As the investigation continued under Smit, he became concerned that authorities had totally ruled out the possibility of an intruder killing Jon Benet, and therefore weren’t looking for evidence of the possibility, Marra said. Two granddaughters of the longtime detective in the JonBenét Ramsey case are keeping his legacy alive and doing what they can to honor the slain girl's memory as well. We’re just not going to do it.”. Take a look at those case details - tonight on # ABC2020 at 9/8c. A former detective on the famous cold case writes in a new book that a cobweb and a child's toy could hold the answers to the 1996 murder of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. An outsider — Lou Smith, Homicide Detective on the JonBenét case believes it may have simply been a kidnapping gone wrong; “I believe that he was going to take her out of house. Her father, John, found the girl's body in the basement of their house about seven hours after she had been reported missing. Police arrived shortly after the 911 call and began investigating the scene for clues about the kidnapper. Throughout both interrogations, JonBenét’s parents vehemently denied anyone in their family killed their daughter. Now, out of that top 20, what our team has been doing is focusing on collecting DNA and testing DNA,” Anderson said. Tom Haney, a detective with the Denver Police Department, interrogated Patsy Ramsey, while Smit interrogated John Ramsey. Episode 10 of 'The Killing of JonBenet Ramsey: The Final Suspects' reveals two other persons of interest on late detective Lou Smit's list — listen Now, in the house, the ransom note is written on a pad that belongs to Patsy.”, He said police began to suspect that maybe the Ramseys had “harmed their child in some way, then panicked and tried to create basically a kidnapping scenario.”. “There were months and months of negotiations, things about whether they could be videotaped, what are the questions going to be … should the Boulder police be a part of it,” said Carol McKinley, an investigative journalist. But as Smit began to investigate the case, he started to believe that police should actually be looking at a possible intruder. Police didn’t believe it was possible to fit through the window, and then Smit showed them it was by going through it himself. Anderson said that the team narrowing down Smit’s list met with Boulder authorities in September 2020 to present the list of their top 20 suspects in the case. 2016. They were in the kitchen, they were in the living room. In his video diaries, Smit pointed out that whoever wrote the ransom note included language that was drawn from several movies. … Their actions before, during and after [JonBenét’s death] are all consistent with innocent people. “You think about this number and how it’s relevant… John Ramsey got a bonus from his company for $118,000,” Garrett said, referring to JonBenét’s father. It was after this test that Lacy wrote a letter to John Ramsey stating that her office does not consider him, his wife Patsy Ramsey or anyone in their immediate family to be under suspicion for the death of JonBenét. “We are just trying to eliminate people from that list and we just figure, if we keep at it, hopefully, we’ll finally whittle it down to one person remaining on that list,” said Marra. “You’ve just been dealt a horrible, crushing blow.”. “But we’re not gonna stop investigating. JonBenét’s parents initially thought she had been kidnapped during the night. “It would be highly improper and unethical for me to stay when I so strongly believe this.”. For the first time, viewers will be able to hear the previously unreleased audio diaries of Lou Smit, famed Colorado Springs homicide detective who was coaxed from retirement to try and bring some clarity to the chaos surrounding this case. Michael Helgoth, who owned a pair of Hi-Tec boots and a stun gun and had died by suicide shortly after JonBenét’s murder, was also cleared after the team found his DNA did not match that found at the crime scene. Copyright © 2021 ABC News Internet Ventures. Her hands were tied above her head. The team referred to the database Smit had created to begin narrowing down suspects. 'JonBenet Ramsey: What Really Happened' explores the iconic JonBenet Ramsey case with a fresh perspective. The three-page long note said in part that if JonBenét’s parents called the authorities, she would die, and asked for $118,000. By 2008, new DNA testing technology had been developed, called touch DNA, which allowed forensic experts to test the dead skin cells left behind on objects at crime scenes. Eager diners hit SJ outdoor restaurants as state lifts lockdown, CA lifts stay at home order, will announce change in vaccine eligibility stages soon, Atmospheric river to slam Bay Area with heavy rain, winds, LIVE: Track rain in Bay Area with Live Doppler 7, Bracing for mudslides in Bay Area fire zones. Read on for her father's hopes for the new project. If we leverage the evidence, we follow the facts, we will find this killer.”, 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. The Case of JonBenet Ramsey. The child beauty queen had died sometime during the previous night but wasn’t found until hours later. But even as he stepped away from his official role in the case, he