Top Revelations in Netflix’s JonBenet Ramsey Documentary

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The Netflix documentary on the JonBenet Ramsey case advances the premise that the Boulder police and news media rushed to judgment against the child beauty queen’s parents.

The documentary, which began streaming the Monday before Thanksgiving 2024, gives new currency to the theory that Ramsey, 6, was killed by an intruder.

The child was found strangled and bludgeoned to death in the basement of her family home in 1996, according to the Boulder Police website on the case. Photos and videos of the Boulder, Colorado, child appearing dolled up in beauty pageants sent the case skyrocketing into the headlines. Suspicion lingered over the child’s parents, Patsy and John Ramsey, as well as her brother Burke Ramsey, who was 9 years old at the time. All three, who were inside the family’s home when JonBenet was murdered, were later cleared by the DA as a result of DNA evidence that showed an unidentified man’s genetic material on the girl’s clothing. The parents and brother were ruled out.

John Ramsey, JonBenet’s father, spoke out extensively in the documentary, denying killing his daughter. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. Burke Ramsey chose not to appear in the documentary because of the way he has been treated by the media and Internet sleuths, the documentary says.

Police press releases from the time show that the Boulder police focused on the parents’ initial hesitance to sit down for interviews with authorities, as well as handwriting analysis comparing Patsy Ramsy’s handwriting to a ransom note found in the home (it’s never been confirmed as hers). John Ramsey explained this in the documentary as hesitance based on advice from attorneys.

Angles that didn’t make the documentary: Accusations that Burke’s voice was heard in the background of a 911 call, according to Biography.com. The parents had said he was asleep.

The documentary contains a number of revelations, pointing to an intruder:

DNA in the Case Didn’t Match the Parents, But Police Didn’t Tell the Public This Information for Years, the Documentary Says

According to the documentary, police, who were investigating the parents, did not immediately tell the public that DNA tests on the child’s underwear found unidentified male DNA. The DNA did not match the parents or brother, who were in the home at the time JonBenet was killed.

“Boulder Police received DNA test results from Cellmark Diagnostics on Tuesday, May 13. This material was sent to Cellmark on March 4, 1997; tests began the week of March 31,” a 1997 police press release says.

The district attorney cleared the parents in 2008, in part due to the DNA evidence, The Los Angeles Times reported.

That’s when the DNA testing results broke into the public eye.

The New York Times reported in 2008 that some of the DNA came from a drop of blood found in JonBenet’s underwear “early in the investigation,” noting that authorities “determined then that the blood was not from a member of the Ramsey family but could not say whether it came from the killer.”

According to NBC News, different DNA tests have been conducted over the years.

“The recent testing was conducted on a different area of the girl’s clothing, and it matches previous DNA tested from the child’s panties in 1997,” NBC reported in 2008, saying that authorities used new “touch DNA” testing that year.

“That genetic profile belongs to a male and does not belong to anyone in the Ramsey family,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement to NBC News. “The unexplained third party DNA on the clothing of the victim is very significant and powerful evidence.”

CBS News reported in 2008, “The laboratory found previously undiscovered genetic material on the sides of the girl’s long underwear, where an attacker would have grasped the clothing to pull it down, authorities said. The DNA matched the genetic material found earlier.”

However, Boulder Police have hit back at the Netflix documentary’s depiction of them as botching different aspects of the investigation because they were too hyper-focused on the parents.

“The killing of JonBenet was an unspeakable crime and this tragedy has never left our hearts,” Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn said in the statement posted to the department’s X page. “We are committed to following up on every lead and we are continuing to work with DNA experts and our law enforcement partners around the country until this tragic case is solved. This investigation will always be a priority for the Boulder Police Department.”

The statement says, “The assertion that there is viable evidence and leads we are not pursuing—to include DNA testing—is completely false.”

One question left unanswered in the documentary and by authorities is whether new genealogical DNA testing procedures have been attempted.

JonBenet Ramsey Was Alive When She Was Strangled & Sexually Assaulted

Accusations against the parents have often centered around a theory that a makeshift garrote used to strangle the child and a broken paintbrush used to sexually assault her were part of an effort to stage the scene after she was killed by a blow to the head.

The Netflix documentary argues that the girl was alive when those things happened, though, which would mean those acts weren’t part of the staging but were rather part of the murder itself, which makes theories about the parents and brother less likely.

The Ramseys have all denied killing Ramsey, and Burke Ramsey received a defamation settlement against CBS after a previous Netflix documentary argued that he was the killer.

