Profiling the Killer - Jon Benet Ramsey

The name of the profiler in the JonBenet Ramsey case is Nadia Chowdhury. The victim is a 6year old girl, found dead at her house in Boulder, Colorado on 26th December 1996; by her father, John Ramsey from their basement. The victim’s father tampered with all evidence; when the police arrived, they found the body at their staircase. John carried her upstairs from their basement and wrapped her with a blanket, besides un-taping her mouth as he claims. There was only one evidence found that could lead to a possible killer, which was a ransom note that demanded $118,000 for JonBenet’s safe return. The cause of death of victim was strangulation and a head fracture. The weapon used to strangle was a garrote, which was made of a tweed cord and a broken paintbrush handle that belonged to the mother of the victim, Patsy Ramsey. The autopsy results showed signs of sexual assault as well. When found, her body was already showing signs of decomposition, which led the investigators think that was time of death was between 10:00 PM and 6:00 am of 25th December (closer to 10:00 pm) From what I understand, there were two phases in the killing, which leads to my suspicion of having more than one person involved in executing this misleading murder/accident. The suspect most likely had a good physique, able to draw enough strength on the garrote which would make the wooden paintbrush handle to snap. Suspect was most likely a white female; belonged to a high socioeconomic class, in which case evidence that would lead towards the suspect would be difficult to validate. The reason why I say it was probably a female because the killer felt the need of using an accessory to help with exerting pressure while strangling the child. A male killer would most likely use his physical strength to carry out an action as such. The suspect for this profile is closely associated with the victim; someone who the victim most likely trusts enough to live a regular comfortable life around, which leads me to narrow my suspect list down to immediate family members. There were two phases of the murder and more than one person executed the operation. One killer was most likely covering up for the other’s mistake. In my theory; Patsy Ramsey and Burke Ramsey fit the profile perfectly. I derived the two phases of killing from the evidence that JonBenet woke up from being unconscious after her head injury, and didn’t stay awake for too long before she got killed. In my suspicion and analysis of previously based evidence, this is how the scenario played out. JonBenet was eating pineapple with her brother Burke; referring to the clinical autopsy result which showed yellow-green substances in her stomach, and Burke’s finger-print across utensils and surrounding materials. A big, heavy flashlight was also present on the counter nearby which could possibly be the initial weapon of attack. The flashlight was hard enough to cause a severe head injury on a fragile skull of a six- year old, which would leave the child unconscious for quite some time. In my opinion, Burke and his sister most likely got into a childish dispute while eating on the counter, which caused Burke to hit his sister with a flashlight on her head. Burke was unaware of the damage he caused and there was no evidence of him being a part of the later executed plan. It was probably sometime till Patsy, being present in the kitchen at the time, found out that her daughter wasn’t moving. It is highly likely that she thought that her daughter was dead due to the head injury. This was not the first of Burke’s violent attitude towards his sister, as sources report, Burke had a shaky history with his sister. A year before she died, Burke struck JonBenet with a golf club after “losing his temper” which left a scar on her face. To cover up her son’s mistake, our prime suspect, Patsy, more than likely carried the victim to the basement, in attempt to hide the body. Soon after, Patsy realizes that the victim was only unconscious and not exactly dead. As soon as JonBenet identifies the “abductors”, Patsy tried to keep this incident caused by her son a secret, so she used a garrote, made out of her paintbrush to strangle her daughter to death. Around 5:00 am in the morning on 26th December, Patsy Ramsey reported their missing daughter and a ransom note in their house, where the pen and the paper were both found out to be taken from a notebook at their house, to write the note, which implies that the note was written at the crime scene. The ransom note was unnaturally long, and apparently the longest that has been ever been seen by the FBI, to be written to demand ransom. It included very important insider details about the family, that no outsider could possibly know. The intentional spelling mistake and the 385 words long note lead to my conclusion that it was written by someone who was trying to impersonate themselves as kidnappers which they were clearly not. Handwriting samples were later matched to find that it was most similar with Patsy Ramsey’s. Another important evidence on how this might have been an accident, and an attempt to cover up a mistake to only make it worse is the 911 call made by Patsy Ramsey. Right after the incident was reported to the dispatcher, Patsy was still on the line. Experts claimed to have heard find three distinctive voices talking in the background. Burke Ramsey was identified in the background asking, “What did you find?” John Ramsey was allegedly heard shouting to say, “We are not talking to you” and Patsy kept repeatedly shouting “Oh my Jesus”. There was no evidence found against Burke to prove that he might have assisted his parents in hiding the body, which might be because the parents had not informed him about their plan on covering up the damage he caused and did not want him to feel like he killed his sister. I think one of the biggest flaw in this case was not interrogating John and Patsy Ramsey until 5 months into the case since murder. If I was to be a profiler back in 1996, my first call would be to investigate and interrogate the family as soon as the missing person statement was made over the 911 call, along with completely sealing the crime scene/ Ramsey residence and have investigators and police search the entire house themselves, instead of allowing John Ramsey and his friends do it. Many neighbors and friends were walking into the house after the 911 call, to help the Ramsey’s search for their daughter or any evidence, which helped the Ramseys wipe out any possible DNA evidence that could be used against them. In criminal cases, the burden of proof triumphs the limit required for civil cases. As of now, Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 due to ovarian cancer. But public prosecutors can still take up the case to charge John Ramsey and Burke Ramsey for tampering with evidence, which is a class 6 felony in Colorado.