continued to push for justice for JonBenét while standing on her parents’ side, Marra said. I found my daughter,” John Ramsey told Walters in 2000. “When he got sick with cancer … he knew that his time was limited and so, during that time, he just talked to others about not letting this case die,” said Cindy Marra, Smit’s daughter. The interrogation ultimately took place at a different police department and the Boulder investigators were forced to watch from a separate building. JonBenét’s parents anxiously waited for the supposed kidnapper’s call with just one detective there: Linda Arndt. Smit’s daughter, Cindy Marra, said the interviews “firmed up his belief that the Ramseys had nothing to do” with JonBenét’s murder. The day after Christmas — Dec. 26, 1996 — JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of her family’s Colorado home. 5 people, including pregnant woman, fatally shot in Indianapolis, Capitol riot latest: Man accused of stealing documents from McConnell's desk charged, Biden's COVID relief package presents 1st test of his deal-making skills. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006 and was buried next to JonBenét in Georgia, JonBenét’s half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said. “In that particular movie, a ‘fat cat’ industrialist, his son was kidnapped. We’re not interrogating possible suspects. “There’s a narrative out there that this is an unsolved homicide and that we just have to accept that as a fact, and that is not the truth. “She was lying on a white blanket. “We work on this daily. Specifically, he noted the similarities to the kidnap drama “Ransom,” which had been playing in Boulder at the time. JonBenét's cause of death was determined … But although the grand jury may have believed one of the parents was culpable and the other helped, they couldn't say who did what, and Hunter ultimately announced that they did not have sufficient evidence to file charges against the parents. JonBenet March 19, 1999 Web posted at: 12:40 a.m. EST (0540 GMT) That’s the question I always ask.”. He pointed out the open window in the basement, but photographs showed cobwebs on the window that would’ve likely broken had someone snuck through. We don’t want them there.”. They returned for another one in June 1998, but this time, the investigators recorded it on video. Smit was already a well-known figure as a police detective before he worked on JonBenet's murder investigation. “I thought there was something drastically wrong and that there was a gross injustice in this case,” he said in the tapes. The grand jury ended up accusing both John and Patsy Ramsey of “unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permitting a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child’s life or health” as well as “rendering assistance to a person, with intent to hinder, delay or prevent the discovery, detention, apprehension, prosecution, convictions and punishment of such person for the commission of a crime.”. ET on ABC. Nearly 20 years have passed since 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was killed in her family's Colorado home. Lou Smit, a longtime police detective who was called out of retirement to help investigate the 1996 slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old beauty pageant winner, but … John Ramsey said he brought his daughter upstairs and laid her on the floor, hoping she was alive. MORE: Forensic psychiatrist who consulted on JonBenet Ramsey case killed outside his office, MORE: Ex-DA Opens Up About Why She Cleared the Ramsey Family of JonBenet's Murder. But he was running out of time. Nearly 25 years after JonBenét Ramsey's infamous and still unsolved death, the case of the 6-year-old pageant queen is back in the news again. “The Ramsey’s said, ‘We don’t trust the police. “But [the police] are trying to say Patsy did it. Marra said that before his death, while he was still in the hospital, he told her that he wanted someone to keep investigating the case. I tried to untie the cord that was around her arms and I couldn’t get the knot untied.”. Jonathan Webb, one of the grand jurors, told “20/20” that Smit’s intruder theory didn’t make sense. When Haney suggested there might be trace evidence that appears to link Patsy Ramsey to her daughter’s murder, Patsy Ramsey said, “That is totally impossible. When Hunter called for a grand jury to assess the evidence in 1998, two years after JonBenét was killed, they listened to Smit’s intruder theory. After JonBenét’s parents’ first formal interrogation in the spring of 1997, four months after her death, it would take nearly two years for them to sit down with the police for another interrogation. After 13 years, Smit still believed that an unidentified intruder was responsible for JonBenet’s murder. In the ensuing years, Smit continued to look at the information he had on the JonBenét case and compiled it all into a database. Legendary detective Lou Smit created an eight-hour video presentation that includes his notes on the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, notes on potential suspects and the evidence he collected. Daily Mail. “He just said, ‘I want somebody to continue this case. John Anderson, former sheriff of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Texas, talks