WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today is Monday, 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:06.480 February 2nd, 2026. And I have to say, looking 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:08.740 at the date on the calendar this morning, it 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:12.259 really hit me. Yeah. We are coming up on 30 years, 00:00:12.419 --> 00:00:15.099 three full decades since the event we are about 00:00:15.099 --> 00:00:17.579 to discuss took place. It is hard to believe. 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.640 It feels like a story that has been permanently, 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:23.260 you know, etched into the cultural consciousness, 00:00:23.460 --> 00:00:25.839 doesn't it? It really does. It hasn't faded the 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:29.000 way other cases from the 90s have. It feels just 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.980 as present, just as confusing, and, well, just 00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:34.939 as debated today as it was in 1997. Not at all. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.219 And honestly, it's a heavy one. We are talking, 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:40.299 of course, about the killing of JonBenét Ramsey. 00:00:40.460 --> 00:00:43.939 Boulder, Colorado. Christmas, 1996. A case that, 00:00:43.979 --> 00:00:46.240 despite 30 years of scrutiny, documentaries, 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.740 books, internet sleuthing, It technically remains 00:00:49.740 --> 00:00:52.240 an open homicide investigation. It's the ultimate 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:53.979 cold case. And I think that's what keeps pulling 00:00:53.979 --> 00:00:55.700 people back in. The sheer fact that it's still 00:00:55.700 --> 00:00:57.719 unsolved. It is. And I think for most people, 00:00:57.740 --> 00:01:00.359 myself included, you have these sort of flashes 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:02.520 of imagery when you hear the name JonBenet. Oh, 00:01:02.539 --> 00:01:04.739 absolutely. You think of the pageant videos, 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:09.400 the tiara, the parents on CNN, the tabloid covers 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:11.859 in the grocery store checkout line. It feels 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:15.379 almost, almost like a movie. It feels fictionalized. 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:20.060 Exactly. But today. Our mission is to strip all 00:01:20.060 --> 00:01:22.439 of that away. We have to. We are putting aside 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:25.359 the tabloids, the rumors, and the made -for -TV 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.500 movie dramatizations. We are going back to the 00:01:28.500 --> 00:01:31.340 hard stack, as we call it. The raw data. The 00:01:31.340 --> 00:01:33.980 autopsy report, the police files, the ransom 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:37.099 note analysis, the legal rulings, and the DNA 00:01:37.099 --> 00:01:40.060 reports. We want to look at the raw data that 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:42.280 the investigators were actually looking at. Because 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.280 when you actually look at the raw evidence, it 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:46.180 doesn't make things simpler. I mean, you'd think 00:01:46.180 --> 00:01:48.620 it would, but it makes them infinitely more confusing. 00:01:48.780 --> 00:01:50.519 That's the paradox of this case right there. 00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:52.459 You assume that peeling back the layers will 00:01:52.459 --> 00:01:54.480 reveal the truth, but in this case, it just reveals 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:57.019 more contradiction. That's it. Usually, more 00:01:57.019 --> 00:01:59.760 evidence leads to a clearer picture. It converges 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:02.340 on a suspect. But here, the evidence seems to 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:04.540 argue with itself. You have physical evidence 00:02:04.540 --> 00:02:08.240 that just screams intruder. Screams it. And then 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:10.780 you have... behavioral and circumstantial evidence 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:12.560 that points the finger right back at the family. 00:02:12.620 --> 00:02:14.599 It's a fundamental conflict. It's the unstoppable 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:17.719 force meeting the immovable object, the family 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.520 member theory versus the intruder theory. And 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:22.219 we are going to walk through it all piece by 00:02:22.219 --> 00:02:24.620 piece without picking a side to see how these 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:27.039 two narratives can even exist in the same crime 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:29.460 scene. But to understand why we are still talking 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:32.379 about this in 2026, we have to start where it 00:02:32.379 --> 00:02:34.819 all went wrong. I mean, truly wrong. From the 00:02:34.819 --> 00:02:36.699 very first phone call. We have to start on the 00:02:36.699 --> 00:02:40.020 morning of December 26, 1996. Let's set the scene. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:43.240 It's the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, 755 00:02:43.240 --> 00:02:46.639 15th Street in Boulder, Colorado. And this is 00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:48.419 not just any house. It's in a wealthy neighborhood. 00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:52.590 A big, sprawling, Tudor -style home. Over 6 ,000 00:02:52.590 --> 00:02:54.610 square feet. Yeah. It's a substantial property. 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:57.150 Inside, you have John Ramsey, a very successful 00:02:57.150 --> 00:03:00.090 businessman, CEO of Access Graphics. You have 00:03:00.090 --> 00:03:03.009 his wife, Patsy Ramsey, a former Miss West Virginia. 00:03:03.409 --> 00:03:06.110 And their two kids, 9 -year -old Burke and, of 00:03:06.110 --> 00:03:08.949 course, 6 -year -old John Bonnet. And by all 00:03:08.949 --> 00:03:11.789 accounts, Christmas Day had been festive. They 00:03:11.789 --> 00:03:13.830 had friends over. They had dinner at the home 00:03:13.830 --> 00:03:15.569 of Fleet and Priscilla White, who had become 00:03:15.569 --> 00:03:17.909 key figures in this. Everything seemed normal. 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:21.900 But the morning of the 26th breaks with absolute 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:25.900 chaos. It starts at 5 .52 a .m. Mountain Standard 00:03:25.900 --> 00:03:29.500 Time. Patsy Ramsey makes a 911 call. And she 00:03:29.500 --> 00:03:32.939 is frantic, hysterical. The operator can barely 00:03:32.939 --> 00:03:35.270 understand her. She reports that her daughter 00:03:35.270 --> 00:03:37.729 is missing and that she has found a ransom note. 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:39.710 And right out of the gate, we have to talk about 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:42.689 the tone of this call versus the content of the 00:03:42.689 --> 00:03:46.729 note. Yes. At 5 .52 a .m., we hit the very first 00:03:46.729 --> 00:03:48.949 contradiction of the case. Which is? The note 00:03:48.949 --> 00:03:51.389 itself. We will get into the bizarre content 00:03:51.389 --> 00:03:53.370 of the note in detail later. It's practically 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:55.430 a novel. But there is one specific instruction 00:03:55.430 --> 00:03:57.770 in that note that stands out immediately. What 00:03:57.770 --> 00:04:00.270 it tells them not to do. Exactly. It explicitly 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:02.530 forbade the family from contacting the police 00:04:02.530 --> 00:04:04.849 or friends. It threatened the child's life if 00:04:04.849 --> 00:04:07.389 they did. I have the text here. It says, and 00:04:07.389 --> 00:04:09.889 this is a direct quote, speaking to anyone about 00:04:09.889 --> 00:04:13.550 your situation, such as police, FBI, etc., will 00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:16.170 result in your daughter being beheaded. Beheaded. 00:04:16.449 --> 00:04:18.750 I mean, think about that language. It is terrifying. 