WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.840 I've been in law enforcement long enough to know 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:04.839 that some cases don't end. They just stop breathing. 00:00:05.059 --> 00:00:07.040 The air goes out of them, and all that remains 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:10.199 is a silent echo. The John Benet Ramsey case 00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:12.660 is one of those echoes, louder than ever, three 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:15.939 decades later, reverberating between fact and 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:18.000 fiction, truth and myth. Every time I revisit 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.719 it, I feel the same chill. A child murdered in 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.440 her own home on Christmas night. A family crushed 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.019 under suspicion. A police department in over 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:27.960 his head from the very start. Tonight, we're 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:30.039 going to dig into all of it and explore the latest 00:00:30.039 --> 00:00:32.560 developments in a case that refuses to die. This 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.200 is Zero Signal Shorts. Remember to like, subscribe, 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:37.759 and follow. And don't miss our full -length episodes 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:54.520 every Tuesday at 6 a .m. Most major American 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:57.240 cities are ringing out the old year with the 00:00:57.240 --> 00:01:00.299 encouraging news of declining murder rates. But 00:01:00.299 --> 00:01:02.920 beyond those numbers are the people, the victims, 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:05.959 who will not be ushering in the new year. Case 00:01:05.959 --> 00:01:08.959 in point, the unsolved case of a six -year -old 00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:12.319 beauty pageant winner buried just today. Diana 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:16.659 Olick has the story. The body of six -year -old 00:01:16.659 --> 00:01:19.180 John Benet Ramsey was laid to rest in Atlanta 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:22.359 today. To be honest, the mind cannot grasp and 00:01:22.359 --> 00:01:25.379 the heart refuses to accept the death of one 00:01:25.379 --> 00:01:28.859 so young. Friends describe her as Luminous, a 00:01:28.859 --> 00:01:31.859 pint -sized beauty queen who in 1995 won the 00:01:31.859 --> 00:01:34.760 Little Miss Colorado pageant. Her mother, a former 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.000 Miss West Virginia, and her father, president 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:40.140 of a billion dollar boulder business, told investigators 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:42.599 John Benet was tucked safely in her bed Christmas 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:45.849 night. But come morning she was gone. Her mother 00:01:45.849 --> 00:01:48.250 called police saying she'd found a ransom note 00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:52.390 asking for $118 ,000. Hours later with police 00:01:52.390 --> 00:01:54.890 in the house, the little girl's body was found 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:57.170 hidden in the basement. Nearly a week later, 00:01:57.450 --> 00:01:59.670 crime scene investigators are still combing through 00:01:59.670 --> 00:02:02.370 the home. Police haven't named any suspects, 00:02:02.730 --> 00:02:04.989 but curiously they are saying that the public 00:02:04.989 --> 00:02:07.790 at large is not in any danger, that there is 00:02:07.790 --> 00:02:10.969 not a random killer on the loose. Just two days 00:02:10.969 --> 00:02:13.250 before Christmas, the home was filled with friends 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:15.830 for the annual Christmas party. It was the last 00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:18.389 time neighbor Joe Barnhill saw John Benet. He 00:02:18.389 --> 00:02:24.750 was just gorgeous and just beaming and so joyful 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:27.750 with Santa Claus. Bill McReynolds has been playing 00:02:27.750 --> 00:02:30.210 Santa at the Ramsey Christmas party for years. 00:02:30.449 --> 00:02:33.289 She's the only child that I ever talked to and 00:02:33.289 --> 00:02:35.569 asked her what she wanted for Christmas. They 00:02:35.569 --> 00:02:38.069 never said that she wanted anything. The father, 00:02:38.270 --> 00:02:40.689 John Ramsey, has hired a criminal defense attorney, 00:02:41.030 --> 00:02:43.110 and police are not releasing the full results 00:02:43.110 --> 00:02:46.189 of Jean Benet's autopsy, only that she was strangled. 00:02:46.590 --> 00:02:48.909 Other evidence from the body, they say, is still 00:02:48.909 --> 00:02:51.789 part of the murder investigation. Diana Olick, 00:02:51.909 --> 00:02:54.439 CBS News, Boulder. It began on the morning of 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:58.560 December 26, 1996, when Patsy Ramsey called Boulder 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:01.300 to police just before 6 a .m. She reported that 00:03:01.300 --> 00:03:03.360 her six -year -old daughter was missing, and 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:06.740 that she had found a ransom note demanding $118 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:09.919 ,000. Now, this is an oddly specific number, 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:12.659 and it matched perfectly to her husband's recent 00:03:12.659 --> 00:03:15.099 work bonus. As a former investigator, that number 00:03:15.099 --> 00:03:17.219 alone would have sent my instincts humming. In 00:03:17.219 --> 00:03:19.960 real ransom cases, perpetrators demand round 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:22.539 figures. Half a million. A million. Not precise. 00:03:22.620 --> 00:03:25.300 payroll figures known to maybe a dozen people. 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.080 Right there, the circle of possibilities, the 00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:30.939 circle of suspects shrank dramatically because 00:03:30.939 --> 00:03:33.319 no one else would have known it. Officers arrived 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:36.300 within minutes to the Ramsey's three -story Tudor 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:40.219 home at 755 15th Street, a mansion that was absolutely 00:03:40.219 --> 00:03:43.199 decked out in Christmas lights and family photos 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:45.539 from the previous night's festivities. They expected 00:03:45.539 --> 00:03:47.960 to find a kidnapping scene, but instead they 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:50.360 walked into a house full of neighbors and clergy. 00:03:50.460 --> 00:03:52.810 The family had called them for No one from the 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:55.689 department had the presence or the experience 00:03:55.689 --> 00:03:57.770 to lock down the crime scene. Evidence control 00:03:57.770 --> 00:03:59.969 failed before it even started. I've seen it happen. 