Dec. 25, 2025
12 Crimes of Christmas - "THE UMBRELLA OF SUSPICION: HOW AMERICA CONVICTED THE RAMSEYS - PART 2"
Reid Carter continues the JonBenét Ramsey Christmas special on the 29th anniversary of her murder. Boulder police immediately suspected the parents - the ransom note used Patsy's notepad and pen, demanded John's exact bonus amount, and experts couldn't eliminate Patsy's handwriting. Media coverage destroyed the family's reputation before any charges were filed. But Detective Lou Smit believed an intruder killed JonBenét - pointing to the basement window, unknown DNA, and boot prints. The 1999 grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy for child abuse resulting in death. District Attorney Alex Hunter refused to sign. No charges ever filed.
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Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm read Carter. Thursday, December
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twenty fifth, twenty twenty five, Christmas Day, twenty nine years
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ago Today, a six year old girl named John Benet
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Ramsey was murdered in her Boulder, Colorado home. Yesterday we
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covered the crime itself, the Christmas party, the ransom note,
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the seven hours police searched the house without finding her
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body in the basement, the botched investigation that destroyed the
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crime scene. Today, the investigation that followed, and how America
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decided the Ramseys were guilty before anyone was ever charged.
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Within weeks of John Bennet's death, Bolder police had made
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up their minds John and Patsy Ramsey were the prime suspects.
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The ransom note was staged, the crime scene was staged.
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One or both parents killed their daughter and covered it up.
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The evidence seemed compelling. The note was written on Patsy's
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own notepad with her own pen. It demanded exactly one
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hundred eighteen thousand dollars John's Christmas bonus. Handwriting experts couldn't
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eliminate Patsy as the author. There was no forced entry,
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no footprints in the snow, the family's stories had inconsistencies,
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but there was also evidence pointing away from the family.
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Unknown male DNA on John Benet's underwear and fingernails, a
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bootprint that matched no shoe in the house, an open
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basement window, a climbing rope the family didn't own evidence
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that someone else was there that night. Detective loose Smitt,
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a legendary homicide investigator brought in by the district attorney,
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became convinced an intruder killed Jean Benet. He quit the
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case in protest when police refused to consider any theory
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that didn't implicate the parents. In nineteen ninety nine, a
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grand jury heard months of evidence. They voted to indict
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John and Patsy Ramsey on charges of child abuse resulting
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in death, essentially accusing them of placing their daughter in
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danger and helping cover up the crime. But district Attorney
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Alex Hunter refused to sign the indictment, said he couldn't
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prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The grand jury's
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decision remained secret for fourteen years. The Ramseys were never charged.
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Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in two thousand and six,
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still under that umbrella of suspicion. John Ramsey has spent
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nearly three decades fighting to clear his family's name. I'm reed, Carter.
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This is celebrity trials today. The investigation that tore apart
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a family and captivated a nation, the evidence fore and
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against the Ramseys, and the grand jury secret that wasn't
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revealed until twenty thirteen, Part two of three. Within days
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of John Benay's death, Boulder police had a theory and
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they stuck to it. The Ramses did it had to be.
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Statistics said so. Ninety percent of child murders are committed
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by family members or someone known to the victim. No
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sign of forced entry, no screams heard by neighbors. The
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ransom note was clearly staged. The parents were lying. Let
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me walk you through the evidence that pointed toward John
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and Patsy Ramsey. First, the ransom note, three pages over
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three hundred seventy words, written on a legal pad from
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inside the Ramsey home with a pen. From inside the
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Ramsey home, a practice draft was found on the same notepad.
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Someone had started writing the note, stopped, torn off the page,
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and started over. The FBI told Bolder police this was unprecedented,
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real kidnappers write ransom notes before the crime. They don't
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sit in a victim's house composing a novel length letter
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while a dead body lies in the basement. The note
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was staged, it had to be, and the content of
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the note was suspicious. It demanded exactly one one hundred
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eighteen thousand dollars, not a round number, not a million
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dollars from a multi millionaire, but the precise amount of
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John Ramsey's recent bonus. Whoever wrote this knew intimate financial
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details about the family. The note contained phrases that seemed
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borrowed from movies, references to foreign faction, warnings about being
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under constant scrutiny, threats about being denied her remains. It
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read like someone imitating what they thought a ransom note
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should sound like, not like an actual criminal demanding money.
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Handwriting analysis was inconclusive but damning for Patsy. While experts
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definitively ruled out John as the author, they could not
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eliminate Patsy. One expert said there were indications that the
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author of the ransom note is Patricia Ramsey. Others disagreed,
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but none could clear her. Second, the lack of evidence
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of intrusion boulder had received snow in the days before Christmas.
