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JonBenet Ramsey: New Evidence Released

We all know about the case of the murder of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey of Boulder, Colorado. JonBenet’s beaten and strangled body was discovered in 1996 at her parents’ home. It was...
JonBenet Ramsey: New Evidence Released
Written by Lacy Langley
  • We all know about the case of the murder of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey of Boulder, Colorado. JonBenet’s beaten and strangled body was discovered in 1996 at her parents’ home. It was a day after Christmas, when she should have been enjoying the bike she got as a gift.

    That same day, her parents had called police to report her kidnapping. They said they found a note demanding a ransom of $118,000 for her return. She was then found dead in the basement of their home.

    Her parents, John and Patricia Ramsey lived under a cloud of suspicion, and in an ocean of unanswered questions. In October 1999, the 12 jurors who had convened for 13 months and poured over 30,000 pieces of evidence, all went home not one step closer to solving the case.

    That was before Wednesday, when a judge ordered the release of 18 pages sealed after the grand jury dispersed, according to CNN.

    Among the new evidence released on Friday are two pages about her mother and two pages about her father, according to an order from Judge J. Robert Lowenbach.

    Only documents signed by a foreman are being released, according to the judge’s order, which says the court can release only official documents. Lowenbach’s order Wednesday makes reference to the grand jury’s report. “It appears that the district attorney, presumably acting at the direction of the grand jury, prepared a series of possible charges regarding John Ramsey and Patricia Ramsey based on the fact that the child had died and that there was evidence that a sexual assault of the child occurred,” Lowenbach wrote.

    The Boulder Daily Camera, citing unidentified jurors and an assistant district attorney, said the grand jury voted to indict her parents on charges of child abuse resulting in death.

    Despite the grand jury’s vote, the district attorney said at the time that there was insufficient evidence to warrant filing charges, therefore, then-Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter did not sign the indictment. and it has remained sealed for years. The Daily Camera said the decision to unseal the indictment was in response to a lawsuit by its reporter and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

    John and Patricia have fought accusations continually since that fateful day, until Patricia died of Ovarian cancer in 2006.

    Even a few false leads have crept up over the years. In 2006, a breakthrough appeared certain with the arrest of John Mark Karr in Bangkok, Thailand. The 41-year-old teacher repeatedly said he loved the little girl and was with her the night she died. He insisted her death was an accident.

    But soon after his arrest and return to Colorado, prosecutors said DNA evidence proved he had nothing to do with her death. The district attorney decided not to charge him. Back to square one.

    Will the murder of the tiny beauty queen ever be solved?

    Image via youtube

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