DNA clears JonBenet's family

[crystaldawn]

What a surprise...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/...onbenet_ramsey

[Mr. Television]

That poor family. I always thought they were innocent.

[mphs95]

The Boulder screwed the pooch on that case big time. I never thought the family members did it. But it was easier and more convienent to blame them. Too bad Patsy Ramsey died before this came out. The father and son live about 2 hours away from me in Charlevoix from my understanding. Maybe now they can get some peace.

[siamesemeg]

What a horrorshow for an innocent, vicitmized family. I was impressed to read that the Boulder PD apologized formally to John Ramsey.

Thanks for posting this, CD.

[charmedsignora]

Hopefully they're going to solve this case, even if it takes them several more years.

[PrettyinPink55]

I feel really bad for the family.
I hope now they can focus their attention on catching the murderer.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Way too little way too late. Btw, JonBenet would have turned 18 this year....New technology proves their innocent after 12 years....too unbelievable.......I still and always believe The Ramsey family knew something about this murder and how it happened, john might have never even known that patsy was involved or vice versa. For no family DNA to turn up on the child is silly, she lived with them, was tucked in bed by them, etc. Proves even more, that she was washed and her clothes were changed after she was killed, otherwise some of her parents DNA would be on her somewhere from being tucked in and living in their house. It was just as easy for someone else's DNA to appear on her panties which was skin dna, nothing sexual...the child was at a christmas party near so many people....one visit to take her to the bathroom to slide her pants down, hence the mysterious "new DNA" appears from some other person that was sitting on the bowl, etc. but again they all share a house and there is NO FAMILY DNA on her at all....someone covered it up who was up all night for the family. There is no proof that they were even her owned panties or pants that she was wearing when found dead. Hence no "killer DNA" but no family either, I'm sorry but The Ramseys handled this whole thing right from the beginning like they were guilty, hiring lawyers, refusing police interviews, the handwritten "foreign fanction" ransom note never was proven it wasn't written by Patsy, the strange ramsom note dollar amount which was John's bonus that year..and then the kidnappers leave the child in the basement and leave the ransom note behind when they leave. And how come we never heard about obvious DNA on the ransom note and in her panties, was it the same? And of course the strangest and most unbelievable thing is that Patsy was wearing the same Christmas clothes from the night before in the morning BEFORE she knew JonBenet was missing. How many times have you put on your christmas night clothes back on in the morning? She was up all night....the whole Patsy getting mad at her bedwetting, so many holes.......they might not have been the one to strike any fatal blow but at least one of them knew something. This case was so botched from law enforcement right from the beginning, when John found her, who knows how many people actually touched that child...there is no proof that when they removed her panties and now newly discovered pants that it wasn't just some policeman's DNA (that's why the DNA is not in any criminal database) Not one other Boulder child kidnapping attempt ever again.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

Hate to bust up the Ramsey rally here but this is wrong wrong wrong wrongity wrong wrong WRONG!

Besides the Ramseys themselves, the man who played Santa Claus, who had a weird Christmas fixation and whose wife wrote a sick play about a girl murdered in a basement, was the most likely suspect.

JonBenét even supposedly told friends that Santa had promised to come by for a special secret visit to her. Creepy coincidence, but wouldn't DNA have been collected from all suspects at the time? That is, unless the cops were too busy screwing up to do it. Even if they didn't and have to dig up the now-dead Santa, I'm betting no match.

Saying the Ramseys are cleared by this is just as stupid as saying the REAL Santa Claus did this, assisted by his elves. Does being weird and creepy allow "Santa" to

--Write a rambling ransom note incorporating extensive knowledge of the Ramsey family, including a pet phrase they used with John, a paraphrase of a quote from a movie they had just rented, and the nearly exact amount of John's Christmas bonus, in handwriting so closely resembling Patsy's that she could not be ruled out as the writer? Not to mention using an unusual phrase Patsy was known to use both before and since?

--Leave no DNA on any of the other items the "intruder" supposedly handled, and no other evidence, such as hair, fiber, and fingerprints?

--Obtain a blanket the housekeeper said was in the dryer, in an out-of-the way place only a family member would know about? And don't crime scene photos show the bed undisturbed, although JonBenét was supposedly removed from it? Uh, think the bed could have been remade when Patsy changed it after JonBenét WET THE BED which was Patsy's reason for killing her?

--Know that the Barbie nightgown was JonBenét's favorite and place it with the body?

--Magically overcome being an old, overweight, practically disabled man and crawl out a basement window? (Oh, remember, he goes down chimneys!)

I'll believe the story when Burke finally comes clean and admits his mother did it, and not until then. This DNA could have come from anywhere, such as someone handling a piece of clothing for packaging purposes (it was new out of the package, and the DNA matched other brand new, unworn underwear in the package) or perhaps even JonBenét handling something a man had touched and then touching the underwear in the package, deciding which pair to put on (if touch DNA could be transferred this way.) Test every worker at the factory where the underwear was manufactured and you'll find your "culprit," who will have been working at a third world sweatshop at the time. This is a weak, pathetic, ridiculous proposal which will go the way of John Mark Karr and does nothing towards solving this terrible crime.

