramsey was a well decorated beauty pageant competitor having won at least five high-profile competitions her death was ruled a homicide strange right yeah that's weird peculiar I mean I'm trying to think of like I've read a lot of these cases I can't recall one case where the missing person was inside the house it's spooky in a spooky there check the children the autopsy found that Jon Benet was bludgeoned to death while the County coroner ruled that Jon Benet had died of asphyxiation caused by being strangled a paintbrush from Patsy's hobby kit was used to tighten the rope that strangled JonBenet there was DNA found on JonBenet's long johns and underwear both belonging to a single unidentified man who when compared to the FBI's database of convicted violent offenders in 2004 was not found among 1.
5 million samples oh it's not like that okay I don't know I just yeah yeah gross we were getting here there were two sets of unidentified footprints found at the scene there was a rope found closeby JonBenet's bedroom that did not belong to the Ramseys however as of 2006 the rope had never been tested if somebody broke into the house they did so cleanly as there was no footsteps in the snow outside the house as well as no sign of force injury this is Colorado right it's snowing I mean conceivably maybe the snow got covered up but there's also I know snow you don't know because you're a Southern California Lily from your Chicago from the Windy City and I don't know anything about weather so nice it's not that hard if falls from the sky and it hits the ground there's that there's some nuance to it there's some intricacy and if such as what oh you don't even know let's move on to the contents of the ransom note the note requested 118 thousand dollars in exchange for JonBenet Ramsay even stranger why is that weird number well I guess it is very specific actually we're gonna touch on why that may be so specifics my detective brain this one telling you about I think it is about numbers I think you're down to you the first time it did but I think you're Tooting your own horn a little bit too much shame the brain okay with the exchange to take place the next day between 8:00 and 10:00 a. m. the highly scrutinized note starts with quote mr.
Ramsey listen carefully we are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction we respect your business but not the country that it served and a strange declaration that would ultimately lead nowhere if they're sending someone a ransom note I would imagine you would want to put in as little detail as possible I'm not gonna say dear mr. Ramsay it's me a tall fellow it almost seems cartoony mm-hmm almost as if it was fake let's move on here's another excerpt quote the two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them speaking to anyone about your situations such as police or FBI will result in your daughter being beheaded Jesus Christ you can try to deceive us but be warned that we are familiar with law enforcement countermeasures and tactics you stand in 99 percent chance of killing your daughter if you try to outsmart us follow our instructions and you stand a 100% chance of getting her back I know this guy has crunched the numbers I've run the permutations to my little computer and all of them say your flood my murder laptop the letter was signed s BTC initials that still remain a mystery one curious fact is that the sum of 118 thousand dollars was close to the amount that John Ramsey received were a bonus that year mmm that's when you asked the question about the specificity of the number yeah there it is I've connected the two documents connect [ __ ] but I've connected them however the most chilling fact about the ransom note was that it was determined that the note was written using pen and paper from inside the house while this detail is absolutely horrifying it also brought a lot of suspicion into the integrity of the note this suggests that the killer somehow entered the house wrote the note inside and for some reason Ben killed Jon Benet Ramsey after writing a ransom note all of this occurring while the other three Ramsay family members were inside the house I feel like I've been in some big houses where you could be one end someone in the other end could be straight-up murdering the human and you wouldn't even know would you take that kind of a risk as a killer to do all these weird little things inside the house yes analysis of the notepad you suggested that a practice letter was written and part of a practice note was found they were spelling errors in the letter on words thought to be easy like possession get some wonder how words such as a Tosh a with an accent on the E or spelled correctly some believe this adds up to the letter being a hoax and when combined with the lack of evidence of an intruder this case becomes even more puzzling maybe the practice letter was just sort of you know when you write like a banner and you write with a big marker and then when you're maybe they've got like three letters to squeeze in at the end and it looks off you know I'm just saying maybe he was spacing it out okay then I don't understand the practice I don't understand the beheading what is that all about with that let's get into the suspects starting with the Ramseys themselves in the early goings of the case the Ramsey family was under heavy scrutiny given the suspicions of the ransom notes authenticity and the little evidence to suggest an intruder the actual person responsible for the murder varies depending on who is theorizing a recent television program claims that police theorized that Patsy accidentally killing Jon Benet that same program also posited that Burke Ramsey JonBenet's nine-year-old little brother accidentally killed Jon Benet as well however for patsy ur burke to be the culprit not only would the note have to be staged but so with the strangulation and that doesn't add up when you consider the evidence suggests that John Pinette was still alive as she was being strangled furthermore handwriting analysis also ruled out John Ramsey enrolled Patsy Ramsey as inconclusive experts believe the science are more consistent with child abduction and murder done by an intruder fascinatingly in 2013 it came to light that in 1999 a grand jury had voted to indict Japanese parents on charges of child abuse resulting in death however the boulder district attorney at the time Alex hunter did not sign the indictment believing that there was not enough evidence to support the charges casting further doubt on this theory is the fact that the DNA evidence appeared from the crime scene officially exonerated the entire Ramsey family you could see why people would think it may be one of them in the family though because if it was indeed an accident he would have to cover it up he would have to write a note which brings us to our first non ramsey suspect a local man named bill McReynolds who had visited the ramsey house two days before JonBenet's