00:04:18.810 --> 00:04:21.689 It is graphic. It essentially says, if I see 00:04:21.689 --> 00:04:24.970 a cop, your daughter dies. Yet Patsy calls 911 00:04:24.970 --> 00:04:27.889 immediately upon finding the note. And not just 00:04:27.889 --> 00:04:31.430 911. She calls friends. She calls family. The 00:04:31.430 --> 00:04:33.529 house is about to become, well, Grand Central 00:04:33.529 --> 00:04:35.910 Station. So, okay, let's look at this from both 00:04:35.910 --> 00:04:38.750 sides. If you are looking at this suspiciously, 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:41.430 you say, why would you break the kidnapper's 00:04:41.430 --> 00:04:43.709 one and only rule if you actually thought they 00:04:43.709 --> 00:04:46.149 had your daughter? Right. The cynical view is 00:04:46.149 --> 00:04:48.610 that it feels like you know she's already dead, 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:50.689 so the threat doesn't matter. But if you're a 00:04:50.689 --> 00:04:53.110 panicked parent, maybe you just instinctively 00:04:53.110 --> 00:04:55.550 call for help. Precisely. It's a human reaction 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:59.100 versus a logical adherence to a threat. In a 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:01.959 moment of absolute trauma, do you read the fine 00:05:01.959 --> 00:05:04.500 print of a three -page letter, or do you grab 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.699 the phone and scream for the police? I don't 00:05:06.699 --> 00:05:09.480 know what I do. Nobody does. But that call sets 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:12.240 off a chain of events that, frankly, doomed the 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:14.540 investigation from the start. Two police officers 00:05:14.540 --> 00:05:17.000 arrive within three minutes. That is an incredibly 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.360 fast response time. It is very fast. Officer 00:05:20.360 --> 00:05:23.279 Rick French and another officer arrive, and they 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:26.160 conduct what is described in the reports as cursory 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:29.300 search of the house. And this is where we have 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:32.819 our first massive what -if moment of the case. 00:05:33.180 --> 00:05:35.939 Officer French in the basement. Yes. Officer 00:05:35.939 --> 00:05:37.759 Rick French goes down to the basement. And the 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:40.620 basement is huge in this house, right? It's not 00:05:40.620 --> 00:05:42.899 just one room. I've seen the floor plans. It's 00:05:42.899 --> 00:05:45.300 a labyrinth. It's full of little storage rooms 00:05:45.300 --> 00:05:48.439 and winding corridors. It's a maze. He goes down 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:51.300 there and he comes to a door. It's a white door 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:54.000 to a small room. And it's secured by a wooden 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.220 latch at the top of the frame. Okay. Officer 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:59.920 French pauses. He looks at the door, but he doesn't 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:01.980 open it. Why not? You're looking for a missing 00:06:01.980 --> 00:06:05.019 kid. If I'm a cop, I'm kicking open every door 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.040 in that house. I'm not leaving any stone unturned. 00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:09.699 His reasoning was logical at the time, even if 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:12.000 it turned out to be tragic. He saw the latch 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:13.980 was on the inside of the door frame. Meaning, 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:16.420 the latch was on the side of the door he was 00:06:16.420 --> 00:06:19.180 standing on. His logic was that if an intruder 00:06:19.180 --> 00:06:21.540 had taken JonBenet, they couldn't have exited 00:06:21.540 --> 00:06:23.540 through that door and latched it behind them 00:06:23.540 --> 00:06:26.360 from the outside. Ah, I see. He was looking for 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:28.259 an escape route. He was looking for a way out. 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:31.079 He assumed the kidnapper had fled with the child. 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:33.860 So he turned around. And behind that door? Behind 00:06:33.860 --> 00:06:37.220 that door was a small windowless room they called 00:06:37.220 --> 00:06:39.759 the wine cellar. And as we would find out about 00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:42.879 seven hours later, that is where JonBenet's body 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:46.000 was lying. Oh, man. If he just opens that door 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:48.720 at 6 a .m., everything changes. Everything. The 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:50.819 entire trajectory of this case is different. 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:53.500 The crime scene is preserved. The timeline is 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:55.759 established immediately. The house gets locked 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.160 down as a murder scene instantly. Instead, because 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:02.800 they didn't find her, the house remains a kidnapping 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:06.620 scene. And this distinction is absolutely vital. 00:07:06.819 --> 00:07:08.819 Right, because the protocols are totally different. 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.019 Completely. In a kidnapping, you need a command 00:07:11.019 --> 00:07:13.860 center. You need phones. You need people. And 00:07:13.860 --> 00:07:16.180 this leads to what many, many experts call the 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:19.220 fatal error. The contamination. It is breathtaking 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:22.139 when you read the reports. Because the police 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:25.000 treated it as a kidnapping, they didn't lock 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:28.240 down the house. They didn't seal it off. So friends, 00:07:28.459 --> 00:07:31.860 victim advocates, the family minister, they all 00:07:31.860 --> 00:07:34.600 started arriving to support the Ramseys. And 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:36.180 they aren't just sitting in the living room, 00:07:36.220 --> 00:07:37.819 are they? Oh, no. People are in the kitchen. 00:07:37.899 --> 00:07:40.279 They are making coffee. They are getting glasses 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:42.579 from the cupboards. They are cleaning surfaces. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:44.959 Wait, wait. They were cleaning up the crime scene. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:49.000 Unintentionally, yes. Priscilla White, one of 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.620 Patsy's best friends, reportedly wiped down the 00:07:51.620 --> 00:07:54.459 kitchen counters with a spray cleaner. No. Yes. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:56.980 They were trying to be helpful. The house was 00:07:56.980 --> 00:07:59.160 chaotic from Christmas. They wanted to be useful, 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:02.100 so they started tidying up. But in doing so, 00:08:02.100 --> 00:08:04.040 they were potentially destroying fingerprints, 00:08:04.540 --> 00:08:08.160 fibers, trace evidence, everything. You just 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:10.660 want to scream, stop touching things. And the 00:08:10.660 --> 00:08:13.060 police didn't stop them. The only room that was 00:08:13.060 --> 00:08:15.600 cordoned off with crime scene tape was JonBenet's 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:17.660 bedroom. The rest of the house was basically 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:20.459 a social gathering. That is just, it's malpractice. 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:22.459 I mean, it's frustrating to even read about 30 00:08:22.459 --> 00:08:24.819 years later. It created a defense attorney's 00:08:24.819 --> 00:08:27.980 dream. Reasonable doubt. Whatever evidence was 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:31.420 found later, or not found, could always be challenged 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:33.559 because the chain of custody of the scene was 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:35.820 broken from minute one. So if you find a fingerprint 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:38.559 later, how do you know it wasn't from one of 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:40.299 the five friends who were wandering around the 00:08:40.299 --> 00:08:42.360 kitchen that morning? You don't. And you can 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:46.149 never prove it. And that single failure is arguably 00:08:46.149 --> 00:08:48.509 why this case has never been prosecuted successfully. 