In Netflix’s ‘Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?,’ which began streaming today, investigators discuss how the ransom note’s length and demands were unusual
After the body of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found in the family’s Boulder, Colo., home, one of the most shocking pieces of evidence to emerge was the chilling ransom note presumably left behind by the killer.
But was the note real?
In Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, which began streaming Monday, Nov. 25, authorities discuss one of the most high-profile, sensational murder cases of all time.
It unfolded after John Ramsey found his young beauty pageant queen daughter dead in a rarely-used basement room on the morning of Dec. 26, 1996. The girl had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled with a garrote.
Earlier that morning, John’s wife Patsy called police after noticing their daughter was missing. On the call, Patsy, who has since died, frantically revealed that she’d discovered a handwritten ransom note asking for $118,000 — the exact amount of a workplace bonus recently received by John — for JonBenét’s safe return.
In the first episode of the three-part docuseries, investigators discuss the ransom note.
“I was going through the notebook that contained Patsy’s handwriting, and I came across an entire sheet of paper in the notebook still attached with what appeared to be the initial ransom note,” retired Boulder police detective Jeff Kithcart says in the episode. “It said, ‘Mr.’ and then like, maybe, the initial vertical stroke of an ‘R.’ It could have been the first draft of what had appeared to me to be the possible ransom note.”
Kithcart adds, “I was shocked to find that. It appeared that the ransom note was written from that notebook in the Ramsey household.”
Later in the episode, an interview with FBI agent Ron Walker from 2006 is shown, in which he discusses how the note’s length and demands were not typical for a kidnapping ransom note.
“It’s quite unusual to see this magnum opus,” Walker says of the note. “Your typical ransom notes are short and to the point.”
He adds, “The next thing that really jumps out at you is the $118,000. A really odd number to ask for. The $118,000 is a low figure, but it’s also a very usual figure because it’s just not typical of what you would expect to see. You expect to see 200,000, 300,000, 250,000, a million, a half a million. But not 118,000.”
These factors, Walker says, indicated to him that the note was “essentially bogus. It was not truly a kidnapping note.”
No one has ever been identified as the writer of the note or charged in JonBenét’s death, though there have been many theories as to who could be responsible.
Nearly three decades after his daughter’s murder, John says he is hopeful that the killer will be found.