A Girl in JonBenet Ramsey’s Dance Studio Also Was Confronted by a Stranger in a Separate Incident

The Netflix documentary reveals that another girl, who attended the same dance studio as JonBenet, also encountered an intruder in her bedroom.

That intruder has never been identified.

A police press release from 2000 discusses this angle, saying that a “report published this morning in the Dallas Morning News raises the possibility that the murder of JonBenét Ramsey is related to the unsolved sexual assault on a 14-year-old Boulder girl that occurred nine months later, in September 1997.”

Chief Mark Beckner said Boulder Police “have known about this case for two years and previously looked at the sexual assault in association with the Ramsey murder. While the two cases have some similarities, detectives found no definitive connection at the time. Beckner has asked for detectives to again review the case file to determine if anything more can be done,” the release says.

“While detectives again pursue the possibility, Beckner clarified that the two cases have more differences than similarities,” the release says, quoting Beckner as saying: “However, in this line of work, you never rule anything out until you’ve answered all the questions.”

A Man Received Strange Phone Calls From a Potential Suspect in the Case

A man arrested in Thailand is accused of making years of strange phone calls confessing to murdering JonBenet Ramsey, and he even knew the nickname of her grandmother.

John Mark Karr has never been charged in connection with the Ramsey murder, and, according to the documentary, his DNA did not match the DNA on the child’s underwear.

Karr, a teacher, was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2006, CNN reported. He “said he loved JonBenét and was with her the night she died. He also insisted her death was an accident,” according to CNN.

He was never charged at least in part because of the lack of a DNA match.

JonBenet Ramsey’s Half-Brother Doesn’t Believe Burke Ramsey Could Have Done It

JonBenet had a half-brother named John Andrew Ramsey. He appeared in the documentary, where he argues that he doesn’t believe there is any way Burke committed the crime.

JonBenet Could Have Died From a Blow to the Head

In addition to the strangulation, the coroner found that JonBenet might have died from a massive blow to the head, although the instrument that delivered this blow has not been identified, the documentary says.

However, the Boulder police website still says that JonBenet’s cause of death was strangulation. According to Lawyer Monthly, the fact the autopsy also showed the blow to the head was first revealed in 1997, though.

CNN reported in November 2024, “The coroner who performed JonBenét’s autopsy said the child died from suffocation in conjunction with forcible trauma to her skull. JonBenét had an 8.5-inch skull fracture.”

A Detective Brought Into the Case Thought a Stun Gun Was Used to Subdue the Child

The documentary details how a detective brought onto the case named Lou Smit was a fervent believer of the intruder theory, which did not sit well with some members of the Boulder Police Department who suspected the parents.

Smit argued that a taser prong left marks on the child’s body in several places, and he believed an intruder had placed a suitcase under a broken basement window to enter the home.

“Both Police and District Attorney investigators have been aware of Lou Smit’s theories and
interpretation of the evidence since 1997. Lou Smit left the investigation in the fall of 1998 and
has not been involved for the last 2 ½ years of ongoing investigation. The case and development
of evidence has changed significantly over that period of time,” a Boulder police press release said in 2001.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 1997 that the Ramsey family suspected a stun gun was used.

JonBenet’s Dad Believes an Intruder Lay in Wait

Much has been made about how the killer would have to know the layout of the home. John Ramsey found his daughter’s body in the basement.

However, Ramsey argues in the documentary that the killer may have lay in wait inside the home for hours while the family was at dinner.

The documentary says that a rope was found in a room inside the home.

Police Investigated Several Other Key People in the Case

The documentary outlines several other people investigated by police.

“Charlotte Police contacted Boulder Police following their arrest of John Brewer Eustice because of similarities in his case and that of JonBenet Ramsey. Following an extensive interview with Eustice, Detectives Thomas and Gosage were able to conclusively rule him out as a suspect in
the Ramsey case,” a Boulder police press release confirms.

Police did admit they made mistakes early on. The Netflix documentary details how the house was not considered a crime scene at first, and John Ramsey was allowed to search for (and ultimately found) JonBenet.

“Those involved in this first day also were able to transition the focus once we understood that we
were really dealing with a homicide. It is accurate to say that if we had it to do all over again we
would do it differently,” Boulder police wrote in a press release.

“It is also accurate to say that we responded well to what we thought we were confronted with. Remember, this is a one of a kind case. There are few, if any, agencies that would have done it differently than we did in those first few hours.”

Police also admitted that their relationship with the District Attorney’s office was “strained.”

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