A JonBenet case enthusiast myself, I have, of course, investigated that question. Indeed, I have even consulted with my mother, an entomologist (spiders are not insects, but entomologists do study them) about this part of the mystery.

Spiders produce their webs by extruding a proteinaceous silk from their spinnerets. Depending on the spider in question, the silk it produces may be a "capture," adhesive-like silk or a gossamer, soft silk. The angle of the web (vertical or horizontal plane) can also indicate the type of spider.

My mother's first impression, without having seen pictures of the web, was that it could have been the work of a theridian (a kind of "house spider") that happened to spin its web in the relative warmth of the grate. These spiders can be found across the U.S., operate year round, and spin irregular webs. This kind of spider could have re-spun its broken web that fateful night.

Moreover, garden spiders of many varieties spin "orb" webs at night and trap their prey, allowing for any cavalier destruction of their constructions in the day. It is possible the web was produced after an intruder's entrance and egress.

Additionally, I looked to Rainer F. Foelix's Biology of Spiders (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1982). The author points out that "any araneids are strictly nocturnal.... Quite a few species have therefore been overlooked previously, since most spider watchers tend to be diurnal."

Brent Opell, Professor of Biology at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, however, claimed that "the web was that of the Agelenidae, known as a funnel-web spider. The web was reasonably intact and extending through the grating, suggesting that the grating had not been disturbed since the spider constructed its web. According to Prof. Opell, these types of spiders would cease constructing webs no later than early November, thus indicating that no one had entered that window well past this early November deadline." (from "The JonBenet Ramsey Case Encyclopedia").

According to the Climate Analysis Branch of NOAA, the normal high for Boulder, Colo., for December 25 is 45 and for December 26, 44. With temperatures in the 50s during this period of 1996, is it possible that such a spider could have indeed been active into December, over-wintering as an adult late that year?

Of course, like so many other parts of the sordid JonBenet mystery, the answer seems to behave like the horizon, somehow always in fuzzy view, ever elusive, with so many "it depends" muddling any clarity we think we find along the way.

Email Katrina Voss

I came across some great research posters did here about the temperatures and climate in Boulder at the time of the murder. One thing to note about Boulder, and anywhere that altitude is an issue...it can be very warm in Boulder, even in December. My kids (and most kids) wore shorts to school in January. My eldest son played golf on Christmas Day last year. This is not uncommon. AND, it is typically cold at night but the sun comes out and it's very warm and immediately melts the snow.

Altitude plays a big part in temperature and snow. A few hundred feet makes a difference. Actually the Ramsey's lived at a little higher altitude than downtown Boulder. So, they could have had a some more snow on the ground than a few blocks below them, or downtown. Especially in shady areas.

Mr. Bennett supports the argument that a web could have been respun that morning or afternoon.

There’s further disagreement on the following points:
1. According to Thomas, no photo was taken of the web, yet Schiller implies that Det. Everett had a photo of THE web in question, enlarged and enhanced, with him when he went to Vancouver Island to see the Spider Man, Dr. Robert Bennett
2. According to Det. Greg Idler, the strands between the window well and bricks were not attached, which contradicts the testimony of Det. Everett and Wickman

There is no indication what time of day it was when Det. Everett and Wickman allegedly saw the intact strands. It certainly WAS NOT at 6 A.M. No one was there during daylight hours until after the body was discovered – the earliest time in the afternoon being about 2 PM.

PMPT pb p 344

During their initial inspection of the exterior of the house on the day JonBenét’s body was found, detectives had noticed several strands of a spiderweb on the grate covering the window well in front of the broken basement window. It extended from the edge of the grate to some nearby rocks, and this seemed to confirm that nobody had entered through that window recently.

If the police could prove that the partial spiderweb found on the grate had been present before nightfall on December 25 and had not been disturbed during the night, they could rule out the possibility that somebody had used the broken window to enter the house. They also had to know whether it was possible for a partial web to be spun in the time between possible entry by an intruder on December 25 and discovery of the strands by police on December 26. If that was possible, they would have to consider that the window was a likely point of entry for an intruder.

On April 2, Detective Michael Everett of the Boulder PD called entomologist Dr. Brent Opell of the Virginia State University Department of Biology, who was known as Mr. Spider Man. Opell told the police that there are two general types of spiderwebs. The first, which are called cob or funnel webs, once established are constantly reworked and added to by the spider. The second, manufactured by orb-weaving spiders, is regularly replaced by the spiders and can be completed at any hour of the day, in less than twelve hours. The police also learned that if the grate covering the window well had simply been lifted and the web damaged, the type of web would be hard to identify, but if something the size of a man had passed through the web, it would have been destroyed. Everett sent Dr. Opell an enlarged photo of the type of web in question. The entomologist said it appeared to be of the funnel type.

Six months later, on October 25, Everett traveled to Vancouver Island and met with another expert, Dr. Robert Bennett of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests. The detective had with him a newly enlarged and enhanced photograph of a (sic) the strands of the web that had covered part of the window grate. Bennett confirmed that it was a funnel web.

Photographs of spiderwebs and spiders have been used as evidence in court cases. Different types of spiders build different types of webs. The varieties of design and the behaviours associated with web-building are well understood.

Spiders hibernate in the winter in terperate zones. Boulder is definitely a temperate zone. Therefore, during winter, there is markedly less or no activity at all by the spiders normally found in Boulder.

If a spiderweb is destroyed in winter, a spider will emerge it it’s warm enough. This often happens on a warm day, particularly if the spider is in a spot with southerly exposure. Indoors, spiders are active all winter. Heat of rising temperatures produce activity. Some species are active at very low temperatures, only slightly above freezing, while others need higher temperatures to become active.

In your situation – Boulder, winter snow falling, then melting away, then falling, the weather warm enough – the spider would definitely be out.

If a web is disturbed, a spider would drop out of the web on a silk dragline, wait, climb back up the dragline, and be back where he first started from.

Again in your case, a web was broken one night when someone came by. The temperature rose the next day, and that day or thereafter, a new web could have been spun. Let me tell you a true story about a spiderweb.

In the 1600s, Robert Bruce, one of Scotland’s national heroes, was injured and being pursued by the British. The Bruce crawled into a cave to hide. The next day the British came upon the cave, saw a spiderweb across its mouth, and figured that nobody was there. In fact, a spider had spun the web overnight. Robert the Bruce lived to fight another day.

- Robert Bennett

Dr. Bennett confirmed that if the temperature rises sufficiently, spiders can come out of hibernation. In Boulder, on Christmas night 1996, the temperature reached a low of 6 degrees, but it rose the next day to a high of 51. And the grate faced southwest – toward the sun. Perfect conditions for a hibernating spider to wake up and repair a damaged web. In October 1997 Detective Everett would learn from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that it was impossible to determine the condition of the dew frost or snow cover on the ground around the Ramsey residence during the night of December 25 and into the morning of December 26.

Steve Thomas book pb page 108

Wickman had an argument at the Ramsey house with Detective Greg Idler, who had carefully lifted the metal grate above the broken window and found that the spiderweb between the window well bricks and the grate wasn't necessarily attached. Wickman challenged Idler's findings. The original web had never been photographed or committed to a report, a huge error that would become extraordinarily controversial in months to come.

Steve Thomas pb page 219

In December both Sergeant Wickman and Detective Mike Everett had seen at least three strands of a spiderweb reaching from the brick window well upward to the covering grate. No one had photographed it.