JonBenet Ramsey murder: Dad John Ramsey remembers pageant queen, 6, who was found dead 26 years ago
BOULDER, COLORADO: John Ramsey, 78, father of JonBenet Ramsey took a moment to fondly remember his late daughter on what would have been her 32nd birthday. JonBenet, the 6-year-old pageant queen was murdered mysteriously in the basement of her family's Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996. "She was a daddy's girl," John Ramsey told Fox News Digital. "She was really proud that she was named after me, and she would tell people that. My name is John Bennett, so that's where that came from."
JonBenet's murder is considered one of the most infamous and tragic crime cases of all time in United States history. Her death was quickly ruled a homicide, but no one has ever been convicted in connection with her murder. The 78-year-old described his sweet-faced child as "an extrovert, very outgoing, full of energy and personality." He worried that she would want to "run off to Hollywood" when she grew up because she loved to "dance and perform and put on little shows" for her family at home.
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JonBenet's happy personality served her well as she ruled the Colorado beauty pageant scene in the mid-1990s. She won Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girls, America's Royale Miss and more. John further added that on the night JonBenet was born in 1990, her mother, Patsy Ramsey, told him it was "time to go to the hospital," which was about "six miles away" from their then-Atlanta home. "It was, like, midnight, and I looked at my speedometer and I was going over 100, and I thought, ‘That’s not a good idea.' So, I slowed down, but we got to the hospital. They took her right into delivery. There was no epidural, no nothing, because it was fast. They said, 'Next time, if you have another child, you better live closer to the hospital," John Ramsey recalled. JonBenet "arrived with a bang…and that was how she was in life," Ramsey told Fox News Digital.
He remembered one night when he came home from work and had a frown on his face, which JonBenet noticed. "She said, ‘Dad, I don’t like that face.' So, I kind of put on a fake smile, and she said, ‘That’s better.' That was justice her personality," he said. Ramsey has been pushing to bring renewed attention to his daughter's murder case, which is still an active and open investigation more than 25 years later. The father of five believes independent research teams who have offered their assistance in the case have the ability to bring his daughter's killer to light, but in order to do so, the Boulder Police Department (BDP) must hand over the evidence in their custody so that items can be re-tested for DNA to potentially build a profile of the suspect.
MEAWW reported that Cindy Smit-Marra, who is the daughter of late detective Lou Smit, is on a mission to solve the cold case along with investigator John Anderson. The two are part of a team of about 12 investigators who continued the late Lou Smit's work. If they are able to build a more complete DNA profile of the suspect (s), that information can then be compared to millions of DNA profiles uploaded to public databases showing people’s unique genetic codes.
Ramsey unveiled a petition in April at the CrimeCon 2022 convention titled "Justice for JonBenet Ramsey" on Change.org, which has garnered more than 20,000 signatures since its launch, asking the Colorado government to allow an independent agency to conduct DNA testing on evidence in the case. Part of the issue is that given the age of the case, there is a limited amount of DNA to be tested. DNA eventually disappears if it is tested too many times.
JonBenet's mother reported her missing to police when she was 6 years old on the morning of December 26, 1996, after finding a lengthy ransom note demanding $118,000 in exchange for JonBenet. John Ramsey found her body later that same day in the basement of her home. An autopsy revealed that JonBenet died of strangulation and a blow to the head. The Boulder City Medical Examiner reported an 8 1/2-inch fracture on her skull.