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:02.689 When panic takes over, the scene becomes a gathering 00:04:02.689 --> 00:04:05.129 place rather than a crime scene grid. Dozens 00:04:05.129 --> 00:04:07.030 of feet trample on what could have been trace 00:04:07.030 --> 00:04:09.509 evidence. Coffee was poured. Furniture moved. 00:04:09.610 --> 00:04:11.490 One of the most important crime scenes of the 00:04:11.490 --> 00:04:13.969 decade became a living room for grief. The ransom 00:04:13.969 --> 00:04:16.629 note itself was a law enforcement officer's nightmare. 00:04:16.829 --> 00:04:19.310 Two and a half pages long, handwritten on paper 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:22.250 from inside the home. using a family's pen. They 00:04:22.250 --> 00:04:24.709 read like a movie script rather than a real extortion 00:04:24.709 --> 00:04:27.490 letter. We are a group of individuals that represent 00:04:27.490 --> 00:04:30.069 a small foreign faction. You know, this letter, 00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:33.110 it mixed threats with melodrama, even quoting 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:36.029 cinematic language, phrases reminiscent of Dirty 00:04:36.029 --> 00:04:38.310 Harry and speed. That's not how professional 00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:40.629 criminals write. A genuine kidnapper doesn't 00:04:40.629 --> 00:04:42.889 linger in a house long enough to find a pad, 00:04:43.050 --> 00:04:46.069 write multiple drafts, leave a three page manifesto. 00:04:46.110 --> 00:04:48.689 The note's content suggested staging, someone 00:04:48.689 --> 00:04:51.019 trying to divert attention to create the illusion 00:04:51.019 --> 00:04:53.480 of a kidnapping after something else had gone 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:55.759 terribly wrong. Now I want to remind you that 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:58.139 young girl was killed in the basement. The family 00:04:58.139 --> 00:05:00.279 was still in the house. How are you spending 00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:03.420 potentially an hour? crafting a note. From my 00:05:03.420 --> 00:05:05.319 understanding, they were able to identify the 00:05:05.319 --> 00:05:08.060 paper that was located inside the house. That's 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:09.899 how they knew it was likely written there. Now, 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:12.939 for hours that morning, police treated the case 00:05:12.939 --> 00:05:15.300 as a kidnapping, not a homicide. They advised 00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:17.399 the Ramses not to answer their phones, assuming 00:05:17.399 --> 00:05:19.560 the kidnapper might call and try to get their 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:21.740 money. No one searched the entire house. They 00:05:21.740 --> 00:05:24.300 probably stayed in the living room with the Ramses 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:26.620 and the grieving family members and clergymen. 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:29.379 Now, That decision was stupid. From a law enforcement 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:32.139 experience, even if you assume a kidnapping or 00:05:32.139 --> 00:05:34.819 somebody runs away, the first place you look 00:05:34.819 --> 00:05:37.240 is inside the house. Lock the house down, perform 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:40.399 a search, secure an area where people can grieve, 00:05:40.459 --> 00:05:43.319 but not contaminate potential evidence. That 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:46.000 decision of failing to lock down the crime scene 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.360 more than any other doomed this investigation. 00:05:48.540 --> 00:05:50.939 It wasn't until around 1 p .m. that Detective 00:05:50.939 --> 00:05:53.720 Linda Art suggested John Ramsey and the family 00:05:53.720 --> 00:05:56.019 friend rechecked the basement. Oh yeah, we forgot. 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:58.509 We'll do that. now. Within minutes John found 00:05:58.509 --> 00:06:01.089 his daughter's body in a small windowless room 00:06:01.089 --> 00:06:03.649 behind a latched door. She was wrapped in a white 00:06:03.649 --> 00:06:06.589 blanket tape across her mouth. Nylon cord wrapped 00:06:06.589 --> 00:06:09.490 around her neck with a broken handle. of Patsy's 00:06:09.490 --> 00:06:11.629 paintbrush. From a forensic standpoint, what 00:06:11.629 --> 00:06:14.350 happened next is really painful to recount. Ramsey 00:06:14.350 --> 00:06:16.810 lifted his daughter's body and carried her upstairs, 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:19.009 setting her down near the Christmas tree. He 00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:21.430 thought she might still be alive, but by moving 00:06:21.430 --> 00:06:23.829 her, he effectively erased the possibility of 00:06:23.829 --> 00:06:26.170 a clean crime scene. Fibers transferred, body 00:06:26.170 --> 00:06:28.389 position changed, blood patterns disturbed. I 00:06:28.389 --> 00:06:31.189 can't fault the father. I'm a father myself for 00:06:31.189 --> 00:06:33.290 wanting to care for his daughter and being in 00:06:33.290 --> 00:06:35.290 a state of panic. But that's why you have law 00:06:35.290 --> 00:06:37.430 enforcement officers to guide them. But the chain 00:06:37.430 --> 00:06:40.529 of evidence In this case, because the law enforcement 00:06:40.529 --> 00:06:43.490 failed to act, was absolutely shattered. The 00:06:43.490 --> 00:06:46.430 autopsy later showed two major injuries, a skull 00:06:46.430 --> 00:06:48.949 fracture and strangulation. The coroner rolled 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:51.490 the cause of death as asphyxia by strangulation 00:06:51.490 --> 00:06:54.449 associated with cranocerebral trauma or head 00:06:54.449 --> 00:06:56.670 trauma. The order of those injuries has been 00:06:56.670 --> 00:06:59.209 debated for decades. My professional read is 00:06:59.209 --> 00:07:01.189 that the head wound came first, delivered with 00:07:01.189 --> 00:07:03.970 a blunt force object such as a flashlight, and 00:07:03.970 --> 00:07:06.860 that the noose around her neck was applied afterward, 00:07:06.939 --> 00:07:09.600 possibly to stage the scene or ensure the death. 00:07:09.699 --> 00:07:12.199 There were signs of prior vaginal irritation, 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:14.959 but not a violent assault suggesting either post 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.839 -mortem manipulation or a red herring to suggest 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:20.100 sexual violence. Now let me pause there. Though 00:07:20.100 --> 00:07:23.139 I'm guessing at the chain of events that occurred 00:07:23.139 --> 00:07:25.699 as they seem most likely, if you were trained 00:07:25.699 --> 00:07:28.120 law enforcement personnel or a trained medical 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:30.339 examiner, you would likely know what came first 00:07:30.339 --> 00:07:32.759 between live or mortis. Once you die, your blood 00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:35.220 settles in your body. starts to mark the skin. 00:07:35.379 --> 00:07:38.139 Rigor mortis starts to set in after several hours. 