The JonBenet Chronicles: Chapter 6: The Ransom Note, JonBenet Is Found, Her Autopsy And The Ramsey Stun Gun Manual.

According to statements that Patsy gave to authorities that day, she realized that JonBenet was missing after she found a two-and-a-half page note on the kitchen staircase. The Note demanded $118,000 for her safe return. No fingerprints were found on the note. The note and a practice draft were written with a pen and paper from the Ramsey's home belonging to Patsy.

The pen that was used to write the ransom note was neatly put back in it's place by the phone. Supposedly the ransom note's time element indicates that it was composed around midnight. Take the line "i advise you to be rested." from the ransom note. According to experts, a kidnapper would not normally give such advice to his victims. Why would the kidnappers tell the victims to get rest when they were already supposedly sleeping? And why would the kidnappers care? 

The note never referred to JonBenet by name. Was it too emotionally difficult for the authors of the note to write JonBenet's name?

Investigators surmised that it would have taken 21 minutes just to write the note, plus time to compose and to write the draft version.
The amount of money asked for in the ransom note was kind of small when you consider that John was a CEO for a billion dollar company. The amount of money asked for was the same as the previous bonus that John received from work.

The note is the longest ransom note in history.

Detectives found handwriting samples in the Ramsey home from Patsy, that were similar to the style on the ransom note.

The note's immediate misspellings and grammatical errors made it seem like the kidnapper was uneducated. Later in the note, the author then slid into a more natural use of terms that showed a better education.

Detectives believe that the note was written by a woman and dictated by someone else. It couldn't be proven that Patsy did or did not write the note.

The only fingerprint was found on the ransom note belonged to a technician that did analysis on it.

John made arrangements to pay the ransom.

A Forensics team was dispatched to the house.

JonBenet's bedroom was on the second floor. It had a porch overlooking the south yard and patio and was closet to the spiral staircase. It was the only room in the house that was cordoned off to prevent contamination of evidence. No process was taken to prevent contamination of evidence in the rest of the house.

i know that it wasn't considered a murder yet, but i would have secured pretty much the whole house. The authorities had no concrete idea how the perpetrators got in and out of the house, there could have been evidence pretty much anywhere. 

The police had removed a small piece of carpet in front of the night table between the matching single beds. To the left of the bed the police had removed two additional pieces of carpet. All of JonBenet's sheets, pillowcases, and bed covers were taken into custody by the police. Fingerprint powder was everywhere.

Meanwhile, friends and the family minister arrived at the home. Victim advocates also arrived at the scene. 

John Fernie, "I drove my car into the -- up the alley and parked in the back of your house, and went around to the patio door, which was a glass door leading into the kitchen and back of the house, and didn't see anybody, but saw a piece of paper laying on the floor. Looked at that. It was facing the other direction. Read it. And after the first few lines realized something very strange was happening. And so I ran around to the front of the house and knocked on the door and was let in."

Visitors picked up and cleaned surfaces in the kitchen, destroying any possible evidence.

After 7:13 a.m., Burke Ramsey was taken to Fleet White's house by Fleet and John Fernie who on the way picked up the Fernie children and took them there as well.

BPD followed standard procedure by putting taps inside the house and at John Ramsey's office 

Boulder detective Linda Ardnt arrived about 8 a.m. MST, with the goal of awaiting the kidnapper's instructions, but there was never any attempt to claim the money.

She was a 14-year veteran of the Boulder department, well-respected as a staunch victim advocate.

Arndt was left by her colleagues at the Ramsey home with JonBenet's parents and family friends in the first hours of the investigation. She asked for more manpower, but most of her colleagues and the FBI were at the police station and wouldn't send anyone. She was used as a scapegoat and shouldered the blame for numerous police errors at the crime scene that day in December 1996.

She remembers his demeanor when he initially greeted her as not distraught or upset but cordial. Ardnt says that John and Patsy did not spend the morning in each other's company. She also said that at 10 a.m., when the deadline from the ransom note passed, that the Ramsey's did not remark whatsoever regarding the fact that the kidnappers did not call. She also asked everyone to examine the ransom note for clues and almost everyone had ideas except for Mr. Ramsey. Ardnt said that she was confused about why the Ramseys wouldn't speak to her.

10:30 a.m., Arndt called for backup at least twice while left in the house alone with the Ramsey family and friends (seven in total), she is told that all officers are in a Boulder Police Department meeting and they received her message. No one was sent because they were short-staffed.

