WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.560 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are walking 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:07.200 into a house that, well, I think everyone in 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:09.099 the world recognizes. Oh, absolutely. You know 00:00:09.099 --> 00:00:11.339 the brick exterior, you know the date, you certainly 00:00:11.339 --> 00:00:14.099 know the name. But the more I looked into the 00:00:14.099 --> 00:00:16.839 stack of research for today, the more I realized 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:20.339 that what we think we know about this case is 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:22.879 basically a collection of magazine headlines 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:26.500 and you know, rumors. It is the ultimate example 00:00:26.500 --> 00:00:29.820 of a case where the mythology has completely 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:32.820 overtaken the forensic reality. We treat it like 00:00:32.820 --> 00:00:34.920 a soap opera, the beauty queen mom, the rich 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:38.020 dad, the pageant videos. But when you actually 00:00:38.020 --> 00:00:40.859 sit down with the case files, the autopsy protocols 00:00:40.859 --> 00:00:43.259 and the police reports, you realize it's actually 00:00:43.259 --> 00:00:45.560 a tragedy of errors. That is exactly what we 00:00:45.560 --> 00:00:47.320 are here to unpack. We are talking, of course, 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:49.460 about the killing of JonBenet Ramsey. And I have 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:51.140 to be honest with you, coming into this, I felt 00:00:51.140 --> 00:00:53.710 like the ultimate learner. I was overwhelmed. 00:00:53.969 --> 00:00:55.909 It's easy to be. I've seen the documentaries 00:00:55.909 --> 00:00:57.950 where ominous music plays and they point the 00:00:57.950 --> 00:01:00.289 finger at the parents. Then I watch another one 00:01:00.289 --> 00:01:02.469 that points the finger at an intruder. And I 00:01:02.469 --> 00:01:04.730 usually walk away feeling like I know less than 00:01:04.730 --> 00:01:08.769 when I started. So what is our mission today? 00:01:09.290 --> 00:01:12.510 Our mission is to strip away the sensationalism. 00:01:12.989 --> 00:01:15.390 We aren't here to judge the pageants or the lifestyle. 00:01:15.870 --> 00:01:19.450 We are here to look at the mechanics of the investigation. 00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:22.269 We want to understand why this case is unsolved. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.939 And to do that, we have to look at the massive 00:01:25.939 --> 00:01:28.060 systemic failures that happened in the first 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:31.739 24 hours. The lost 24 hours. Exactly. If you 00:01:31.739 --> 00:01:33.640 want to know why we don't have a conviction almost 00:01:33.640 --> 00:01:36.340 30 years later, you don't look at the DNA labs 00:01:36.340 --> 00:01:39.200 of 2024. You have to look at the floorboards 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:41.959 of that house on the morning of December 26th, 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:44.859 1996. So it's not just a murder mystery. No, 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:47.239 not at all. It is a case study in crime scene 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:50.260 contamination, a textbook example of what not 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:52.640 to do. So help us navigate this. What are the 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:55.260 sources we are deep diving into today? We have 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:58.420 a pretty comprehensive stack. We are synthesizing 00:01:58.420 --> 00:02:00.519 the original Boulder Police Department reports, 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:04.239 the autopsy protocols, which are difficult to 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.579 read but necessary. Can you imagine? The grand 00:02:06.579 --> 00:02:08.580 jury documents that were released years later 00:02:08.580 --> 00:02:12.280 and the conflicting analyses from the district 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:14.180 attorney's office versus the police department. 00:02:14.539 --> 00:02:17.020 We're also looking at the defamation lawsuits, 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:19.780 which, interestingly enough, established some 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:22.719 legal facts that the public often ignores. And 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:24.819 I think that conflict, the police... versus the 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:28.080 DA is going to be a huge theme today. It feels 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:30.000 like there were two investigations happening 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.039 simultaneously that hated each other. Hate is 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:35.159 probably not too strong a word. Really? It was 00:02:35.159 --> 00:02:38.180 a war. And the casualty of that war was justice 00:02:38.180 --> 00:02:40.500 for JonBenet. Okay, let's get into it. Let's 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:43.729 set the stage. December 1996. It's Christmas 00:02:43.729 --> 00:02:46.810 in Boulder, Colorado, a wealthy, affluent university 00:02:46.810 --> 00:02:50.409 town. The Ramsey family lives at 755 15th Street. 00:02:50.550 --> 00:02:53.990 It's a large, sprawling, Tudor -style home. Right. 00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:56.449 John Ramsey is the president of Axis Graphics, 00:02:56.490 --> 00:02:59.270 a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin. He's incredibly 00:02:59.270 --> 00:03:01.289 successful, very high status in the community. 00:03:01.509 --> 00:03:03.629 A tech millionaire, essentially. In the 90s, 00:03:03.629 --> 00:03:06.110 absolutely. And then you have Patsy Ramsey. Oh, 00:03:06.129 --> 00:03:08.349 former Miss West Virginia. Right. Very social, 00:03:08.490 --> 00:03:11.219 very involved in the community. And they have 00:03:11.219 --> 00:03:13.360 two children in the house, Burke, who is nine 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:16.840 years old, and JonBenet, who is six. And we have 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:18.939 to mention the pageants just for context, although 00:03:18.939 --> 00:03:20.659 I know we don't want to dwell on it. It's relevant 00:03:20.659 --> 00:03:22.919 only in that it made JonBenet a public figure 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.460 before she was a victim. She was Little Miss 00:03:25.460 --> 00:03:28.360 Colorado. She was a national tiny miss. But on 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:30.879 the night of December 25th, Christmas night, 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:34.080 the glitter is off. They're just a family. They 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:35.939 are just a family. They go to a friend's house 00:03:35.939 --> 00:03:38.460 for dinner, the White's house. They come home. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:41.259 They put the kids to bed. The narrative, the 00:03:41.259 --> 00:03:44.199 official story, is that everyone is asleep. Until 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:46.740 the morning of December 26th. This is where the 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:48.740 timeline starts, and honestly, this is where 00:03:48.740 --> 00:03:51.060 the frustration begins for me. Walk us through 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:54.280 the first hour. It begins at 5 .52 a .m. Mountain 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:57.639 Standard Time. Patsy Ramsey calls 911. And it's 00:03:57.639 --> 00:03:59.419 a frantic call, right? Oh, it's frantic. It's 00:03:59.419 --> 00:04:02.659 panicked. She screams that her daughter is missing 00:04:02.659 --> 00:04:05.520 and that there is a ransom note? So the initial 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.919 report is a kidnapping, not a murder. Correct. 