00:07:38.279 --> 00:07:41.160 The most enduring physical clue was a trace amount 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:43.959 of male DNA on her underwear and leggings, graded 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:46.319 partially, but definitely not from a family member. 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:49.399 Forensics technology in the 90s couldn't do much 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:51.399 with that kind of evidence, but it remains in 00:07:51.399 --> 00:07:53.639 storage to this day, waiting for the power of 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:57.079 modern DNA to catch up. That tiny sample is the 00:07:57.079 --> 00:07:59.060 thread that could finally unwind this entire 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:02.079 case. By the afternoon of December 27th, the 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:04.259 story had gone national. Cable News found it 00:08:04.259 --> 00:08:06.959 as a perfect strategy, wealth, innocence, beauty, 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:09.519 and the dark suggestion of deceit behind a mansion 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:11.339 door. I was young at that time, but I remember 00:08:11.339 --> 00:08:13.279 watching the coverage and feeling disgusted. 00:08:13.459 --> 00:08:15.860 The media transformed the Ramses into archetypes. 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:18.579 Patsy, the controlling pageant mother, John, 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:21.139 the detached businessman, Burke, the shadowy 00:08:21.139 --> 00:08:23.600 brother in the background. The press filled every 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:25.920 silence with speculation, and the Boulder Police 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:28.019 Department, inexperienced with high -profile 00:08:28.019 --> 00:08:29.879 homicides, couldn't get ahead of it. Inside the 00:08:29.879 --> 00:08:32.080 department, investigators quickly divide it into 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:34.639 two camps. One group believed the crime was domestic, 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:36.740 a family cover -up following an accident. The 00:08:36.740 --> 00:08:38.600 other pushed for the intruder theory, citing 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:41.000 the broken basement window and the possibility 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.860 of the outsider's DNA. The division became toxic, 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:45.700 and cooperation with the DA's office has broke 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:47.940 down. I've seen task force complote that way. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:49.820 Whenever one's chasing a different ghost, the 00:08:49.820 --> 00:08:52.299 case file turns into a battlefield of egos. The 00:08:52.299 --> 00:08:54.279 parrot, the parents did it. Theory gained traction 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:56.559 fast. The ransom note looked too elaborate, and 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:59.179 handwriting analysts claim partial matches to 00:08:59.179 --> 00:09:01.720 Patsy's script. The paintbrush handle used for 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:04.139 the noose came from her own art kit. Behavior 00:09:04.139 --> 00:09:06.399 analysts noted her composure on camera, calling 00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:08.399 it rehearsed. But as an investigator, I know 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:11.100 grief manifests in ways the public misreads. 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:13.480 Control of motion doesn't equate to guilt. Sometimes 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.059 it's just shock. locked behind manners. Still, 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:18.899 the circumstantial narrative was seductive. A 00:09:18.899 --> 00:09:21.500 child wetting the bed, mother snapping, an accident 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:23.899 covered by an improvised ransom note. The problem 00:09:23.899 --> 00:09:26.860 is that no forensic evidence inside that house 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:29.500 conclusively pointed to the Ramses. No fingerprints 00:09:29.500 --> 00:09:31.600 on the weapon, no blood spatter matching their 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:33.779 clothing, no physical link at all. What killed 00:09:33.779 --> 00:09:36.399 the investigation wasn't the lack of clues, it 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.860 was the absence of discipline. The scene wasn't 00:09:38.860 --> 00:09:41.299 preserved. Statements weren't synchronized, and 00:09:41.299 --> 00:09:44.139 the first 24 hours devolved in chaos. Detective 00:09:44.139 --> 00:09:46.899 Arndt later said she was left alone with the 00:09:46.899 --> 00:09:50.019 Ramses that morning, unarmed, with no clear command 00:09:50.019 --> 00:09:52.399 structure. She described feeling unsafe, surrounded 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:55.080 by potential suspects and uncertainty. When John 00:09:55.080 --> 00:09:57.659 carried John Bonet's body upstairs, Arndt said 00:09:57.659 --> 00:10:00.659 she knew the case was lost. That line has haunted 00:10:00.659 --> 00:10:03.519 me ever since, because every seasoned investigator 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:06.200 has lived a version of that moment, the instant 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:08.279 you realized you'd lost control of the truth. 00:10:08.360 --> 00:10:11.360 In early 1997, the Ramses were defending themselves 00:10:11.360 --> 00:10:13.710 on television instead of inside. the courtroom. 00:10:13.909 --> 00:10:16.309 Their cooperation with police became conditional. 00:10:16.429 --> 00:10:18.809 Lawyers present, questions pre -screened, trust 00:10:18.809 --> 00:10:21.929 collapsed on both sides. In 1999, the grand jury 00:10:21.929 --> 00:10:24.590 reviewed the case and secretly voted to indict 00:10:24.590 --> 00:10:27.110 the parents for child abuse, resulting in death. 00:10:27.190 --> 00:10:29.789 But the DA refused to sign it, citing insufficient 00:10:29.789 --> 00:10:31.889 evidence. That sealed the public's perception. 00:10:32.070 --> 00:10:34.330 The rich had walked free. Forensics technology 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:37.110 has advanced since then, but even as of 2025, 00:10:37.269 --> 00:10:39.169 the case remains open. The Boulder Police Department 00:10:39.169 --> 00:10:41.610 now claims they're working with outside labs 00:10:41.610 --> 00:10:44.549 to apply genetic geology to the remaining DNA 00:10:44.549 --> 00:10:46.970 fragments. John Ramsey, now in his eighties, 00:10:47.070 --> 00:10:49.309 says he's encouraged for the first time in decades. 00:10:49.409 --> 00:10:51.970 It's possible that one day the same tools that 00:10:51.970 --> 00:10:54.370 unmasked the Golden State Killer could finally 00:10:54.370 --> 00:10:57.889 identify the unknown male whose microscopic cells 00:10:57.889 --> 00:11:00.450 have sat frozen in Evans for nearly 30 years. 