Lockheed Martin didn't send their security team to the scene either. their team handles national security threats involving the company and it's employees. 

Norm Early who had been the district attorney of Denver and was the vice-president of Lockheed Martin Security at the time of the murder of JonBenet stated that their had been not one word of JonBenet's alleged kidnapping.

He said that when he found out he began to call executives and lawyers among others and said,"Why wasn't my family alerted? What happened?"
And they said to him,"Well, there was no threat"
And he said,"How do you know that?"
They said,"Well, I don't know. We just knew".
And he said,"Well, think about it and I want an answer!"

John went missing for at least an hour Some say he left the house to supposedly "pick up the mail." Later it's determined that this could not be true, given the family's mail was delivered through a slot in the front door. Whatever happened, he allegedly was unaccounted for for 90 minutes.

When John came back after going missing, Linda said that John had a very different demeanor. He was very agitated and he it seemed like he didn't want to be talked to at all.

Sometime that morning, Patsy also called her mother in Atlanta. Her mother immediately got on a plane and flew to Boulder.

Mid-morning
Sometime before 1 p.m., Fleet White allegedly was in the windowless wine cellar looking around. He told police he never turned on the light and he never saw anything.

At 1 p.m., Ardnt asked John and family friend, Fleet White, to search the house TOP TO BOTTOM to see if "anything seemed a miss." John and White started the search in the basement. John opened the latched door, the one that investigators failed to open earlier, and found JonBenet's body. Her mouth was covered with duct tape, a nylon cord was found around her wrists and neck, and her torso was covered by a white blanket. John immediately picked up JonBenet's body and ripped the duct tape off her mouth. He then carried her up the stairs to the living room.

He set her on the living room floor next to the Christmas tree.

Some accounts say that John places another blanket on JonBenet before he carried her up the stairs and some say after. Either way, the evidence on the body was now contaminated.

The sticky side of the duct tape had a perfect imprint of JonBenet's lips, but no indication of a protruding tongue or any effort to dislodge the tape. This suggest that the tape was used as a prop in staging a scene like it was place after death.

The cord was tied, far too loosely to restrain a living or conscious child.

The route to the wine cellar would be very difficult to navigate by a stranger, especially at night, especially carrying a child.

The staircase light switch was not in an expected location on the wall, but behind someone entering the stairs, so they probably would have done all this in the dark.

At 1:30 p.m., boulder policemen, Ron Walker and Larry Mason arrive and search the basement and wine cellar for further clues in JonBenet's death. They also finally secure the home, preventing any further arrivals.

Walker was an experienced FBI profiler. He suspected as soon as he saw the ransom note, that Jonbenet was probably going to be found dead. Walker thought that the note seemed like a hoax and that the perpetrators real agenda was murder or a cover up of a murder. He knew that finding JonBenet's body in her own home meant there had probably never been a kidnapping. In the case of a homicide where the dead child is found in the parents' home, the FBI's standard procedure is to investigate the parents and the immediate family first and then move outward in circles.

At 1:40 p.m., John Ramsey called his pilot and is allegedly heard asking him to prepare a plane to Atlanta. Law enforcement instructs the family not to leave town.

At 1:45 p.m., heeding the officer's warning, the Ramseys leave their house with plans to stay the night at the Fernie's home.

At 2:30 p.m., John and Patsy participated in a preliminary interview for more than two hours, and Burke was also interviewed within the first couple of weeks.

SEARCH WARRANT

A footprint was found one foot in front of JonBenet's body, made in concrete dust from a High Tech brand boot.

A Baseball Bat was found on ground north side by Butler Kitchen Door.

The stick used in the ligature strangulation came from one of Patsy's paint brushes.

Part of the rest of the broken paintbrush was found in the basement among Patsy's art supplies.

One of the basement windows was broken, but it had a dusty sill and an unbroken spiderweb in the corner. The window was previously broken by John when he was locked out of the house.

The gardener, Brian Scott, said he was had been in the basement to fix the sprinkler clock. He didn’t know there was a wine cellar. He did recall a broken window at the front of the house. He said he didn't remember a broken window by the grate. 

He also didn't know that he was a suspect until Linda Arndt ask for handwriting, blood, saliva, and hair.

