On this day, Dec. 25, in 1996, child pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey was slain in her parents’ home in Boulder, Colo.
The 6-year-old’s body was found the next day in the basement, nearly eight hours after she was reported missing. A two-and-a-half page ransom note demanding $118,000 was left on the kitchen counter.
JonBenet was found beaten and strangled to death.
The media frenzy focused on JonBenet’s participation in child beauty pageants, the family’s wealth and the police’s handling of the case.
Law enforcement agencies initially suspected JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy. However, the family was partially exonerated in 2003 when DNA from a drop of blood found on JonBenet’s long johns proved they were not involved.
JonBenet’s mother died of cancer in 2006. The case was reopened in 2010, but no one has been charged with her death.
— Scott McCabe
