1996: JonBenét Ramsey Is Murdered
The murder of JonBenét Ramsey remains one of the most compelling mysteries in modern American history. The brutal death of the six-year-old girl gripped the nation — and it was made even more tragic by the fact that it occurred on Christmas Day.
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoJonBenét was just six years old when she was murdered on Christmas Day 1996.
Just before 6 a.m. on Dec. 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey called 911 from her Boulder, Colorado, home to report that her daughter was missing. She’d found a ransom note, and the police quickly arrived to look for additional clues.
Tragically, their search ended around 1 p.m. when JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, found her body in the basement. She’d been violently murdered.
JonBenét had last been seen alive when her parents put her to bed on Christmas night. By the time her body was discovered, she was already exhibiting signs of decomposition, so forensics experts believe she was likely killed shortly after 10 p.m. on Dec. 25. This aligns with reports of the Ramseys’ neighbors hearing a scream around midnight.
Investigators initially suspected John and Patsy Ramsey, but they were never charged. Other theories suggest that the little girl was murdered by her brother, Burke, or by an intruder who knew her from the beauty pageants she participated in. However, to this day, nobody knows for sure who killed JonBenét Ramsey.