00:11:00.490 --> 00:11:03.549 When I analyze the Ramsey case as a professional, 00:11:03.669 --> 00:11:07.470 I see less a mystery and more a cascade of preventable 00:11:07.470 --> 00:11:09.950 errors. Every missed procedure, every unchecked 00:11:09.950 --> 00:11:12.340 box, widen the gap between truth and theory. 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:14.440 Once the case left the confines of the lab and 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:16.259 entered the court of public opinion, it stopped 00:11:16.259 --> 00:11:19.200 being a homicide investigation and became a cultural 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:21.559 test. People saw it in whatever confirmed their 00:11:21.559 --> 00:11:24.419 bias, parental guilt, media corruption, or elite 00:11:24.419 --> 00:11:26.440 cover -ups. That's what happens when the chain 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:29.200 of evidence breaks. Conspiracy rushes in to fill 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:31.700 the void. Every unsolved case breeds theories, 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:34.299 but the Ramsey's investigation became a storm 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:37.009 system all on its own. When law enforcement loses 00:11:37.009 --> 00:11:39.009 control of the narrative, someone else writes 00:11:39.009 --> 00:11:41.029 it for them. And that's exactly what happened 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:43.610 here. The Boulder police let silence linger too 00:11:43.610 --> 00:11:46.850 long, and into that vacuum came a flood of speculation, 00:11:47.149 --> 00:11:49.549 amateur sleuthing, and sensational storytelling. 00:11:49.690 --> 00:11:52.070 I've seen it in other high -profile investigations, 00:11:52.289 --> 00:11:54.370 but never with this intensity. The world wanted 00:11:54.370 --> 00:11:56.830 a villain, and since no one was charged, everyone 00:11:56.830 --> 00:12:00.269 became one. Are you aware of these different 00:12:00.269 --> 00:12:06.000 theories that are out there? Theories that you 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.679 killed your sister, theories that your mother 00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:12.059 killed Jomine, and theories that an intruder 00:12:12.059 --> 00:12:14.700 killed Jomine. Those seem to be the three camps 00:12:14.700 --> 00:12:18.720 that people talk about. Yeah, I mean, I know 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:21.179 that we were suspects. I didn't know they were 00:12:21.179 --> 00:12:24.120 camps, I guess. And these are people that post 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:28.639 online. The shorthand is RDI. Ramsey did it. 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:34.019 IDI. The intruder did it, or BDI. Bert did it. 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:37.720 Do you know the theories that they set forth 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:43.139 in saying that your mom killed JonBenet? I don't 00:12:43.139 --> 00:12:45.759 know the details, but I know the ransom note. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.220 They think the handwriting matched. Have you 00:12:48.220 --> 00:12:52.039 seen it? Have you read it? I don't think I've 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:53.919 read the whole thing. I've definitely seen pictures 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:57.139 of it, though. Did the handwriting look familiar 00:12:57.139 --> 00:13:01.580 to you at all? Had you seen it ever before? No. 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:04.179 I feel like the listen carefully is very distinct, 00:13:04.220 --> 00:13:07.639 and I've never really seen that. I don't know, 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.100 I've never really looked at it closely, because 00:13:10.100 --> 00:13:14.500 I'll see it and kind of get taken aback, and 00:13:14.500 --> 00:13:18.519 it's not something I really want to look at, 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:20.980 like, a lot, you know? Right. Does that look 00:13:20.980 --> 00:13:25.460 like her handwriting? She would always bug me 00:13:25.460 --> 00:13:27.220 about having good handwriting, and she would, 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:30.700 like... make me rewrite stuff to try to get me 00:13:30.700 --> 00:13:33.440 to have good handwriting and I think it's too 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.539 sloppy. The first and most endearing theory was 00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:39.860 that JonBenet, nine -year -old brother, Burke 00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:41.940 Ramsey, had something to do with her death. It's 00:13:41.940 --> 00:13:44.980 an ideal born from half facts and childhood psychology, 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:47.179 but it took on a life of its own. Investigators 00:13:47.179 --> 00:13:49.340 noted that Burke's fingerprints were found on 00:13:49.340 --> 00:13:51.659 a bowl of pineapple milk left on the kitchen 00:13:51.659 --> 00:13:54.399 table. The same snack found partially digested 00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:56.980 in JonBenet's stomach. Some theorists claim she 00:13:56.980 --> 00:13:59.299 snuck downstairs, took some, and a scuffle broke 00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:01.600 out between the siblings, ending in a fatal blow 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:03.840 to the head. The parents, realizing what happened, 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:06.000 staged a kidnapping to protect their surviving 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.240 child. I understand why this theory adheres. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:10.399 It's emotionally neat, preserves the ideal of 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:12.220 an accident rather than a deliberate murder, 00:14:12.259 --> 00:14:14.759 but it honestly collapses under scrutiny. The 00:14:14.759 --> 00:14:16.980 forensics evidence doesn't match. The head wound 00:14:16.980 --> 00:14:19.620 was far too severe for a nine -year -old strength. 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:22.000 The noose tied around her neck was tied with 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.440 deliberate precision, methodically two -turn 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:26.960 knot called a slip knot choke, common in sexual 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:29.200 homicides, not impulsive accidents. And then 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:31.720 there's a ransom note, meticulous act of misdirection 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:34.399 far beyond a child's capacity. In law enforcement, 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:37.200 we call that cognitive load mismatch. The behavioral 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:39.580 profile doesn't fit the alleged perpetrator's 00:14:39.580 --> 00:14:41.980 developmental stage. Still, the Burke's theory 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:44.919 resurfaced two decades later with the CBS docu 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:47.720 -series, The Case of John Badde Ramsey in 2016, 00:14:47.940 --> 00:14:50.259 where experts reconstruct the evidence and suggested 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:53.129 again that Burke... might have struck his sister 00:14:53.129 --> 00:14:56.190 with a flashlight. CBS eventually settled a $750 00:14:56.190 --> 00:14:59.149 million defamation lawsuit filed by Burke that 00:14:59.149 --> 00:15:01.350 tells you something, not just about legal strategy, 00:15:01.429 --> 00:15:03.710 but about the reach of public obsession. A child 00:15:03.710 --> 00:15:05.950 witness turned into a pop culture suspect for 00:15:05.950 --> 00:15:07.809 the rest of his life, all because the real killer 00:15:07.809 --> 00:15:10.070 was never found. The second major theory, and 00:15:10.070 --> 00:15:12.330 the one that is most consistent with physical 00:15:12.330 --> 00:15:14.450 evidence, is the intruder theory. This ideal 00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:17.590 rest on two pillars, the unidentified male DNA 00:15:17.590 --> 00:15:20.009 on JonBenet's clothing, and a broken basement 00:15:20.009 --> 00:15:22.250 window that appears to have been used for entry. 