JonBenét Ramsey

On the morning of December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey found a two-and-a-half-page handwritten ransom note on the kitchen staircase of the family's Boulder, Colorado home demanding $118,000 for the safe return of her six-year-old daughter, JonBenét Patricia Ramsey. Patsy called police at 5:52 a.m. Officers arrived and searched the house but did not initially check the basement. Friends and family were allowed into the home, potentially contaminating the crime scene.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., police asked John Ramsey, JonBenét's father, to search the house. He went to the basement and found JonBenét's body in a rarely used room called the wine cellar. She had been struck on the head and strangled with a garrote fashioned from a broken paintbrush and cord. There was evidence of sexual assault. Despite the ransom note, she had never left the house.

The investigation was plagued by errors from the start. The crime scene was not secured, allowing numerous people to move through the house. The Boulder Police Department and the District Attorney's office clashed over the direction of the investigation. The Ramsey family hired their own team of investigators and attorneys, and the relationship between the family and police became adversarial. A grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy Ramsey in 1999, but District Attorney Alex Hunter declined to sign the indictment, saying the evidence was insufficient.

JonBenét's murder became a media phenomenon, fueled by the combination of the child beauty pageant world, the wealthy family, the bizarre ransom note, and the unsolved nature of the crime. DNA found on JonBenét's clothing did not match any family member and was entered into CODIS, but no match has been found. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006. The case has been the subject of dozens of books, documentaries, and countless theories. Despite decades of investigation and advances in DNA technology, no one has ever been charged with JonBenét Ramsey's murder.