Speaker 1: Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Reed Carter. Wednesday, December
Speaker 1: twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, Christmas Eve. Welcome to twelve
Speaker 1: Crimes of Christmas. For the next twelve days. While the
Speaker 1: courts are dark for the holidays, we're covering classic cases
Speaker 1: that shook America, and we're starting with the one that
Speaker 1: happened exactly twenty nine years ago. Tomorrow, December twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, Boulder, Colorado, a six year old beauty
Speaker 1: queen named John Beney Ramsey went to bed in her
Speaker 1: family's fifteen room mansion after a Christmas party. She never
Speaker 1: woke up. The next morning, her mother, Patsy, found a rambling,
Speaker 1: three page ransom note on the back staircase demanded exactly
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars for John Benney's safe return.
Speaker 1: That number wasn't random, it was almost exactly what her
Speaker 1: father John had received as his Christmas bonus that year.
Speaker 1: Patsy called nine one one at five fifty two a
Speaker 1: m police arrived. Seven minutes later. They searched the house,
Speaker 1: but somehow missed the basement. For seven hours, John Bennet's
Speaker 1: body lay in the wine cellar, while officers combed the
Speaker 1: upstairs and friends wandered freely through the crime scene. At
Speaker 1: one pm, a detective asked John Ramsey to search the
Speaker 1: house again. He went straight to the basement, opened the
Speaker 1: door to a small storage room, found his daughter lying
Speaker 1: on the floor, duct tape over her mouth, hands bound
Speaker 1: above her head, a garrote made from a broken paint
Speaker 1: brush handle twisted around her neck. She was six years old.
Speaker 1: John carried John Bennet's body upstairs, laid her on the
Speaker 1: living room floor, destroyed whatever forensic evidence might have remained,
Speaker 1: the crime scene was already contaminated beyond repair. Twenty nine
Speaker 1: years later, no one has been charged, the case remains
Speaker 1: officially unsolved, and we still don't know who killed John
Speaker 1: Beney Ramsey on Christmas night. I'm reed, Carter. This is
Speaker 1: Celebrity Trials today. The murder that has haunted America for
Speaker 1: nearly three decades, the botched investigation, the destroyed crime scene,
Speaker 1: and a six year old girl who should be thirty
Speaker 1: five years old today, Part one of three. Before we
Speaker 1: get to the horror, let's talk about who John Benet
Speaker 1: Ramsey was, because she deserves to be remembered as more
Speaker 1: than a victim, more than a case file. John Benet
Speaker 1: Patricia Ramsey was born August sixth, nineteen ninety in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker 1: Her father, John Bennett Ramsey, was a successful businessman who
Speaker 1: ran Access Graphics, a computer company that had recently been
Speaker 1: acquired by Lockheed Martin. Her mother, Patricia Anne Ramsey Patsy,
Speaker 1: was a former beauty queen who'd won Miss West Virginia
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy seven. The family moved to Boulder, Colorado,
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety one, when Access Graphics relocated its headquarters.
Speaker 1: John was worth an estimated six million dollars. They lived
Speaker 1: in a Tudor style mansion on Fifteenth Street, fifteen rooms,
Speaker 1: a wine cellar, multiple staircases, and a basement so large
Speaker 1: and labyrinthine that police would later fail to search it properly.
Speaker 1: John Bennet had an older brother, Burke, who was nine
Speaker 1: at the time of her death. She also had older
Speaker 1: half siblings from John's first marriage, John Andrew and Melinda,
Speaker 1: and she'd had another half sister, Elizabeth, who died in
Speaker 1: a car accident in nineteen ninety two at age twenty two.
Speaker 1: John Benney was buried next to her Patsy introduced John
Speaker 1: Benney to beauty pageants at age four. The Little Girl
Speaker 1: was a natural blonde hair, blue eyes, a smile that
Speaker 1: lit up stages. She won titles including Little Miss Colorado,
Speaker 1: America's Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevois, Colorado, State All Star Kids,
Speaker 1: Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. The pageant world
Speaker 1: would later become controversial of John Bennet. Performing in elaborate costumes,
Speaker 1: full makeup, and styled hair made some viewers uncomfortable, but
Speaker 1: by all accounts, John Beney loved performing. She was described
Speaker 1: as outgoing, affectionate, and genuinely happy on stage. She attended
Speaker 1: High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, loved her family, loved Christmas.