A suit case was found on the floor almost directly underneath the window. The suitcase belonged to John Andrew, John Ramsey's eldest son from a previous marriage.

John Andrew had the guest bedroom in the Ramsey's home, which was close to JonBenet's. The police wanted to question him about his semen being found at the crime scene. The semen was found on a duvet belonging to him, inside the suitcase, which also belonged to John Andrew Ramsey, along with a Dr Seuss book.

He allegedly was in Atlanta when JonBenet was killed.

Joe Barnill said he saw John Andrew at the Ramsey house on the evening of December 25th, 1996.

There was a Swiss army knife found next to where JonBenet's body was discovered. The Swiss army knife belonged to Burke.

The housekeeper, Linda Hoffman-Pugh, said that only Patsy could have put the Swiss army knife by JonBenet's body.

" Only Patsy could have put the knife there. I took it away from Burke and hid it in a linen closet near JonBenet's bedroom. An intruder never would have found it. Patsy would have found it getting out the clean sheets," said Pugh.

According to Hoffman-Pugh, the blanket wrapped around JonBenet had been left in the dryer. There was still a Barbie doll nightgown clinging to the blanket, so it had to have come out of the dryer.

"An intruder would never have found the door to the basement room where JonBenet's body was discovered. It was to difficult to see unless someone knew it was there," Pugh said.

She also claimed that Patsy had bad mood swings, that it's like she had multiple personalities.

Linda lived in Fort Lupton at the time, with her husband, Mervin Pugh, and their then-13-year old daughter, Ariana. They shared a combined family from previous marriages. Linda had five grown children, Mervin four. She was the Ramsey's housekeeper and her husband was their maintenance man.

Fibers found on JonBenet's sheets were consistent with the cord used to tie her wrists and strangle her.

There it was a heavy flashlight sitting on the kitchen counter. Some theorize that this is what JonBenet was struck with.

There was an unidentifiable palm print found on the inside of the cellar door.

JonBenet had been killed by strangulation and a skull fracture. The official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerabal trauma." 

Craniocerebral Trauma is also known as a traumatic brain injury. It usually results from a violent blow or jolt to the head or body. Serious traumatic brain injury can result in bruising, torn tissues, bleeding and other physical damage to the brain. These injuries can result in long-term complications or death.

Moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries can include any of the signs and symptoms of mild injury, as well as these symptoms that may appear within the first hours to days after a head injury:

Physical symptoms
Loss of consciousness from several minutes to hoursPersistent headache or headache that worsensRepeated vomiting or nausea Convulsions or seizures
Dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes
Clear fluids draining from the nose or ears
Inability to awaken from sleep
Weakness or numbness in fingers and toes
Loss of coordination
Cognitive or mental symptoms
Profound confusion
Agitation, combativeness or other unusual behavior
Slurred speech
Coma and other disorders of consciousness

Children's symptoms
Infants and young children with brain injuries might not be able to communicate headaches, sensory problems, confusion and similar symptoms. In a child with traumatic brain injury, you may observe:
Change in eating or nursing habits
Unusual or easy irritability
Persistent crying and inability to be consoled
Change in ability to pay attention
Change in sleep habits
Seizures
Sad or depressed mood
Drowsiness
Loss of interest in favorite toys or activities

Altered consciousness
Moderate to severe traumatic brain injury can result in prolonged or permanent changes in a person's state of consciousness, awareness or responsiveness. Different states of consciousness include:

Coma- A person in a coma is unconscious, unaware of anything and unable to respond to any stimulus. This results from widespread damage to all parts of the brain. After a few days to a few weeks, a person may emerge from a coma or enter a vegetative state.

Vegetative state-Widespread damage to the brain can result in a vegetative state. Although the person is unaware of surroundings, he or she may open his or her eyes, make sounds, respond to reflexes, or move.

It's possible that a vegetative state can become permanent.
Minimally conscious state. A minimally conscious state is a condition of severely altered consciousness but with some signs of self-awareness or awareness of one's environment.

Brain death- When there is no measurable activity in the brain and the brain stem, this is called brain death. Brain death is considered irreversible.

The strangulation came 45 minutes to two hours after the head strike, based on the swelling of the brain. The blow knocked her into a deep unconsciousness, which could have led someone to believe that JonBenet was already dead. While the head wound would have eventually killed her, the strangulation actually did kill her.