00:15:22.450 --> 00:15:24.769 There were signs, vague but notable, of an outsider's 00:15:24.769 --> 00:15:26.490 presence. A shoe print from a high -tech boot 00:15:26.490 --> 00:15:29.269 near the body didn't match any footwear located 00:15:29.269 --> 00:15:31.789 inside the house or owned by the Ramsey. A palm 00:15:31.789 --> 00:15:34.250 print on the wine cellar door wasn't conclusively 00:15:34.250 --> 00:15:36.769 tied to the family. For many of us in the investigative 00:15:36.769 --> 00:15:38.690 community, this is the only theory that makes 00:15:38.690 --> 00:15:40.970 sense from a crime scene standpoint. The theory 00:15:40.970 --> 00:15:43.610 suggests that someone, possibly a stalker, possibly 00:15:43.610 --> 00:15:45.570 a burglar, entered the home late on Christmas 00:15:45.570 --> 00:15:47.470 night while the family slept and may have known 00:15:47.470 --> 00:15:49.690 the layout of the house. Perhaps from a prior 00:15:49.690 --> 00:15:51.539 visit or from casing the neighborhood. It's been 00:15:51.539 --> 00:15:53.559 proposed that the intruder hid in the basement. 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:56.000 storage area, waited for hours, and then struck 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.100 Jambonet when she was alone. The motive could 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:00.840 have been sexual in nature, interrupted by Jambonet 00:16:00.840 --> 00:16:03.100 walking or resting, resulting in the fatal blow 00:16:03.100 --> 00:16:04.960 to the head. The killer then staged the ransom 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:07.720 note and other elements to delay discovery. But 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:10.120 the intruder theory isn't without its weaknesses. 00:16:10.340 --> 00:16:12.519 For one, there are no obvious signs of forced 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:15.120 entry other than the single broken window which 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:17.679 John Ramsey himself admitted he had broken weeks 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:19.820 earlier after locking himself out. There was 00:16:19.820 --> 00:16:22.340 no snow disturbance on the ground outside the 00:16:22.340 --> 00:16:24.490 window, despite a recent snowfall, suggesting 00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:27.389 no one came or went through that night. Fiber 00:16:27.389 --> 00:16:29.389 evidence from the basement matched items inside 00:16:29.389 --> 00:16:31.289 the house, but that could also indicate cross 00:16:31.289 --> 00:16:33.370 contamination from the mishandled crime scene. 00:16:33.490 --> 00:16:36.570 Even the DNA, long held as the unknown male clue, 00:16:36.690 --> 00:16:39.230 could have come from manufacturing contamination 00:16:39.230 --> 00:16:41.509 at the clothing factory, a possibility modern 00:16:41.509 --> 00:16:44.090 analysts can't rule out. Still, this theory has 00:16:44.090 --> 00:16:46.070 the advantage of preserving one essential truth. 00:16:46.190 --> 00:16:48.690 The Ramses never fit the psychological profile 00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:50.850 of family murderers. Their behaviors, though 00:16:50.850 --> 00:16:53.210 awkward under media scrutiny, work consistent 00:16:53.210 --> 00:16:55.470 with grief and trauma, not cover -up. I've interviewed 00:16:55.470 --> 00:16:57.789 guilty parents before. They don't fight for decades 00:16:57.789 --> 00:17:00.590 to open the investigation, to test DNA, or to 00:17:00.590 --> 00:17:02.929 face every camera pleading for help. John Ramsay 00:17:02.929 --> 00:17:04.829 has done all of that. Then there's the elite 00:17:04.829 --> 00:17:07.089 cover -up theory, the darkest branch of speculation. 00:17:07.210 --> 00:17:09.369 This one claims that John Bonet's death wasn't 00:17:09.369 --> 00:17:11.710 a random crime or a domestic tragedy. It was 00:17:11.710 --> 00:17:14.190 part of something larger, tied to child exploitation 00:17:14.190 --> 00:17:16.349 rings and powerful individuals. These narratives 00:17:16.349 --> 00:17:18.349 grew in the shadows of the internet forums in 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:21.490 the early 2000s and exploded after Jeffrey Epstein 00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:23.559 and revelations decades later. They draw on vague 00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:26.059 coincidence, names and social circles, charity 00:17:26.059 --> 00:17:28.180 events, and political connections, and twist 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:30.000 them into a network of evil. According to these 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.440 theorists, the crime scene was managed, the ransom 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:34.819 note was crafted by professionals, and Boulder 00:17:34.819 --> 00:17:37.660 PD was pressured to steer away from certain leads. 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:39.880 There's no credible evidence to support any of 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:42.039 this, but as someone who's seen how power and 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:43.920 privilege intersect with law enforcement, I can 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:45.920 understand why people believe it. The Ramses 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:48.200 were wealthy, socially connected, and immediately 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.039 surrounded by lawyers and PR advisors. were treated 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:52.940 differently, even if unintentionally. The DA's 00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:55.480 office, hesitant to indict, the police were muzzled 00:17:55.480 --> 00:17:57.740 from speaking publicly. In a world already cynical 00:17:57.740 --> 00:17:59.720 about fairness, that looked like conspiracy. 