Speaker 1: Had no idea that December twenty fifth, nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 1: would be her last day alive. That Christmas Day, the
Speaker 1: Ramsays spent the morning at home opening presents. In the
Speaker 1: early evening, they attended a party at the home of
Speaker 1: family friends Fleet and Priscilla White. John Benet played with
Speaker 1: other children ate dinner. By the time they left around
Speaker 1: nine pm, she was already asleep in the car. John
Speaker 1: carried her inside and up to her bedroom on the
Speaker 1: second floor. Put her to bed, still wearing the clothes
Speaker 1: from the party. Patsy changed her into pajamas without waking her.
Speaker 1: The family went to sleep. They had an early flight
Speaker 1: the next morning, heading to their vacation home in Michigan,
Speaker 1: then onto a Disney cruise. Sometime between ten pm on
Speaker 1: Christmas night and five thirty am on December twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: John Bennet Ramsey was taken from her bed, brought to
Speaker 1: the basement, sexually assaulted, struck in the head with enough
Speaker 1: force to fracture her skull, strangled with a garrot fashioned
Speaker 1: from nylon cord and a broken paint brush. She fought.
Speaker 1: The autopsy found scratches on her neck half moon shapes
Speaker 1: from her own fingernails trying to claw the cord away.
Speaker 1: She was conscious when the strangulation began. A six year
Speaker 1: old girl fighting for her life in her own basement
Speaker 1: on Christmas night, and nobody heard anything. John, Patsy, and
Speaker 1: Burke all claimed to have slept through whatever happened. No screams,
Speaker 1: no sounds of struggle. Nothing make it make sense. John
Speaker 1: Beney should be thirty five years old today, should have
Speaker 1: graduated high school, college, maybe started a family of her
Speaker 1: own instead. She's been dead for twenty nine years, buried
Speaker 1: in Marietta, Georgia, next to her half sister Elizabeth. Someone
Speaker 1: has to say her name. Someone has to remember she
Speaker 1: was a person, not just a case file. December twenty sixth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, the day after Christmas, five thirty am,
Speaker 1: Patsy Ramsey came downstairs to make coffee. The family had
Speaker 1: that early flight to catch. As she descended the back
Speaker 1: staircase toward the kitchen, she saw papers on the steps,
Speaker 1: three pages handwritten a ransom note. Mister Ramsey, listen carefully.
Speaker 1: We are a group of individuals that represent a small
Speaker 1: foreign faction. We respect your business, but not the country
Speaker 1: that it serves. At this time, we have your daughter
Speaker 1: in our possession. Patsy stopped reading ran upstairs. John Benet's
Speaker 1: bed was empty. She woke John, screamed, then called nine
Speaker 1: one one. The call came in at five point fifty
Speaker 1: two a m. Patsy was hysterical. We have a kidnapping.
Speaker 1: Hurry please. The dispatcher tried to calm her down, asked questions,
Speaker 1: how old is your daughter? She's six years old. She's blonde.
Speaker 1: Does the note say who took her. No, I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a ransom note here. Police officer Rick
Speaker 1: French arrived at five fifty five am, first responder. He
Speaker 1: did a quick search of the house, but missed the basement,
Speaker 1: missed the wine cellar, where John Benet's body was already lying.
Speaker 1: Here's the first failure. French should have searched every room,
Speaker 1: every closet, every possible hiding place. That's basic procedure for
Speaker 1: a missing child. But the house was enormous, fifteen rooms,
Speaker 1: multiple levels, a confusing layout, and the ransom note said
Speaker 1: John Bennet had been kidnap, apped, taken somewhere else, So
Speaker 1: French focused on the upper floors, where she'd last been seen.
Speaker 1: By six a m. More officers arrived. They secured John
Speaker 1: Benet's bedroom, taped it off, but that was the only
Speaker 1: room they protected. The rest of the house open season.
Speaker 1: Patsy had already called friends and family. Fleet and Priscilla
Speaker 1: White arrived, John Fernie and his wife others followed. By
Speaker 1: mid morning, the Ramsey home was filled with people walking
Speaker 1: through rooms, touching surfaces, using bathrooms, contaminating any forensic evidence
Speaker 1: that might have existed. Your tax dollars at work. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the ransom note sat on a table, three pages over
Speaker 1: three hundred seventy words, the longest ransom note in FBI history.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what that note said, because every
Speaker 1: word of it would become evidence. You will withdraw one
Speaker 1: hundred eighteen thousand dollars from your account. One hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars will be in one hundred dollar bills and the
Speaker 1: remaining eighteen thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills. Make sure
Speaker 1: that you bring an adequate size attache to the bank.