00:04:10.039 --> 00:04:13.139 And that distinction is vital. The police are 00:04:13.139 --> 00:04:15.840 responding to a kidnapping in progress, not a 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:19.160 homicide. Two officers arrive within three minutes. 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:22.459 It's still dark outside. So really fast response 00:04:22.459 --> 00:04:26.360 time. Very fast. And they enter the house. Now, 00:04:26.439 --> 00:04:28.519 in a modern investigation, or at least in the 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:30.819 movies, you expect the police to come in, shout, 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.970 nobody move. tape everything off and put on the 00:04:33.970 --> 00:04:36.649 white Tyvek suits. Right. The whole CSI treatment. 00:04:36.889 --> 00:04:39.050 What actually happened was the complete opposite 00:04:39.050 --> 00:04:41.709 of that. They conduct what's called a cursory 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:43.949 search. That is the phrase used in the reports. 00:04:44.209 --> 00:04:46.230 Cursory search. So just a quick look around. 00:04:46.350 --> 00:04:47.930 A quick look. We walk through the house looking 00:04:47.930 --> 00:04:50.269 for signs of forced entry. They don't see any 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:52.230 shattered glass or kicked in doors immediately. 00:04:52.589 --> 00:04:54.629 They're trying to establish the parameters of 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:56.790 the crime. And this leads us to what I think 00:04:56.790 --> 00:04:59.129 is the first sliding doors moment of the case. 00:04:59.230 --> 00:05:02.339 The basement door. Yes. This is a critical, critical 00:05:02.339 --> 00:05:04.879 moment. Officer Rick French is one of the first 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:08.139 on scene. He goes down to the basement. Now this 00:05:08.139 --> 00:05:12.180 is a labyrinthine basement. Lots of rooms, storage 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:15.240 areas, a wine cellar room. It's not just one 00:05:15.240 --> 00:05:18.120 big open space. It's messy, cluttered. Very. 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:22.160 And he gets to a door that is secured by a wooden 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.839 latch at the top of the frame. A latch. So it's 00:05:24.839 --> 00:05:26.839 closed. It's closed and latched from the outside. 00:05:27.100 --> 00:05:29.740 Officer French stands there. He looks at it and 00:05:29.740 --> 00:05:32.699 he pauses. You have to try to get into his headspace 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:35.259 at 6 a .m. He's looking for a kidnapper. He is 00:05:35.259 --> 00:05:37.459 looking for a kidnapper. He is looking for an 00:05:37.459 --> 00:05:39.699 escape route. And logic dictates that a kidnapper 00:05:39.699 --> 00:05:41.720 does. doesn't run through a door, and then latch 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:43.939 it from the inside behind them. I mean, it's 00:05:43.939 --> 00:05:46.339 not even possible. It's a physical impossibility 00:05:46.339 --> 00:05:49.620 for that to be the exit. So he reasons the kidnapper 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:51.300 didn't go this way. He turns around and walks 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:53.360 back upstairs. And what was behind that door? 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:57.319 JonBenet's body. That is just, it gives me chills. 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:00.420 If he opens that latch, if he just peeks inside. 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:03.100 Everything changes. The entire trajectory of 00:06:03.100 --> 00:06:05.899 this case changes in that second. If he opens 00:06:05.899 --> 00:06:08.379 that door at 6 a .m., the body is discovered 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:10.540 by law enforcement. The scene is frozen instantly. 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.040 It's a murder scene. It's immediately a murder 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.819 scene. The body is photographed in situ meaning 00:06:15.819 --> 00:06:18.240 exactly as it was left without anyone moving 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.300 it. The house is locked down as a homicide investigation, 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:24.519 not a kidnapping negotiation center. But because 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:27.220 he doesn't open it, the police continue to operate 00:06:27.220 --> 00:06:30.360 under the delusion that she is gone and they 00:06:30.360 --> 00:06:32.839 are waiting for a phone call. Correct. And this 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.879 ushers in what we call the lost mourning. And 00:06:35.879 --> 00:06:38.259 if you found the missed door frustrating, this 00:06:38.259 --> 00:06:40.639 part is going to make you angry. I read the notes 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:42.339 on this and I couldn't believe it. I literally 00:06:42.339 --> 00:06:47.920 wrote, are you kidding me? In the margins? Because 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:50.300 that house wasn't empty, was it? No, far from 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:52.829 it. Patsy Ramsey, in her distress, had called 00:06:52.829 --> 00:06:56.329 friends. Before calling 911? Or after? Right 00:06:56.329 --> 00:06:58.329 after. She called the Whites and the Fernies' 00:06:58.389 --> 00:07:00.629 close family friends. She called their minister. 00:07:00.930 --> 00:07:03.149 They all came rushing over to support the family. 00:07:03.329 --> 00:07:05.449 So you have a crime scene, and you have civilians 00:07:05.449 --> 00:07:08.959 pouring in, making coffee, walking around. At 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:12.860 one point, they were five, six, maybe seven non 00:07:12.860 --> 00:07:15.620 -law enforcement people roaming the ground floor 00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:18.620 of the house. And because the police were focused 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:21.980 on the phone waiting for the ransom call, they 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:24.519 let the friends do what friends do. They tried 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:27.579 to be helpful. Helpful meaning? What? Wiping 00:07:27.579 --> 00:07:30.170 things down. Helpful meaning cleaning up. There 00:07:30.170 --> 00:07:32.129 are reports that friends were in the kitchen 00:07:32.129 --> 00:07:34.230 wiping down the counters with spray cleaner. 00:07:34.389 --> 00:07:37.370 No. Yes. They were emptying the dishwasher. They 00:07:37.370 --> 00:07:40.050 were picking up mail from the floor. One friend 00:07:40.050 --> 00:07:42.509 even tidied up Jean Benet's bedroom. They were 00:07:42.509 --> 00:07:44.310 cleaning the crime scene. They were wiping away 00:07:44.310 --> 00:07:46.209 fingerprints. They were wiping away fingerprints, 00:07:46.529 --> 00:07:49.930 fibers, potential DNA. In forensic science, we 00:07:49.930 --> 00:07:52.069 have something called Locard's exchange principle. 00:07:52.310 --> 00:07:54.579 Right. I've heard of this. It basically says 00:07:54.579 --> 00:07:57.199 that the perpetrator of a crime will bring something 00:07:57.199 --> 00:07:59.680 into the crime scene and leave with something 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:02.480 from it. Evidence is an exchange. But if you 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:05.560 have friends wiping down the surfaces with 409, 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:08.600 you are destroying that exchange. You're erasing 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:10.839 the ghost of the killer. Perfectly put. You're 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:14.000 erasing the ghost. And nobody stopped them. And 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:17.040 nobody stopped them. It was 1996 in a town that 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.740 rarely saw homicides, dealing with the kidnapping 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:22.899 of a prominent family. The protocol just collapsed. 