A former Boulder, Colo., police detective who spent almost two years investigating the killing of JonBenet Ramsey . One of the major twists in the investigation of the murder of JonBent Ramsey is that detectives interviewed Bill McReynolds, a friend of the family, because he had played Santa Claus at a Ramsey Christmas celebration two days before the 6-year-old's body was found. One of his Santa jobs included an appearance at the Ramsey's holiday party three days before JonBenet's death, where he gave JonBenet a cardwhich said "You will receive a special gift after Christmas." Tracey reported Karr to the police who arrested him in Bangkok. She discusses her father's legacy of goodness while talking about how the JonBenet case affected her family and her father's well being. Based on my own forensic experience in working with pedophiles, I believe it would be more likely for the perpetrator in this case, probably male, to have acted alone rather than in collaboration with a spouse or partner. Some of this is learned behavior since this is what was modeled to them at home by parents, siblings, family friends, and others. John Anderson, former sheriff of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in Texas, talks about his friend Lou Smit, the legendary detective who died before he could solve 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey's case. A service in Boulder will take place later this month, and his ashes will be scattered in one of his favorite Colorado mountain getaways, his wife said. The interrogation ultimately took place at a different police department and the Boulder investigators were forced to watch from a separate building. According to a CNN report in 2006, Trip DeMuth, an original prosecutor on the case, said that McReynolds' alleged Christmas card to JonBent was particularly concerning: The McReynolds were reportedly cleared of charges after submitting DNA samples, CNN reported. After JonBents parents first formal interrogation in the spring of 1997, four months after her death, it would take nearly two years for them to sit down with the police for another interrogation. It also said that JonBents parents would receive a call from the supposed kidnapper tomorrow between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. It was awful, John Ramsey told ABC News Barbara Walters in 2000. Bill McReynolds was found dead in his Mashpee, Mass., home Monday by his wife, Janet, when she returned from a weekend trip. Bill allegedly had an unusually close and trusting relationship with JonBenet, and easy access to both her and her brother, Burke. They went to a war: they kept lying, twisting facts, throwing friends into the fire, and obstructing justice for decades now. Why not write a confession letter by Patsy and mail it to the police. However, the connections turned out to be purely coincidental, as both Bill and Janet submitted hair, handwriting, and blood samples and were cleared of any involvement in the crime. According to The Daily Camera, the McReynolds' middle daughter, 9-years-old at the time, was abducted on December 26, 1974, and witnessed the sexual molestation of her friend. Olivas high school friend, Michael Vail claimed that Oliva had call him on the phone to confess that he had hurt a little girl. What exactly were these findings and related recommendations, and what became of them? He was 72. According to The Guardian, Bill McReynolds had written a note to JonBent, as Santa, days before her body was discovered. The family moved to Florida when Robert was six years old. Whats the matter with you, said Dimond. Unless, of course, the investigators still working this cold case are willing to critically reevaluate the various questionable criteria used at that time to rule out potential suspects e.g., weak alibis, inconclusive handwriting analysis, dubious DNA evidence, etc. To be clear, neither Bill, now deceased, nor Janet McReynolds was ever charged in this case, having been excluded as suspects by the Boulder police shortly after the crime. He had been living in the area on and off and when police allegedly found a magazine with pictures of the girl in his backpack. Why not take JBR from the home and to a secluded place where they could do a lot more than just take a few pictures. It wasnt until 2008 when the Boulder County District Attorneys office ruled that the Ramseys were no longer considered suspects thanks to newly developed DNA sampling and testing techniques. On the morning of Dec. 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey frantically called 911 after making a shocking discovery a ransom note was on the first floor of her home, and her 6-year-old daughter was nowhere. I thought it would be a slam dunk, and I even remember talking to my daughter. Too convoluted. Don't Talk to Me, Steven Thomas Throughout both interrogations, JonBents parents vehemently denied anyone in their family killed their daughter. Following the Ramseys exoneration thanks to new DNA technology, many hoped the killer would eventually be found. There were some friends of Patsys that were helping her wipe up the kitchen. Any information that we come up with a match will be turned over immediately to the Boulder [district attorney] and Boulder Police Department, and they will follow that.. Many sleuths believe that Helgoth had heard he was a suspect in the case, with a popular theory believing that it was his footprint at the crime scene. Mind-boggling! He said that this evidence was not something that was made public for quite a long time. An analysis found that it didnt match anyone in the Ramsey family. No suspects were ever found in the case, but both children were found. Besides Bill McReynolds, another man was deemed suspicious of being JonBent's killer. The police did a terrible, terrible job securing that scene and if you dont secure the scene, you dont get good evidence, said Diane Dimond, an investigative reporter who covered the case. They search the house and find JonBenet murdered. sometime this