00:08:49.049 --> 00:08:51.889 So while the House is filling up with people 00:08:51.889 --> 00:08:54.470 destroying evidence, the police are focused on 00:08:54.470 --> 00:08:57.350 this ransom note. And we need to take a deep 00:08:57.350 --> 00:09:00.149 dive into this note because, honestly, it might 00:09:00.149 --> 00:09:02.269 be the strangest piece of evidence in American 00:09:02.269 --> 00:09:04.669 criminal history. I would agree with that. It 00:09:04.669 --> 00:09:06.950 is certainly a forensic anomaly. If you study 00:09:06.950 --> 00:09:09.210 kidnapping cases, you just don't see things like 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.259 this. It breaks every rule. Let's look at the 00:09:11.259 --> 00:09:13.539 physical characteristics first. Where was it 00:09:13.539 --> 00:09:16.000 found? It was found by Patsy on the back spiral 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.500 staircase that led down to the kitchen. Spread 00:09:18.500 --> 00:09:21.080 out right on the steps. How long was it? Two 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:23.320 and a half pages. Two and a half pages. Handwritten. 00:09:23.559 --> 00:09:26.200 Yes. I want you to just pause and think about 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:29.240 the logistics of that. In the history of kidnapping 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:33.500 cases, ransom notes are typically short, punchy, 00:09:33.500 --> 00:09:35.889 and functional. Right. They're like a telegram. 00:09:36.029 --> 00:09:38.450 We have your child. Pay us X amount. Do not call 00:09:38.450 --> 00:09:40.789 police. Wait for instructions. They want to get 00:09:40.789 --> 00:09:42.610 in and get out. They don't want to spend time 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:45.570 composing a novel. The FBI actually told the 00:09:45.570 --> 00:09:47.649 Boulder police that writing a note of that length 00:09:47.649 --> 00:09:51.350 at the scene is practically unheard of in criminal 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:54.049 profiling. And we know it was written at the 00:09:54.049 --> 00:09:57.350 scene. That's a key detail. We know it was. Because 00:09:57.350 --> 00:09:59.370 it was written on a notepad from the house, right? 00:09:59.450 --> 00:10:02.429 Correct. A legal pad and a Sharpie felt -tip 00:10:02.429 --> 00:10:05.250 pen, both belonging to the Ramseys. In fact, 00:10:05.289 --> 00:10:07.690 investigators found the notepad with a page torn 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:10.029 out, and on the page underneath, they could see 00:10:10.029 --> 00:10:12.269 indentations from the writing. And they also 00:10:12.269 --> 00:10:14.210 found what they believed was a practice draft. 00:10:14.490 --> 00:10:17.850 A practice draft. So the killer, or whoever wrote 00:10:17.850 --> 00:10:21.190 it, started writing, messed up, tore it out or 00:10:21.190 --> 00:10:23.610 started over, and then wrote two and a half full 00:10:23.610 --> 00:10:26.330 pages while the family was asleep upstairs. That 00:10:26.330 --> 00:10:28.809 is the implication. Yeah. It suggests a level 00:10:28.809 --> 00:10:30.929 of comfort with the environment that is just 00:10:30.929 --> 00:10:33.909 chilling. Handwriting experts who have tested 00:10:33.909 --> 00:10:37.809 this say that just copying the note, not composing 00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:40.649 it, just writing it out word for word, takes 00:10:40.649 --> 00:10:42.809 about 20 minutes. 20 minutes. So if this is an 00:10:42.809 --> 00:10:44.309 intruder, he's sitting in the kitchen for 20 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:47.389 minutes. At a table. With the lights on. Or with 00:10:47.389 --> 00:10:50.009 a flashlight in his mouth. While the parents 00:10:50.009 --> 00:10:52.009 and another child are asleep upstairs and the 00:10:52.009 --> 00:10:54.850 dog is in the house. It's an incredibly high 00:10:54.850 --> 00:10:57.629 risk behavior for a burglar or a kidnapper. It 00:10:57.629 --> 00:11:00.169 seems almost performative. It does. And that's 00:11:00.169 --> 00:11:01.750 before we even get to what's in the note. The 00:11:01.750 --> 00:11:06.070 money demand is very, very specific. $118 ,000. 00:11:06.350 --> 00:11:08.590 It's a very odd number. It's not a round number. 00:11:08.990 --> 00:11:10.730 Kidnappers usually ask for round numbers. I want 00:11:10.730 --> 00:11:13.789 a million dollars. I want $500 ,000. But $118 00:11:13.789 --> 00:11:17.129 ,000. It's so specific. And John Ramsey pointed 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:20.090 out the connection almost to me. He did. He told 00:11:20.090 --> 00:11:22.730 police that amount was almost identical to his 00:11:22.730 --> 00:11:24.789 Christmas bonus from the prior year. I think 00:11:24.789 --> 00:11:26.809 it was off by just a few dollars. Which suggests 00:11:26.809 --> 00:11:29.049 the author knew the family's finances intimately. 00:11:29.289 --> 00:11:33.409 Or had access to John's pay stubs. This led investigators 00:11:33.409 --> 00:11:36.470 to look heavily at employees of Access Graphics. 00:11:36.590 --> 00:11:39.590 It implies an insider threat, someone who knew 00:11:39.590 --> 00:11:41.769 exactly how much liquidity John had available. 00:11:42.090 --> 00:11:44.799 But then you have the language. It's wild. We 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:47.120 are a group of individuals that represent a small 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:53.220 foreign faction signed SBTC. It reads like a 00:11:53.220 --> 00:11:56.220 script. And that's not a coincidence. Linguistic 00:11:56.220 --> 00:11:58.639 analysis showed heavy borrowing from movie dialogue. 00:11:58.899 --> 00:12:01.080 Which movies? Phrases from the movie. Speed. 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:04.220 Dirty Harry. Yeah. A lot from Dirty Harry. Also 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:06.919 Ransom and even the comedy Ruthless People. Don't 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:09.539 try to grow a brain, John. Execution. It's so 00:12:09.539 --> 00:12:13.240 dramatic it feels... That was the immediate conclusion 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:15.419 of the Boulder Police Department. They felt the 00:12:15.419 --> 00:12:18.340 tone shifted too much. It starts with this weirdly 00:12:18.340 --> 00:12:21.159 polite, we respect your business, and ends with 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:23.279 graphic threats of beheading. It sounds like 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:25.120 someone doing an impression of what they think 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:26.759 a terrorist sounds like from watching movies. 00:12:27.159 --> 00:12:30.000 Exactly. A small foreign faction in Boulder, 00:12:30.059 --> 00:12:32.539 Colorado. It just didn't track with reality. 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:35.639 And that brings us to the handwriting. This is 00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:38.340 the battleground. The police looked at one person, 00:12:39.340 --> 00:12:42.509 Patsy Ramsey. Why Patsy specifically? Because 00:12:42.509 --> 00:12:45.309 it was written on her pad with her pen, and she 00:12:45.309 --> 00:12:47.350 was the one who said she found it. The Colorado 00:12:47.350 --> 00:12:50.950 Bureau of Investigation, the CBI, analyzed her 00:12:50.950 --> 00:12:53.529 handwriting against the note. They got multiple 00:12:53.529 --> 00:12:55.590 handwriting samples from her. And what did they 00:12:55.590 --> 00:12:58.070 find? Was it a match? It was not a definitive 00:12:58.070 --> 00:13:00.090 match. They issued a report saying there were 00:13:00.090 --> 00:13:02.990 indications that the author was Patricia Ramsey. 00:13:03.070 --> 00:13:05.570 They couldn't rule her out. In the scale of handwriting 00:13:05.570 --> 00:13:08.289 analysis, she was on the cannot exclude side 00:13:08.289 --> 00:13:10.360 of the spectrum. Which isn't the same as saying 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:12.360 she wrote it. Not at all. It's inconclusive. 00:13:12.500 --> 00:13:14.340 Yeah. But the intruder theory supporters have 00:13:14.340 --> 00:13:16.960 a strong rebuttal to this. It wasn't a slam dunk 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:19.720 match by any stretch. I remember reading a federal 00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:22.139 court actually reviewed this later on. They did 00:13:22.139 --> 00:13:26.100 in a civil case. They cited six certified handwriting 00:13:26.100 --> 00:13:28.860 experts hired by the Ramsey's legal team who 00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:31.139 ruled it highly unlikely that Patsy wrote the 00:13:31.139 --> 00:13:33.419 note. They argue that the police were relying 00:13:33.419 --> 00:13:37.100 on self -proclaimed experts or were interpreting 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:39.460 similarities that are common in many people's 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:41.720 handwriting. So another piece of evidence that 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:43.740 points in two directions at once. It's a perfect 00:13:43.740 --> 00:13:46.360 storm of confusion. If it's an intruder, they 00:13:46.360 --> 00:13:48.820 were the most confident, movie -obsessed intruder 00:13:48.820 --> 00:13:50.980 in history who likes to hang out in the kitchen 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:53.519 for half an hour. If it's the family, it's the 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:56.279 most elaborate, high -risk staging imaginable. 