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:25.680 The only room they taped off was John Benet's 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:28.000 bedroom, assuming that was the point of abduction. 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:30.060 The rest of the house was treated like a waiting 00:08:30.060 --> 00:08:32.679 room at a hospital. Exactly. The morning drags 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:34.980 on. The ransom note said the kidnappers would 00:08:34.980 --> 00:08:37.600 call between 8 and 10 a .m. Which is another 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:40.740 bizarre detail we will get to. A specific time 00:08:40.740 --> 00:08:43.440 window. Right. But the time comes and goes. The 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:45.440 phone doesn't ring. The tension must have been 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:48.639 unbearable. Absolutely. By 1 p .m., the detective 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.320 in charge of the scene, Linda Arndt, is there 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:54.019 alone with the Ramseys and their friends. The 00:08:54.019 --> 00:08:56.399 other officers had left to set up wiretaps or 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:58.799 investigate other leads. She's managing this 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.240 all by herself. Pretty much. And Detective Arndt 00:09:01.240 --> 00:09:03.720 sees John Ramsey sitting there, just distraught 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:06.070 and helpless. She decides she needs to give him 00:09:06.070 --> 00:09:08.269 something to do, keep him occupied. So she gives 00:09:08.269 --> 00:09:10.870 him instructions. She asks John Ramsey and his 00:09:10.870 --> 00:09:13.190 friend, Fleet White, to do a search of the house. 00:09:13.549 --> 00:09:15.850 She tells them to look from top to bottom for 00:09:15.850 --> 00:09:19.909 anything amiss. Wait. She asks the father of 00:09:19.909 --> 00:09:22.230 the victim to search the crime scene. It sounds 00:09:22.230 --> 00:09:24.570 unbelievable today, but yes. She essentially 00:09:24.570 --> 00:09:27.309 deputized the father and his friend to investigate 00:09:27.309 --> 00:09:29.850 their own house. I mean, what if they found something? 00:09:29.909 --> 00:09:31.990 They're not trained investigators. They're going 00:09:31.990 --> 00:09:34.169 to touch it, move it. And that's exactly what 00:09:34.169 --> 00:09:37.169 happened. So where does John go? He goes straight 00:09:37.169 --> 00:09:39.490 to the basement. Doesn't start at the top, doesn't 00:09:39.490 --> 00:09:41.549 check the other bedrooms. He goes straight to 00:09:41.549 --> 00:09:43.590 the basement, to that latch door that Officer 00:09:43.590 --> 00:09:47.230 French had skipped. He opens it, and he screams. 00:09:47.490 --> 00:09:51.500 He found her. He found her. His reaction is entirely 00:09:51.500 --> 00:09:55.039 human, completely understandable for a father, 00:09:55.220 --> 00:09:58.700 but forensically catastrophic. He picks her up. 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.440 He picks her up. He carries her body up the stairs 00:10:01.440 --> 00:10:04.159 to the living room. He lays her on the floor 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:06.360 right in the middle of the house. And didn't 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:09.100 he touch the tape? He ripped the duct tape off 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:11.419 her mouth. He tried to untie the cords on her 00:10:11.419 --> 00:10:14.440 wrists. Oh, my God. So any DNA on the tape is 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:17.840 now mixed with John's DNA. Any fibers on her 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:20.139 nightgown are now mixed with fibers from John's 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:23.000 shirt from the blanket he covered her with. We 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.759 lost the position of the body, how she was lying, 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:28.159 which tells us about how she died. And the knots 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:30.600 on the cord. The non -integrity is gone. We lost 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:33.080 the lividity patterns, how the blood settles, 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:36.059 which helps determine time of death. The moment 00:10:36.059 --> 00:10:38.220 he picked her up, the crime scene integrity went 00:10:38.220 --> 00:10:41.779 from compromised to obliterated. So by 1 .30 00:10:41.779 --> 00:10:45.159 p .m. on December 26. We have a body, we have 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:46.879 a contaminated house, we have wiped counters, 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.340 and we have a family in shock. The police finally 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:51.720 lock it down, but the damage is done. The horse 00:10:51.720 --> 00:10:54.340 had not only left the barn, the barn had burned 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:57.100 down. Let's pivot to what the experts did find 00:10:57.100 --> 00:10:59.220 once they finally got the body to the morgue, 00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:02.059 the autopsy. I want to spend some time here because 00:11:02.059 --> 00:11:03.799 there are terms used in the headlines that I 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:05.879 don't think people actually understand. The cause 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:08.820 of death. The official cause of death was asphyxia 00:11:08.820 --> 00:11:11.340 by strangulation associated with cranioscerebral 00:11:11.340 --> 00:11:14.220 trauma. So in plain English. She was strangled, 00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:18.179 and she had a massive skull fracture, an 8 .5 00:11:18.179 --> 00:11:21.159 -inch crack in her skull from a single powerful 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:24.279 blow. That sounds incredibly violent. More than 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.360 just, you know, a rage -filled slap. Oh, this 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:29.059 was extreme force. The blow to the head was severe 00:11:29.059 --> 00:11:31.399 enough to knock her unconscious instantly and 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:33.299 likely would have killed her eventually, but 00:11:33.299 --> 00:11:35.799 the strangulation was the primary cause of death. 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.820 Which brings us to the weapon. It wasn't just 00:11:38.820 --> 00:11:41.600 a rope. It was a garrote. That's right. Okay, 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:44.899 I've heard this word. Garote. No! What is it 00:11:44.899 --> 00:11:47.419 mechanically? A garote is a strangulation device 00:11:47.419 --> 00:11:49.620 designed to create mechanical advantage. It's 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:51.899 not just wrapping a cord around a neck and pulling. 00:11:52.179 --> 00:11:54.639 Okay. In this case, the killer took a white nylon 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:57.539 cord, tied a loop for the neck, but then attached 00:11:57.539 --> 00:11:59.639 a stick to the other end of the cord. Like a 00:11:59.639 --> 00:12:02.320 handle. Exactly, like a toggle or a windlass. 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:05.259 You use the stick to twist the cord. This allows 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:07.799 you to tighten the knot much, much tighter than 00:12:07.799 --> 00:12:10.500 you could with bare hands, and it locks the pressure 00:12:10.500 --> 00:12:13.080 in place. It's a mechanism. It suggests some 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:15.820 planning, some forethought. It suggests control 00:12:15.820 --> 00:12:20.940 and extreme violence. And the stick, this is 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:23.740 where the insider theory gets some fuel. What 00:12:23.740 --> 00:12:25.720 was the stick? It was a broken paintbrush handle. 