11-30-2019, 10:30 AM
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9:00
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The Ramseys were home for the night, the kids were tucked into bed with visions of bicycles, dolls, legos and nintendos dancing in their heads.
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John Ramsey crossed the street to the Barnhill house and removed JonBenét's Christmas bike from the garage. He brought it home and placed it under the tree. Soon after, other gifts filled the room.
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Sometime later - John and Patsy climbed the stairs to their third floor bedroom, satisfied that Santa had done his job well.
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A little about the house.
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I was fortunate enough to be allowed in the house in October and December of 1998. The follow description is from what I saw on those visits.
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I want to describe the top two floors of the house here. I will describe the other areas as seems appropriate.
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Floor plan below...
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When they built the addition, the third floor was devoted to a master bedroom suite. John and Patsy's bed was against the East wall, the one facing the street and front of the house. It was just feet from the staircase leading to Burke's room.
Going toward the back of the house, there was a small hallway that headed the staircase leading to the hall outside Jonbenét's room.
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The third floor at the rear of the house was divided - John's closet, dressing room and bathroom were on the South side of the house. Patsy's were on the North.
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Two staircases led from the master bedroom to the second floor, and on to the first, only one went down to the basement where JonBenét's body would be found.
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The second floor has been described as a maze but walking through it, it is not hard to move about in. It was a large house but flowed nicely from front to back.
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Burke's bedroom was in the front of the house, in the older part of the home, overlooking the street. His wallpaper was airplanes, all boy. Leaving his room into a hall, there were stairs on the right then a bathroom. On the left was the bedroom that had originally been JonBenét's but was Melinda's in the winter of 1996. The wallpaper was pink bows and her furniture was light and airy - a wicker rocker, a white daybed.
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Passing through the hall there was a large room called the "playroom". Patsy had her computer there and the kids watched TV and played games. They were not isolated from the parents at all. The room is big, almost a "great room". A TV in the southeast corner and a table and chairs in front of the north window with a LOT of room between.
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This made up one "area" of the house. Just the feeling when walking through - a turn in the hall beyond the "playroom" gave me the feeling I was entering another "area".
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The hallway turned to the north and opened up into the larger hall outside JonBenét's bedroom. I will describe the hall going in a counter-clockwise circle. The stairs to the third floor are on the right, (not clear on the blueprint), straight ahead are the spiral stairs to the first floor. Beyond the stairs in the corner is a closet that held a small stackable washer and dryer in it. NOT a large closet. A window on the North wall then in the corner a counter area with a sink in it. A guest bedroom opened up just to the left of the counter. This was called "Nedra's room" because it is where Nedra stayed when she visited. This room has its own bathroom. On the south , there was JonBenét's room. Not a large room, but it had lots of closet space, the entire area that backed up to the bathrooms. This is where her awards were kept, she had a display case in her room, there was no "trophy room".
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Walking through the house, I immediately felt that most noises in Burke's room, if the door were open, would be heard by John and Patsy in their bed, but JonBenét's room was removed enough that an intruder would feel rather safe from detection.