Jonbenet Ramsey-The night we met
JonBenét Ramsey was born on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta, Georgia, the younger of two children of Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey (1956–2006)and John Bennett Ramsey (born 1943). She had an older brother named Burke (born 1987).JonBenét's first name combines her father's first and middle names, and her mother's first name was used as her middle name. She was enrolled in kindergarten at High Peaks Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado.
JonBenét's body was found on December 26, 1996, in her family's Boulder residence. She was buried at St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia, on December 31. JonBenét was interred next to her half-sister Elizabeth Pasch Ramsey, who had died in a car crash nearly five years earlier at age 22.
Parents
John Ramsey was a businessman who was the president of Access Graphics, a computer software company that later became a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.His first marriage ended in divorce in 1978. John's two surviving adult children (a son and a daughter) lived elsewhere.In 1991, John had moved with Patsy, his second wife, and family to Boulder, where Access Graphics' headquarters was located.
Patsy Ramsey entered JonBenét in various child beauty pageants in Boulder,where she won the titles of America's Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty. JonBenét's active role in child beauty pageants and Patsy's reported "pageant mother" behavior were reported by the media after the murder.
In the summer of 1997—approximately six months after JonBenét's death—the Ramseys moved to a new home in Atlanta after a summer at their vacation retreat in Charlevoix, Michigan.Patsy died of ovarian cancer at age 49 in 2006; she was interred next to her daughter.
Evidence
Ransom note
According to statements that Patsy gave to authorities on December 26, 1996, she realized that her daughter was missing after she found a two-and-a-half-page handwritten ransom note on the kitchen staircase at the Ramsey family's Boulder residence. The note demanded US$118,000 (equivalent to $194,714 in 2020).John pointed out to police first on the scene that the amount was nearly identical to his Christmas bonus of the prior year, which suggested that someone who would have access to that information would be involved in the crime. Investigators looked at several theories behind the dollar amount demanded, considering employees at Access Graphics who may have known of the amount of John's prior bonus. They also considered the possibility that the ransom demand was a reference to Psalm 118 and spoke to religious sources to determine possible relevance