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:27.639 A broken handle from a paintbrush. A paintbrush 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:30.919 from the house. Yes. Investigators found Patsy 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:33.940 Ramsey's art supplies tub in the basement, a 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:37.519 big plastic tote. Inside, they found the bristle 00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:40.049 end of a paintbrush. It had been snapped off. 00:12:40.210 --> 00:12:43.210 The handle of the wooden shaft was missing. And 00:12:43.210 --> 00:12:45.750 that missing handle was the piece tied into the 00:12:45.750 --> 00:12:48.769 garrote around JonBenet's neck. Correct. So the 00:12:48.769 --> 00:12:51.070 murder weapon was manufactured inside the house 00:12:51.070 --> 00:12:53.549 using materials from the mother's hobby kit. 00:12:54.039 --> 00:12:56.500 It's a powerful piece of circumstantial evidence. 00:12:56.620 --> 00:12:59.080 It seems almost undeniable. But there's a problem. 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:01.539 Here is the forensic puzzle piece that drives 00:13:01.539 --> 00:13:03.740 investigators crazy. You have the bristle end 00:13:03.740 --> 00:13:06.059 in the tub. You have the handle end on the body. 00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:08.419 But when they tried to fit them together like 00:13:08.419 --> 00:13:10.620 puzzle pieces. They didn't fit. They didn't fit 00:13:10.620 --> 00:13:13.100 perfectly. There was a middle section, a splinter, 00:13:13.220 --> 00:13:15.720 maybe an inch or so long that was missing. It 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:18.539 had broken in two places. Where did it go? That 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:21.740 is the million -dollar question. The police searched 00:13:21.740 --> 00:13:24.299 that house for days. They vacuumed rugs. They 00:13:24.299 --> 00:13:26.879 crawled on hands and knees. They never found 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.919 that middle splinter. That is bizarre. If you 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:31.960 break a stick in the basement to make a weapon, 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:34.419 the splinter falls on the floor. Right. Unless 00:13:34.419 --> 00:13:38.019 the killer, in this moment of high tension, meticulously 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:41.299 picks up this tiny sliver of wood and puts it 00:13:41.299 --> 00:13:43.820 in their pocket. Which seems unlikely. Very unlikely. 00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:46.730 Or... and this is the intruder argument, unless 00:13:46.730 --> 00:13:48.990 the paintbrush was broken somewhere else and 00:13:48.990 --> 00:13:51.289 the killer brought the handle in with them, maybe 00:13:51.289 --> 00:13:53.009 I had to make it in situ. Maybe they carried 00:13:53.009 --> 00:13:54.929 the garrote in their pocket already made. It's 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:58.129 a tiny detail, a sliver of wood, but it prevents 00:13:58.129 --> 00:14:00.590 us from saying 100 % that the weapon was made 00:14:00.590 --> 00:14:02.450 in that basement. Yeah, it creates that sliver 00:14:02.450 --> 00:14:04.389 of reasonable doubt. There was another piece 00:14:04.389 --> 00:14:06.470 of physical evidence that people obsess over, 00:14:06.629 --> 00:14:10.500 the pineapple. Ah, the pineapple. It's so critical 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:13.100 for the timeline. The medical examiner found 00:14:13.100 --> 00:14:15.720 partially digested pineapple in Jean Benet's 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.320 stomach. So she had eaten recently. Based on 00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:21.379 digestion rates, this suggests she ate it a relatively 00:14:21.379 --> 00:14:23.700 short time before she died, maybe an hour or 00:14:23.700 --> 00:14:25.879 two. But the parents said she was asleep. Right. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.620 The parents' story was unwavering. They came 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:30.720 home from the Christmas party, Jean Benet was 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:33.200 asleep in the car, John carried her up to bed, 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:36.299 and she never woke up. They denied feeding her 00:14:36.299 --> 00:14:38.659 pineapple. But there was a bowl of pineapple 00:14:38.659 --> 00:14:41.120 found, right? Yes, on the dining room table. 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:44.279 A bowl of pineapple chunks with a large serving 00:14:44.279 --> 00:14:47.659 spoon in it and a glass of iced tea. Okay, so 00:14:47.659 --> 00:14:50.940 she wakes up, goes downstairs, has a snack. What's 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:53.100 the big deal? The big deal is the fingerprints. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:55.940 They found Patsy Ramsey's fingerprints on the 00:14:55.940 --> 00:14:59.379 bowl. But not JonBenet's. No. They also found 00:14:59.379 --> 00:15:02.000 Burke's fingerprints on the glass of tea next 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.679 to the bowl. Okay, so Brooke and Patsy handled 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:06.940 the items. Right. Now, Patsy said she didn't 00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:09.259 remember putting it out, but if she did, and 00:15:09.259 --> 00:15:11.559 if JonBenet ate it, it proves she was awake. 00:15:11.639 --> 00:15:14.360 It completely contradicts the she -was -asleep 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:16.419 -all -night story. And if the parents are lying 00:15:16.419 --> 00:15:18.460 about her being asleep, the immediate question 00:15:18.460 --> 00:15:21.830 is why. Why? What happened during that pineapple 00:15:21.830 --> 00:15:25.669 snack? It creates a gap in the timeline where 00:15:25.669 --> 00:15:27.710 something could have gone wrong. It opens the 00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:31.210 door to the theory that an argument happened 00:15:31.210 --> 00:15:33.950 or an accident happened downstairs late at night. 00:15:34.029 --> 00:15:36.169 The pineapple is the key to that timeline. It 00:15:36.169 --> 00:15:38.710 is. Let's move to the most famous piece of evidence 00:15:38.710 --> 00:15:41.710 in this case, the ransom note. I feel like we 00:15:41.710 --> 00:15:42.990 could do a whole episode just on these sheets 00:15:42.990 --> 00:15:45.490 of paper. We absolutely could. It is, without 00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:48.509 a doubt, the most unusual ransom note in FBI 00:15:48.509 --> 00:15:50.730 history. Let's start with the physical reality 00:15:50.730 --> 00:15:52.970 of it. You mentioned it was long. It was two 00:15:52.970 --> 00:15:56.149 and a half pages, handwritten, on a legal pad 00:15:56.149 --> 00:15:59.330 that came from a notepad inside the house. The 00:15:59.330 --> 00:16:01.610 pen used to write it also came from a cup on 00:16:01.610 --> 00:16:03.629 the kitchen counter. So everything was sourced 00:16:03.629 --> 00:16:05.750 from inside the house. Everything. The paper, 00:16:05.870 --> 00:16:08.590 the pen. Two and a half pages. I mean, standard 00:16:08.590 --> 00:16:10.389 ransom notes are like, I have your daughter, 00:16:10.490 --> 00:16:14.230 put $50 ,000 in a bag, no cops. Why two and a 00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:17.009 half pages? The FBI estimated that to write two 00:16:17.009 --> 00:16:19.830 and a half pages of coherent text, specifically 00:16:19.830 --> 00:16:22.529 creating a persona, would take at least 21 minutes. 00:16:22.610 --> 00:16:26.250 21 minutes. Minimum. Imagine that. You have just... 00:16:26.440 --> 00:16:29.259 killed a child or kidnapped a child in a house 00:16:29.259 --> 00:16:31.740 where the parents are sleeping upstairs and you 00:16:31.740 --> 00:16:33.919 sit down at the kitchen table or on the stairs 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:37.120 and you write for 20 minutes you're not rushing 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:39.580 you're taking your time you take the time to 00:16:39.580 --> 00:16:42.879 compose a manifesto it implies a level of comfort 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.720 that is terrifying Or it implies you know the 00:16:45.720 --> 00:16:47.279 parents aren't going to wake up. And they found 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.899 a draft. A practice draft was found in the trash 00:16:49.899 --> 00:16:53.379 can. The writer started with Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey, 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:56.600 then crossed it out and started over. Who edits 00:16:56.600 --> 00:16:59.539 a ransom note during a crime? Someone who is 00:16:59.539 --> 00:17:02.879 staging it. That's the argument. It's the strongest 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:05.180 argument for staging. Now look at the content. 