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Post by Admin on Oct 26, 2013 1:24:45 GMT
A Colorado grand jury voted in 1999 to bring charges against JonBenet Ramsey's parents with crimes related to their 6-year-old daughter's death, according to documents released Friday, but the district attorney refused to sign the paperwork. A Colorado court on Friday unselaled the 1999 grand jury indictments of John and Patrica Ramsey, parents of slain 6-year-old pageant princess JonBenet Ramsey. The Boulder District Attorney’s Office had declined to prosecute those charges, which were child abuse resulting in death and acting as an accessory to a crime. Parents of JonBenet Ramsey attend at a press conference after their daughter's death. Although a grand jury did indict the couple on charges of child abuse and accessory to a crime, the D.A. declined to prosecute. On the child abuse charge, the grand jury wrote that the Ramseys "did unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenet Ramsey." On a second count of accessory to a crime, the grand jury wrote that each parent "did render assistance to a person" with the intent to prevent their arrest or prosecution, knowing they had committed and was suspected of the crime of murder in the first degree and child abuse resulting in death." "It makes no sense to indict them for hindering the apprehension of the murderer when no one gets indicted for murder," said Joseph Tacopina, a high-profile New York criminal defense attorney. How can they hinder the apprehension of a murderer if the grand jury doesn't indict someone for murder?" The child abuse count covers a host of possible offences, Tacopina said. That could be anything from leaving a child in the middle of a highway ... to leaving her with someone with a history of pedophilia," he added. Six-year-old JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado, on Christmas Day in 1996
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Post by Admin on Oct 26, 2013 1:29:27 GMT
Fmr. Boulder, Co. police chief who led investigation into the 6-year-old beauty queen's death posted some shocking insights about the unsolved case online. When six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in the basement on Boxing Day by her father John, she had been bludgeoned and strangled. While Claus had gifted her a brand-new bicycle that year, JonBenet would never get the chance to ride it again. Her body was hidden beneath a white blanket and she had a nylon cord around her neck. Her wrists had been bound above her head and her mouth was covered by duct tape. The previous day had been as exciting as any other Christmas for the Ramsey clan. After trying out her bicycle for the first time, JonBenet and the rest of the family – John, his wife Patsy, and their son Burke, then nine – had gone for dinner at a friend’s home. When the Ramseys returned home that evening, John carried a sleeping JonBenet up to her room and Patsy helped put her to bed.
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Post by Admin on Oct 26, 2013 6:33:41 GMT
The documents confirmed reports earlier this year that grand jurors had indeed recommended an indictment in the case, contrary to the long-held perception that the secret panel ended their work without deciding to charge anyone. Many tabloid headlines later, tests in 2008 on newly discovered DNA left behind by someone who touched JonBenet's long underwear pointed to the involvement of an "unexplained third party" in her slaying, and not the Ramseys or their son, Burke. The tests led Hunter's successor, Mary Lacy, to clear the Ramseys, two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. In a letter to John Ramsey, she called the couple "victims of this crime." Finding a match in the nation's growing DNA database could hold the best hope for someday solving the killing of JonBenet, who would now be 23. Her slaying is considered a cold case, open but not under active investigation. On the child abuse count, the grand jury wrote that the Ramseys "did unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and feloniously permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenet Ramsey." On a second count of accessory to a crime, it alleged that each parent "did render assistance to a person" with the intent to prevent their arrest or prosecution, knowing they had "committed and was suspected of the crime of murder in the first degree and child abuse resulting in death." In his order to release the documents, retired County Judge Robert Lowenbach noted that Hunter himself had suggested several “possible charges regarding John Ramsey and Patricia Ramsey based on the fact that the child had died and that there was evidence that a sexual assault of the child had occurred.”
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Post by Admin on Oct 26, 2013 21:03:56 GMT
The former lead investigator in the JonBenet Ramsey case says that newly released documents may spark renewed interest, but they have little effect on the cold case investigation. "It is unlikely unless there is a confession, or somebody else comes forward that has information that has been shared with them," he said. What exactly was it that kept the district attorney from pursuing the charges? "That's a very complicated question. I think there are a lot of things that could be considered missing from the D.A.'s perspective to be able to bring them to a threshold of prosecuting beyond a reasonable doubt," Kolar said to CNN. Still, the documents released Friday are an important part of the history of the case. JonBenet Ramsey poses for a beauty pageant portfolio at a photo studio in 1994. The Ramseys' lawyer, L. Lin Wood, however, called the unsealing of just four pages of the grand jury record a "miscarriage of justice" and noted that the panel did not have the benefit of DNA evidence that cleared the couple years later. "John and Patsy Ramsey were not involved in her murder," he told NBC News. And he said the most important evidence in the case did not surface until 2008, when prosecutors using new technology found DNA on JonBenet's pajama tops that matched DNA that had previously been found in her underwear. The DNA did not come from a family member but has never been matched to anyone, but Wood said that John Ramsey still hopes that it will one day lead to the killer. But, he added, "there are probably a number of people who, if the killer were to be identified through the DNA evidence…they will probably still believe that somehowJohn or Patsy Ramsey were involved."
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Post by Admin on Mar 18, 2014 6:42:04 GMT
More than 17 years ago, JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in her Boulder, Colo., home, a crime that has never led to charges. Now the house, a five-bedroom luxury home, is back on the market for $1.9 million. Ramsey’s family never spent another night in the house after the 6-year-old beauty queen's body was found on Dec. 26, 1996. The house, which has changed hands several times, has been on the market for more than 127 days, according to the Bernardi Real Estate Group's website. The Boulder Daily Camera first reported on the availability of the house. “The elegance of past generations combined with modern updates makes this beautifully updated 1920s home unique!” according to the listing. “Grand rooms, great light & an oversized gated lot in one of the nicest and most sought after neighborhoods in Boulder!” The Ramseys purchased the house, then known as 755 15th St., for $500,000 in 1991, according to the newspaper, citing Boulder County assessor records. In 1998, the Ramseys sold the house for $650,000 to a group of investors. The current owners of the home, Tim Milner and his wife, Carol Schuller Milner, the daughter of “Hour of Power” televangelist Robert H. Schuller, purchased the home for $1.05 million in 2004, the paper said.
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