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There should have been footprints outside the house if an
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intruder had appro coached. Police initially said there were none,
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though photos later showed the walkways were clear of snow.
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The basement window that John claimed to have broken months
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earlier showed possible signs of entry, but no definitive proof.
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No mud, no disturbance, no clear indication someone had climbed through. Third,
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the timing made no sense for an intruder. The Ramses
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were supposed to leave early the next morning for Michigan,
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any kidnapper would have known this. The whole point of
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a ransom is keeping the victim alive for exchange. Why
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killed John Benet immediately? Why write a ransom note for
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a child you've already murdered. Fourth, the staging of the body.
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John Bennet was covered with her favorite blanket, freshly laundered
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from the dryer. Her hands were bound loosely above her head,
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not tightly restrained. The duct tape appeared to have been
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placed after death. The garat was elaborate, constructed from materials
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found in the home. Everything suggested someone who knew John Benet,
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someone who felt guilt, someone who covered her carefully, almost tenderly,
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after killing her. Fifth the parent's behavior. John and Patsy
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hired lawyers within days of the murder. They refused to
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be interviewed by police for four months. They did media appearances,
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but wouldn't submit to formal interrogation. They left Boulder and
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returned to Atlanta before police could properly question them. Innocent
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parents don't lawyer up immediately. Innocent parents cooperate with police.
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Innocent parents do anything to help find their child's kill her.
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That was the reasoning and the theory that emerged. Patsy
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killed John Benay accidentally, maybe a bed wedding incident that escalated,
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maybe an argument that went too far. She hit John
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Beney in the head, realized what she'd done, staged the
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scene to look like a kidnapping, wrote the ransom note.
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John helped cover it up, or Burke did it. The
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nine year old brother, an accident, a sibling fight, and
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the parents staged everything to protect their surviving childled Boulder.
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Police were convinced. The media was convinced. America was convinced.
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Tabloids ran John Bennet's pageant photos constantly made her look
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like a tiny adult. Implied something was wrong with this family.
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What kind of parents dressed their six year old like that?
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The pageant world was weird, The Ramses were weird. They
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must be guilty. John and Patsy Ramsey were tried and
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convicted in the court of public opinion without ever being
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charged with a crime. Make it make sense, But there
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was another theory, one that got far less attention. Lou
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Smitt was a legendary homicide detective from Colorado Springs, solved
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over two hundred murder cases. Came out of retirement in
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nineteen ninety seven when the Boulder District Attorney's office asked
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him to help with the Ramsey investigation, and it went
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in expecting to build a case against the parents. Everyone
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knew they did it. He just needed to find the proof. Instead,
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he found evidence of an intruder and bolder police didn't
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want to hear it first. The basement window. John Ramsey
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had broken it months earlier when he locked himself out
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of the house. It was still broken on Christmas night.
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Smit found scuff marks on the wall beneath the window,
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consistent with someone climbing through. Found a hard sided suitcase
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positioned directly below as if used as a stepping stool.
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Found a leaf and debris inside that matched vegetation outside.
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Police dismissed this, said John could have staged the break in,
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but why would he draw attention to a potential entry
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point if he was the killer? Second the unknown male DNA,
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This became the strongest evidence against the family theory. In
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two thousand and three, forensic investigators extracted a DNA profile
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from a blood sample found in John Bennet's underwear. Male
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DNA mixed with her blood. It didn't match John, Patsy Burke,
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or any family member. Didn't match anyone in the FBI's
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combined DNA index System database of over one point six
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million profiles. In two thousand and eight, additional DNA testing
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using touch DNA technology found the same profile on the
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waistband of John Benet's long Johns, same unknown male, same profile,
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two different locations on her clothing. If the family killed
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John Beney, how did an unknown man's DNA get in
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her underwear, in her blood on her clothes? Police theorized
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contamination factory worker who made the underwear, someone who handled
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the clothing before purchase, but the DNA was found mixed
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with her blood inside the crotch of underwear she was
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wearing when she died. That's not casual contamination, that's evidence
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of contact during or immediately before the murder. Third the bootprint.
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A partial bootprint was found next to John bene body
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in the basement. It didn't match any shoe owned by
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any Ramsey family member, didn't match any shoe belonging to
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any person known to have been in the house. Fourth
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the climbing rope found in a paper bag in a
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guest bedroom near John Bennet's room. The Ramseys said it
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didn't belong to them, never explained, never traced to an owner.
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Fifth the stun gun theory. Two sets of small marks
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were found on John Bennet's body, on her face and
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her back. Lou Smitt believed these were stun gun burns.