00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:07.440 It's addressed to Mr. Ramsey. It says, listen 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:10.039 carefully. We are a group of individuals that 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:13.099 represent a small foreign faction. Small foreign 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:14.940 faction. It sounds like a spy novel. It sounds 00:17:14.940 --> 00:17:18.059 ridiculous. It sounds theatrical. And that theatricality 00:17:18.059 --> 00:17:20.599 continues. The note is filled with aggressive, 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:23.859 almost cartoonish threats. She dies. She dies. 00:17:23.900 --> 00:17:26.200 She dies. It mentions beheading. It says, if 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.160 we catch you talking to a stray dog, she dies. 00:17:28.339 --> 00:17:30.410 Who talks like that? A character in a movie. 00:17:30.730 --> 00:17:32.450 And you mentioned in the pre -show that there 00:17:32.450 --> 00:17:35.549 are movie quotes in here. Yes, it is a collage 00:17:35.549 --> 00:17:39.630 of 1990s action movie dialogue. The phrase, don't 00:17:39.630 --> 00:17:41.910 try to grow a brain, John, is a quote from the 00:17:41.910 --> 00:17:45.130 movie Speed, which had just aired on TV. The 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:48.009 line about law enforcement countermeasures is 00:17:48.009 --> 00:17:50.950 from the movie Ransom, starring Mel Gibson. The 00:17:50.950 --> 00:17:53.930 stray dog line echoes Dirty Harry. So the author 00:17:53.930 --> 00:17:56.809 isn't a foreign terrorist. The author is a movie 00:17:56.809 --> 00:17:59.349 buff. The author is someone role -playing a criminal. 00:17:59.690 --> 00:18:01.970 They are using the language of what they think 00:18:01.970 --> 00:18:04.990 a kidnapper sounds like based on Hollywood. It's 00:18:04.990 --> 00:18:07.049 just the more you look at it, the weirder it 00:18:07.049 --> 00:18:08.769 gets. And then we hit the number. What a money. 00:18:09.210 --> 00:18:13.109 The demand is for $118 ,000. That is such a weirdly 00:18:13.109 --> 00:18:16.529 specific number. Why not a million? Why not 100K 00:18:16.529 --> 00:18:19.329 flat? That detail is the anchor that ties the 00:18:19.329 --> 00:18:22.710 crime to John Ramsey. John's Christmas bonus 00:18:22.710 --> 00:18:25.230 from Access Graphics the prior year was exactly 00:18:25.230 --> 00:18:30.789 $118 ,117 .50. It's basically the same number. 00:18:30.950 --> 00:18:34.130 It's too close to be a coincidence. So this tells 00:18:34.130 --> 00:18:36.990 us the writer knew John's finances and knew them 00:18:36.990 --> 00:18:39.210 intimately. Which leads to two possibilities. 00:18:39.710 --> 00:18:43.410 One, it's the parents. John or Patsy chose a 00:18:43.410 --> 00:18:46.150 number that was familiar to them. Or two, it's 00:18:46.150 --> 00:18:48.930 a disgruntled employee who saw a pay stub. Exactly. 00:18:49.069 --> 00:18:51.589 But it effectively rules out a random drifter. 00:18:51.750 --> 00:18:56.089 A random burglar doesn't ask for $118 ,000. They 00:18:56.089 --> 00:18:59.089 ask for everything you have. Okay, what about 00:18:59.089 --> 00:19:00.730 the handwriting? I feel like everyone has an 00:19:00.730 --> 00:19:02.950 opinion on this. It looks like Patsy's writing. 00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:05.609 This is one of the most contentious battles in 00:19:05.609 --> 00:19:09.089 the whole case. The police and the CBI, the Colorado 00:19:09.089 --> 00:19:11.829 Bureau of Investigation, analyzed Patsy's handwriting 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:14.329 samples. They concluded that there were indications 00:19:14.329 --> 00:19:17.930 she wrote it. Indications, so not a match? Not 00:19:17.930 --> 00:19:20.069 a definitive match. They couldn't say 100%, but 00:19:20.069 --> 00:19:22.190 they couldn't eliminate her. And crucially, she 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:24.329 was the only person in the Ramsey family they 00:19:24.329 --> 00:19:26.670 couldn't eliminate. But didn't a court later 00:19:26.670 --> 00:19:29.390 disagree? This is from the lawsuit documents, 00:19:29.549 --> 00:19:32.539 right? Yes. Years later, in a federal court ruling 00:19:32.539 --> 00:19:35.259 regarding a defamation case, the judge cited 00:19:35.259 --> 00:19:38.240 six separate certified handwriting experts. These 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:40.799 were independent experts. They testified that 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:42.680 it was highly unlikely Patsy wrote the note. 00:19:43.019 --> 00:19:45.380 They pointed to structural differences, letter 00:19:45.380 --> 00:19:47.460 formation differences, things a layman wouldn't 00:19:47.460 --> 00:19:50.380 see. The judge basically said the police are 00:19:50.380 --> 00:19:53.160 relying on suspicion, but the science says she 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:55.460 didn't do it. So like everything else in this 00:19:55.460 --> 00:19:58.119 case, the handwriting is a deadlock. One side 00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:00.339 sees a match. The other side sees a coincidence. 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:02.559 Correct. Total deadlock. OK, we have to talk 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:04.700 about the science that is supposed to solve everything. 00:20:05.140 --> 00:20:07.990 DNA. You called it the ghost in the machine in 00:20:07.990 --> 00:20:11.750 our notes. Why is DNA so confusing here? Because 00:20:11.750 --> 00:20:14.369 people think DNA is simple. You find blood, you 00:20:14.369 --> 00:20:16.789 match it, you catch the killer. But in this case, 00:20:16.829 --> 00:20:19.849 we're dealing with touch DNA or trace DNA. Explain 00:20:19.849 --> 00:20:22.380 the difference for us. Traditional DNA is finding 00:20:22.380 --> 00:20:25.980 a pool of blood or semen. A large sample, lots 00:20:25.980 --> 00:20:28.799 of genetic material. Touched DNA is microscopic 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:31.160 skin cells left behind when you touch something. 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.319 We shed thousands of spin cells a minute. It's 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:36.900 much less reliable. Okay, so where did they find 00:20:36.900 --> 00:20:40.140 it? They found traced DNA on JonBenet's underwear, 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:43.019 specifically mixed with a tiny drop of her own 00:20:43.019 --> 00:20:45.859 blood and on the waistband of her long johns. 00:20:45.859 --> 00:20:48.980 And whose was it? It belonged to an unknown male. 00:20:49.609 --> 00:20:52.269 We call this profile Unknown Male Number One. 00:20:52.509 --> 00:20:55.029 And we know who it wasn't. It wasn't John. It 00:20:55.029 --> 00:20:57.089 wasn't Burke. It wasn't Patsy. It wasn't any 00:20:57.089 --> 00:20:58.990 of their friends who were in the house. They 00:20:58.990 --> 00:21:01.730 checked everyone. So stop right there. If I'm 00:21:01.730 --> 00:21:04.230 a juror and you tell me there is unknown male 00:21:04.230 --> 00:21:07.369 DNA mixed with the victim's blood on her underwear 00:21:07.369 --> 00:21:10.549 and is not the father or brother, that's an intruder. 00:21:10.789 --> 00:21:14.049 Case closed. Why isn't it that simple? Because 00:21:14.049 --> 00:21:17.309 we don't know how that DNA got there. This is 00:21:17.309 --> 00:21:20.630 where the controversy explodes. In 2016, new 00:21:20.630 --> 00:21:23.069 analysis techniques, much more sensitive techniques, 00:21:23.369 --> 00:21:26.029 suggested that the sample might be a composite. 00:21:26.470 --> 00:21:28.609 Meaning? Meaning it might not be one person. 