Investigators believe that JonBenet was killed close to 10 p.m. Remember JonBenet was struck in the head forty-five minutes to two hours before she was strangled. The Ramsey said that they put JonBenet to bed at 10 p.m.

There was no evidence of conventional rape, although sexual assault could not be ruled out.

A black light helped reveal that her body had been wiped clean, but a residue of blood was left on her thighs. Some people think that Patsy did this with a wipe to JonBenet after a bed wetting accident.

Supposedly, investigators found that JonBenet had plastic sheets on her bed along with a pee stain and the pull up diaper package hanging out of her cabinet. There was also the turtle neck shirt that JonBenet had been wearing that night, balled up in her bathroom.

The underwear that JonBenet was wearing were too large for her. Patsy claimed that she had never seen the underwear, that JonBenet, was wearing before. Detectives had later found out that Patsy had recently purchased that pair of underwear at Bloomingdale's in New York for her 12-year-old niece, but JonBenet wanted them so Patsy kept them for her.

Before JonBenet’s death, Burke had a tendency to smear feces everywhere he could. Some of it were found in JonBenet’s bedroom.

The blanket that the killer had wrapped around JonBenet had a pubic hair on it that could not be linked to any family member. Also, the blanket that she was wrapped in was her favorite blanket that had been left in the dryer.

Unidentifiable DNA material, "composite from multiple people" was found on her underwear and beneath her fingernails. Her long johns along with her underwear, contained a stain with male DNA, which could not be linked to any family member. Some experts say that the DNA on the long johns and underwear might also be a composite of multiple people jumbled into one profile. If this is true, we are looking for a DNA profile that will never match.

You shed 40,000 skin cells per hour. Wherever you go you are leaving a little part of yourself everywhere. The DNA profile found on JonBenet really inconclusive. It is a very small sample. There is testing suggesting that it is probably a mixture of more than one person. The profile is extremely complex. And there might never be a match, because if it is from multiple people all meshed into one, than the person doesn't exist.


There supposedly is going to be new DNA tests.

The autopsy revealed a "vegetable or fruit material, which may represent pineapple," which JonBenet had eaten a few hours before death.

Photographs of the home taken on the day JonBenet's body was found show a bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon in it. John and Patsy both said that they did not remember putting the bowl on the table or feeding pineapple to JonBenet. Police reported that they found Burke's fingerprints on the bowl.

There was a mark on JonBenet's neck and back that looked it it came from a stun gun or Burke's toy train. Burke's train room was in the basement, next to the wine cellar where JonBenet's body was found.

Allegedly a stun gun instructional video was found at the Ramsey home. After attending a Super Bowl game in Miami in 1994, John and Patsy visited a spy store in Coral Gables FL (where security contractor Wackenhut was based until 1995). John was interested in security equipment to protect his company, Access Graphics (a Lockheed Martin subsidiary), from espionage. Before he left, the clerk gave them a video catalog to take him. The family forgot about it until JonBenet's death, when the police searched their house and seized the tapes.

Cathy O'Brien asserts in an interview that the stun gun video was titled "HOW TO CREATE A MIND CONTROL SLAVE USING A STUN GUN", and that she was in that video. 

Fibers found on the duct tape were from the sweater that Patsy had been wearing.

The JonBenet Chronicles: Chapter 5: The Murder Of A Housekeeper's Daughter, Mistaken 911 Call And JonBenet Goes Missing.

Besides bonding over the pageant scene, Patsy and JonBenet liked to do crafts together. In 1996, for Valentines day they made puffy paint sweatshirt dresses.

In April of 1996, Woman's Magazine profiled Patsy and included a lot of information about her and her family.

Woman’s Magazine - April 1996 'Profile: Patsy Ramsey'(by Deborah Rosenberger)

"Ramsey moved to Atlanta (GA) soon after her graduation from West Virginia University. With her bachelor's degree in advertising and marketing, Ramsey began her career with McCann- Ericson Advertising Agency , where she focused on doing promotional marketing for Coca-Cola USA. Later she joined Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc., as Director of Marketing Services, and worked there for five years developing user-friendly product instruction manuals. One of the software manuals Ramsey was responsible for won first place in an international technical writing competition. Her job with Hayes also put her in charge of special events, trade shows, and in-house advertising."
"Ramsey never forgets how fortunate she is - not only to have fought the illness but also to have the opportunity to live the life she has chosen. Many of us today do not have the option to choose between a career and a family. For Ramsey, the privilege of such a choice is clearly one she revels in. "I get up early every morning to get my children ready for school," she says. "I pack their lunches and set them off - then I have from 9:00 to 3:00 to participate in my own interests."