fall. It was a very sad thing in his life because he genuinely loved children, and it was the happiest part of his life.". J. MCREYNOLDS: The basic thrust and the parallel that I am now seeing with the JonBenet case is that the victim, in my play, was a scapegoat for the sins of the community. Now, in the house, the ransom note is written on a pad that belongs to Patsy., He said police began to suspect that maybe the Ramseys had harmed their child in some way, then panicked and tried to create basically a kidnapping scenario.. Additionally, the McReynolds' 9-year-old daughter was reportedly abducted on Dec. 26, the same day JonBent was found dead, only years prior in the 1970s. They tell him to go back to bed and agree to deny he was ever up. It seemed as though the parents were probably involved, Smit said in video diaries that he began recording while investigating the case. A minuscule amount of mixed DNA (from different locations and multiple foreign sources) doesn't prove much - unless someone cleaned up afterward, there should have been much more evidence from a single profile left. Why did he even write it in the house? The idea that a parents first thought upon finding their child murdered is to start a coverup out of pure survival instinct is fantastical. Bill was both a Prefect and Head Boy. But perhaps more pertinently here, it is well-known to psychologists that victims of trauma often traumatize others, as, for example, in the tendency of abused children or adolescents to abuse other kids or adults abused as children to abuse sexually, physically or emotionally their own children, spouses or significant others. JonBent's death, in some respects, paralleled the plot of a play McReynolds' wife had written before the killing. We are just trying to eliminate people from that list and we just figure, if we keep at it, hopefully, well finally whittle it down to one person remaining on that list, said Marra. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Cookie Notice But even as he stepped away from his official role in the case, he continued to push for justice for JonBent while standing on her parents side, Marra said. Madison McReynolds played Lindsey from Season One to Season Five; Kay Panabaker took over the role in the Season Six finale Way to Go, and continued to play it up until Season Twelve's episode Zippered, via photo, where she's uncredited. According to a 1999 New York Post article, McReynolds was a retired journalism professor and a close friend of the Ramseys. There's no evidence for it whatsoever, Burke Ramsey "has been cleared so many time and youre still dragging his name through the mud. The daughter of affluent parents, JonBent was only six years old when she was murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, residence on December 26 . 29 November 1970) was an English pure-blood wizard, the first child of Arthur and Molly Weasley (ne Prewett) and the eldest brother of Charlie, Percy, the late Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. He was born in Donna, Texas, in 1930, and received his degree in journalism from the University of Texas. While JonBents half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said his father has remarried and is focusing on life, he also said their fight for justice on behalf of his half-sister is not over. After a stint in the Army, McReynolds returned to his alma mater and taught for five years before moving to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota. The world also blames the Ramsey's for the murder, Santa Bill has been cleared so many time and youre still dragging his name through the mud. His wife's book, what happened to their own daughter etc. So who is Bill McReynolds? Published 02/22/21 08. JonBenet may personally have even given her favorite "Santa" a guided tour of her sprawling home in 1995, a year before being found dead in that same home. JonBents murder came on the heels of the O.J. He loved that little girl. He was just so devastated by the mere idea anyone would suspect him of a crime," she said. Dawn Miller is one of the daughters of Lou Smit, who investigated JonBenet Ramsey's case and whose dying wish was for his family and friends to find her killer. Why Are So Many Young Men Single And Sexless? What would possibly motivate people like Bill or Janet McReynolds, for example, to kidnap and kill JonBenet Ramsey? Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Burke denies any wrongdoing and they believe him, but they also realize the situation makes Burke look really guilty and he will be blamed and taken from them. Larry McReynolds began his NASCAR career way back in 1975 and mustered his first crew chief job a decade later, in 1985. Apparently, not unlike in the JonBenet Ramsey case, no one was ever arrested for that perverse crime. According to CNN, an original prosecutor on the Ramsey case claimed that Bill McReynolds had given JonBenet a greeting card, later found in the trash bin of the Ramsey home right after her death, with the cryptic message: "You will receive a special gift after Christmas." What about chronic sexual abuse of JonBenet? I immediately knelt down over her, felt her cheek, took the tape off immediately off her mouth. In a very special episode of Listen Carefully, Sam and Lindsey welcome their first guest, Jill McReynolds, daughter of suspect Bill McReynolds. People would have and did believe they were innocent, though. physicians health association of illinois provider portal. For someone to get through a small window like that and not disturb the cobwebs would be remarkable, he said. We were a normal family.. There are, it seems to me, two fundamental approaches to reckoning with these confounding findings on the part of the grand jury: either reject them out of hand or accept them, fully or partially. Could she have had a very special surprise visitor waiting there for her later that Christmas evening, perhaps one previously invited by her parents? His latest book, "Larry McReynolds: The Constant Pursuit