00:21:28.829 --> 00:21:31.430 It might be a mixture of genetic markers for 00:21:31.430 --> 00:21:34.109 multiple people piled on top of each other. Think 00:21:34.109 --> 00:21:36.029 of it like a messy signature with three people 00:21:36.029 --> 00:21:37.890 writing on top of each other. You can see parts 00:21:37.890 --> 00:21:39.910 of each, but it's hard to separate them. So it 00:21:39.910 --> 00:21:41.750 could be a mixture of people who touch the clothing 00:21:41.750 --> 00:21:44.769 at different times. Exactly. And more importantly, 00:21:45.049 --> 00:21:47.730 trace DNA is... easily transferred transfer how 00:21:47.730 --> 00:21:50.230 let's say i shake hands with you and then you 00:21:50.230 --> 00:21:53.789 go touch a child's clothing my dna can end up 00:21:53.789 --> 00:21:56.130 on that clothing even though i was never in the 00:21:56.130 --> 00:21:59.630 room this is called secondary transfer or as 00:21:59.630 --> 00:22:01.150 you mentioned in the notes could it be for the 00:22:01.150 --> 00:22:04.549 manufacturing process yes this is a huge theory 00:22:04.549 --> 00:22:07.490 that the dna could belong to a factory worker 00:22:07.490 --> 00:22:11.160 in asia who packaged the underwear If they coughed 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:13.480 or touched the fabric, their DNA is there before 00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:15.779 the package is even opened. It could be completely 00:22:15.779 --> 00:22:19.359 benign. So view A, the intruder theory, says 00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:22.200 this is the killer's calling card. View B, the 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:24.819 contamination theory, says this is biological 00:22:24.819 --> 00:22:28.029 background noise. Exactly. And because the crime 00:22:28.029 --> 00:22:30.309 scene was so contaminated with so many people 00:22:30.309 --> 00:22:32.589 walking through the house, we can't rule out 00:22:32.589 --> 00:22:34.829 that the DNA wasn't transferred by a first responder 00:22:34.829 --> 00:22:37.630 or a friend or a blanket. Contamination comes 00:22:37.630 --> 00:22:39.750 back to haunt every piece of evidence. Every 00:22:39.750 --> 00:22:42.170 single piece. Let's organize all of this into 00:22:42.170 --> 00:22:45.029 the two main theories, because really, everyone 00:22:45.029 --> 00:22:47.210 listening right now is probably leaning one way 00:22:47.210 --> 00:22:49.750 or the other. Let's start with Theory A, the 00:22:49.750 --> 00:22:53.650 family, the inside Job. Why did the Boulder police 00:22:53.650 --> 00:22:55.930 focus on them so intensely from the get -go? 00:22:56.130 --> 00:22:58.910 It starts with the lack of forced entry. To the 00:22:58.910 --> 00:23:01.049 police, the house looks sealed up tight for a 00:23:01.049 --> 00:23:03.650 Colorado winter night. No kicked -in doors, no 00:23:03.650 --> 00:23:05.710 shattered windows they could immediately find. 00:23:05.910 --> 00:23:08.170 So the crime started from inside. That was their 00:23:08.170 --> 00:23:10.309 working assumption. Then you have the ransom 00:23:10.309 --> 00:23:12.730 note written, with house supplies, taking 20 00:23:12.730 --> 00:23:15.049 minutes, asking for a specific bonus amount. 00:23:15.230 --> 00:23:18.589 To the police, that screams staging. Staging 00:23:18.589 --> 00:23:21.640 a crime to cover up. What? The prevailing theory 00:23:21.640 --> 00:23:24.119 among the BPD was that this was an accident or 00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:27.039 a rage killing. Maybe JonBenet wet the bed, which 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:29.440 was an issue she struggled with. Maybe Patsy, 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.460 who was a cancer survivor and under a lot of 00:23:31.460 --> 00:23:33.779 stress, just snapped. Or the pineapple argument. 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:35.720 Or an argument over the pineapple. A blow to 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:37.740 the head happens. She's unconscious or dead. 00:23:38.019 --> 00:23:40.660 Panic sets in. And to protect the family or to 00:23:40.660 --> 00:23:42.960 protect themselves, they cover it up. They create 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:46.140 a kidnapping scenario to explain the body. But 00:23:46.140 --> 00:23:48.799 then for some reason, the plan changes or goes 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:51.619 wrong and the body is left in the basement. Exactly. 00:23:51.779 --> 00:23:54.880 The staging theory is that the cover up was clumsy, 00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:57.359 amateurish because they weren't criminals. They 00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:00.079 were panicked parents. And the parents' behavior 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:02.619 in the days and weeks after didn't help their 00:24:02.619 --> 00:24:06.119 case? No. They lawyered up immediately. They 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:09.039 hired their own investigators. They hired a PR 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:12.319 firm. They refused to sit for formal separate 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:15.240 interviews with the police. For months. To the 00:24:15.240 --> 00:24:17.339 public, that lifts guilty. If you have nothing 00:24:17.339 --> 00:24:19.359 to hide, just talk to the police. But to a defense 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:22.039 attorney, that looks smart. The police had already 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:24.140 decided they were guilty. The leaks coming out 00:24:24.140 --> 00:24:26.839 of the police department were vicious. The Ramseys 00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:28.599 felt they were being framed, so they built a 00:24:28.599 --> 00:24:30.480 wall around themselves. What about the brother, 00:24:30.619 --> 00:24:33.960 Burke? He was nine. Surely he wasn't a suspect. 00:24:34.359 --> 00:24:37.460 For a long time, the official line was no. He 00:24:37.460 --> 00:24:39.539 was interviewed, of course, but cleared by the 00:24:39.539 --> 00:24:44.200 police and the DA in 1999. But in 2016, CBS aired 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:46.579 a docuseries that blew the lid off this again. 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:50.420 A panel of experts proposed a new timeline. They 00:24:50.420 --> 00:24:53.180 proposed that Burke, perhaps in a fit of jealousy 00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:56.380 over the pineapple or a toy, hit her with a heavy 00:24:56.380 --> 00:24:58.559 flashlight. A flashlight found on the kitchen 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:01.420 counter. Yes. A heavy mag light that was left 00:25:01.420 --> 00:25:03.819 out. The theory was that the parents walked in, 00:25:03.960 --> 00:25:06.859 saw what their son had done, and staged the entire 00:25:06.859 --> 00:25:09.480 kidnapping to save their only remaining child. 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:12.720 That is a dark theory. It is. And it led to a 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:15.640 massive defamation lawsuit. Burke Ramsey sued 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:20.059 CDS for $750 million. They settled in 2019. We 00:25:20.059 --> 00:25:22.039 don't know the terms, but the fact that a major 00:25:22.039 --> 00:25:24.119 network settled suggests Burke had a very strong 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:26.619 case, that there was no actual evidence for this 00:25:26.619 --> 00:25:28.880 theory. But the suspicion around the family was 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:31.660 strong enough to go to a grand jury. And this 00:25:31.660 --> 00:25:33.160 is the part of the story that I think shocks 00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:35.660 people the most. I remember when this news broke 00:25:35.660 --> 00:25:39.000 in 2013. It was a bombshell. For over a decade, 00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:41.359 the public thought the grand jury found nothing. 