Wednesday, December 25, 1996
The children have opened their Christmas presents and have spent the morning playing. It is now time to get ready to go to the White's for Christmas dinner. The sexual experience at the Mob's Christmas party has caused JonBenét to regress in her toilet training and she has begun to wet herself. She will have to wear pull-ups to the dinner party. In getting JonBenét ready, Patsy helped her put on the pull-ups, the oversized panties that went over the pull-ups and the rest of her clothing. Later, the Ramsey’s arrived at the home of Fleet and Priscilla White. Shortly after arriving, JonBenét had an accident that needed attending.
From the bathroom, JonBenét's call for assistance was soon answered. She needed help in cleaning up. He wiped down JonBenét with a damp cloth leaving trace fibers found during the autopsy. He helped her get dressed but he did not replace the pull-up. JonBenét returned to play with the other children wearing the oversized panties.
Later that evening the Ramsey’s are on their way home from Christmas dinner. They make a few stops to deliver packages. Several people saw JonBenét asleep in the back seat of the car.
The Ramsey’s arrive home after 9 o’clock. John carries JonBenét to her room and puts the sleeping child to bed in the same clothes she wore that day. Patsy will come up and dress JonBenét for bed in a few minutes. John tells Burke to go to his room and get in bed. John is tired and has a long day tomorrow; he goes to bed. John, Burke, and JonBenét are all in bed.
Shortly, Patsy went to JonBenét's room and removed the sleeping child's black velvet jeans and black vest and put JonBenét in white thermal long-Johns, leaving on her crew neck top and oversized panties. She turns out the bedroom lights as she leaves. Pasty wants a little time to herself and needs to do some last minute house cleaning and finish preparing for tomorrow's trip to their vacation home in Charlevoix, Michigan.
Burke can’t sleep. He is wide-awake and decides to go downstairs to play. Downstairs, in the living room, he finds his mother. She allows him to play until he becomes sleepy. He remains downstairs to assemble a miniature-parking garage he began earlier.
JonBenét, asleep in her bed, awakens. She gets out of bed, grabs her heavy flashlight and begins to go down the hall to Burke's room as she has done many times before. She notices dimmed light emanating up the spiral staircase coming from the living quarters. Hungry, she heads down to the living room where she finds Patsy and asks her for something to eat. Patsy tells her that there is some pineapple in the refrigerator. Burke wants some pineapple too. Patsy helps the children find the pineapple, and JonBenét plays with her lit flashlight as she is eating. When JonBenét is finished eating she goes back into the living room and watches TV with Patsy. Burke returns to his model.
After watching some TV with JonBenét, Patsy decides to go upstairs to check the sheets in JonBenét's bedroom. She tells JonBenét to go potty before she comes up to bed. With Patsy out of the room, as soon as JonBenét emerges from the bathroom, she finds Burke and asks him to take her down to the basement’s playroom.
JonBenét wants another orgasm. She instructs Burke on what to do. Both children have no idea of what they are doing. Burke follows JonBenét's directions and makes a noose. He places it around her neck. He wraps the leash around his right hand and with his left hand; he pushes on the back of her neck and shoulders. Pulling on the cord with one hand and pushing on the back of her neck with the other causes the noose to tighten. The noose is getting tighter and tighter.
A garrote loosens when tension is released, but this is a noose made with a slip-knot that tightens as pressure is applied. JonBenét begins to struggle. Struggling causes her to become oxygen depleted quickly; it doesn't take but a few moments for her to suffocate. Her body goes limp; she falls backward on the floor. She is moments away from death. The knot is tight and the cord is deeply embedded in her neck choking the life out of her. Burke tries to loosen the noose but he can't get his fingers under the cord.
Burke is confused and afraid. JonBenét's eyes bulge from their sockets, her face is blue. She is a frightful sight. JonBenét begins to convulse. These strange movements and horrible appearance terrify him. Burke picks up the flashlight and straddles JonBenét's body. With both hands, he lifts the flashlight high above his head. Standing over her, he begins the long arc downward. His knees bend as his thighs lower his body, his stomach muscles contract as the fast moving flashlight impact JonBenét's head.