"Ramsey has always been involved in her community and believes that volunteer work is an important contribution. Ramsey's skills and professional acumen serve her well as she writes business plans for fund raising projects and job descriptions for committee workers and meets with area professionals and corporate executives to solicit sponsorships to benefit local causes. From her efforts with the Eggleston Children's Hospital that raises over $1,000,000 annually to her work locally on such illustrious projects as the "Toast to the Artists" opening night event for the Colorado Dance Festival that will honor Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ramsey has impressed all around her."

"Though she takes much-deserved pride in these labors, most of her volunteer work is centered around her children. This spring, for example, she was chairperson of the science fair at High Peaks, a Core Knowledge School. Ramsey found the entire experience to be very rewarding, and she enjoyed encouraging the young people's talent. Ramsey has also co-chaired a successful fund-raising effort through the school known as the "Good Fairy Project," which she helped create from its inception four years ago"

In July of 1996, JonBenet won America's Royal Tiny Miss.

On August 13th, 1996, JonBenet won 2nd place Sunburst National Pageant.

In November of 1996, JonBenet saw the musical "Cats". Her favorite animal were cats.

On November 30th, 1996,  Patsy's 40th birthday celebration was held at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Non of her Atlanta women friends responded to their invitations. A comic was dressed up like the woman who beat Patsy for Miss America did a spoof from material supplied by Nedra.

Lorraine Florence Lawrence, whose mother was Geraldine Vodicka and a former Ramsey housekeeper, was found by a Twin Peaks Excavating foreman face down in the hole near the Boulder Housing Authority's apartment complex in the 3100 block of Broadway about 7:50 a.m. Wednesday December 4th, 1996.  The neighbor saw her the night before at 9 p.m. sitting on the ice in her underwear, with a black eye and blood dripping from her eye and there was a ... guy walking near her. The neighbor made her go inside, but he never called anyone about the incident. 

Geraldine claimed that Patsy Ramsey was paranoid that her husband "would be tempted by any pretty young girls he came in contact with." Therefore, women hired for the household staff had to be "heavier, older and less attractive" than Mrs. Ramsey.

On December 6th, 1996, JonBenet was in the local Christmas Parade where she sung the song "The Good ship Lollipop". Her name was on the side of the float she was riding on. Burke was also in the parade.

On December 10th, The Ramsey family used large wooden candy canes to decorate the yard during the holidays, and Brian Scott  noticed that they hadn’t been arranged properly. They needed deeper holes, which he dug before pounding them into the ground. While Scott adjusted the candy canes along the front walk, he saw a blue Chevy Suburban pull up. JonBenet came out of the house. She was wearing a pair of blue overalls and was being bratty about something.

“I think she might have been giving orders,” Scott said, “like, “you get in the back, you do this.” Something like that.”

A moment later the car was gone. That was the last time he saw JonBenet.

Scott was the Ramsey's gardener and started working for them in June 1995. He had graduated from the University of Colorado the year before JonBenet went missing.

On December 13th, 1996, there was a church party at the Ramsey's home that was attended by more than 150 friends from church.

On December 17th, 1996, a competition took place at the Southwest Plaza in Denver, JonBenét was crowned "Little Miss Christmas."

On December 20th, was the Access Graphics luncheon, celebrating reach $1 billion in sales.

JonBenet appeared in Rock Around The Clock performance at High Peaks Elementary School.

On December 21st, A article is published, in the Boulder Daily Camera, about Access Graphics reaching $1 billion.

On December 22nd, was JonBenet's last pageant. She performed "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" and modeled a few outfits.
The Ramsey's also sent out their Christmas letter.
The letter reads,