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:44.259 That they just couldn't decide. But when the 00:25:44.259 --> 00:25:46.599 documents were unsealed, we learned that in 1999, 00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:49.819 the grand jury did vote to indict John and Patsy 00:25:49.819 --> 00:25:52.440 Ramsey. They voted to charge them. Yes. They 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:56.079 signed what are called true bills. But the charges 00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:58.519 weren't murder. What were they then? The charges 00:25:58.519 --> 00:26:02.440 were child abuse resulting in death and accessory 00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:04.960 to a crime. Explain that distinction. That's 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.240 really important. It is. The grand jury essentially 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:10.180 said, we don't know who struck the blow. We can't 00:26:10.180 --> 00:26:12.779 prove John killed her or Patsy killed her, but 00:26:12.779 --> 00:26:14.960 we believe there is probable cause that they 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:16.940 placed her in a situation that resulted in her 00:26:16.940 --> 00:26:18.720 death and that they assisted in the cover -up 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:21.059 after the fact. So the jury said charge them. 00:26:21.140 --> 00:26:23.140 Why weren't they arrested? It is because of the 00:26:23.140 --> 00:26:25.460 district attorney, Alex Hunter. In the legal 00:26:25.460 --> 00:26:28.059 system, a grand jury votes on probable cause, 00:26:28.259 --> 00:26:30.640 which is a lower standard. A trial jury needs 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:33.819 proof beyond a reasonable doubt. A much higher 00:26:33.819 --> 00:26:37.160 bar. Much higher. Alex Hunter looked at the case. 00:26:37.870 --> 00:26:40.869 Specifically, the unknown male DNA, the compromised 00:26:40.869 --> 00:26:43.390 crime scene, the conflicting handwriting analysis, 00:26:43.750 --> 00:26:46.690 and he believed he would lose a trial. He thought 00:26:46.690 --> 00:26:48.329 a defense attorney would rip the case apart. 00:26:48.470 --> 00:26:51.190 Exactly. He thought the unknown male DNA would 00:26:51.190 --> 00:26:54.089 create reasonable doubt every single time. So 00:26:54.089 --> 00:26:56.589 he refused to sign the indictment. He pocketed 00:26:56.589 --> 00:27:00.069 it. He never filed the charges. And the Ramseys 00:27:00.069 --> 00:27:02.859 walked free. That is a staggering amount of power 00:27:02.859 --> 00:27:06.140 for one person to have, to override the citizen's 00:27:06.140 --> 00:27:08.619 vote. It is, and it's why the police versus DA 00:27:08.619 --> 00:27:11.240 war is so bitter. The police felt they had their 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:13.559 suspects. The DA felt the police had botched 00:27:13.559 --> 00:27:16.039 the evidence so badly it was unusable. Let's 00:27:16.039 --> 00:27:18.799 flip the coin. Theory B, the intruder. This theory 00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:21.779 has a champion, a man named Lou Smit. Who was 00:27:21.779 --> 00:27:24.680 he? Lou Smit was a legend in Colorado law enforcement. 00:27:24.940 --> 00:27:26.940 He was a homicide detective with a reputation 00:27:26.940 --> 00:27:29.140 for solving the unsolvable of these really tough, 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:31.200 cold cases. He was brought out of retirement 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:33.779 by the DA's office specifically to look at this 00:27:33.779 --> 00:27:35.779 case with fresh eyes. So he wasn't part of the 00:27:35.779 --> 00:27:38.200 original Boulder PD team. No, he was an outsider. 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:40.960 And he came to a very different conclusion than 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:43.819 the police. He did. He was convinced the Ramseys 00:27:43.819 --> 00:27:46.119 were innocent. He believed the police had tunnel 00:27:46.119 --> 00:27:48.559 vision and were ignoring a mountain of evidence 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.839 that pointed to an intruder. What evidence? He 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:54.259 focused on the basement window. There was a broken 00:27:54.259 --> 00:27:56.539 window in the train room. Beneath it, on the 00:27:56.539 --> 00:27:59.619 floor, there was a suitcase. A suitcase? Smit 00:27:59.619 --> 00:28:02.299 theorized that the intruder entered or exited 00:28:02.299 --> 00:28:04.720 through that window and used the suitcase as 00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:07.960 a step to get in or out. He found a scuff mark 00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:10.420 on the wall that looked like a shoe print. He 00:28:10.420 --> 00:28:12.700 even found leaves and debris under the window 00:28:12.700 --> 00:28:14.900 that seemed to come from outside. But I remember 00:28:14.900 --> 00:28:17.440 reading a counter -argument to this involving 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:21.519 a spider web. The famous cobweb. Critics of Smith, 00:28:21.740 --> 00:28:24.220 mainly the Boulder PD, pointed out that there 00:28:24.220 --> 00:28:26.299 was a spiderweb in the corner of the window frame. 00:28:26.460 --> 00:28:29.400 It was intact. They argued that a grown man couldn't 00:28:29.400 --> 00:28:31.059 crawl through that window without breaking the 00:28:31.059 --> 00:28:33.420 web. It sounds like a detail from Sherlock Holmes. 00:28:33.579 --> 00:28:36.559 The curious case of the undisturbed cobweb. It 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:39.759 really does. But Smith had other evidence. He 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:42.660 found a boot mark in the mold on the basement 00:28:42.660 --> 00:28:45.430 floor. A high -tech boot print that didn't match 00:28:45.430 --> 00:28:47.950 any shoes owned by the Ramseys. An unidentified 00:28:47.950 --> 00:28:50.490 print. An unidentified print right there in the 00:28:50.490 --> 00:28:52.329 wine cellar where the body was found. Yeah, and 00:28:52.329 --> 00:28:54.650 the stun gun. This was Smith's biggest contribution, 00:28:54.769 --> 00:28:57.490 in my opinion. He looked at the autopsy photos 00:28:57.490 --> 00:29:01.289 and saw two sets of small paired abrasions on 00:29:01.289 --> 00:29:04.089 JonBenet's back and face. The police had written 00:29:04.089 --> 00:29:06.890 them off as nothing. Okay. But Smit realized 00:29:06.890 --> 00:29:09.549 they were spaced perfectly apart about the width 00:29:09.549 --> 00:29:12.210 of the prongs on an air taser stun gun. So he 00:29:12.210 --> 00:29:14.390 thought she was tasered. He believed the intruder 00:29:14.390 --> 00:29:17.849 used a stun gun to subdue her silently. If that's 00:29:17.849 --> 00:29:19.869 true, it points heavily away from the parents. 00:29:20.170 --> 00:29:22.549 Parents don't typically use stun guns on their 00:29:22.549 --> 00:29:25.009 children. And stun guns aren't usually household 00:29:25.009 --> 00:29:28.269 items in 1996. That's a huge piece of evidence 00:29:28.269 --> 00:29:30.710 for the intruder theory. It's massive. And it 00:29:30.710 --> 00:29:33.289 leads to the question, who was this intruder? 00:29:33.349 --> 00:29:35.369 I mean, who enters a house on Christmas night? 00:29:35.630 --> 00:29:37.950 Smith pointed out that there had been over 100 00:29:37.950 --> 00:29:40.269 burglaries in the neighborhood in the months 00:29:40.269 --> 00:29:43.029 leading up to the murder, and ominously there 00:29:43.029 --> 00:29:45.809 were 38 registered sex offenders living within 00:29:45.809 --> 00:29:50.250 a two -mile radius of the Ramsey home. 38? That 00:29:50.250 --> 00:29:52.670 seems incredibly high. It's a university town, 00:29:52.829 --> 00:29:55.750 high density, but it creates a target -rich environment 00:29:55.750 --> 00:29:58.809 for suspects. Smith believed one of them watched 00:29:58.809 --> 00:30:01.509 the family, knew the layout, and struck when 00:30:01.509 --> 00:30:03.569 the house was quiet. Did they ever have a solid 00:30:03.569 --> 00:30:06.210 suspect from that list? I remember the name John 00:30:06.210 --> 00:30:09.170 Mark Carr. John Mark Carr is the great distraction 00:30:09.170 --> 00:30:12.549 of this case. In 2006, 10 years later, this man 00:30:12.549 --> 00:30:15.069 was arrested in Thailand. He confessed. He gave 00:30:15.069 --> 00:30:17.849 graphic details. He said he loved JonBenet and 00:30:17.849 --> 00:30:20.130 that her death was an accident. It was huge news. 00:30:20.269 --> 00:30:22.410 I remember the footage of him being flown back. 00:30:22.630 --> 00:30:25.089 Everyone thought, this is it. But it fell apart 00:30:25.089 --> 00:30:28.009 instantly. His DNA didn't match the sample on 00:30:28.009 --> 00:30:30.380 the underwear. He claimed he drugged her, but 00:30:30.380 --> 00:30:32.640 the autopsy showed zero drugs in her system. 