The blow leaves an eight-inch fracture in her skull. This wound does not bleed and it does not swell because the cord going around her neck is preventing any blood from reaching her head. JonBenét dies at this moment. There is no visible evidence of a head injury. The forensic examiner at the autopsy will discover the cracked skull.
Burke wants to hide JonBenét. He takes her by the hands and drags her body a short distance to the wine cellar. In the process, he leaves behind a footprint from his HI TEC shoe.
Meanwhile, Patsy goes to JonBenét’s bedroom, checks the bed, and finds that it is dry. She straightens it and makes it ready for JonBenét’s return. She continues to clean house, pack, and do other miscellaneous chores. When she is satisfied with the state the house is in, she decides to check on the children and put them to bed.
Patsy goes down stairs. Not finding the children in the living area, Patsy searches for the children and sees light coming from the basement. There she finds Burke and JonBenét’s lifeless body lying on the cellar floor. She screams and yells at Burke to go get John.
Patsy has removed the noose and is trying to revive JonBenét as John and Burke rush in. Burke sees Patsy trying to revive JonBenét and asks if she will be all right. They tell him that she will be all right and order him to his room, but they are too late, she is dead.
The parents grieve for the loss of their daughter. The Ramsey’s know that they have not given Burke the attention and love that he required. In their deep sorrow, they also feel guilt. Patsy goes to Burke's room to comfort the distraught little boy and she thinks that she can help him through the night by telling him that JonBenét is recovering. Patsy then gives Burke two of her Benadryl's to help him sleep.
Now, faced with the possibility of losing both children and having Burke branded as the boy who murdered his sister, the Ramseys try to regain their composure and begin to reflect on their options. The Ramseys have an additional problem, they let Burke go to sleep thinking JonBenét was alive. What will they tell him in the morning?
After grieving for the loss of their daughter, the Ramsey’s decide to concoct a ransom note and to create, conceal, and manipulated the evidence in an attempt to take attention away from Burke. John and Patsy will do everything they can to convince Burke and others that an intruder killed JonBenét.
The deep furrow in JonBenét’s neck indicated to Patsy that she would have to put the cord back around JonBenét’s neck. It was the most difficult thing she ever had to do. Patsy broke off the ends of one of her paintbrushes and added the mid-portion to one end of the noose. To the police, it looked like a garrote. The reason Patsy tied the handle to the end of the cord was to make the implement that killed JonBenét look different from the one Burke made. Burke would not recognize the device that killed his sister and he could continue believing kidnappers killed JonBenét.
As Patsy tied the cord to the handle, some of JonBenét’s hair and fibers from Patsy's sweater became entangled in the cord going around the paintbrush handle. Patsy put a piece of duct tape over JonBenét’s mouth and wrapped her ankles. During the investigation, the police found fibers on the sticky side of the duct-tape. It was determined that the fibers came from Patsy’s sweater. Also on the sticky side of the duct-tape, there was a perfect impression of JonBenét’s lips, indicating JonBenét made no movement after the tape was applied.
Before leaving JonBenét alone in the dark cellar, Patsy covered JonBenét's body with a blanket and placed two of JonBenét's favorite dolls with her under the blanket. Upstairs, Patsy writes the ransom note as John helps dictate it. They place the note in the hall on the stairs.
John began to look for a place to stage the break-in. A few months earlier, John forgot his keys and broke a basement window to get into the house. He never had that window repaired. He went to the basement window that had that broken section, opened it, and tried to hoist himself up. His shoe scraped against the basement wall creating a scuff mark. He found that getting out that way to be too difficult. He looked for something to climb on and found a suitcase nearby. He put it under the window, climbed on the suitcase, reached up, grabbed the iron grate, and tried to move it. It was hard to move and made a scraping sound, but he was satisfied that this location would work as the point of entry. He never crawled through the opening, just tested it.
