On December 26, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to a horrifying discovery: their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét, was missing from her bedroom. Shortly after, they found a handwritten ransom note on the kitchen stairs demanding $118,000, the exact amount of John’s bonus that year. The note instructed John to pay this large sum in cash and wait for a call between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. that same day.
Investigators later determined that the ransom note had been written on a notepad that belonged to the Ramsey family.
An upcoming episode of ABC News’s 20/20, scheduled for December 13 at 9/8c, will feature a never-before-seen interview with the late journalist Barbara Walters. In the clip, Walters discusses the unusual ransom amount with the Ramseys.
"The ransom note asked for an odd figure—$118,000," Walters remarked. John Ramsey responded by saying it was one of his theories that the amount was linked to his bonus that year. He suggested that "$118,000 means something to the killer," but the exact connection remains a mystery.
During the interview, Walters also inquired if Patsy was aware of John’s bonus at the time. She replied, "Not at the time, no."
The 20/20 episode dives deeper into this high-profile case, revealing how John and Patsy soon became suspects in the investigation. Tragically, JonBenét was found dead, having suffered strangulation and a blow to the head after being assaulted.
Their son, Burke, who was 9 when his sister was killed, was also considered a suspect. However, the family was cleared in 2008, raising questions about whether the case could eventually be solved, especially with new insights from the Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?
The docuseries, which started streaming on November 25, explores what John believes were significant errors made by law enforcement during the investigation. He has expressed a desire for advanced DNA testing on several items from the crime scene that have not been thoroughly examined.
John claimed that "of the items sent to labs in the beginning, six or seven of them were returned untested." He noted that crucial evidence, including the garrote used in JonBenét’s strangulation, was sent back without being analyzed.
On November 26, 2024, the Boulder Police Department responded on X (formerly Twitter), stating that "there is no evidence that leads are not being pursued," including the mention of DNA testing.
The 20/20 episode, which promises to shed more light on the investigation, will air on December 13 on ABC.
