Yet another bewildering murder case which up till today remains unsolved and a profound mystery. It is made even sadder as it involved the death of a six-year-old girl, JonBenet Ramsey, who was found dead in a small windowless room in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home on Christmas Day 1996. It makes you want to cry. It makes you think about humanity. It makes you question the miscarriage of justice and the unfairness of life. It makes you clamour for justice for this beautiful little girl who puzzlingly died in her own home on Christmas night.
From the beginning, there had been mistakes after mistakes made by the police and family members and friends at the crime scene. No matter what mistakes the police made, it was compounded by blunders and improprieties in the District Attorney's office, like sharing vital evidence and confidential case information with the suspects (John and Patsy Ramsey), their team of lawyers and the tabloid or the constant internecine battles fought between law enforcement agencies. It would be funny if it were not so frustrating. The author said that "someday, this case will be held up as a model on how not to run a major investigation". He hit the nail on the head when he said that.
Who killed JonBenet? And why? Why were the police so careless in preserving the crime scene? Were the parents' erratic and suspicious behaviour a cause for concern or a natural reaction to the death of their beloved daughter? Why were the parents so uncooperative? Perhaps the question uppermost on our lips is "What happened in that house?" Four important questions, among several hundreds, unanswered.
In JonBenet (2000), the most authoritative and comprehensive study of the Ramsey murder, a former lead Boulder Police detective, Steve Thomas, explores the case in vivid and fascinating detail and analyses the evidence surrounding the murder. He believes that there are two possible answers. One is that JonBenet was killed by someone known or unknown to the family in a botched kidnapping attempt. The other possible answer is that JonBenet was killed by her mother, Patsy Ramsey, and that her father, John Ramsey, covered up to protect his wife.
In the end, probable cause existed to arrest Patsy Ramsey in connection with the death of her daughter but because of a totally absurd justice system in Boulder, the Ramseys successfully hid behind a bevy of attorneys and to no one's surprise, she was never charged.
Only two people know what happened that fateful day: the victim and the killer. Even though the trail has gone cold, this case is far from over. If you do not know much about the case and want an insider's point of view, do read Steve Thomas' book as he was the lead detective of this case right from the beginning and knew what happened better than anyone. Regrettably, this is another story of how someone got away with murder.
Recently, JonBenet's father, John, has released a memoir entitled The Other Side of Suffering (14 March 2012) which tells the story of his deep personal anguish following the deaths of his children and wife, of how he found the strength to endure his trials and tribulations through faith in God and how he learned to hold hope, forgiveness and joy in his heart amidst the pain and sufferings in his life.
About the author: Steve Thomas, a leading detective on the Ramsey murder case, received more than a hundred commendations and awards during his thirteen-year police career, including the Award of Excellence and the Medal for Lifesaving, for assignments ranging from recruit training and SWAT to special investigations and undercover narcotics. Prior to the JonBenet case, Thomas worked on a multi-state task force investigating racketeering and organized crime that resulted in numerous grand-jury indictments. Thomas has been a guest lecturer on criminal justice topics and instructed extensively on law-enforcement issues.
On the co-author: Don Davis, an award-winning news correspondent for thirty years, with assignments from Vietnam to the White House, has written a dozen books including Last Man on the Moon (1999) with astronaut Eugene Cernan.
I do not rate books of this nature.
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