"Dear Friends & Family,
It's been another busy year at the Ramsey household. Can't believe it's almost over and time to start again!
Melinda (24) graduated from Medical College of Georgia and is working in Pediatric ICU at Kennestone Hospital in Atlanta. John Andrew(20) is a sophomore at the University of Colorado.
Burke is a busy fourth grader where he really shines is math and spelling. He played flag football this fall and is currently on a basketball binge! His little league team was #1. He lost just about all of his baby teeth, so i'm sure we'll be seeing the orthodontist in 1997!
JonBenet is enjoying her first year in 'real' school. Kindergarten in the Core Knowledge program is face paced and five days a week. She has already been moved ahead to first grade math. She continues to enjoy participating in talent and modeling pageants. She was named 'America's Royale Tiny Miss' last summer and is 'Colorado's Little Miss Christmas'. Her teaching says that she is so outgoing that she will never have trouble delivering an oral book report!
John is always on the go, traveling hither and yon. Access recently celebrated its one billion $$ mark in sales, so he's pretty happy! He and his crew were underway in Port Huron to Mackinac Island Yaht race in July, but had to pull over midway due to lack of wind. (Can you believe that?) But, his real love is his new 'old looking' boat, Grand Season, which he spent months designing.
I spent most of my 'free time' working in the school and doing volunteer work. The Charlevoix house was on the home tour in July and will likely appear in one of the Better Home and Gardens publications in 1997. On a recent trip to NYC, my friend and i appeared among the throng of fans on the Today Show. Al Roker and Bryant actually talked to us and we were on camera for a few fleeting moments!
We are all enjoying continued good health and look forward to seeing you in 1997! One final note... thank you all my 'friends' and my dear husband for surprising me with the biggest, most outrageous 40th birthday bash I've ever had! We'll be spending my actual birthday on the Disney Big Red Boat over the New Year!
Merry Christmas and much love,

The Ramseys"

On December 23rd, was the Ramsey's Christmas party attended by 30 guests. Former journalism professor, Bill McReynolds, played Santa Claus. There are reports that McReynolds had given a note to JonBenet saying “something special will happen to you after Christmas”.

This was also the night of the allegedly "mistaken" 911 call made from the Ramsey's home at 6:47 p.m. and was answered by police dispatcher Therese Hilleary. The caller hung up without saying a word, so the police called back only to get the Ramsey's answering machine. An officer went to the home and left around shortly after 7 p.m. He did not enter the house and was told by Susan Stine that everything was fine. She claimed that someone was trying to order medicine for an ageing parent, who had not meant to use the emergency number. The person that allegedly made the oopsie was Fleet White, who was supposedly gathering supplies for his mother in the hospital. He allegedly collected the supplies and rushed to ship them off. There are claims that Fleet's mother wasn't sick and she was actually home cooking. There was no record found of her in the hospital around that time.

Going back to Susan Stine for a minute. She was a good friend and neighbor of he Ramsey family. She served with Tom Koby as President and Vice President of the Family Care Center in Boulder. Susan's husband, Glen Stine was also involved on the committee. 

On Christmas Eve, A article was published in the Boulder Daily Camera about the Ramsey party.

JonBenet played at her friend Megan Kostanick's house and told Megan's mother about a secret visit from Santa.

The family ate at Pasta Jay's and either before or after attended the twilight service at the St. John's Episcopal Church.

At 9 p.m., John retrieves JonBenet's silver Christmas bike from neighbor Joe Barnhill's garage and places it under the Christmas tree. Then John and Pasty get the Christmas presents they had stashed in the basement.

Joe Barnhill was the Ramsey's 70 year old neighbor who lived across the street. He also baby sat JonBenet from time to time. He was a U.S. Navy veteran. Joe was crippled badly with palsy. His wife, Betty, had Alzheimer's. JonBenet's dog lived at his house. 

Joe Barnhill  flew an airplane in WW11 called S. B. 2. C. It was known as the Victory plane. Joe claimed that he killed 1,000's in the war.

Glenn Meyers was renting out Joe's basement. Meyer turned up at the Ramsey house uninvited on the 23rd during the Christmas party. Meyer battled mental illness, was drowning in debt and had a history of violence. Meyer was arrested for a 1991 assault in a domestic violence case, and was ordered to attend anger counseling courses. People were afraid of him. He would stare at children in the neighborhood.

In August 1995, he was sued for owing more than $24,000, and subpoenaed to appear in Boulder County court in October 1996. He was also violent with his wife's little girl.

On Christmas day 1996, around 6 a.m. the Ramsey family went down stairs and opened presents, which took about an hour. JonBenet asked for Burke's assistance with the name tags, since he could read and she couldn't.

Patsy rearranged the gifts in JonBenet's stack so that a very special box would be opened last. Inside was a My Twinn doll, fashioned to look like JonBenet from pictures Patsy had furnished the dollmaker, with a couple matching outfits so JonBenet and the doll would dress alike.