Speaker 1: When you get home, you will put the money in
Speaker 1: a brown paper bag. I will call you between eight
Speaker 1: and ten am tomorrow to instruct you on delivery one
Speaker 1: hundred eighteen thousand dollars, not a round number, not a
Speaker 1: million dollars, which you'd expect from kidnappers targeting a multimillionaire.
Speaker 1: One hundred eighteen thousand dollars, almost exactly what John Ramsey
Speaker 1: had received as his Christmas bonus that year. Whoever wrote
Speaker 1: this note new intimate details about the family's finances. The
Speaker 1: note continued with threats. Any deviation of my instructions will
Speaker 1: result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will
Speaker 1: also be denied her remains for proper burial. It referenced
Speaker 1: speaking to the two gentlemen watching over your daughter, warned
Speaker 1: John not to contact police, said the fa family was
Speaker 1: under constant scrutiny, and it was signed Victory SBTC. Nobody
Speaker 1: has ever figured out what SBTC stands for. Theories ranged
Speaker 1: from saved by the Cross to references from action movies.
Speaker 1: The note itself contained phrases that seemed borrowed from films
Speaker 1: like Speed, Dirty, Harry, and Ransom. But here's the most
Speaker 1: damning detail. The note was written on a legal pad
Speaker 1: from inside the Ramsey home using a pen from inside
Speaker 1: the Ramsey home. The FBI told Boulder police this was
Speaker 1: extraordinarily unusual. Kidnappers write ransom notes beforehand. They don't sit
Speaker 1: in a victim's house composing a three page letter while
Speaker 1: a dead child lies in the basement, unless the killer
Speaker 1: wasn't a kidnapper at all. The call the note promised
Speaker 1: between eight and ten am never came because John Benney
Speaker 1: wasn't kidnapped. She was already dead, had been dead for hours.
Speaker 1: At one pm, Detective Linda Arndt made a decision that
Speaker 1: would haunt the investigation Forever Frustrated that no ransom call
Speaker 1: had come, she asked John Ramsay and family friend Fleet
Speaker 1: White to search the house again see if anything was
Speaker 1: out of place. John went straight to the basement to
Speaker 1: a room investigators had somehow missed a small storage area,
Speaker 1: the wine cellar. He opened the door and there was
Speaker 1: John Bennet. She was lying on her back, a white
Speaker 1: blanket partially covering her body, duct tape over her mouth,
Speaker 1: wrists bound above her head with white cord, another cord,
Speaker 1: a garrot made from nylon rope, and a broken paintbrush
Speaker 1: handle wrapped around her neck. John screamed, picked up his
Speaker 1: daughter's body, carried her upstairs, laid her on the living
Speaker 1: room floor, ripped the duct tape off her mouth. Detective
Speaker 1: aren't watched in horror. Any forensic evidence on the body, fingerprints, fibers,
Speaker 1: DNA was now compromised. The crime scene, already contaminated by
Speaker 1: hours of foot traffic, was destroyed for by a grieving
Speaker 1: father holding his dead child. The coroner didn't arrive until
Speaker 1: eight pm that night. John Benet's body wasn't removed until
Speaker 1: ten forty five pm, more than seventeen hours after Patsy's
Speaker 1: nine to one one call. Welcome to justice in America.
Speaker 1: A six year old girl murdered on Christmas night and
Speaker 1: the police bungled the investigation from the first minute. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back with the autopsy findings that would shock
Speaker 1: the nation and the evidence that pointed in two completely
Speaker 1: different directions. Welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm Reed Carter.
Speaker 1: December twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six. The day after John
Speaker 1: Benet's body was discovered, Boulder County Coroner John Meyer performed
Speaker 1: the autopsy. The official cause of death asphyxia by strangulation
Speaker 1: associated with cranio cerebral trauma. In plain English, she was
Speaker 1: strangled and her skull was fractured. Both injuries could have
Speaker 1: been fatal on their own. Let me paint you the
Speaker 1: picture of what the autopsy revealed. John Bennet had an
Speaker 1: eight and a half inch linear fracture on the right
Speaker 1: side of her skull. Someone had struck her with tremendous force,
Speaker 1: likely a blunt object, possibly a flashlight or similar weapon.
Speaker 1: The blow caused bleeding in her brain, subarachnoid and subdural hemorrhage,
Speaker 1: but she didn't die. Immediately from the head wound. The
Speaker 1: evidence suggested she survived unconscious but alive, for somewhere between
Speaker 1: forty five minutes and two hours after being struck. During
Speaker 1: that time, someone fashioned a garat, took a paint brush
Speaker 1: from Patsy Ramsay's art supplies in the basement, broke it
Speaker 1: into three pieces, used one piece as a handle, wrapped
Speaker 1: nylon cord around it, created a device specifically designed to strangle.