00:17:59.859 --> 00:18:01.640 And once a case smells of privilege, the internet 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:03.619 will turn it into a mythology. Which brings us 00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:05.660 to the strangest and most infamous myth of all, 00:18:05.779 --> 00:18:07.640 the Katy Perry theory. This one emerged around 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:10.460 2014, before not from investigation, but from 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:12.819 internet absurdity. The claim was that John Badde 00:18:12.819 --> 00:18:15.400 Ramsey never died, and instead grew up to become 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:17.900 a pop star named Katy Perry. The evidence was 00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:20.240 nothing more than visual comparisons. similar 00:18:20.240 --> 00:18:22.839 facial structure, childhood photos matched with 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:25.519 Perry's adult features, and numerology, coincidence 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:27.740 that makes even seasoned conspiracy theorists 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:30.299 roll their eyes. Some posts even claim Perry's 00:18:30.299 --> 00:18:32.539 parents were secretly the Ramses, living under 00:18:32.539 --> 00:18:35.039 new identities, and that their rise to fame was 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:37.539 part of the elite rebirth ritual. Honestly, it's 00:18:37.539 --> 00:18:40.079 pure nonsense, but its popularity says something 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:42.119 profound about the culture around this case. 00:18:42.220 --> 00:18:43.880 When the real story stays unfinished, people 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:45.940 start inventing their own endings. The Katy Perry 00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:48.720 theory wasn't about belief, it was about participation. 00:18:48.880 --> 00:18:51.220 A generation raised on viral storytelling took 00:18:51.220 --> 00:18:53.220 one of America's deepest tragedies and turned 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:56.039 it into digital folklore. It wasn't about murder 00:18:56.039 --> 00:18:58.400 anymore. It was about meaning. As a law enforcement 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:00.880 veteran, I see the John Benet -Ramsay case as 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.759 a study in what happens when the justice system 00:19:03.759 --> 00:19:06.059 and the public imagination collide. Police work 00:19:06.059 --> 00:19:08.319 is slow, methodical. and bounded by evidence. 00:19:08.440 --> 00:19:11.000 The internet is theories travel faster than facts 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:13.359 ever can. When the Boulder case lost narrative 00:19:13.359 --> 00:19:15.339 control, they lost the case twice, once in the 00:19:15.339 --> 00:19:17.259 court of law and again in the courtroom of culture. 00:19:17.380 --> 00:19:19.779 The truth is that every theory has a fragment 00:19:19.779 --> 00:19:21.700 of possibility. Maybe somebody in the house knows 00:19:21.700 --> 00:19:23.880 more than they said. Maybe the intruder's DNA 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:26.700 really set waiting in the evidence freezer, just 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:29.380 a few years of technology away from exposure. 00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:31.559 Or maybe the answer is something far more ordinary, 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:34.079 a chain of small mistakes that cascaded into 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:36.279 one irreversible nightmare. Whatever the truth 00:19:36.279 --> 00:19:38.599 is, It's buried somewhere between science and 00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:41.000 story, and until the DNA sample tells us otherwise, 00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:43.259 we're left with a riddle dressed as a case file. 00:19:43.420 --> 00:19:45.420 A little girl in a Christmas home, a ransom note 00:19:45.420 --> 00:19:47.759 that reads like fiction, and a world still chasing 00:19:47.759 --> 00:19:50.480 ghost through static. However, every case leaves 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.660 a residue. The paperwork might be boxed and shelved, 00:19:53.779 --> 00:19:56.319 but something lingers in the minds of detectives, 00:19:56.480 --> 00:19:58.680 in the press archives, in the public imagination 00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:01.319 that refuses to let go. The Ramsey case never 00:20:01.319 --> 00:20:03.950 decomposed the way most files do. It fossilized. 00:20:04.109 --> 00:20:06.230 Every generation rediscovers it and polishes 00:20:06.230 --> 00:20:07.910 it again, trying to see their own reflection 00:20:07.910 --> 00:20:09.829 on its surface. From an investigative standpoint, 00:20:09.970 --> 00:20:12.890 the file should have gone to cold case detectives 00:20:12.890 --> 00:20:15.630 long ago. Evidence ages, witness scatter, memory 00:20:15.630 --> 00:20:17.910 becomes rumor. Yet the John Benet Ramsey case 00:20:17.910 --> 00:20:20.190 remains alive, not because of what's in the evidence 00:20:20.190 --> 00:20:21.890 locker, but because of what's missing from it. 00:20:21.910 --> 00:20:25.450 The unknown male DNA, still too degraded for 00:20:25.450 --> 00:20:27.789 genealogy testing, has become both a symbol of 00:20:27.789 --> 00:20:29.910 hope and the perfect narrative device. It's a 00:20:29.910 --> 00:20:31.549 clue. It could solve everything, or it could 00:20:31.549 --> 00:20:34.180 be meaningless. contamination. When I talk to 00:20:34.180 --> 00:20:36.400 younger investigators about the case, they always 00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:38.319 ask the same thing. What went wrong? The answer 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:40.579 isn't dramatic. It's procedural. Crime scene 00:20:40.579 --> 00:20:43.259 control failed. Interagency cooperation failed 00:20:43.259 --> 00:20:46.140 also. And the investigative tempo collapsed under 00:20:46.140 --> 00:20:48.440 national pressure. In the field, we used to say 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.519 that chaos loves confidence. Once the media declared 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:53.920 guilt, the real trial died. Boulder PD was small, 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:56.440 untested, and overwhelmed by the political and 00:20:56.440 --> 00:20:58.700 psychological weight of the child murder investigation 00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:01.240 under a thousand spotlights. The FBI's behavioral 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:03.759 analysis unit offered assistance, but by then 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:05.900 the local command had already entrenched its 00:21:05.900 --> 00:21:08.180 own theories. The file became tribal territory, 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:10.079 not a shared pursuit of truth. The psychological 00:21:10.079 --> 00:21:12.420 toll on the family was incurable. Patsy Ramsey 00:21:12.420 --> 00:21:15.599 died of ovarian cancer in 2006, still insisting 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:17.900 on her innocence. John Ramsey rebuilt what life 00:21:17.900 --> 00:21:21.039 he could, testifying, advocating for DNA reanalysis, 00:21:21.099 --> 00:21:23.579 pushing investigators who once targeted him to 00:21:23.579 --> 00:21:25.460 test the same evidence that could finally clear 00:21:25.460 --> 00:21:27.240 him. It's one of the rare instances where the 00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:29.980 suspect became the advocate for the investigation 00:21:29.980 --> 00:21:32.920 itself. litigation that says everything about 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:35.380 how distorted the case became. From a sociological 00:21:35.380 --> 00:21:37.660 view, John Benet's murder marked a turning point 00:21:37.660 --> 00:21:39.859 in how America consumes crime. It was the first 00:21:39.859 --> 00:21:42.460 case of the 24 -hour news era to fuse tragedy 00:21:42.460 --> 00:21:45.400 with entertainment. CNN, tabloids, and talk shows 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:47.779 filled with airtime with speculation, body language 00:21:47.779 --> 00:21:50.460 analysis, handwriting comparisons, and suede 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:52.759 forensics. Every expert with a camera became 00:21:52.759 --> 00:21:54.920 an authority. Every opinion turned into evidence. 