Abstract:
JonBenet Patricia Ramsey was a six year old rising star in the beauty pageant world when she was found brutally murdered in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado on December 26, 1996. Nineteen years later, the crime remains unsolved and no convictions have ever been made in the case. This could mainly be attributed to the fact that the Boulder Police Department was extremely inexperienced when it came to homicides, so they did not follow through with typical crime scene procedure when they responded to the 911 call. Also, they did not accept help from more experienced agencies, such as the Denver Police Department, available nearby. This paper reviews and analyzes the procedural mistakes made by the Boulder Police Department in Boulder, Colorado throughout the course of the kidnapping and subsequent murder investigation. These mistakes are specified and interpreted as to how the department should have handled the investigation in order to protect and preserve the crime scene evidence that was eventually damaged due to carelessness. Next, the theory of the main suspects, John and Patsy Ramsey, as well as a possible intruder are discussed while addressing the physical and circumstantial evidence gathered during the case and how the mistakes of the police investigation might have hindered a conviction. Finally, the paper indicates what former criminal profiler, John Douglas, ultimately believed happened to the miniature beauty queen.