JonBenet gave her dad a gumball machine that dispensed jelly beans. Her grandmother gave JonBenet a real gold ring, her aunt Pam gave her a cross with gold chains and her aunt Polly gave her a jewelry making kit.

Santa Claus brought JonBenet a brand new bicycle. She and her father tried it out that afternoon before the family went to dinner at a close friend's home. Burke got a Nintendo 64 and a remote controlled car. Patsy received a new bike and a green paper ornament that JonBenet had made at school.

"When I had opened it on December 25, 1996, I saw her school picture with the message: 'your gift is ME.' How true, how very, very true," said Patsy.

John forgot to charge the batteries of the video camera the night before, so they used their regular camera to take a few pictures.

The Ramsey family then had pancakes for breakfast. "JonBenet always loved to get into the act and was right under my elbows, standing on a stool by the stove, to help pour the pancake batter. She normally liked to make a Mickey Mouse shape and decorate it at the table with fruit and raisins to make the face come to life, but there wasn't time for that on this Christmas Day. Too many new things to play with. Burke came to the table just long enough to eat a bite. As far as he was concerned, eating got in the way of playing."

The kids were playing with their toys while Patsy and John were preparing for the family to go to a second home in Michigan for vacation the day after Christmas. A bunch of kids started to show up and wanted to know what everyone got for Christmas. Burke was up in his room playing video games.

About noon, John went to the hanger to check on the plane and returns around 2 hours later.

At 4 p.m., the Ramsey family arrived at the White's Christmas party that was six blocks away. Cocktails were served and JonBenet had some cracked crab. 

After dinner, JonBenet and Daphne got and, um. Fleet and John were down on the floor helping them make  little paper jewelry.

At 7:30 p.m., the movie "Nick of Time" aired on a Boulder cable channel. The story centers on an unarmed political faction that kidnaps a six-year-old girl. The victim is told, "Listen to me very carefully." Bill Cox, who was staying with Fleet and Priscilla White, told the police he remembered watching the movie that night.

Glenn Meyer said that he had been at home on Christmas night and had watched television in the den with the Joe and Beth Barnhill until 9:00 p.m. He then went downstairs to his basement room and spent the rest of the evening nursing a stomach flu.

At around 9:30 p.m., the Ramsey family had left the party, dropping off presents to some of their friends on the way home. The Stine house was the last place they stopped before arriving home.

Susan Stein: "They came to our house and I talked to Patsy for awhile maybe 10 or 15 minutes and they all seemed perfectly normal. They were all the same - bubbly about Christmas and about where they were going and we, my husband and I, waved good-bye to them as they were leaving and that was the last time we saw them as an intact family."

10 p.m. JonBenét had fallen asleep on the car ride home. John and Patsy Ramsey maintain they last saw their daughter alive when they put her to bed on Christmas night.

Patsy Ramsey: "By the time we got home, JonBenet had fallen asleep in the back seat."

John Ramsey: "I carried JonBenet upstairs and it was kind of a usual routine. I took her shoes off then Patsy would come in and get her ready for bed."

Patsy Ramsey: "So I undressed her down to her little knit top that she had on and put some long underwear bottoms on her and tucked her in real tight and kissed her goodnight."

John Ramsey: "Burke was downstairs trying to put together a model that he'd got for Christmas and I couldn't get him to go to bed. We were going to get up in the morning and leave to go to Michigan so I help him put it together so I could get him to go on to bed. So he went to bed and Patsy and I went to bed."

At 10:30 p.m., Scott went to the apartment of his girlfriend, Ann Preston, and stayed until just after midnight then went home alone. There was nobody to confirm his alibi for the rest of the night.
On December 26th at 12 a.m., the family’s neighbor, Scott Gibbons, remembers seeing a light on in the Ramsey's kitchen.

At 2 a.m., neighbor Melody Stanton allegedly heard a scream from the Ramsey's home. Her husband then reportedly heard the sound of metal on concrete “sometime after the scream.” Years later, Melody backtracked on her statements, stating she actually heard the noise two nights prior.

The Ramsey family were scheduled to fly aboard one of their private airplanes to meet with extended members of the family in Michigan.

At 5:30 a.m., John got up first, took a shower and got dressed. 