00:13:56.379 --> 00:13:58.580 And while everyone is analyzing this note, assuming 00:13:58.580 --> 00:14:01.740 JonBenet has been kidnapped, Clock is ticking. 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:05.120 The hours are passing. It's now 1 p .m. Seven 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:08.600 hours since the 911 call. Seven hours. And Detective 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:10.720 Linda Arndt, who is the only detective on the 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:12.600 scene at this point because others are out coordinating 00:14:12.600 --> 00:14:15.299 the kidnapping response. Which is just incredible 00:14:15.299 --> 00:14:18.019 in itself. One detective for a high profile kidnapping. 00:14:18.379 --> 00:14:20.299 She makes a decision that has been criticized 00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:23.779 ever since. She notices John Ramsey looks agitated, 00:14:24.019 --> 00:14:26.620 pacing. She wants to give him something to do. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:29.419 So she tells him to search the house. She asks 00:14:29.419 --> 00:14:31.840 John. Ramsey and his friend, Fleet White, to 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:33.679 do another search of the house from top to bottom 00:14:33.679 --> 00:14:36.840 to see if anything seemed amiss. She tells the 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:40.559 dad a potential suspect in what could be a murder 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:43.220 to search the crime scene. In hindsight, it looks 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:45.940 like a terrible decision. At the time, she was 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:48.039 treating him as a victim father whose child was 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:51.059 missing. It's a sympathetic move, but a terrible 00:14:51.059 --> 00:14:53.179 investigative one. So John and Fleet White go 00:14:53.179 --> 00:14:55.519 to the basement. I do. And this time, John goes 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:57.419 straight to that white door with the wooden latch. 00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:59.759 The one Officer French didn't open that morning. 00:14:59.860 --> 00:15:03.000 The very same one. John unlatches it. He opens 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.039 it. And there she is. I can't imagine that moment. 00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:08.480 As a parent, finding your child like that. It 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:11.759 is horrific beyond words. But what happens next 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:23.720 is a forensic disaster. Oh, no. Don't touch anything. 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:32.820 He's a grieving father. He's in shock. Maybe 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:35.100 he's trying to revive her. Of course. It's a 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:37.600 human reaction. But from an investigative standpoint, 00:15:38.019 --> 00:15:40.779 the crime scene is now obliterated. The body 00:15:40.779 --> 00:15:42.980 has been moved. Clothing has been disturbed. 00:15:43.240 --> 00:15:45.720 The knot on the wrist bindings is loosened or 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:48.559 shifted. And fibers. I mean, if John is holding 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.820 her, his fibers are now on her. Patsy throws 00:15:50.820 --> 00:15:53.299 herself on the body crying. Her fibers are now 00:15:53.299 --> 00:15:56.899 on her. Exactly. Any chance of analyzing trace 00:15:56.899 --> 00:15:59.519 evidence, like a stray fiber from a killer's 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:02.309 jacket? is now hopelessly compromised because 00:16:02.309 --> 00:16:03.950 the parents' fibers are covering the victim. 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:06.909 If they find John's fibers on her now, the defense 00:16:06.909 --> 00:16:08.409 can say, well, of course they are. He picked 00:16:08.409 --> 00:16:10.389 her up. It's just one mistake after another. 00:16:10.649 --> 00:16:13.370 It is. So now let's talk about the autopsy. Because 00:16:13.370 --> 00:16:16.070 once the shock of the discovery passes, the medical 00:16:16.070 --> 00:16:18.610 examiner has to tell us how she died. And this 00:16:18.610 --> 00:16:20.509 is where the kidnapping narrative completely 00:16:20.509 --> 00:16:22.909 falls apart. This is where it becomes a clear 00:16:22.909 --> 00:16:26.730 homicide investigation. Unequivocally, the official 00:16:26.730 --> 00:16:30.509 cause of death was... asphyxia by strangulation 00:16:30.509 --> 00:16:33.710 associated with craniosurgeous cerebral trauma. 00:16:33.889 --> 00:16:37.389 She was strangled and hit on the head. Yes. And 00:16:37.389 --> 00:16:40.250 the head wound was not minor. There was a massive 00:16:40.250 --> 00:16:44.090 skull fracture, an 8 .5 -inch fracture along 00:16:44.090 --> 00:16:47.070 the side of her skull. The coroner said it was 00:16:47.070 --> 00:16:49.769 a blow of tremendous force, like something you'd 00:16:49.769 --> 00:16:52.190 see in a major car accident or a fall from a 00:16:52.190 --> 00:16:54.049 great height. But there wasn't a lot of external 00:16:54.049 --> 00:16:56.309 blood, right? Right. There was no bleeding on 00:16:56.309 --> 00:16:58.909 the scalp. Which suggests to some experts she 00:16:58.909 --> 00:17:01.169 might have been strangled first or hit very shortly 00:17:01.169 --> 00:17:02.870 after death when the heart wasn't pumping blood 00:17:02.870 --> 00:17:05.750 anymore. Or she was hit with a blunt object that 00:17:05.750 --> 00:17:07.849 didn't break the skin. And the strangulation 00:17:07.849 --> 00:17:11.069 involved a very specific tool, the garrote. This 00:17:11.069 --> 00:17:14.109 is a deeply disturbing piece of evidence. A garrote 00:17:14.109 --> 00:17:16.509 is a strangulation device. This one was made 00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:18.650 from a white nylon cord and the broken handle 00:17:18.650 --> 00:17:20.910 of a paintbrush. A paintbrush from the house? 00:17:21.150 --> 00:17:23.589 Yes. The cord was tied loosely around her neck, 00:17:23.690 --> 00:17:25.710 then the paintbrush handle was inserted into 00:17:25.710 --> 00:17:27.890 the knot and used as a handle to twist and tighten 00:17:27.890 --> 00:17:30.589 it. It's a brutal, deliberate weapon. And this 00:17:30.589 --> 00:17:33.329 paintbrush. This connects back to the house, 00:17:33.390 --> 00:17:36.589 too. It does. This is critical. The bottom part 00:17:36.589 --> 00:17:39.369 of that paintbrush, the bristle end, was found 00:17:39.369 --> 00:17:42.289 in Patsy's art supplies tub in the basement. 00:17:42.410 --> 00:17:45.170 It was a perfect match to the handle used in 00:17:45.170 --> 00:17:47.630 the garage. So the murder weapon was constructed 00:17:47.630 --> 00:17:49.930 with materials from inside the house. That's 00:17:49.930 --> 00:17:52.269 what the evidence suggests. But here's another 00:17:52.269 --> 00:17:55.829 mystery. The jagged, broken end of the handle. 00:17:56.529 --> 00:17:59.329 The little missing piece of wood that would connect 00:17:59.329 --> 00:18:02.049 the two pieces perfectly. What about it? It was 00:18:02.049 --> 00:18:04.809 never found. Despite the police searching that 00:18:04.809 --> 00:18:07.109 house top to bottom, sieving the carpets, checking 00:18:07.109 --> 00:18:09.589 the trash, that little splinter of wood that 00:18:09.589 --> 00:18:12.670 connected the two pieces was gone. That is bizarre. 00:18:12.750 --> 00:18:14.769 If it was made in the house by the parents, why 00:18:14.769 --> 00:18:16.769 would they hide a splinter of wood so well it's 00:18:16.769 --> 00:18:19.589 never found? but leave the notepad, the pen, 00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:21.789 and the rest of the brush right there. That is 00:18:21.789 --> 00:18:24.630 a key point for the intruder theory. Investigator 00:18:24.630 --> 00:18:26.589 Lou Smit argued that maybe the intruder made 00:18:26.589 --> 00:18:28.390 the device in the basement, the wood splintered, 00:18:28.390 --> 00:18:30.549 and it got stuck in his glove or his pocket, 00:18:30.650 --> 00:18:32.369 and he carried it out with him without even realizing 00:18:32.369 --> 00:18:34.849 it. It's another detail that just doesn't quite 00:18:34.849 --> 00:18:37.670 fit either theory perfectly. And the autopsy 00:18:37.670 --> 00:18:40.569 found something else. Something small, but something 00:18:40.569 --> 00:18:43.549 that became a huge point of contention. The pineapple. 