about his friend Lou Smit, the legendary detective who died before he could solve 6-year-old JonBenet … Multiple former investigators in the JonBenet Ramsey murder speak out about their theories on the case in a new two-hour special Dateline NBC: Who Killed JonBenét? He believed the answer to the identity of JonBenét’s killer lay in the DNA found in her underwear and underneath her fingernails. Storm timeline: Here's when rains, winds arrive to Bay Area, Here's what's reopening in every Bay Area county this week. … I immediately knelt down over her, felt her cheek, took the tape off immediately off her mouth. The blanket was wrapped around her. “I had seen evidence of an intruder in the house that night.”, With his intruder theory regarding JonBenét’s murder increasingly pushed by the wayside, Smit ultimately chose to resign from the case, writing in a letter to Boulder District Attorney Hunter: “Even though I want to continue to participate in the official investigation and assist in finding the killer of JonBenet, I find that I cannot in good conscience be a part of the persecution of innocent people,” said Smit, referring to JonBenét’s parents. As he worked his way up through the ranks to detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department, Smit had numerous notable cases in his roster. But even as dozens of people visited him each day to pay their respects at the hospital, and later in hospice, he never stopped talking about JonBenét’s case, according to his other daughter, Dawn Miller. “I thought this was [going to] be a fairly easy case. Arndt said the moment sparked fear in her that JonBenét’s father might have killed their daughter, and so she braced herself for a possible confrontation. “There’s no reason at all for the Ramseys to use a stun gun and the Ramseys don’t have a stun gun,” Smit recorded himself saying at the time. Jessa concurs, pointing out that the goal with their podcast and research is to finally offer clarity for those who continue to grieve. “The big question is could you have gotten through this window -- this small window -- without disturbing this cobweb,” Garrett said. With the case now in the public’s view, police sought to question JonBenét’s parents. We were a normal family.”. Two granddaughters of the longtime detective within the JonBenét Ramsey case are holding his legacy alive and doing what they'll to This Detective's Granddaughters Want to Solve the JonBenét Ramsey Case … For someone to get through a small window like that and not disturb the cobwebs “would be remarkable,” he said. Two granddaughters of the longtime detective in the JonBenét Ramsey case are keeping his legacy alive and doing what they can to honor the slain girl’s memory as well. While JonBenét’s half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said his father has remarried and is focusing on life, he also said their fight for justice on behalf of his half-sister is not over. The three-page ransom note, for example, was written on Patsy Ramsey’s notepad with a pen that had come from the house. Please don’t let it die,’” she said. “My daughters … will continue on with this case when we end up being too old to do it,” said Marra. The Colorado detective who died from cancer in 2010 had investigated over 200 cases over the course of his career and every one of them had led to a conviction, according to his granddaughter Jessa van der Woerd. “Particularly when you start with children of this age, when they die, tend to die at the hands of their parents,” Garrett told “20/20.” “So the focus is naturally gonna be on the parents to begin with. He quickly began reviewing the evidence and finding potential leads that the police and public had overlooked or dismissed. Two granddaughters of the longtime detective in the JonBenét Ramsey case are keeping his legacy alive and doing what they can to honor the slain girl's memory as well. Authorities ultimately cleared Oliva as a suspect after they were unable to connect him to the crime scene. In the aftermath of their daughter’s murder, John Ramsey went on to lose his job and claims he spent millions of dollars on private investigators, lawyers and security. But like police, the jury didn’t believe someone could’ve entered the window with the cobwebs remaining intact. “First of all, we didn’t know whether the kidnapper was going to call that day because the note said, ‘I will call you tomorrow. Arndt suggested that John Ramsey look around the house for any signs that his daughter’s belongings were out of place. JonBenét and her older brother Burke Ramsey. A former Boulder, Colo., police detective who spent almost two years investigating the killing of JonBenet Ramsey says in a new book that he and other investigators concluded that the 6 … Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Cindy Mara is one of the daughters of Lou Smit, who investigated JonBenet Ramsey's case and whose dying wish was for his family and friends to find her killer. 