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:35.880 He was a fantasist, a man obsessed with the case 00:30:35.880 --> 00:30:38.700 who wanted the attention. So a false lead. A 00:30:38.700 --> 00:30:41.220 huge false lead that just added more noise to 00:30:41.220 --> 00:30:44.200 the signal. So where does that leave us? We have 00:30:44.200 --> 00:30:47.359 the inside Job theory that fits the psychology 00:30:47.359 --> 00:30:51.240 and the ransom note, but fails on the DNA. We 00:30:51.240 --> 00:30:53.720 have the intruder theory that fits the DNA and 00:30:53.720 --> 00:30:56.460 the stun gun marks, but fails on the logic of 00:30:56.460 --> 00:30:58.480 the note. And that is the paralysis of this case. 00:30:58.700 --> 00:31:00.880 The two theories are almost perfectly balanced. 00:31:00.980 --> 00:31:02.980 Every time you find a fact that proves one, you 00:31:02.980 --> 00:31:05.640 find another fact that contradicts it. And the 00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:07.980 investigation wars didn't help. The people supposed 00:31:07.980 --> 00:31:10.160 to solve this were fighting each other. It was 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:13.049 toxic. Steve Thomas, the lead BPD detective, 00:31:13.349 --> 00:31:16.509 resigned and wrote a book attacking the DA. Lou 00:31:16.509 --> 00:31:18.730 Smit resigned from the DA's office and essentially 00:31:18.730 --> 00:31:20.630 spent the rest of his life as a private citizen 00:31:20.630 --> 00:31:22.930 fighting for the Ramsey's innocence. You had 00:31:22.930 --> 00:31:25.670 a fractured system. And then the exoneration. 00:31:25.670 --> 00:31:28.799 This is a roller coaster. It really was. In 2008, 00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:31.140 a new district attorney, Mary Lacey, who had 00:31:31.140 --> 00:31:33.180 worked with Lou Smith and believed in the intruder 00:31:33.180 --> 00:31:35.819 theory, wrote a formal letter to the Ramsey family. 00:31:36.059 --> 00:31:39.420 She apologized to them. She said that based on 00:31:39.420 --> 00:31:41.660 the development of new touch DNA technology, 00:31:42.039 --> 00:31:45.119 they were officially exonerated. That sounds 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.880 like case closed for them. It was for a while, 00:31:47.940 --> 00:31:50.920 but legal experts hated it. Police hated it. 00:31:51.019 --> 00:31:54.720 And in 2016, the former police chief, Mark Beckner, 00:31:54.859 --> 00:31:58.720 did a Reddit AMA and asked me anything. And he 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:01.019 let loose. What did he say? He called the exoneration 00:32:01.019 --> 00:32:04.440 absurd. He said, you simply don't clear primary 00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:07.180 suspects based on a tiny piece of unexplained 00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:09.539 DNA that might be transfer, that might be from 00:32:09.539 --> 00:32:11.599 a factory worker. You just don't do it. So the 00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:13.759 police still think they did it. Many of the original 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:15.480 investigators went to their graves believing 00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:18.009 the Ramseys were guilty, but officially. The 00:32:18.009 --> 00:32:20.509 case is open. It is an active homicide investigation 00:32:20.509 --> 00:32:24.250 in Boulder, Colorado. It's tragic. We are talking 00:32:24.250 --> 00:32:26.450 about a little girl who died and her death has 00:32:26.450 --> 00:32:28.869 become a battlefield for egos and theories and 00:32:28.869 --> 00:32:31.109 careers. And that brings us back to the beginning. 00:32:31.329 --> 00:32:33.930 The tragedy isn't just the murder. It's the lost 00:32:33.930 --> 00:32:36.730 justice. And that justice was likely lost between 00:32:36.730 --> 00:32:39.690 6 a .m. and 1 p .m. on December 26th. Because 00:32:39.690 --> 00:32:41.900 of the contamination. Because the scene wasn't 00:32:41.900 --> 00:32:44.519 frozen. Because the note was handled by Patsy 00:32:44.519 --> 00:32:46.559 and the police. Because friends were cleaning 00:32:46.559 --> 00:32:49.140 the kitchen. Because the body was moved. We can 00:32:49.140 --> 00:32:51.720 never go back and test the real scene. We are 00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:54.019 only testing the contaminated scene. So every 00:32:54.019 --> 00:32:56.079 piece of evidence has an asterisk next to it. 00:32:56.119 --> 00:32:58.539 A giant asterisk. Maybe it's an intruder. Maybe 00:32:58.539 --> 00:33:01.259 it's staging. Maybe it's a stun gun. Maybe it's 00:33:01.259 --> 00:33:04.380 just a random mark. It's all maybe. So as we 00:33:04.380 --> 00:33:07.279 wrap up this deep dive. What is the takeaway? 00:33:07.420 --> 00:33:09.640 We usually try to find a lesson, but this feels 00:33:09.640 --> 00:33:11.740 like a lesson in what not to do. The takeaway 00:33:11.740 --> 00:33:14.779 is about the fragility of truth. We live in the 00:33:14.779 --> 00:33:17.900 CSI effect era. We think that if a crime happens, 00:33:18.039 --> 00:33:20.380 a team of geniuses with blue flashlights will 00:33:20.380 --> 00:33:22.940 find a hair and solve it in 45 minutes. Right. 00:33:23.079 --> 00:33:25.440 But the reality is that forensic science is fragile. 00:33:25.559 --> 00:33:28.799 It relies on human procedure. If a cop doesn't 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:31.000 open a door or if a friend picks up a notepad, 00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:33.460 the truth can evaporate. It can be lost forever 00:33:33.460 --> 00:33:36.960 in a matter of hours. And it leaves us with this 00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:41.559 haunting ambiguity. If you trust the DNA, you 00:33:41.559 --> 00:33:44.039 have to believe in an intruder. If you trust 00:33:44.039 --> 00:33:46.059 the behavioral profiling and the bizarre ransom 00:33:46.059 --> 00:33:48.839 note, you have to look at the family. And you 00:33:48.839 --> 00:33:51.240 can't really reconcile them. They are irreconcilable 00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:53.900 poles, the North and South Pole of the same crime. 00:33:54.220 --> 00:33:56.099 I want to leave the listener with a final thought 00:33:56.099 --> 00:33:58.799 to chew on. We often look at cold cases and say 00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:00.960 science will catch up. We were waiting for that 00:34:00.960 --> 00:34:03.740 one familial DNA match in a database that will 00:34:03.740 --> 00:34:05.539 crack it open. Right, the Golden State Killer 00:34:05.539 --> 00:34:08.360 model. Exactly. But in the case of JonBenet Ramsey, 00:34:08.460 --> 00:34:11.340 is it possible that DNA is actually the problem? 00:34:11.800 --> 00:34:14.280 That our reliance on this God key of biology 00:34:14.280 --> 00:34:17.179 has blinded us to the circumstantial evidence 00:34:17.179 --> 00:34:19.960 that was right in front of us. Or conversely, 00:34:19.960 --> 00:34:22.940 is the DNA the only truthful thing in a house 00:34:22.940 --> 00:34:25.280 full of lies and chaos? That is the question. 00:34:25.380 --> 00:34:27.639 Is the DNA the boast of the killer or is it just 00:34:27.639 --> 00:34:29.769 a ghost in the machine? I have a feeling we will 00:34:29.769 --> 00:34:32.710 be debating this for another 30 years. If you 00:34:32.710 --> 00:34:35.409 want to see the ransom note yourself, and I highly 00:34:35.409 --> 00:34:38.170 recommend reading the full text to see the movie 00:34:38.170 --> 00:34:40.750 quotes and the bizarre language, check the links 00:34:40.750 --> 00:34:43.130 in the show notes. We also have diagrams of the 00:34:43.130 --> 00:34:45.070 house so you can see that basement door for yourself. 00:34:45.349 --> 00:34:47.969 It's worth a look. Just be prepared to go down 00:34:47.969 --> 00:34:50.170 a very deep rabbit hole. Thanks for diving in 00:34:50.170 --> 00:34:51.230 with us. Stay curious.