00:18:43.950 --> 00:18:47.410 Ah, yes. The pineapple? The medical examiner 00:18:47.410 --> 00:18:49.829 found partially digested pineapple in JonBenet's 00:18:49.829 --> 00:18:52.650 stomach and small intestine. Which means she 00:18:52.650 --> 00:18:55.890 ate it. When? Based on the science of digestion 00:18:55.890 --> 00:18:59.329 rates, gastric emptying, as it's called, it suggests 00:18:59.329 --> 00:19:02.609 she ate that pineapple likely an hour or two 00:19:02.609 --> 00:19:05.369 before she died, not long before. But the parents 00:19:05.369 --> 00:19:07.250 said she was asleep the whole time. Correct. 00:19:07.349 --> 00:19:11.049 Their story consistently was this. They came 00:19:11.049 --> 00:19:12.890 home from the party at the White's house around 00:19:12.890 --> 00:19:16.319 9 .30 or 10 p .m. John Bonnet had fallen asleep 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:20.059 in the car. John carried her up to bed. Patsy 00:19:20.059 --> 00:19:22.119 changed her into pajamas, and she never woke 00:19:22.119 --> 00:19:24.259 up. They said they did not feed her pineapple. 00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:26.400 They were adamant about it. But investigators 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:28.680 found a bowl of pineapple with a spoon in it 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:31.079 on the kitchen table. A bowl of pineapple? With 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:33.299 a spoon. And this is the kicker on that bowl 00:19:33.299 --> 00:19:36.599 were Patsy Ramsey's fingerprints. And Burke Ramsey's 00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:38.539 fingerprints were on the glass next to it. Okay, 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:40.980 let's unpack this. This is the timeline anchor. 00:19:42.299 --> 00:19:44.480 If the parents say we didn't feed her and she 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:47.380 didn't wake up, but her stomach says I ate pineapple 00:19:47.380 --> 00:19:50.099 and the bowl on the table has the mother's prints, 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:53.319 that suggests the parents are either lying or 00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:56.339 mistaken about the timeline. It strongly suggests 00:19:56.339 --> 00:19:59.119 she was awake after they got home. It suggests 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:01.619 she was downstairs in the kitchen having a snack 00:20:01.619 --> 00:20:04.099 at a time when the parents said she was sound 00:20:04.099 --> 00:20:06.619 asleep in bed. Or, to play devil's advocate, 00:20:06.819 --> 00:20:09.680 as the intruder theory suggests, maybe the intruder 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:11.829 fed her. But think about that for a second. A 00:20:11.829 --> 00:20:14.069 kidnapper breaks into a house and before kidnapping 00:20:14.069 --> 00:20:16.670 or assaulting the child, he sits her down at 00:20:16.670 --> 00:20:18.670 the kitchen table and gives her a bowl of pineapple 00:20:18.670 --> 00:20:22.750 with a spoon. It seems highly unlikely. It strains 00:20:22.750 --> 00:20:26.210 credulity. The pineapple strongly suggested domestic 00:20:26.210 --> 00:20:28.650 setting, that she was with someone she knew. 00:20:28.890 --> 00:20:30.950 This discrepancy fueled the police suspicion 00:20:30.950 --> 00:20:33.369 instantly. It made them feel the parents were 00:20:33.369 --> 00:20:35.230 constructing a narrative that didn't fit the 00:20:35.230 --> 00:20:38.029 biological facts. And this brings us to the great 00:20:38.029 --> 00:20:40.730 divide. The investigation itself became a war 00:20:40.730 --> 00:20:43.940 zone. It really did. You rarely see this level 00:20:43.940 --> 00:20:46.279 of public infighting in a major criminal case. 00:20:46.460 --> 00:20:50.079 You had two very distinct, very hostile camps. 00:20:50.259 --> 00:20:52.599 The police versus the DA. The Boulder Police 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:55.339 Department, led largely by their suspicion of 00:20:55.339 --> 00:20:57.599 the parents. They looked at the staging, the 00:20:57.599 --> 00:20:59.779 note, the lack of forced entry, the pineapple, 00:20:59.839 --> 00:21:02.519 and they said, this is an inside job. It has 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:04.460 to be. And then you had the district attorney's 00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:07.500 office. The DA, Alex Hunter, and his team were 00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:09.579 much more skeptical of the police's tunnel vision. 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:12.579 They felt the police were ignoring credible evidence 00:21:12.579 --> 00:21:14.900 of an intruder to fit their preserved theory. 00:21:15.079 --> 00:21:17.660 And you have these two iconic figures representing 00:21:17.660 --> 00:21:20.640 the sides. Detective Steve Thomas for the police 00:21:20.640 --> 00:21:23.759 and investigator Lou Smit for the DA. It's like 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:26.259 a movie. Steve Thomas was the family theory pit 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:28.279 bull. He was convinced the Ramseys were guilty. 00:21:28.420 --> 00:21:30.880 He eventually resigned in frustration, writing 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:34.319 a scathing public letter blaming the DA for crippling 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:36.660 the case. He even wrote a bestselling book about 00:21:36.660 --> 00:21:39.519 it. And Lou Smit. Lou Smith was a legendary homicide 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:42.500 detective from Colorado Springs. He had solved 00:21:42.500 --> 00:21:44.960 hundreds of murders. He came out of retirement 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:47.920 to help. But he resigned, too, for the opposite 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:50.920 reason. He blamed the police for ignoring the 00:21:50.920 --> 00:21:53.519 intruder evidence. He spent the rest of his life 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:55.660 working to prove their innocence. It was total 00:21:55.660 --> 00:21:58.599 dysfunction. The two agencies supposed to solve 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:00.680 the crime wouldn't even talk to each other without 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:04.000 arguing. It was a disaster. But despite the dysfunction, 00:22:04.339 --> 00:22:07.700 the case did move forward slowly to a grand jury 00:22:07.700 --> 00:22:11.519 in 1999. And for years, nobody knew what happened 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:14.210 in that room. It was a secret proceeding. But 00:22:14.210 --> 00:22:17.069 in 2013, a journalist sued and documents were 00:22:17.069 --> 00:22:19.789 unsealed that revealed a bombshell. The grand 00:22:19.789 --> 00:22:22.230 jury actually voted to indict John and Patsy 00:22:22.230 --> 00:22:24.609 Ramsey. They voted to charge them. This changes 00:22:24.609 --> 00:22:26.029 the whole narrative for a lot of people. The 00:22:26.029 --> 00:22:28.329 public largely thought the grand jury had cleared 00:22:28.329 --> 00:22:30.769 them. They did not. They signed what's called 00:22:30.769 --> 00:22:33.190 a true bill. But, and this is a critical detail, 00:22:33.369 --> 00:22:35.549 they did not vote to indict them for murder. 00:22:35.730 --> 00:22:38.230 No, not for first degree murder. The charges 00:22:38.230 --> 00:22:41.390 were child abuse resulting in death and accessory 00:22:41.390 --> 00:22:43.799 to a crime. What does that actually mean? Well, 00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:46.019 the indictment stated that they did unlawfully, 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:49.140 knowingly, recklessly, and feloniously permit 00:22:49.140 --> 00:22:52.039 a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:54.539 that posed a threat of injury to the child's 00:22:54.539 --> 00:22:57.359 life or health. And that they helped a person 00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:00.400 who had committed and was an accessory to the 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:03.119 crime of murder. That sounds like they believe 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:05.779 the parents covered it up, but maybe didn't strike 00:23:05.779 --> 00:23:08.000 the fatal blow. Or that they were protecting 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.440 someone who did. Exactly. It implies the grand 00:23:10.440 --> 00:23:12.640 jury believed the Ramseys were protecting someone 00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:16.200 or that their negligence or actions allowed the 00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:18.880 death to happen. It's a charge of complicity, 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:21.279 not necessarily of direct action. But they were 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:24.720 never charged. Why? If the grand jury says charge 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:27.200 them, why didn't it happen? Because the district 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:30.220 attorney, Alex Hunter. refused to sign the indictment. 