Then Patsy got and put on the same outfit she had the night before and reapplied her makeup. She then stopped off at the 2nd floor to wash JonBenet's jumpsuit. Patsy then went to the kitchen to make coffee before getting her family ready for their trip to their summer home in Charleviox. From Charlevoix they were suppose to go to Florida for a cruise on Disney's "Big Red Boat."

While heading downstairs, Patsy said she found a two-page note on the back spiral staircase stating that JonBenét had been kidnapped. 

The note was addressed to "Mr. Ramsey" and claimed to be from “a small foreign faction” demanding a ransom of $118,000 in cash. While this was happening, John was shaving. Patsy screamed and headed to JonBenet's room. Hearing the screams, John met Patsy on the stairs.

Patsy went up to JonBenet's room to find it empty.

Together John and Patsy check on Burke, who appeared to be in his room asleep.

At 5:45 a.m., shortly after finding the note, Patsy called family friends Fleet and Priscilla White, John and Barbara Fernie and Reverend Roland Overstock from her bedroom while John went down stairs to look at the ransom note.

He went west to the University of Colorado for college and then spent time with an AmeriCorps VISTA program in Florida trying to fight poverty. Then he moved back to Colorado, got married and opened a bike shop in downtown Boulder. He became a minister while still running his shop, which was called The Spoke.

He was the pastor of the St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder, which was the church the Ramsey family attended prior to JonBenet's death. 

At 5:52 a.m., a frantic Patsy finally called the police, detailing the supposed kidnapping and the demands on the ransom note.

Patsy Ramsey: Police?

911: What's going on ma'am?

Patsy Ramsey: 755 15th street.

911: What's going on there ma'am?

Patsy Ramsey: We have a kidnapping. Hurry, please!

911: Explain to me what's going on. Ok?

Patsy Ramsey: There. We have a, there's a note left and our daughter's gone.

911: A note was left and your daughter's gone?

Patsy Ramsey: Yes!

911: How old is your daughter?

Patsy Ramsey: She's 6 years old. She's blonde, 6 years old.

911: How long ago was this?

Patsy Ramsey: I don't know. I just got the note, and my daughter's gone.

911: Does it say who took her?

Patsy Ramsey: What?

911: Does it say who took her?

Patsy Ramsey: No! I don't know. There's a, there's a ransom note here.

911: It’s a ransom note?

Patsy Ramsey: It says SBTC. Victory! Please!

911: Okay, what's your name? Are you Kath...?

Patsy Ramsey: Patsy Ramsey, I'm the mother. Oh my God! Please!

911: Okay, I’m sending an officer over, OK?

Patsy Ramsey: Please!

911: Do you know how long she's been gone?

Patsy Ramsey: No I don't! Please, we just got up and she's not here. Oh my god! Please!

911: Okay, Cal....

Patsy Ramsey: Please send somebody.

911: I am honey.

Patsy Ramsey: Please.

911: Take a deep breath and...

Patsy Ramsey: Hurry, hurry, hurry!

911: Patsy? Patsy? Patsy? Patsy?

Some people including the the 911 operator that took the call, Kim Archuleta, think that Patsy forgot to hang up when she thought she had and the fuzzy audio and the end of recording was Patsy having a conversation with two additional people in her home.

Kim has stated that she felt like the call was rehearsed. She believes that Patsy thought she hung up the phone, but didn't and that Patsy's tone changed from panicked to calm and collected.

The 9-1-1 call has been examined by many people and organizations, all with differing opinions. Even though the FBI and the secret service did an analysis coming to the conclusion that no further conversation is audible, it is a highly debated subject. Some audio engineers and investigators think that this is what is at the end of the call.

John: "We are not speaking to you."

Patsy: "What did you do?
Help me Jesus."

Burke: "What did you find?"

At 5:59 a.m., officer French arrived on the scene. When Patsy greeted the officer, she was wearing the same clothes that she had wore the night before.

6-8 a.m., four more officers arrived at the Ramsey residence: policemen Veitch, Weiss, and Barcklow, and their supervisor, Reichenbach. JonBenét’s parents had friends come to help search the home, including the aforementioned Fleet and Priscilla White, Barabara and John Fernie, and Reverend Hoverstock. Victim advocates and crime scene investigators were also present in the house.

A cursory search of the house is conducted but did not find any forced entry. Officer French went to the basement and came to a wooden door that was secured by a wooden latch. He paused for a moment in front of the door, then walked away without opening it.