2016. “We went through the people of interest ... and came up with our top 20. John Ramsey later found JonBenét in the basement, a part of the home that police had neglected to search. The child had also suffered an 8-inch skull fracture, shocks from a stun gun and sexual abuse with a broken piece from the paintbrush used in the garrote, according to Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and ABC News contributor who wasn’t involved in JonBenét’s case. The note said, “You are not the only fat cat around,” and also included other lines that were similar to the dialogue from the films “Dirty Harry” and “Speed.”. Television documentary, accessed on CBS On Demand, September 23. Go retest.” He said she told him it was impossible for them to have “physical evidence” linking her to the crime. Smit was called out of retirement to help the investigation three months after JonBenét was found dead in the basement of her parent’s Boulder, Colorado, home on the morning of Dec. 26, 1996. There could’ve been fingerprints there.”. She had tape over her mouth. Then, the next day, her parents appeared on CNN for an interview in which they pleaded for the public to help them find their daughter’s killer. Among the names on the list were Gary Oliva, a homeless man who frequented a church less than two blocks from the Ramsey home and who had told a friend during a phone call right after JonBenét was killed that he had just killed a little girl, McKinley said. Investigators cleared the Ramsey family as suspects. They’re grieving. JonBenét’s murder came on the heels of the O.J. JonBenet Ramsey’s bedroom walls and Christmas presents were ‘smeared in feces by disturbed brother Burke’—after new claims emerged he killed the child beauty queen. “I knew instantly what I found. Patsy Ramsey said that when they found out they were main suspects in their daughter’s death, she “didn’t believe it.”. Marra said she doesn’t believe “at this point that they are actively investigating this case.”. Arndt confirmed to him that the child had died. There were some friends of Patsy’s that were helping her wipe up the kitchen. “As we looked at each other, I remember -- and I wore a shoulder holster -- tucking my gun right next to me and consciously counting [that] I’ve got 18 bullets,” Arndt said, adding, “I didn’t know if we’d all be alive when people showed up.”. What’s the matter with you,’” said Dimond. Maxwell behind JonBenét Colorado detective had received a mysterious telephone call about JonBenét murder case. But speaking to JonBenét’s parents, the main suspects in the case at that point, as part of a formal interrogation at the police station was challenging. Any information that we come up with a match will be turned over immediately to the Boulder [district attorney] and Boulder Police Department, and they will follow that.”. Marra said that after his death, her family teamed up with some of Smit’s former homicide partners to keep investigating the case. Watch the full story on "20/20" Friday at 9 p.m. There were some reasons to suspect this. “The police did a terrible, terrible job securing that scene … and if you don’t secure the scene, you don’t get good evidence,” said Diane Dimond, an investigative reporter who covered the case. But when 10 a.m. passed and there still wasn’t a call, Arndt said “there was no acknowledgment” from either of JonBenét’s parents that “the deadline imposed by the author of the ransom note [had] come and gone.”. In an interview with USA TODAY, JonBenét's father John Ramsey, who appears in the documentary along with Smit's daughter, son and others connected to the investigation, said he … Lou Smit was hired to reexamine the unsolved Ramsey case and the first to suggest police should investigate an unknown intruder. John Anderson, former sheriff of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Texas, talks about his friend Lou Smit, the legendary detective who died before he could solve 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey's case. “How could they think that? “The family has not lost the will to fight and the will … to find the killer,” John Andrew Ramsey said. This is the detective's-eye view of THE great unresolved murder case of the 1990s, aside from the OJ case. JonBenét’s cause of death was determined to be strangulation with a makeshift garrote, a weapon that, in this case, involved a string wrapped around a piece of one of Patsy Ramsey’s paintbrushes. Marra believes her daughters, Smit’s granddaughters, will push forward his dying wish even if they’re unable to. He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2010. Detective: JonBenet's father did it ( 0 ) NEW YORK, Sept. 13 -- One of the Colorado detectives initially assigned to the JonBenet Ramsey case … First detective to respond in JonBenet case resigns. “How many people knew that? He found JonBenét in the basement, a part of the home that police had neglected to search. Mary Lacy, the district attorney of Boulder at the time, decided to use this new test on JonBenét’s pajama leggings and the results came back positive for at least one unknown male’s DNA, possibly even two. Details are not shared. that will air Friday, September 9. Police had also found a shoe print from a Hi-Tec brand boot near JonBenét’s body -- no one in the family-owned shoes from this brand -- as well as two marks on her face and back, which he deduced had been made by a stun gun. Sep. 12, 2016. Over 24 years later authorities are still trying to answer that question. MORE: Video: JonBenet Ramsey Case: Who Was Patsy Ramsey? As