murder he sometimes dressed up as Santa Claus his own daughter had been kidnapped twenty-two years before the John Pinette murder his wife had written a play about a child getting molested and then murdered in a basement according to the Denver Post this man felt close to Jon Benet here's a quote from him quote her murder was harder on me than my operation she made a profound change in me end quote McReynolds even brought up bio glitter gifted to him by Jon Benet into heart surgery the gift had been meaningful to him since no child had ever given him a gift while playing Santa he even asked his wife to mix the glitter with his ashes if he were to die I don't like this man this also could be just the the the acts of a kind old man it is up until him wanting glitter mixed with his ashes there I tell you what did he murder her maybe not is the glitter with your ashes a weird thing to ask for it's absolutely that's very weird I don't like that at all no I wish I didn't know it but now it's in my brain and now it's on all your brains whoever's watching this deal with it however beyond these sensationalized details which can also be interpreted as the acts of a friendly old man there is nothing to suggest McReynolds as the murderer the next suspect is Gary Oliva a man who lived a few blocks away from the Ramsey home at the time of the murder in 2016 Oliva was arrested on charges of child pornography in December of 2011 rested on unrelated drug charges and was found to be carrying a photo of JonBenet in his backpack he explained why he had the photo to the Denver Post quote JonBenet's murder touched me very deeply I felt he was an exceptional girl whose death was an exceptional loss I felt the need to build a monument a shrine to remember this little girl I know everybody wanted to hear about this case touching on the suspect this guy's very suspicious yeah Ryan he is and it's gonna get worse why a high school friend of a Liva named Michael Vale revealed in an interview with In Touch magazine that Oliva called him a day after the murder occurred and said quote I heard a little girl I heard a little girl and quipped according to Vale Oliva also revealed the location of where he had hurt this girl Boulder Colorado after which Oliva hung up the phone this is interesting if true because records show that no other girl other than Jon Benet was harmed in that area that night Vale also revealed that the strangulation method used on Jon Benet was also allegedly used by Oliva when Oliva attempted to strangle his own mother with a tell cool why I why would someone make that up I don't know you got to imagine these people's it's a story so sensationalized they would get paid to give an interview right an exclusive cuz it is an exclusive when in touch which we all know is the major true crime publication of the United States nonetheless Gary Oliva was also not a match to the DNA evidence the final suspect is John Mark Karr I remember this [ __ ] guy a divorced father and elementary school teacher card had not become a suspect until nearly 10 years after the murder when he confessed to the murder via email to a journalism professor named Michael Tracy Tracy had emailed back and forth with car for four years in order to gain his trust that's good journalism it's good journalism but I mean you got to imagine it takes a toll on you emotionally yeah they have a weird pen down like that and fell yeah that's a good way to say it I just don't know what you say to someone for four years no one's ever asked me if I murdered anyone maybe they're not asking the right questions Tracy said this of the experience quote you are reading and hearing a truly dark side of the human psyche and having to pretend it's okay that I wasn't going to sit in judgment because otherwise the communication would have stopped this is the worst experience of my life by far it was horrible end quote was he also pretending to be a weirdo he had to be he's like yeah man I'm a journalist but I'm a sicko trust me trust me I'm a sicko for four years trust me I'm a sicko write me back judging from the character of this guy that you'll learn later John Mark Karr I don't think it's gonna take a lot to outfox him to be honest yeah I remember this dum-dum in his emails car used similar wording as the ransom note at one point he used Patsy's mother's nickname in an email and it was bizarre that he would even know that car would eventually right that he was in love with JonBenet and what later confessed a hitting JonBenet in the head with a flashlight here's some of the email quote she of course was asleep from the time that she was that I took her from her bed and took her into the basement her first reaction was where am I and I said you're in your basement she wasn't in that little room to be disgraced and I would never disgrace her or dishonor her she was there temporarily and what really hurts me is that she stayed there and that's where her father found her and it's just a horrible thing end quote but we'll keep going here on August 16th 2008 with the help of British intelligence the Royal Thai authorities and the u. s.
department of homeland security they were able to track down car in Bangkok Thailand where he had traveled to from the u. s. to escape child pornography charges in California a few months after this confession Boulder County District Attorney Mary lacy issued a formal apology to John Ramsay for the suspicion his family had lived with and said that no one in the Ramsey family is considered a suspect Carr's DNA did not match the DNA found on the scene and he was not charged with the murder however the u.
s. department of homeland security continued to investigate John Mark Karr he had always maintained that he had not acted alone if you recall there are two sets of unidentified foot prints found at the scene it's worth mentioning that former Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner and the lead investigator on the JonBenet Ramsey case for a time said in a reddit AMA in regards to John Mark Karr that quote his confession once they shared it with us did not match the evidence at the scene we knew in about 18 hours he was not the guy we were able to confirm he was not even in Colorado at the time by just doing some routine checking and then obtained photos of him in Georgia at the time end quote I big in all these cases you just want justice to be served so badly that you just kind of wanted us plug in the holes on this one though I almost I don't want him like you know if he's just lying I don't wanted to get what he wants yes sure if you are the kind of person that wants to take credit for a child's murder yeah I don't know if we want to give him that satisfaction if you didn't do it no you don't get prison your weirdo now that we've looked at the suspects I'd like to point out that in a recent CBS program a DNA expert dr. Henry Lee best known from the OJ Simpson case studied the DNA from the Jon Benet scene dr.