of Perfection," was released in 2016. Marra said that after his death, her family teamed up with some of Smits former homicide partners to keep investigating the case. With everything that was known it really was no wonder. To this day, questions around the note still arise. His NASCAR career began in 1975. McReynolds also stated that JonBent had given him a vial of gold glitter at both the 1995 and 1996 Christmas parties. The police are faced with lawyers and wealthy friends. If they were so anxious about it anyway, why not just remove the pineapple and avoid saying that Burke had a snack with her & getting the police to actually look for their daughter's killer? It was really important to him.. He takes pictures of her dying and possibly records it. That's where the $118,000 demand comes from. (See, for example, my previous post.). She wakes Burke up and the two go downstairs together where they eat pineapple. However, John and Patsy Ramsey referred to him as a suspect in their book The Death of Innocence, and Janet stated that her husband was deeply affected by the suspicion: "He was scarred. He would never fully recover from that kind of suspicion.". Theyre grieving. Keep in mind that just after JonBent's death, there were rumors that sexual assault was a factor in the murder, but those claims are under dispute in light of recent interviews like A&E's The Killing of JonBent: The Truth Uncovered, which aired on Labor Day weekend. So he was a white male with dark hair around 20-25 years old. I wish we would have done a better job of securing and controlling the crime scene on day one, said Beckner. A 2014 YouTube video claimed that JonBent Ramsey's parents staged the. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. People were streaming through that house. Doesnt hold up to Occams Razor. How many people knew that? and take a fresh and unbiased look at the totality of the evidence as it stands right now and its implications regarding the deeply disturbing possibility that JonBenet's murderer may not have been an immediate member of the Ramsey family, as most still believe, nor some mysterious random intruder(s), but rather a close and trusted friend and confidant. Such inappropriate secretive sexual behavior can include undressing the child, masturbating, touching, fondling, performing fellatio or cunnilingus, or penetrating the child's vagina, anus or mouth with fingers, penis or, notably perhaps, in this case, foreign objects (e.g., wooden paintbrush handles). JonBenet is not in her room. On December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey woke up around 5:45 a.m. and found a three-page handwritten note. She had dressed up as Mrs. Claus at the Christmas party and way back in 1976, Janet McReynolds wrote a play about a young girl who was abducted, molested, and found dead in a basement. Former CU professor Bill McReynolds died of a heart attack By Christine Reid, Camera Staff Writer September 5, 2002 The Santa Claus figure in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case died over the weekend from a heart attack. david berman net worth; Why would the killer care if Patsy found the note before the body. Burke doesn't really believe in Santa and thinks this whole thing is dumb, so he goes back to bed. View our online Press Pack. Who was this (unidentified) killer to whom John and Patsy Ramsey purportedly "rendered assistance?" They returned for another one in June 1998, but this time, the investigators recorded it on video. On the very same day in 1974 - Boxing Day - McReynolds's nine-year-old daughter had been abducted with a friend, and had witnessed the sexual molestation of her friend. Are Zoomies a Sign of a Happy Dog or a Crazy Dog? When he got sick with cancer he knew that his time was limited and so, during that time, he just talked to others about not letting this case die, said Cindy Marra, Smits daughter. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, JonBent Ramsey was strangled to death twenty-five years ago and her killer has never been brought to justice, John and Patsy Ramsey were prime suspects for years but were later exonerated when DNA testing had cleared them of any involvement, Investigators could not prove whether or not Patsy wrote the ransom note but she was later cleared by a federal court, Gary Oliva, a sex offender, was found with magazine photos of JonBent in his backpack when police arrested him on drug charges, John Mark Karr falsely confessed to killing JonBent in a 'love game' gone wrong but DNA had cleared him, Many people believe that an intruder killed JonBent but it has never been proven by police, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). John Mark Karr another suspect of the JonBenet murder case, was not considered a suspect right away. The now late Bill McReynolds was also a suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Waltrip was one of the most famous voices in NASCAR for 19 years. It was nearly 20 years ago when the mysterious JonBent Ramsey murder case shocked, and mortified people around the world. | Photos
This seems really strange and coincidental. It's certainly a mysterious, and heart-breaking case that has long raised many questions about the young girl's death. People in the community who tell the police, Give them room. Two days prior to JonBent's murder, former University of Colorado professor. I found my daughter, John Ramsey told Walters in 2000. I tried to untie the cord that was around her arms and I couldnt get the knot untied.. Theres no reason at all for the Ramseys to use a stun gun and the Ramseys dont have a stun gun, Smit recorded himself saying at the time. Press J to jump to the feed. He played Ramsey Santa 1994, 1995 and 1996. Multiple attempts to reach out to Janet McReynolds for comment on the play and CBS docu-series were unsuccessful. The big question is could you have gotten through this window -- this small window -- without disturbing this cobweb, Garrett said. 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