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He obtained an air taser stun gun, tested it on
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pig skin and found the marks were consistent with stun
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gun prongs. If John Bennet was incapacitated with a stun gun,
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that explained why no one heard her scream, why she
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didn't fight back until the garrot was around her neck,
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why the family slept through everything, the Ramses didn't own
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a stun gun. None was ever found in the house.
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An intruder could have brought one in and taken it
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when he left. Sixth, the ransom not Voae's purpose. Smitt
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theorized the intruder didn't write the note to collect money.
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He wrote it to buy time to make the Ramses
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wait by the phone instead of searching the house, to
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give himself hours to escape before the body was discovered.
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It worked. Police arrived at five point fifty five am.
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The body wasn't found until one pm, seven hours lou
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Smitt became convinced an intruder had broken into the house
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while the Ramses were at the Christmas party, hidden in
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the basement, waited for the family to go to bed,
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took John Benney from her room, assaulted and murdered her,
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wrote the ransom note, escaped through the same window. He
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presented this theory to Bolder police. They dismissed him, called
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him naive, accused him of being manipulated by the Ramses,
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who had hired him as a consultant. After he left
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the DA's office in September nineteen ninety eight, lou Smitt
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resigned from the investigation wrote a letter to the district
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attorney explaining his concerns, said the case against the Ramses
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was based on tunnel vision and ignored exculpatory evidence. He
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spent the rest of his life investigating the intruder theory
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on his own. Died in twenty ten at age seventy five,
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still believing an unknown killer was responsible. His daughter, Cindy,
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now leads a private investigative team continuing his work. Using
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his detailed spreadsheet of suspects. She's helped eliminate roughly twenty
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five people through DNA testing. Still searching for the match.
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We'll be right back with a nineteen ninety nine grand
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jury that voted to indict the Ramses and the district
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attorney who refused to sign Welcome back to celebrity trials,
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I'm reed, Carter, September nineteen ninety eight. After two years
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of investigation, two years of media circus, two years of
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umbrella of suspicion, the Bolder District Attorney convened a grand
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jury for thirteen months. Jurors heard evidence, reviewed interviews, examined
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forensic reports, listen to experts on both sides. Police presenting
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the case against the ramsays Lou Smitt presenting evidence of
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an intruder. October thirteenth, nineteen ninety nine, District Attorney Alex
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Hunter stepped before the media outside the Boulder County Justice Center.
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I and my prosecution Task force believe we do not
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have sufficient evidence to warrant a filing of charges against
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anyone who has been investigated at this time. No indictment,
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no charges. The grand jury investigation was over, or so
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the public believed. What Alex Hunter didn't say, What remained
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secret for fourteen years, was that the grand jury had
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voted to indict. In January twenty thirteen, journalist Charlie Brennan
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of The Bolder Daily Camera broke the story. Multiple sources,
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including grand jurors themselves, confirmed it the jury had voted
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to indict both John and Patsy Ramsey. A year later,
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a judge ordered the indictment documents unsealed, and we finally
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learned what the grand jury had decided. They voted to
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indict John and Patsy Ramsey on charges of child abuse
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resulting in death. Colorado revis Statute eighteen Dash six Dash
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four zero one, a Class two felony. The language was careful.
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It didn't accuse the Ramses of directly killing John Benney. Instead,
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it alleged that they did unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly, and feloniously
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permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation
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which posed a threat of injury to the child's life
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or health, which resulted in the death of John Beney Ramsey,
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and it accused them of being accessories did unlawfully, knowingly
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and feloniously render assistance to a person within to hinder,
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delay and prevent the discovery, detention, apprehension, prosecution, conviction, and
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punishment of such person for the commission of a crime.
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The grand jury believed the Ramses either killed their daughter
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or helped cover up her death. They voted for indictment
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probable cause existed, but Alex Hunter refused to sign. Under
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Colorado law, a grand jury can vote for indictment, but
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the district attorney must sign the document to move forward
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with prosecution. Hunter looked at the evidence, looked at the
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reasonable doubt, made a decision he couldn't prove this case
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beyond a reasonable doubt, not to a trial jury, not
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with the DNA evidence pointing to an unknown male, not
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with the intruder theory, casting doubt not with two years
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of contaminated crime scene and bungled investigation, so he didn't sign.
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The indictment, never became official, no charges were filed, and
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he told the public only that there was insufficient evacevidence,
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concealing the grand jury's actual decision. Hunter was criticized relentlessly,
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accused of protecting the Ramses because they were wealthy, accused
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