It’s easy to forget just what a big deal the JonBenét Ramsey case was back in the 90s. The face of the murdered child beauty queen was on tabloid covers for years. Eventually, with no clear leads, everyone kind of collectively forgot about the mystery. Now though, years later, we may be a step closer to knowing what really happened.
First, a refresher.
JonBenét Patricia Ramsey was born in 1990 to parents John and Patsy and was enrolled in beauty pageants early on in life. She won various competitions in her home state of Colorado and beyond.
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Sadly, JonBenét’s life was cut tragically short.
In December of 1996, the body of six-year-old JonBenét was found in the family home in Boulder, Colorado. Her injuries were brutal: her skull had been fractured by a blow and she’d also been strangled.
The story became a sensation.
Much of the speculation centered around her mom, Patsy, a former beauty queen herself. Police suspicion fell on Patsy for awhile before the local district attorney announced that DNA evidence had cleared any family member as a suspect.
There was no shortage of evidence.
In particular, a lengthy handwritten ransom note was found. Despite these leads, no suspects could be pinned to the murder, and it remained unsolved. It’s still an open investigation with the Boulder police.
The story still pops up from time to time.
It’s hard to say why it captured the public imagination, but it did. For years after the tragedy, the news was filled with new theories and suspects, along with defamation lawsuits filed by the Ramsey family.
In 2006, a man confessed.
Mark Karr, an elementary school teacher working in Thailand said he murdered JonBenét . But on further questioning and DNA analysis, it was concluded that Karr’s confession was false, and the story died down.
Now, in 2019, comes a new lead.
Years after JonBenét’s murder, the Daily Mail is reporting that jailhouse letters leaked to the publication may hold the answer to the murder that’s gone unsolved for more than two decades.
It’s an intriguing lead.
Unlike the 2006 false confession, this confession came in the form of letters that were supposed to stay private. Convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, who’s currently serving time in a Colorado prison for his crimes, reportedly fessed up. The details are shocking.
Oliva confessed, but there’s more to it.
In the letters, he reportedly didn’t admit to intentionally killing her. He took responsibility for her death, but said she actually slipped and hit her head, causing her eventual death. The letters reportedly showed extreme remorse.
The letters were leaked by a penpal.
The penpal said that Oliva called him late on the night of December 26, 1996, in tears, saying he’d hurt a little girl. The timeline matches the night that JonBenét died.
A lot of the details match up.
Oliva could easily have been in Boulder in late 1996, and as a convicted pedophile, it’s entirely plausible that he’d set his sights on JonBenét after seeing her at some point.
There’s still a long way left to go.
Oliva’s confession is hardly ironclad, and will have to be investigated thoroughly by police. There’s also the matter of other leads and suspects that need to be investigated. Regardless, police are hoping that they’ll someday have an answer to what happened to JonBenét Ramsey.
