The Bloodstained Tiara

JonBenet was reported missing Dec. 26, 1996, in a frantic 5:52 a.m. 911 call in which Patsy Ramsey told Boulder police she'd found a ransom note demanding the head-scratching figure of $118,000 for her daughter's safe return. Instead of paying a ransom and getting their daughter returned, JonBenét's lifeless body was discovered early that afternoon in a little-used room of the family's cellar by her father and a family friend. JonBenet was discovered with tape across her mouth, a ligature buried deep in the skin of her neck through use of a garrote fashioned from cord and a broken paintbrush taken from her mother's art supplies. Some of the same cord was loosely bound around her right wrist. Not noticed until the autopsy was that she'd also suffered a linear fracture to the right side of her skull, likely the result of a single blow from a blunt object. And some believe that she was sexually abused. So many interpretations have been advanced over time of the forensic evidence in this case, made only worst by a highly contaminated crime scene. It quickly came to resemble a criminalist's darkest nightmare, each piece of the puzzle easily lending itself to the perspective of the person reviewing it. We will look beyond the facts of the crime as they became known in the days immediately following the discovery of her murder, we will also examine the behavior of JonBenét's parents, viewed as unusual by police and by the public at large.