00:21:55.059 --> 00:21:56.859 By the time real investigators tried to speak, 00:21:57.019 --> 00:21:58.799 the audience had already rendered its verdict. 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:01.910 That transformation of aside into a TV ritual 00:22:01.910 --> 00:22:04.210 birthed the modern true crime industry. Before 00:22:04.210 --> 00:22:06.230 Jambonet, the public watched courtroom dramas. 00:22:06.309 --> 00:22:08.430 Afterward, they watched investigations in real 00:22:08.430 --> 00:22:10.789 time. It created the illusion that every citizen 00:22:10.789 --> 00:22:13.349 could be a detective, that logic and intuition 00:22:13.349 --> 00:22:16.690 were interchangeable. The problem is that logic 00:22:16.690 --> 00:22:19.849 requires data, and intuition breeds the narrative. 00:22:20.029 --> 00:22:22.509 The case became a national test. Believers in 00:22:22.509 --> 00:22:24.750 institutional corruption saw cover -up. Believers 00:22:24.750 --> 00:22:27.890 in domestic dysfunction saw parental guilt. And 00:22:27.890 --> 00:22:30.430 those drawn to the occult saw ritual. As forensic 00:22:30.430 --> 00:22:32.690 science advanced, the investigation lagged. Touch 00:22:32.690 --> 00:22:35.430 DNA, familiar matching, and genealogy -based 00:22:35.430 --> 00:22:37.829 tracking have solved dozens of cold cases from 00:22:37.829 --> 00:22:40.210 the same decade. Each new success, from the Golden 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:42.990 State Killer to the Idaho College Murders, reignites 00:22:42.990 --> 00:22:45.130 hope that John Bonet's killer will finally surface. 00:22:45.269 --> 00:22:46.990 Yet every time the lab revisits the evidence, 00:22:47.170 --> 00:22:49.410 they find the same limitations. Samples too minute, 00:22:49.470 --> 00:22:52.349 too mixed, too old. The Boulder's police in 2025 00:22:52.349 --> 00:22:54.630 promised new partnerships with outside agencies, 00:22:54.750 --> 00:22:57.279 but optimism without breakthroughs becomes its 00:22:57.279 --> 00:22:59.720 own form of fatigue. The longer a case endures, 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:02.259 the more it stops being about justice and starts 00:23:02.259 --> 00:23:04.599 being about belief. Entire communities online 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:06.859 dedicate themselves to decoding the ransom note 00:23:06.859 --> 00:23:09.059 like scripture. Others pour over family interviews 00:23:09.059 --> 00:23:11.480 frame by frame, convinced that guilt hides in 00:23:11.480 --> 00:23:13.579 a blink. This is where conspiracy steps in, not 00:23:13.579 --> 00:23:16.019 as a deliberate deception, but as a collective 00:23:16.019 --> 00:23:18.559 coping. When a crime resists closure, we invent 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:20.759 closure ourselves. It's how the human mind resists 00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:22.880 helplessness. That's why the absurd theories, 00:23:23.019 --> 00:23:25.200 the elite cables, the pop -start reincarnation, 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:28.519 There's symptoms of a culture unable to tolerate 00:23:28.519 --> 00:23:30.839 uncertainty. A mystery without an answer feels 00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:33.220 like unfinished music, and the internet will 00:23:33.220 --> 00:23:35.279 hum the missing notes forever. As an investigator, 00:23:35.420 --> 00:23:37.619 I used to think facts could silence rumor, but 00:23:37.619 --> 00:23:39.900 in this era, rumor has become the medium through 00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:42.039 which people experience truth. What does justice 00:23:42.039 --> 00:23:44.460 look like now? For some, it's conviction, a name, 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:47.240 a face, a mugshot. For others, it's a confession, 00:23:47.380 --> 00:23:49.839 even if whispered from the grave. For me, justice 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:51.859 would be something simpler, a final alignment 00:23:51.859 --> 00:23:53.980 of the evidence with the story we tell about. 00:23:54.250 --> 00:23:57.450 that comes from the new DNA hit or a dying declaration, 00:23:57.450 --> 00:23:59.589 I don't really care. I just want the noise to 00:23:59.589 --> 00:24:01.750 stop long enough to hear the facts again. Until 00:24:01.750 --> 00:24:03.890 that day, the case remains both artifact and 00:24:03.890 --> 00:24:06.410 mirror. It reminds us how easily empathy turns 00:24:06.410 --> 00:24:08.650 into voyeurism. How quickly analysis becomes 00:24:08.650 --> 00:24:11.289 accusation and how a nation's grief can morph 00:24:11.289 --> 00:24:13.150 into entertainment. John Benet -Ramsey was a 00:24:13.150 --> 00:24:15.670 real child, not a metaphor, not an icon. She 00:24:15.670 --> 00:24:19.109 laughed, she performed, she lived six short years. 00:24:19.230 --> 00:24:20.970 Everything about that, the ransom though, the 00:24:20.970 --> 00:24:23.690 noose, the endless theorizing belongs to us. 00:24:23.470 --> 00:24:26.829 not to her. So it's been nearly 30 years since 00:24:26.829 --> 00:24:29.730 6 year old John Benet Ramsey was found murdered 00:24:29.730 --> 00:24:32.950 in her family's Colorado basement and the killer 00:24:32.950 --> 00:24:36.369 still has not been found. Retired homicide detective 00:24:36.369 --> 00:24:39.650 Lou Smith searched for an answer into his death 00:24:39.650 --> 00:24:43.210 in 2010. Now a team of his family and colleagues 00:24:43.210 --> 00:24:46.170 are working to try to close the case. And a new 00:24:46.170 --> 00:24:49.289 Fox Nation series got unprecedented access into 00:24:49.289 --> 00:24:51.789 the process. Watch. There's a high probability 00:24:51.789 --> 00:24:53.410 they'll be the ones to solve the crime. They 00:24:53.410 --> 00:24:55.450 want to finish Lou's work. I'm going out doing 00:24:55.450 --> 00:24:57.849 surveillance, grabbing DNA out of folks. We sent 00:24:57.849 --> 00:25:00.410 it to our lab, and then they tested. DNA is a 00:25:00.410 --> 00:25:03.150 youth field that's advancing rapidly. We've seen 00:25:03.150 --> 00:25:06.009 a lot of cold cases be. The technology for DNA 00:25:06.009 --> 00:25:09.150 has come a long way since 1996. There's never 00:25:09.150 --> 00:25:11.309 been a better time to solve the case than there 00:25:11.309 --> 00:25:13.170 is today. We're coming for you, and you will 00:25:13.170 --> 00:25:15.609 be found. John Ramsey is the father of John Bonet, 00:25:15.809 --> 00:25:18.809 and is featured in John Bonet, The Killer's List 00:25:18.809 --> 00:25:21.809 on Fox Nation. And he joins us now. Sir, thanks 00:25:21.809 --> 00:25:23.710 so much for joining the program. We appreciate 00:25:23.710 --> 00:25:25.269 it. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for having 00:25:25.269 --> 00:25:27.430 me. So, sir, you know, I've interviewed a lot 00:25:27.430 --> 00:25:30.670 of victims' families. And many of them, after 00:25:30.670 --> 00:25:33.470 years progress, just want the noise to stop. 00:25:33.390 --> 00:25:36.670 and it's just too traumatic for them, and they 00:25:36.670 --> 00:25:39.789 don't give up, but they just want silence. You 00:25:39.789 --> 00:25:42.410 have taken a different route, and you have hope. 00:25:42.630 --> 00:25:46.470 Why? Well, for two reasons. One, you know, the 00:25:46.470 --> 00:25:49.130 police control cases like this, the local police. 00:25:49.329 --> 00:25:55.230 We have lots of jurisdictions, and we've had 00:25:55.230 --> 00:25:58.309 a change of leadership in the Boulder Police. 00:25:59.289 --> 00:26:04.160 Some of the, frankly, boneheads were dismissed, 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:07.039 and we've got a new group running the place. 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:11.059 And it's very encouraging. Secondly, DNA technology 00:26:11.059 --> 00:26:15.319 has advanced so much in the last 30 years. Lou 00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:18.240 Smith, the detective who was brought in by the 00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:21.700 district attorney early on, legendary detective, 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:26.160 solved over 200 websites in his career, said, 00:26:26.220 --> 00:26:28.880 John, this case will be solved by DNA. And I 00:26:28.880 --> 00:26:31.180 think we're at that point now. if we use the 00:26:31.180 --> 00:26:34.059 technology that's available. So John, let's actually 00:26:34.059 --> 00:26:37.660 play a sound bite of some of that new DNA technology 00:26:37.660 --> 00:26:40.380 because there's a key piece of evidence that 00:26:40.380 --> 00:26:43.069 has yet to be tested. Let's watch it. The only 00:26:43.069 --> 00:26:46.930 way that the case can be solved is through DNA 00:26:46.930 --> 00:26:49.349 testing of all the items of physical evidence. 00:26:50.009 --> 00:26:52.150 And most importantly, the garrote, which has 00:26:52.150 --> 00:26:55.109 never been tested. And it's an important item 00:26:55.109 --> 00:26:58.210 of physical evidence because it was hand -tied 00:26:58.210 --> 00:27:00.630 by somebody's fingers and then used to strangle 00:27:00.630 --> 00:27:03.509 John Benet. That's never been tested for DNA, 00:27:03.849 --> 00:27:06.710 to my knowledge. I have got no assurance that 00:27:06.710 --> 00:27:09.170 it's going to be done. And John, you think this 00:27:09.170 --> 00:27:11.740 is the key? to solving your daughter's murder. 00:27:11.940 --> 00:27:14.779 Well, the key is to be sure that we've tested 00:27:14.779 --> 00:27:18.220 all the crime scene evidence that was taken from 00:27:18.220 --> 00:27:22.640 the scene at the time. The other piece is that 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:28.160 we need to use this new approach to using DNA 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:32.619 to investigate rather than just to convict. You 00:27:32.619 --> 00:27:35.380 know, the DNA database was set up by the federal 00:27:35.380 --> 00:27:39.500 government. It's 30 years old. It's advanced 00:27:39.500 --> 00:27:43.819 so far. There's a new approach called forensic 00:27:43.819 --> 00:27:50.839 genealogy research that allows you to use vast 00:27:50.839 --> 00:27:53.680 amounts of DNA information to investigate the 00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:56.839 crime. And that's the piece that needs to be 00:27:56.839 --> 00:28:00.579 used. John, what do you remember most about your 00:28:00.579 --> 00:28:02.460 daughter? I mean, I was two years old when this 00:28:02.460 --> 00:28:05.420 case... took place, and as a criminal justice 00:28:05.420 --> 00:28:08.480 student, we always studied this case. So I didn't 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:11.640 get to see it take place in the media. So tell 00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:13.500 me about your daughter, what you remember most 00:28:13.500 --> 00:28:17.500 about her. Well, she was daddy's girl, and she 00:28:17.500 --> 00:28:22.220 really, she was very proud of the fact she was 00:28:22.220 --> 00:28:24.420 named after me, and I was, of course, proud of 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:28.380 that as well. She had 100, she was a very extroverted 00:28:28.380 --> 00:28:35.789 little girl, very up. And the one memory I have 00:28:35.789 --> 00:28:39.470 of her is very vivid. I came home one day from 00:28:39.470 --> 00:28:41.430 work and I must have had a frown on my face and 00:28:41.430 --> 00:28:43.529 she came running up to me and said, dad, I don't 00:28:43.529 --> 00:28:46.910 like that face. So I sort of put on a fake smile 00:28:46.910 --> 00:28:50.630 and said, okay, that's better. And she was a 00:28:50.630 --> 00:28:56.589 very up, energetic, very amazing little girl. 00:28:56.750 --> 00:29:00.160 And I miss her deeply. and you're still fighting 00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:03.279 to get her justice. John, we appreciate your 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:05.740 condolences to you and your family, but hopefully 00:29:05.740 --> 00:29:08.359 we can get some answers real soon. In my career, 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:11.220 I learned that some crimes don't destroy just 00:29:11.220 --> 00:29:14.349 one life. They fracture, they collect. between 00:29:14.349 --> 00:29:17.329 truth and those sworn to find it. The Ramsey 00:29:17.329 --> 00:29:19.869 case did exactly that. It exposed how fragile 00:29:19.869 --> 00:29:22.769 our systems are when pride, politics, and the 00:29:22.769 --> 00:29:25.549 media lens distorts the fundamentals of police 00:29:25.549 --> 00:29:27.890 work. It showed that even in a house full of 00:29:27.890 --> 00:29:30.329 lights, shadows can thrive if no one controls 00:29:30.329 --> 00:29:32.190 the switch. So what really happened on Christmas 00:29:32.190 --> 00:29:34.930 night, 1996? The evidence says one thing. The 00:29:34.930 --> 00:29:37.630 imagination says another. Between them lies the 00:29:37.630 --> 00:29:40.190 silence that defines this case. The silence after 00:29:40.190 --> 00:29:42.470 the ransom note, after the discovery, after the 00:29:42.470 --> 00:29:45.069 decade. of interviews that all end with no comment. 00:29:45.230 --> 00:29:47.730 It's the same silence that hangs over every unsolved 00:29:47.730 --> 00:29:49.869 homicide file at the end of the day when the 00:29:49.869 --> 00:29:52.009 detectives shut off the lights and walk out. 00:29:52.150 --> 00:29:54.670 That silence is where the truth lives. And maybe 00:29:54.670 --> 00:29:57.410 one day when science and honesty finally align, 00:29:57.509 --> 00:29:59.549 it will speak once again. Until then, we will 00:29:59.549 --> 00:30:02.029 keep listening. This has been Zero Signal Shorts, 00:30:02.289 --> 00:30:03.789 where the truth and shadow meet.