Morgan Nick was a six-year-old girl who was last seen on June 9, 1995, at a ballpark in Alma, Arkansas. The report says, “A man in a red truck who was seen driving away around the same time Nick disappeared was deemed a suspect, but after many leads, authorities are no closer to finding her.” cited from an article by Insider. There may never be a true verdict as to who had done it which is potentially the most daunting fact to know. There is a similar unsolved case that happened the next year but is even more chilling and not just because it was in Colorado. Jonbenet Ramsey was a six-year-old girl who was murdered in her home the day after Christmas in 1996 in Boulder, Colorado and many speculate that it was a family member that ended the young girl’s life. Jonbenet’s brother Burke is now speaking out about the incident in an interview with Dr. Phil after twenty years of silence described what he remembered from the winter evening into the next morning. Contrary to what the video says to be true, the family of JonBenet Ramsey remains innocent in the murder of their child because of the lack of evidence against them or anyone. 

“Many speculate that her father, mother, brother, or all three were involved in her killing” (0:05). 

Over the years, there have been many theories circulating that Jonbenet’s own family had something to do with the murder of the little girl. In an article by Rolling Stone, it is stated that “many adamantly believe JonBenét was accidentally killed by a member of her own family”. As family and friends were flooding through the house the morning after, many pieces of evidence were disturbed which led the public to believe that it was planned so law enforcement was unable to make connections. With many linking the anomalies of the case to the fault of a family member, it makes it easier for the general public to go along with what they hear rather than finding their own evidence to make a better decision.  One of the “most bizarre ransom notes in the history of ransom notes” was an important piece of evidence that showed just how strange this case was and truly proved that this was not just a normal case but instead a case that needed to be looked at from many different points of view. 

 “Did you hit your sister over the head with a baseball bat or a flashlight?” (1:29). 

Almost twenty years after the murder happened Jonbenet’s older brother Burke broke the silence he had about the case when he sat down with Dr. Phil for an interview. Burke was only nine when his sister died, but that never stopped the public from speculating that he had killed JonBenet. During the course of the interview, Dr. Phil simply asks Burke, “Has it ever occurred to you that your parents actually thought you did this and didn’t ask you because they didn’t want to know?”. This is one of many nonsensical questions Burke has been bombarded with for the majority of his life. That is not something a child should have to deal with which is the reason he had been silent for so many years but with that came many other speculations. For the years following the murder, “John Bennett and Patsy always denied any involvement in their daughter’s death. The couple was adamant that an intruder murdered their child”. All of the evidence that has come with the case has also brought to light how little information there is to try and find who the true killer is. When people are not able to find the information they need they go to the easiest possible solution and that was the family but no one was looking at the bigger picture that coincided with the small details. 

“Critics would say you weren’t curious because you already knew. You didn’t have to get up and go check because you knew exactly what had happened” (1:42).

 When Dr. Phil asked Burke this question, he quickly responded, “ I didn’t know if there’s some bad guy downstairs my dad was chasing off with a gun”. He was only nine at the time, if anyone can think back to being that young, they realize how little they knew about how the world works. The only reason why Burke did not get up was that he was so afraid about what would happen to him or anyone else in his family. When faced with danger people initiate a fight or flight response, and as they grow older that response will change. So, if we look at how young Burke was at the time it should be no shock that he stayed in bed and it should not be questioned because there was nothing else for him to do.

“Everyone looks at the interview of Burke and thinks ‘Why is this man smiling’” (1:55)?

After the interview aired, many people were questioning the idea of Burke Ramsey having an almost creepy expression across his face. This led people to jump to conclusions to say things such as him being autistic or them feeling uncomfortable by his body language. In response to this Dr. Phil defended the young man on social media by saying, “This is anxiety. He’s socially uncomfortable, […] He’s not autistic. He’s not weird. He’s not creepy, He’s just nervous. This is a young man that has grown up in a kind of a siege mentality.” Since he was a boy Burke has been put into the spotlight following the case of his sister’s murder, but it was not the shine anyone could ever want to imagine. He spent his whole young adult life having to shy away from the public in fear of what others may falsely accuse him of and the lies they would make up to cover the truth. One can picture what it would be like having to go into an interview not knowing what to expect with the questions you will be asked. In the end, “we have a murder investigation that has dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces of physical evidence… There is an abundance of evidence that’s available. This case can be solved.” This is a statement that John Andrew Ramsey told Fox News when he revealed his thoughts on the documentary about his half-sister’s death. He is hoping that the documentary will inspire officials to keep investigation and potentially have new evidence come forward to solve the case. 

Lou Smit was the lead detective on Jonbenet’s case who never truly gave up on finding who killed the little girl (6:23). 

“Some people call Lou Smit a legend.” as said by ABC News when looking back at the investigation. Smit was known as the detective who was able to solve all the cases and when Ramsey passed he came out of retirement to help find her killer. Smit was able to find many other possible leads that the police had overlooked when they first searched the house. Some of these findings include ways to prove to authorities and the public that the family was in fact innocent. Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter was never fully convinced by Smits’s findings and was still searching for other theories. As many more people were trying to find ways to link the family to the death of Jonbenet, “investigators weren’t able to find anything incriminating during the Ramseys’ interrogations”. Lou Smit had many accomplishments before his death in 2010 including solving the case for Karen Grammer, Heather Dawn Church, along with 200 other solved cases. He was quoted saying “I’ve never lost a homicide case,” as he told The Denver Post cited by The New York Times.

“The ransom note is the single most important piece of evidence that led the authorities to think it had to be someone in the house”(4:55).

There are like said before so many pieces of evidence that do not necessarily help piece together the puzzling aspect of this case. It seems as though all the pieces come from a different puzzle but still have the same colors, this makes it look like they all go together. Every piece of evidence has a way of changing the thoughts of authorities on who committed the crime because of how bizarre everything is. In an article by History.com, it is noted that “the ransom note seemed suspicious to authorities. Not only did the strangely specific amount of the ransom–$118,000–match the exact amount of John Ramsey’s bonus from his employer, the paper that the ransom note had been written on paper was found in the Ramsey home. The note also seemed to be unusually wordy”. This seemed odd because in the eyes of the public it looked like it had to be someone that would know all this information but in reality, there are many different ways to have this knowledge out in the open such as a co-worker or close friend. Furthermore, it only makes sense that the ransom note would be written on paper found on the house because it is too much of a hassle for a killer to bring unnecessary supplies if they know it would be readily available in the house. Along with the theory that it is someone close to the family, it is entirely possible that they had gone to the house to gather the details before the kidnapping and place their supplies in a readily available place. Everything considered the potentially biggest issue with this case and many news articles agree that “many of the facts about the crime that have been widely reported—and presumed true by the public—turned out to be misleading or false”. 

Conclusion

No family should ever have to deal with the fact that the majority of an entire country and then some believe that they were capable of killing their own daughter and/or sister because it’s not something anyone could think of. With so many loose ends it is hard to nail down what happened on that night but one thing is for certain, there should be justice for the Ramsey family and what they have had to go through for all these years. While this case may never be truly solved and there will always be conspiracies surrounding this family, it is important to understand that with all the other possibilities as to who had done it, there is one truth. It was not a family member of JonBenet Ramsey that kept her eternally six years old.

Featured image is a screenshot from the original video.