00:23:30.299 --> 00:23:32.859 He can do that? Just override a grand jury? He 00:23:32.859 --> 00:23:35.420 can. He has the ultimate prosecutorial discretion. 00:23:35.799 --> 00:23:38.500 He looked at the evidence and he decided he could 00:23:38.500 --> 00:23:41.359 not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.740 a criminal trial. Which is a much higher standard 00:23:43.740 --> 00:23:46.460 than the probable cause needed for a grand jury 00:23:46.460 --> 00:23:49.660 to indict. Correct. Probable cause just means 00:23:49.660 --> 00:23:52.200 it's more likely than not. Beyond a reasonable 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:54.559 doubt means there is no other logical explanation. 00:23:55.460 --> 00:23:57.839 Hunter knew about the DNA we'll talk about. He 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:00.460 knew about the contaminated crime scene. He likely 00:24:00.460 --> 00:24:02.839 calculated that a good defense team would tear 00:24:02.839 --> 00:24:05.279 the case apart in court. And if you lose in court, 00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:07.819 double jeopardy applies. You can never try them 00:24:07.819 --> 00:24:10.259 again for that crime. Exactly. He didn't want 00:24:10.259 --> 00:24:13.200 to fire his one shot and miss. So he let the 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:16.259 case stay open, unsolved. So let's really dig 00:24:16.259 --> 00:24:18.160 into the theories that the grand jury and the 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:20.319 police were weighing. Let's start with Theory 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:23.250 A. The family member theory. This theory relies 00:24:23.250 --> 00:24:25.569 heavily on statistics and behavioral analysis. 00:24:26.130 --> 00:24:29.329 As we mentioned, FBI stats show a high probability 00:24:29.329 --> 00:24:31.569 of family involvement when a child is killed 00:24:31.569 --> 00:24:34.250 in the home without obvious forced entry. And 00:24:34.250 --> 00:24:36.829 the police saw the whole thing as staged. Yes. 00:24:37.069 --> 00:24:40.049 The long ransom note, the garrote made from household 00:24:40.049 --> 00:24:42.349 items, the lack of footprints in the snow outside. 00:24:42.769 --> 00:24:46.369 It all felt to them like a performance. The bedwetting 00:24:46.369 --> 00:24:48.390 theory was the big one regarding Patsy, right? 00:24:48.470 --> 00:24:51.759 That was the motive they floated. Yes. Detective 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:54.700 Steve Thomas pushed this hard in his book. The 00:24:54.700 --> 00:24:57.200 theory was that JonBenet was a chronic bedwetter. 00:24:57.539 --> 00:25:00.500 Which was true. Medical records confirmed it. 00:25:00.740 --> 00:25:03.799 The theory posits that Patsy, perhaps exhausted, 00:25:04.099 --> 00:25:06.299 stressed from the holidays, and dealing with 00:25:06.299 --> 00:25:07.920 yet another wetbed in the middle of the night, 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:11.690 snapped. A fit of rage. A mommy snap. She strikes 00:25:11.690 --> 00:25:14.549 the child, perhaps pushing her. She falls and 00:25:14.549 --> 00:25:16.490 hits her head on something hard, like the side 00:25:16.490 --> 00:25:19.289 of a tub. Then, in a panic, realizing what's 00:25:19.289 --> 00:25:21.730 happened, the parents stage the kidnapping to 00:25:21.730 --> 00:25:23.609 cover it up and protect their reputation and 00:25:23.609 --> 00:25:25.910 their family. And the evidence for this is the 00:25:25.910 --> 00:25:28.089 handwriting on the note, the fibers consistent 00:25:28.089 --> 00:25:29.869 with her clothes found on the body, and the duct 00:25:29.869 --> 00:25:31.869 tape, and of course the pineapple bowl with her 00:25:31.869 --> 00:25:33.990 prints. Then you have the theory regarding the 00:25:33.990 --> 00:25:36.109 brother, Burke. He was nine years old at the 00:25:36.109 --> 00:25:38.599 time. This came back into the spotlight big time 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:41.920 in 2016 with that CBS documentary, The Case of 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:44.559 JonBenét Ramsey. That documentary gathered a 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:46.740 panel of experts who reexamined the evidence, 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:49.119 and they theorized that Burke hit his sister 00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:52.000 with a heady object, possibly a large maglite 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:54.299 flashlight found on the kitchen counter. And 00:25:54.299 --> 00:25:56.559 the motive was supposedly about the pineapple. 00:25:56.599 --> 00:25:58.900 Right. The theory was that Burke was downstairs 00:25:58.900 --> 00:26:01.839 having his snack of pineapple and tea. JonBenet 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:03.880 comes down. Maybe she steals a piece of his pineapple. 00:26:04.019 --> 00:26:06.380 A childish argument breaks out. He swings the 00:26:06.380 --> 00:26:08.160 flashlight in anger and hits her on the head. 00:26:08.279 --> 00:26:10.839 An accidental death. A tragic accident. And the 00:26:10.839 --> 00:26:13.359 parents wake up to find one child dead and the 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.559 other responsible. They make a terrible decision 00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:17.720 to cover up to save their only remaining child. 00:26:17.859 --> 00:26:20.059 They figure, we've lost one, we can't lose the 00:26:20.059 --> 00:26:22.500 other, to the criminal justice system. That is 00:26:22.500 --> 00:26:26.059 a dark, dark theory. And a huge accusation to 00:26:26.059 --> 00:26:29.920 level at a nine -year -old boy. It is. However... 00:26:30.089 --> 00:26:32.630 We have to be very, very fair here. Burke was 00:26:32.630 --> 00:26:34.950 interviewed by child psychologists and investigators 00:26:34.950 --> 00:26:38.509 at least three times. The police explicitly stated 00:26:38.509 --> 00:26:42.130 in 1998 and 1999 that Burke was not a suspect. 00:26:42.490 --> 00:26:44.309 And didn't the child psychologists who reviewed 00:26:44.309 --> 00:26:46.289 the interviews find the family dynamic to be 00:26:46.289 --> 00:26:49.190 okay? Yes. They reviewed the family dynamic and 00:26:49.190 --> 00:26:51.569 found it to be healthy and caring. There was 00:26:51.569 --> 00:26:54.210 no record of abuse or violent tendencies in Burke. 00:26:54.349 --> 00:26:56.750 He was, by all accounts, a normal nine -year 00:26:56.750 --> 00:26:59.049 -old boy. What about the parents' behavior after 00:26:59.049 --> 00:27:02.710 the fact? They hire lawyers immediately. I remember 00:27:02.710 --> 00:27:05.609 the governor of Colorado, Roy Romer, went on 00:27:05.609 --> 00:27:08.529 TV telling them to quit hiding behind their attorneys. 00:27:08.849 --> 00:27:11.289 It looked incredibly suspicious to the public 00:27:11.289 --> 00:27:13.529 and the police. They didn't submit to formal 00:27:13.529 --> 00:27:15.910 police interviews for four months. Which seems 00:27:15.910 --> 00:27:18.329 insane. Your daughter is dead and you won't talk 00:27:18.329 --> 00:27:20.700 to the police. But... If you look at it from 00:27:20.700 --> 00:27:22.960 a legal perspective, their defense attorneys 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:25.319 would argue that this is exactly what you should 00:27:25.319 --> 00:27:27.819 do. How so? If the police have tunnel vision 00:27:27.819 --> 00:27:30.259 and are trying to pin a murder on you that you 00:27:30.259 --> 00:27:32.960 didn't commit, you don't go into an interrogation 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:34.940 room without a lawyer. You protect yourself. 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:37.880 You communicate through counsel. As unpopular 00:27:37.880 --> 00:27:40.839 as it was, hiring top -tier legal defense is 00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:43.619 a rational move when you're the number one suspect, 00:27:43.740 --> 00:27:45.960 not necessarily proof of guilt. Okay, that's 00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:47.900 the family case in a nutshell. But now we have 00:27:47.900 --> 00:27:50.079 to pivot. Because for everything we just said, 00:27:50.180 --> 00:27:52.380 the note, the pineapple, the behavior, there 00:27:52.380 --> 00:27:55.519 is a single piece of hard physical evidence that 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:58.460 simply does not fit. Let's talk about Theory 00:27:58.460 --> 00:28:00.619 B, the intruder. This is where the hard stack 00:28:00.619 --> 00:28:03.279 gets really, really difficult for the family 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:06.460 theory proponents. It starts and it ends with 00:28:06.460 --> 00:28:11.000 DNA. The underwear. Yes. In 2003, after years 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:14.039 of trying, forensic investigators finally extracted 00:28:14.039 --> 00:28:17.299 a usable DNA profile from a mixed blood sample 00:28:17.299 --> 00:28:20.059 found on JonBenet's underwear. Let's be specific 00:28:20.059 --> 00:28:21.940 about where it was found. This wasn't just a 00:28:21.940 --> 00:28:24.420 smudge on the outside. No. It was found in the 00:28:24.420 --> 00:28:27.420 crotch area of the underwear. It was a mixture 00:28:27.420 --> 00:28:30.460 of JonBenet's blood DNA and the DNA of an unknown 00:28:30.460 --> 00:28:33.380 male contributor. And who did it belong to? It 00:28:33.380 --> 00:28:35.480 was not John Ramsey. It was not Burke Ramsey. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:37.500 It was not anyone in the Ramsey family. It was 00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:38.960 run against hundreds of other people who had 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:41.400 been in the house. It matched none of them. It 00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:43.420 was a stranger. And they ran this through CODIS, 00:28:43.640 --> 00:28:46.180 the National FBI Database. They did. And have 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:47.920 continued to do so over the years. No match. 00:28:48.579 --> 00:28:51.059 Which means the person, if they are in the U 00:28:51.059 --> 00:28:53.480 .S., had not been convicted of a felony that 00:28:53.480 --> 00:28:56.079 required their DNA to be put on file. Then, years 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:58.680 later, the technology got even better. Touch 00:28:58.680 --> 00:29:02.559 DNA. Right. In 2008, the DA's office. led by 00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:05.119 Mary Lacey at the time, decided to retest the 00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:07.359 waistband of her long johns, the clothing she 00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:09.539 was wearing over the underwear. And they used 00:29:09.539 --> 00:29:12.400 a new, more sensitive method to scrape for skin 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:14.880 cells. And what did they find? They found the 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:18.460 same unknown male DNA profile. The same guy. 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:21.880 The same guy. So you have the same unknown male's 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:24.039 genetic material mixed with her blood and her 00:29:24.039 --> 00:29:25.819 underwear and on the waistband of her pants. 00:29:26.180 --> 00:29:29.079 That is compelling. It is extremely compelling. 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:31.579 It is biological proof that a stranger was in 00:29:31.579 --> 00:29:33.700 physical contact with her clothing in the intimate 00:29:33.700 --> 00:29:36.339 areas where the assault took place. This is what 00:29:36.339 --> 00:29:38.599 led District Attorney Mary Lacey to publicly 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:41.259 exonerate the Ramseys in 2008. She wrote them 00:29:41.259 --> 00:29:42.960 a letter, didn't she? She wrote a formal letter 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:45.740 of apology to John Ramsey. She said the DNA evidence 00:29:45.740 --> 00:29:48.660 in her mind cleared the family and proved an 00:29:48.660 --> 00:29:50.640 intruder was responsible. But if there was an 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:52.480 intruder, how did they get in? The police said 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:54.099 there was no forced entry. All the doors were 00:29:54.099 --> 00:29:57.579 locked. This is a major sticking point. Lou Smit, 00:29:57.759 --> 00:30:00.200 the legendary detective who supported the intruder 00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:03.279 theory, pointed to the basement. There was a 00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:05.960 broken window in the train room. But didn't John 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:08.400 break that window himself months earlier when 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:10.819 he was locked out of the house? He did. He admitted 00:30:10.819 --> 00:30:12.359 that. He'd never gotten around to fixing it. 00:30:12.440 --> 00:30:14.740 But Smit argued it was an open point of entry. 00:30:15.059 --> 00:30:18.119 The glass was broken out. The latch was undone. 00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:20.500 It was an unlocked door, essentially. What about 00:30:20.500 --> 00:30:23.059 the suitcase? They found a hard -sided suitcase 00:30:23.059 --> 00:30:25.519 standing on its end directly beneath that window. 00:30:26.259 --> 00:30:28.559 Smith theorized the intruder used the suitcase 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:30.759 as a step to get back out of the window after 00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:33.420 the crime. There was a scuff mark on the wall 00:30:33.420 --> 00:30:35.400 above it that looked like a shoe print. But the 00:30:35.400 --> 00:30:38.000 cobwebs. I always hear about the cobwebs. The 00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:40.700 battle of the cobweb. The police noted that there 00:30:40.700 --> 00:30:42.900 was an intact spider web in the corner of the 00:30:42.900 --> 00:30:45.660 window frame. They argued an adult couldn't have 00:30:45.660 --> 00:30:47.299 crawled through that window without breaking 00:30:47.299 --> 00:30:49.460 the web. Which suggests it hadn't been used. 00:30:49.740 --> 00:30:52.160 Smith argued the window was open enough to bypass 00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:54.880 it. or the web was in a corner that wasn't disturbed. 00:30:55.400 --> 00:30:59.099 It became a battle of inches and angles. There 00:30:59.099 --> 00:31:01.299 were also other potential entry points, like 00:31:01.299 --> 00:31:03.980 an unsecured door, but nothing was ever proven. 00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:07.079 So we have this phantom DNA. What about suspects? 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:09.640 If it was an intruder, who was it? Did they have 00:31:09.640 --> 00:31:13.099 anyone? They looked at dozens, if not hundreds. 00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:16.220 There was Santa Bill McReynolds, a neighbor who 00:31:16.220 --> 00:31:18.640 had played Santa Claus for the family party and 00:31:18.640 --> 00:31:21.890 had a somewhat odd connection to JonBenet. His 00:31:21.890 --> 00:31:23.470 own daughter had been abducted years before. 00:31:23.670 --> 00:31:25.690 He was cleared. He was cleared. There was the 00:31:25.690 --> 00:31:28.029 housekeeper, Linda Hoffman Pugh, who owed the 00:31:28.029 --> 00:31:30.670 Ramseys money. She was cleared. They look at 00:31:30.670 --> 00:31:33.569 a man named Gary Oliva, who was a known sex offender 00:31:33.569 --> 00:31:36.410 in the area. His DNA didn't match. And then the 00:31:36.410 --> 00:31:39.329 guy who actually confessed, John Mark Carr. That 00:31:39.329 --> 00:31:41.970 was a media circus in 2006. He was an American 00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:44.589 teacher living in Thailand. He was arrested after 00:31:44.589 --> 00:31:46.430 exchanging emails with a journalism professor, 00:31:46.670 --> 00:31:49.380 and he claimed he was there. That he loved her, 00:31:49.420 --> 00:31:51.299 that he drugged her and accidentally killed her. 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:53.420 It was a huge international story. I remember 00:31:53.420 --> 00:31:56.819 them flying him back to the U .S. They did. But 00:31:56.819 --> 00:31:59.819 his story had massive holes. He claimed he drugged 00:31:59.819 --> 00:32:02.519 her, but the autopsy toxicology report showed 00:32:02.519 --> 00:32:04.700 absolutely no drugs in her system. She wasn't 00:32:04.700 --> 00:32:07.380 drugged. And the DNA. They rushed his DNA to 00:32:07.380 --> 00:32:10.640 the lab. It did not match the unknown male profile 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.700 on the underwear. So a false confession from 00:32:13.700 --> 00:32:16.460 a disturbed individual seeking attention. Exactly. 00:32:16.579 --> 00:32:19.099 The DA declined to charge him. He was a fantasist. 00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:22.099 And that brings us back to square one. We have 00:32:22.099 --> 00:32:24.940 a body with DNA that belongs to a ghost. The 00:32:24.940 --> 00:32:27.460 aftermath of this case has been just as messy 00:32:27.460 --> 00:32:29.900 as the investigation. It turned into a legal 00:32:29.900 --> 00:32:32.680 war. The defamation lawsuits are a key part of 00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:35.660 the story. Lin Wood, the family's attorney, went 00:32:35.660 --> 00:32:37.940 on the offensive. They sued Star Magazine, the 00:32:37.940 --> 00:32:40.079 New York Post, and others who printed headlines 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:42.539 calling Burke or the parents murderers. And they 00:32:42.539 --> 00:32:44.900 won or settled, right? They obtained dismissals 00:32:44.900 --> 00:32:47.480 or settlements in almost every single case. And 00:32:47.480 --> 00:32:49.700 usually, to win a libel suit, you have to prove 00:32:49.700 --> 00:32:52.720 the statement is false. The courts have often 00:32:52.720 --> 00:32:54.599 ruled that the evidence supports the intruder 00:32:54.599 --> 00:32:57.099 theory more than the family theory. Judge Carnes, 00:32:57.099 --> 00:33:00.529 right. Yes. In a 2003 federal case involving 00:33:00.529 --> 00:33:03.309 a defamation suit against the Ramseys, Judge 00:33:03.309 --> 00:33:06.849 Julie Carnes reviewed the entire case file. She 00:33:06.849 --> 00:33:09.910 wrote a 93 -page summary judgment stating that 00:33:09.910 --> 00:33:12.809 there was abundant evidence to support the intruder 00:33:12.809 --> 00:33:14.930 theory and that the plaintiff had failed to show 00:33:14.930 --> 00:33:17.130 the parents were involved. That's a federal judge 00:33:17.130 --> 00:33:19.130 looking at all the police files and saying... 