[PunkyP0WER]

i'm with you cori. none of this makes any sense. when this made the news yesterday i was expecting this huge smoking gun bombshell evidence that could pretty much rule out all other possibilities but it only leaves the same question. theres no doubt in my mind its an inside job.for the letter writer to know such intimate details mentioned in the ransom note is more than just coincidence.

[studster147]

im with you too- the presence of unidentified DNA evidence is hardly news- that was revealed ages ago....

[fabgourmet]

Yeah, I have read several, like 5 or 6, books about this case (including Perfect Murder, Perfect Town which I highly recommend) and even if this dna business is the case, I simply cannot believe in my heart of hearts that Patsy wasn't involved somehow. Too much links her to it: her unique use of "hence" linked to other letters she wrote, her handwriting essentially matching the writing on the note, the notes use of slang from a movie they had just watchced (caught by a reporter for the National Enquirer, not by Boulder police!) and most importantly, the fact that the way she claims she found the ransom note on the stairs is quite literally impossible (first not noticing it/stepping over it and then finding it on the way back up the stairs or whatever).

Plus, their actions after their daughter's murder (hiring a PR firm to film them going to church, refusing to cooperate with the police) and so many little things (pineapple in JonBenet's stomach, the bizarre location of her body in a little used room their maid didn't even know was there) just keep all pointing to an inside job.

Even if the parents are officially exonerated, after extensive reading, I believe in my hearts of hearts that Patsy, at least, was involved in her daughter's death. Everything leads back to her, nothing rules her out and her story just doesn't add up.

Also, to take this "intruder" theory, you'd have to assume that somebody:
1. Broke into the house somehow and wasn't afraid of an alarm system or their big dog (or knew that it was at the neighbor's already).
2. Went and roused JonBenet from her bed without raising so much as a peep or being worried that somebody else would wake up and find a stranger in her bed or that JonBenet would have screamed bloody hell.
3. Take JonBenet to the kitchen and feed her some pineapple.
4. Take her to a remote part of the basement that people intimately familiar with the house did not know existed.
5. Grab one of Patsy's paintbrushes and some rope you found there and strangle JonBenet because you didn't bring anything else to kill her with so you just pick up some stuff you find there.
6. Sit down at some point and write a ransom note again on a pad of paper you just find there using one of Patsy's pens and a pad of her's and also, just for fun, throw in a bunch of info (the amount of the father's bonus) only the family would know and an outdated, rather formal expression Patsy had a fondness for using. Then go back upstairs and place the note on the stairs by everyone's (Burke and the parents) bedroom without making a sound.
7. At some point, after she is dead, hang around and sexually assault JonBenet.
8. Escape unseen and unheard.

Yeah, that intruder theory sounds real likely to me, every step of the way.

[Cori aka ChrisSCrush]

The good old Enquirer may not be the best at fact-checking, but they beat everyone when it comes to fact-finding! They came up with scoop after scoop on the O. J. case which people paid to find evidence did not.

"And hence" is an unusual, and grammatically wrong, phrase which Patsy not only used earlier, but in a Christmas message later. Sometime someone should run the ransom note with everything Patsy is known to have written through authorship software to determine the probability that she wrote it (besides it being in similar handwriting with a pen and paper which came from her house.)

She also implicated herself again and again with her behavior, such as:

--Wearing the exact same clothing the next morning as the night before. Even if she happened to throw on the same clothes, why take time to do hair and makeup when her child was missing? Because she never had time to get ready for bed the night before. The scream was heard around midnight, if I recall correctly--early enough that the neighbors were up and heard it, but late enough for JonBenét to have been in bed and gotten back up.

--Putting her hands over her face as if crying but peeking between her fingers to see if people were watching.

--Pointing the finger of guilt immediately at the housekeeper.

--Sitting with her sister reading Bible verses about forgiveness.

What NORMAL person acts this way under the circumstances? Then there was the way Burke acted, just saying "Okay" when told to leave the house with a friend and not even asking questions, then just going to school when there was supposedly a crazed kidnapper on the loose who specifically targeted his family and had already killed his sister. And the other brother, John's older son, when asked what should be done with the killer, said, "Forgiveness." At some point, the whole family was brought in on this. That's why I'm saying, even if Burke saw and heard nothing that night, which he may or may not have, he saw and heard enough since to know the deal and must be quite undone by all the denial and secret-keeping. Hopefully someday he can come out with the truth and have some closure.

As for the underwear, panties, or whatever the heck you choose to call them--without knowing the procedures of clothing manufacture, my guess is a machine makes them, then someone visually inspects them to make sure the elastics work and the machine didn't sew them together or something. Even if they aren't hand-inspected, someone has to handle the machines--maybe the same person feeds in the elastic for both the waistband and legs. There's your source.

I don't know who is trying to prove what here. Perhaps they've finally figured Patsy did it and it's too late ever to nail her for it, so they come out with this.

[mike890]

Unbelievable. I have read everything I could find on this case and this DNA evidence does not change my opinion that Patsy Ramsey murdered that little girl. If she wasnt so wealthy, she would have died in jail.

[unsolvedmysteriesfan]

The father is a Republican and is running for governor...it's NOT like the gov. to make up lies to help someone out politically..is it?

[Ireneparalegal]

My understanding is the same DNA found on those panties was also found on the long johns. Same manufacturer and the same garment worker made the same items that were sold seperately, happened to be purchased by the Ramseys? Help me here.