The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey

JonBenét Ramsey was a 6-year-old child beauty queen found murdered in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado, on 26 December 1996. She had been reported missing by her parents that morning; her body was discovered hours later by her father, John Ramsey, during a police search of the house. She had been strangled and shown signs of head trauma.

A ransom note found at the scene was later determined to have been written on paper from the Ramsey home. The case immediately raised questions about the parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who were the initial focus of police suspicion. The Boulder Police Department's handling of the crime scene — members of the public were allowed to walk through the house in the hours after the discovery — was widely criticised as having compromised evidence.

Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006 without being charged. In 2008, DNA testing led Boulder authorities to formally clear both parents. The case remains unsolved. An unknown male DNA profile was found on JonBenét's clothing but has never been matched to anyone in national databases. It is among the most extensively discussed unsolved child murder cases in American history.