00:33:19.369 --> 00:33:22.069 It looks like an intruder. It's a powerful statement. 00:33:22.170 --> 00:33:25.609 And Burke Ramsey even sued CBS over that 2016 00:33:25.609 --> 00:33:27.750 documentary you mentioned. The one that accused 00:33:27.750 --> 00:33:30.369 him of killing his sister. He sued CBS and the 00:33:30.369 --> 00:33:34.609 experts on the panel for $750 million. That is 00:33:34.609 --> 00:33:37.339 a massive number. The case was settled out of 00:33:37.339 --> 00:33:39.940 court in 2019 to the satisfaction of all parties. 00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:42.460 We don't know the amount, but the fact that a 00:33:42.460 --> 00:33:44.480 major network settled suggests their legal team 00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:46.500 knew they had a significant liability problem. 00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:48.519 It shows you cannot just go on TV and accuse 00:33:48.519 --> 00:33:50.839 someone without hard proof. So where do we stand 00:33:50.839 --> 00:33:53.799 now, today in 2026? Patsy Ramsey passed away 00:33:53.799 --> 00:33:56.559 in 2006 from ovarian cancer. She never saw the 00:33:56.559 --> 00:33:59.059 case solved. She died with the cloud of suspicion 00:33:59.059 --> 00:34:02.279 still over her head, two years before the DA's 00:34:02.279 --> 00:34:05.500 DNA exoneration letter. John Ramsey is still 00:34:05.500 --> 00:34:09.420 alive. He is remarried. He has spent decades 00:34:09.420 --> 00:34:13.159 trying to find the killer, pushing for new DNA 00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:15.539 technology like genetic genealogy to be used 00:34:15.539 --> 00:34:17.920 on the sample. And the police? What's the official 00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:21.199 status? In 2009, the Boulder police took the 00:34:21.199 --> 00:34:23.920 case back from the DA's office. They reopened 00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:26.300 it as a cold case, and it remains an open and 00:34:26.300 --> 00:34:28.769 active homicide investigation to this day. But 00:34:28.769 --> 00:34:31.030 didn't the police chief walk back that exoneration 00:34:31.030 --> 00:34:34.409 letter from the D .A.? He did. In 2016, then 00:34:34.409 --> 00:34:36.670 Chief Mark Beckner gave an interview where he 00:34:36.670 --> 00:34:38.150 admitted mistakes were made in the beginning, 00:34:38.289 --> 00:34:40.530 the contaminated crime scene. But he also said 00:34:40.530 --> 00:34:42.550 that exonerating the entire family based solely 00:34:42.550 --> 00:34:45.269 on that small piece of touch DNA was absurd. 00:34:45.530 --> 00:34:48.590 Absurd. That's a strong word. His argument and 00:34:48.590 --> 00:34:50.349 the argument of many in law enforcement is that 00:34:50.349 --> 00:34:54.610 the DNA could be transfer DNA. Meaning it was 00:34:54.610 --> 00:34:56.530 there before the crime. Right. Maybe it came 00:34:56.530 --> 00:34:58.170 from the factory where the underwear was made. 00:34:58.269 --> 00:34:59.909 Maybe it came from a worker in the packaging 00:34:59.909 --> 00:35:02.570 plant. Is that actually possible? It is scientifically 00:35:02.570 --> 00:35:06.750 possible. It's called innocent transfer. If a 00:35:06.750 --> 00:35:09.269 factory worker in Asia sneezed on a piece of 00:35:09.269 --> 00:35:12.630 fabric and that DNA survived the packaging, the 00:35:12.630 --> 00:35:15.030 shipping, the purchase, it could theoretically 00:35:15.030 --> 00:35:17.590 end up on the clothing. But found in two places. 00:35:18.190 --> 00:35:20.210 Mixed with blood in the underwear and on the 00:35:20.210 --> 00:35:22.429 waistband of the long johns. That is where the 00:35:22.429 --> 00:35:25.670 transfer theory gets very, very weak. The odds 00:35:25.670 --> 00:35:27.849 of the same innocent contamination happening 00:35:27.849 --> 00:35:30.809 on two different layers of clothing are astronomical. 00:35:31.690 --> 00:35:35.159 But it's not zero. So the police refocus the 00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:37.260 attention back on the totality of the evidence, 00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:40.239 the note, the pineapple, the lack of footprints 00:35:40.239 --> 00:35:42.380 in the snow outside. So the DNA clears in the 00:35:42.380 --> 00:35:44.380 eyes of the D .A. and the courts. But the police 00:35:44.380 --> 00:35:47.440 say not so fast. And that is the stalemate we 00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:49.800 have been in for over a decade. It's incredibly 00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:51.659 frustrating. You want an answer. You want to 00:35:51.659 --> 00:35:53.179 be able to say it was the parents or it was an 00:35:53.179 --> 00:35:55.179 intruder. But the facts simply refuse to cooperate. 00:35:55.739 --> 00:35:57.340 This is the synthesis we had to leave you with 00:35:57.340 --> 00:35:59.280 today. The case is caught in a loop because the 00:35:59.280 --> 00:36:01.860 evidence supports two completely contradictory 00:36:01.860 --> 00:36:05.159 realities. It is the pineapple versus DNA paradox. 00:36:05.900 --> 00:36:08.280 Precisely. The pineapple sits in her stomach 00:36:08.280 --> 00:36:11.559 as biological proof of a timeline that contradicts 00:36:11.559 --> 00:36:13.679 the parent -sworn account. It suggests they are 00:36:13.679 --> 00:36:16.329 hiding something about that night. Why lie about 00:36:16.329 --> 00:36:18.889 a simple snack? But the DNA sits on her clothing 00:36:18.889 --> 00:36:21.710 as biological proof of an unknown male's presence 00:36:21.710 --> 00:36:23.989 at the heart of the crime. And those two facts 00:36:23.989 --> 00:36:26.989 have never been reconciled. Unless the intruder 00:36:26.989 --> 00:36:29.989 fed her pineapple. Highly unlikely. Or unless 00:36:29.989 --> 00:36:33.320 the DNA is an innocent transfer. Also. Highly 00:36:33.320 --> 00:36:35.300 unlikely. So you have to choose which highly 00:36:35.300 --> 00:36:37.639 unlikely scenario you believe. Exactly. You are 00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:39.900 choosing between an impossible intruder and an 00:36:39.900 --> 00:36:42.460 impossible conspiracy. There is no easy answer. 00:36:42.659 --> 00:36:45.280 Here's a provocative thought to end on. We always 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:48.119 ask, who wrote the note? We obsess over the handwriting, 00:36:48.300 --> 00:36:50.880 the movie quotes, the SBTC. But I want to ask 00:36:50.880 --> 00:36:53.739 you, the listener, this. If that DNA had matched 00:36:53.739 --> 00:36:57.079 a known convict in 1997, let's say a local burglar 00:36:57.079 --> 00:36:59.340 with a record of similar crimes, would we even 00:36:59.340 --> 00:37:01.869 care about the ransom note? No, we wouldn't. 00:37:01.869 --> 00:37:04.369 We would say, oh, the burglar wrote a weird long 00:37:04.369 --> 00:37:06.949 note to try and throw off the police. We would 00:37:06.949 --> 00:37:08.969 ignore the length, the movie quotes, the bonus 00:37:08.969 --> 00:37:11.550 amount. We would convict him based on the DNA 00:37:11.550 --> 00:37:13.550 and move on. The note would just be a bizarre 00:37:13.550 --> 00:37:16.210 footnote. Exactly. We only obsess over the note 00:37:16.210 --> 00:37:18.150 because we don't have a suspect to cash it to. 00:37:18.250 --> 00:37:21.889 So the note becomes the prime suspect. Or is 00:37:21.889 --> 00:37:26.579 the DNA a red herring? has a tiny speck of unrelated, 00:37:26.940 --> 00:37:29.880 innocently transferred genetic material allowed 00:37:29.880 --> 00:37:32.179 a domestic killer to hide in plain sight for 00:37:32.179 --> 00:37:35.719 30 years. Is the DNA the ultimate accidental 00:37:35.719 --> 00:37:38.719 alibi? That is the question that haunts Boulder. 00:37:38.940 --> 00:37:41.800 And until that DNA is finally matched or someone 00:37:41.800 --> 00:37:44.420 on their deathbed confesses, the ghost of JonBenet 00:37:44.420 --> 00:37:46.619 Ramsey will continue to wait for justice. And 00:37:46.619 --> 00:37:48.789 we will continue to wonder. That's it for this 00:37:48.789 --> 00:37:50.530 deep dive. Thank you for listening. We will be 00:37:50.530 --> 00:37:52.349 back next week with another stack of sources. 00:37:52.469 --> 00:37:54.349 Stay curious and stay critical.