part of their promise to keep the case alive, van der Woerd and Smit’s other granddaughter, Lexi Marra, created the podcast “The Victim’s Shoes,” where they discuss details of the case. “The police … are faced with lawyers and wealthy friends. However, with the Ramseys’ friends showing up for moral support, they also contaminated the scene by moving about the house. Cold case investigator Lou Smit talks about the case of confessed serial killer Robert Charles Browne at the El Paso County Sheriff's Department in Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 4, 2006. There’s a group of dedicated volunteers that work on this daily.”, “I think it’s really important for people to understand that this case can be solved,” he went on to say. Smit also spoke about the DNA evidence that police had found underneath JonBenét’s fingernails and in her underwear in the video diaries. “What we all share in common is that commitment to fulfill Lou’s dying wish that this case doesn’t die with him,” said John Anderson, a friend of Smit’s and former sheriff of El Paso County in Texas. Bill McReynolds, a man who dressed up as Santa Claus for Christmas parties at the Ramseys’ home for three years, was also investigated but ultimately cleared when his DNA did not match that found by investigators. We were shocked,” added John Ramsey. “I think it’s that devotion, that respect, that love for Lou, [that] is what keeps our team moving forward.”. Get plenty of rest.’ I was deathly afraid that tomorrow was, in fact, the 27th.”, “You lose all perception of time, of place,” added Patsy Ramsey in 2000. John Ramsey’s son, JonBenét’s half-brother John Andrew Ramsey, said that the family gave blood and fingerprints to the police as part of their investigation. “And he asked me to write down a name, and I did. The $118,000 figure also seemed suspicious to authorities. I expected to be bored with this one because Schiller's Perfect Murder, Perfect Town: The Uncensored Story of the JonBenet Murder and the … People in the community who tell the police, ‘Give them room. “We had a higher priority at that point and that was to bury our daughter.”. He said that this evidence “was not something that was made public for quite a long time.” An analysis found that it didn’t match anyone in the Ramsey family. Three months after JonBenét’s death, he brought Smit into the fold. I’m gonna guess not a lot of people,” Garrett said. I thought it would be a slam dunk, and I even remember talking to my daughter. She was killed accidentally while they were using garrote (choking torture tool). … They didn’t do it.”. It also said that JonBenét’s parents would receive a call from the supposed kidnapper “tomorrow” between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. “It was awful,” John Ramsey told ABC News’ Barbara Walters in 2000. “We’re not investigators. JonBenét Ramsey was killed in her family's Colorado home in 1996. As the first detective to arrive at the Ramsey house on Dec. 26, 1996, Linda Arndt endured stinging criticism and ridicule because of what she did and didn’t do once she arrived on the scene. She is now tasked along with other members of Smit’s family with solving his last case as part of his dying wish -- that of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey. When reached for comment, the Boulder Police Department said there is still an active, ongoing investigation into JonBenét’s murder; however, the department has never publicly commented on its handling of the case. Twenty-four years after the beauty queen was killed in her Boulder, Colo. home at the age of 6, ABC’s 20/20 is devoting its Friday, Jan. 15 episode to the ongoing investigation of the still-unsolved crime. I got a pen and paper and he gave me a name, and he said, ‘Start with this name.’”. Outdoor dining, salon reopen for business in Contra Costa Co. Service dogs in training travel with help of North Bay pilot, 'Warning flags' over racial equity found in COVID vaccine data, Google aims to expedite vaccination process with new partnership, 1st Black, Asian woman elected VP: Watch Kamala Harris' journey, How to register for a COVID-19 vaccine in every Bay Area county, CA COVID-19 vaccine tracker: See your status here, Bay Area Life; Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on ABC7, JonBenet Ramsey's half-brother recalls day of the murder: 'This case can be solved', Forensic psychiatrist who consulted on JonBenet Ramsey case killed. Exclusive clip: Discovery+ re-examines JonBenet Ramsey case with new audio from detective JonBenet Ramsey's death in 1996 still baffles investigators. Cheer, Louise, and Khaleda Rahman. In JonBenet, the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail-pointing the way toward an analysis of the evidence some deem too shocking to consider. The case's lead investigator, Mark Beckner says there are “significant results” from the 1,058 pieces of evidence taken from the home. Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter, however, wasn't convinced of their guilt and wanted to explore other theories. “I mean, we’re suffering from having lost our child … and then, for someone to accuse you, it’s just, you can’t believe that would happen,” she told CNN in January 1997. 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