The Ramsey’s planned to place the body along the road where someone can find it. They will dispose of the leftover cord and duct tape at the same time. The decision on when and where to place the body proved to be too painful, so they kept putting it off until circumstances made the decision for them. A light dusting of snow at 2 a.m. made it impossible for them to leave the house without creating tracks.
This dusting of snow would remain on the ground until the sun hit it in the morning. JonBenét would have to remain in the basement until the snow melted. They still need to dispose of the duct tape. Tomorrow they will call their friends to come to the house. One couple will take the remnants of the duct tape and cord out of the house in their purse or pocket.
The Ramseys did not know of the blow to the head, so there was no need to dispose of the flashlight. Burke did use it in examining his sister and it might have her DNA on it along with Burke's fingerprints. Patsy took the flashlight to the kitchen, washed it clean of all fingerprints, and left on the counter.
Shortly before 6:00 a.m., Patsy awakened Burke and told him that kidnappers had taken JonBenét. Patsy asked if he had heard anything or knew anything. He did not. Patsy took Burke downstairs and showed him the ransom note. She wanted to prove to Burke that kidnappers took JonBenét. John and Patsy hoped that Burke would believe that JonBenét was alive when kidnapped, and therefore, he could not have killed her. They called 911 in his presence to make a convincing display.
As soon as possible, John's lawyer, Hal Haddon met with his friend Governor Roy Romer to discuss the Ramseys plight. Because Burke was below the age of culpability in Colorado, Haddon reasoned that as far as the law was concerned, no crime was committed. After their discussion, they agreed that it would be in the best interest of Burke, the Ramseys, Boulder and Colorado, that this case remains unsolved.
All believed that with Governor Romer's assistance and after allowing a few weeks for media attention to subside, this case could be quietly put to rest. It was not difficult to get cooperation from others, many people, including Alex Hunter, after discovering the Ramseys predicament, sympathized with them.
Intense public interest has prevented this group of Ramsey sympathizers from shelving the case. People within the police department that want this case solved release information in the form of leaks to keep the case alive. These leaks keep JonBenét in the minds of the public and prevent Hunter from setting the case aside.
The Boulder Police have been made to look clumsy because there are people inside state offices working against a solution. The staging and cover-up were to convince Burke and others that an intruder came into the night and took the sleeping JonBenét from her bed.
Around 10:00 o'clock Thursday morning, three hours before JonBenét's body would be found, John's lawyer sent word to him that Burke was underage and therefore not responsible for the death of JonBenét and that no action could be taken against him. Only John and Patsy know the truth of the cover-up and only John knows the whole truth. Patsy is suspicious of John’s activities but she does not dare ask. John, now visibly shaken, has doubts about continuing the cover-up. John feels that if they acknowledge that Burke did it, the probing into his affairs would not be necessary.
John is reminded of Patsy's warning not to grow a brain. It is her strong conviction to protect Burke. Patsy believes that they can never reveal the truth. The Ramsey’s friends that know or suspect the truth will keep silent for the same reason. They believe that Burke is convinced that someone else kidnapped and killed JonBenét and that this frees Burke of any guilt or shame. They also know that if others believe that someone else killed JonBenét, then people would not look upon Burke with contempt and hatred.
A few days after of the death of JonBenét, the Ramsey’s’ lawyer hired Pat Korten, a public relations professional, to ensure that the Ramseys were portrayed in the media as a positive, loving, family. Others were hired to see to it that support for an "intruder did it" theory was prominent in the news media, TV specials, and on the web.
A Ramsey supporter called Jameson operates a web site dedicated to JonBenét. She maintains a strong position on the web and her purpose is to mislead. Together, along with their lawyers and private investigators, they would create rancor and confusion in order to stall and misdirect the investigation.
In addition to each family member having their own lawyer, the Ramsey’s hired a coach to help them with their responses to any and all questions. Not only were they taught what to say but how to say it. They have been prepared very well and are ready to give a convincing response to all questions.
Burke returned to school on January 24th. Guards were placed at the classroom door. The Ramsey’s called these people, "parent volunteers". No one would be allowed to contact Burke. Burke would be watched at all times.
Copyright 1998 by Troy Cowan.