Speaker 1: Then they put it around John Bennet's neck and twisted.
Speaker 1: The autopsy found a deep ligature furrow around her neck,
Speaker 1: petechial hemorrhages in her eyes, tiny blood spots caused by strangulation.
Speaker 1: She was alive when the cord tightened. The half moon
Speaker 1: scratches on her neck proved she fought tried to pull
Speaker 1: the garrote away with her own fingers, a six year
Speaker 1: old girl fighting to breathe in her own basement. There
Speaker 1: was also evidence of sexual assault. No seamen was found,
Speaker 1: suggesting no conventional rape, but there was vaginal injury, trauma
Speaker 1: to the hymen, a small amount of blood evidence that something,
Speaker 1: possibly the missing piece of the paintbrush that was never found,
Speaker 1: had been used to assault her. The coroner noted that
Speaker 1: her vaginal area appeared to have been wiped clean. Someone
Speaker 1: tried to eliminate evidence. Duct tape covered her mouth, though
Speaker 1: her arms were bound loosely above her head. Her torso
Speaker 1: was wrapped in a white blanket, her favorite blanket, freshly
Speaker 1: laundered that had been in the dryer. Whoever covered her
Speaker 1: knew which blanket she preferred, knew where the clean laundry was.
Speaker 1: The autopsy also found fragments of pineapple in John Bennet's
Speaker 1: digestive system. She'd eaten pineapple within a few hours of
Speaker 1: her death, but John and Patsy insisted they hadn't fed
Speaker 1: her pineapple that night, said she was asleep when they
Speaker 1: got home from the party. Crime scene photos showed a
Speaker 1: bowl of pineapple on the kitchen table with a spoon
Speaker 1: in it. Burke's fingerprints were on the bowl. Did John
Speaker 1: Benet wake up after being put to bed go downstairs
Speaker 1: for a snack encounter her killer? The pineapple has never
Speaker 1: been explained. Here's what the evidence told investigators. Whoever killed
Speaker 1: John Bennett knew the house intimately knew where to find
Speaker 1: the paintbrush, the cord, the blanket, the notepad and pen
Speaker 1: for the ransom note, spent considerable time in the basement
Speaker 1: fashioning the garotte, writing a three page letter covering the
Speaker 1: body with care. This wasn't a rushed kidnapping gone wrong.
Speaker 1: This was methodical, personal staged but it also contained elements
Speaker 1: that made no sense for the family theory. Unknown male
Speaker 1: DNA was found in the crotch of John Beney's underwear,
Speaker 1: mixed with her blood. That DNA didn't match John, Patsy
Speaker 1: or Burke, didn't match anyone in the FBI's database, still doesn't.
Speaker 1: A bootprint was found next to her body, didn't match
Speaker 1: any shoe owned by the family. A climbing rope was
Speaker 1: discovered in a paper bag and a guest bedroom. The
Speaker 1: Ramsey said it didn't belong to them. An open basement window,
Speaker 1: one that John Ramsey admitted he'd broken months earlier when
Speaker 1: locked out, showed possible signs of entry. Evidence pointing inside
Speaker 1: the house, evidence pointing outside. Twenty nine years later, we
Speaker 1: still don't know which direction leads to the truth. That's
Speaker 1: part one of our John Beney Ramsey Special. December twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, a six year old beauty queen murdered
Speaker 1: in her own home. On Christmas night, December twenty sixth
Speaker 1: her mother found a bizarre ransom note. Police arrived but
Speaker 1: failed to search the basement. Seven hours later, her father
Speaker 1: found the body. The crime scene was destroyed before it
Speaker 1: was ever properly documented. Tomorrow, Part two. The investigation that
Speaker 1: turned the Ramses into suspects, the media circus that convicted
Speaker 1: them in the court of public opinion, the intruder theory
Speaker 1: that never got a fair hearing, and the nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: nine grand jury that voted to indict but was overruled
Speaker 1: by a district attorney who refused to prosecute John Benet.
Speaker 1: Patricia Ramsey was six years old. She loved performing, loved
Speaker 1: her family, loved Christmas. She should be thirty five today,
Speaker 1: should be building her own life. Instead, she's been dead
Speaker 1: for twenty nine years and her killer has never faced justice.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow is Christmas, the anniversary of her murder. Will continue
Speaker 1: her story. Sory Rest in peace, John Benet. Someone has
Speaker 1: to say your name. I'm Reed Carter. This is celebrity trials.