Why Is JonBenét Ramsey's Murder Still Unsolved? Reexamining the Child Pageant Queen’s Death Almost 30 Years Later

It’s been almost 30 years since JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in the basement of her family’s Colorado home.

On the morning of Dec. 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note demanding $118,000 in exchange for the return of her 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét. Hours later — after reporting her missing to the police and having detectives search the house — John Bennett Ramsey found his daughter dead in their basement with a garrote (a type of handheld ligature) tied around her neck.

An autopsy report revealed that she had been sexually assaulted, and her cause of death was strangulation and a blow to the skull.

No one has ever been charged in JonBenét’s death but her parents spent years under an “umbrella of suspicion” by the police and intense media scrutiny, partly because the toddler had a small public profile competing in beauty pageants.

Whether or not the focus on John and Patsy, who died in 2006, detracted from solving the case is the subject of Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?. The three-part docuseries premiered on Nov. 25 and analyzes the alleged missteps police took when the toddler was first reported missing. It also highlights other potential suspects investigators have questioned and DNA evidence that John claims has yet to be tested.

“We’re begging the police to engage,” he told PEOPLE in November. “There are cutting-edge DNA labs that want to help and who believe they can move the case forward.” 

So, what happened to JonBenét Ramsey? Here’s everything to know about the toddler’s unsolved murder and why police have yet to find her killer.

What happened to JonBenét Ramsey?

On Dec. 26, 1996, at 5:52 a.m., Patsy called the Boulder Police Department to report her daughter missing. She had found a ransom note on the staircase leading to their kitchen written by an alleged kidnapper who demanded $118,000 by 10 a.m., or JonBenét would die. The amount demanded was near the amount John had previously received in a bonus.

Two officers were immediately dispatched to the scene. They didn’t find the toddler during the initial search of the Ramsey house and only sealed off JonBenét’s room. Police also allowed Patsy and John to invite friends over — a decision that Cold Case alleges may have contaminated the crime scene.

When no one called at 10 a.m. to collect the ransom, former detective Linda Arndt told John to search the house and see if he noticed anything “unusual.”

Who found JonBenét Ramsey’s body?

In Cold Case, John claimed that when he and a friend searched the basement, they noticed an open and broken window, along with a suitcase placed underneath it. He maintained that the item “shouldn’t have been there.”

Soon after, John discovered JonBenét’s body in a room where the kids kept their train sets. She was tied up and had duct tape across her mouth. John hurriedly took off the tape and carried her upstairs, where officers confirmed that she was dead.

Allowing the father of the missing child to search the house on his own — which led to him potentially tampering with would-be evidence when he found her body — is another alleged error Cold Case claims the Boulder Police Department made.

Who were the suspects in JonBenét Ramsey’s murder?

The existence of a ransom note seemed to lend credence to the theory that an intruder was responsible for JonBenét’s murder (even though some investigators believed the note was fake). Over the years, several names have been considered.

One potential intruder was Michael Helgoth, who owned a pair of boots that appeared to match a print found at the scene. Helgoth was initially looked at by police, but he died by suicide in 1997, and investigators started looking elsewhere. 

Ollie Gray, a private investigator hired by John and Patsy, believed Helgoth’s family possibly possessed a taped confession to the crime.

In 2006, John Mark Karr, who has also gone by Alexis Reich, confessed to the murder, saying that he was with JonBenét when she died and that “her death was an accident.” But the claim was refuted when Karr’s family said they had been with him during the Christmas of 1996. His DNA also did not match what was found on JonBenét’s clothes.

Another potential intruder was a man who had worked as Santa Claus, Bill McReynolds, and recently visited the Ramsey home. The man’s daughter had also been abducted decades before, however, he was never formally considered a suspect.

Cold Case also highlights another former suspect, Gary Howard Oliva, who was named as a person of interest on 48 Hours Investigates. He never confessed to the crime, but he did spend eight years in prison on child pornography charges and had a photo of JonBenét with him when he was arrested in 2000.

John told PEOPLE in November 2024 that he thinks police should look into a masked intruder who raped a 12-year-old girl in Boulder nine months after JonBenét was killed. The girl’s mother scared off the attacker, and he was never found — but John believes he could “easily have been the same person” who murdered his daughter. The girl also attended the same dance studio as JonBenét.

“The police blew it off as, ‘No, it’s not the same,’ ” John said. “I think the method of operation was exactly the same. I believe the killer was in the house when we came home, waited til we went to sleep.”

DNA evidence found on JonBenét’s clothes has yet to match with anyone the police have questioned.

Were JonBenét Ramsey’s parents suspects in her murder?

Early in the investigation, John and Patsy were described as being under “an umbrella of suspicion” by police. Patsy was accused of allegedly killing her daughter over a bedwetting incident in a 2000 book written by former detective Steve Thomas, and Arndt claimed on Good Morning America in 1999 that she had a “nonverbal exchange” with John after he found JonBenét that made her believe he was the killer.

In the aftermath of their daughter’s murder, the former couple hired lawyers, later saying they felt unfairly targeted by the police and the media. In 1999, a grand jury decided that John and Patsy had “unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permit[ted] a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child’s life or health,” but the prosecutor declined to continue pursuing a case against JonBenét’s parents, citing a lack of evidence.

In 2008, two years after Patsy died of ovarian cancer, the district attorney at the time, Mary Lacy, wrote John to tell him he, Patsy and Burke were all cleared of involvement by DNA. However, subsequent District Attorney Stan Garnett later told PEOPLE, “I didn’t feel the exoneration was warranted based on the state of the evidence and the complexity of the case.” 

Burke, who was 9 at the time of JonBenét’s murder, was never considered a suspect by Boulder police. However, a 2016 CBS docuseries put forth a theory that he hit his sister in the head with a flashlight. Burke filed a $750 million lawsuit against CBS to “redress the permanent damage” to his “reputation resulting from defendants’ false accusation that he killed his sister.”

NPR reported in 2019 that the defamation suit had been settled.

Why is JonBenét Ramsey’s murder still unsolved?

JonBenét’s murder has yet to be solved — but her father thinks it can be.

John told PEOPLE that there are “six or seven” evidence items that have yet to be tested for DNA, including the garrote that was used to strangle the toddler. He wants the Boulder Police Department to send the evidence to labs that use genetic genealogy and other advanced DNA technology, which he believes will lead to answers.

“If it stays in the hands of the Boulder Police, it will not be solved, period,” John claimed. “If they accept help, all the help that’s out there, that’s available and offered, it will be solved. Yes, I believe it will be solved.”

He continued, “We’re not asking them to do anything weird. Just do your job. Test the DNA.”