McReynolds is described as the man hired by Patsy to play Santa Claus at the Ramsey family's Christmas parties in 1995 and 1996. The McReynolds vehemently denied any involvement in JonBent's murder and Janet stated that the couple felt "sensitive to the horror" due to what had happened to their own child. 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? McReynolds is questioned and ruled out, he didn't commit the actual killing so his DNA is not a match. Investigators werent able to find anything incriminating during the Ramseys interrogations. what happened to baruch shemtov. Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. PostedApril 10, 2017 But [the police] are trying to say Patsy did it. The note read that if the Ramseys had contacted the police, or told anyone of JonBents disappearance, she would be murdered. What about chronic sexual abuse of JonBenet? He takes pictures of her dying and possibly records it. DNA has since cleared Helgoth of any involvement. How could they think that? Smit also spoke about the DNA evidence that police had found underneath JonBents fingernails and in her underwear in the video diaries. He spent 15 years calling races with Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds before Jeff Gordon replaced McReynolds in 2016. "They felt they couldn't live here anymore.". For someone to get through a small window like that and not disturb the cobwebs would be remarkable, he said. Stop it already". 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. The Boulder Police Department was hit with a lot of criticism due to their handling of the investigation. The 2 1/2-page letter demanded that John withdraw $118,000 and wait for further instructions. Authorities collected hair and handwriting samples from the couple in the first few months following the killing, but police sources said they did not consider the McReynolds serious suspects. Gary Oliva was a known sex offender in Colorado when JonBent was murdered. Many of the similarities between the Ramsey case and McReynolds' play come from these allegations of sexual molestation. david berman net worth; His wife had written a play about a child getting molested and then murdered in a basement. Could Bill "Santa Claus" McReynolds have been a closet pedophile? He loved that little girl. The play, Hey Rube, was about the 1965 torture and murder of Sylvia Likens in Indiana. The Colorado detective who died from cancer in 2010 had investigated over 200 cases over the course of his career and every one of them had led to a conviction, according to his granddaughter Jessa van der Woerd. People in the community who tell the police, Give them room. what type of cancer did emily riemer have? Transforming Empathy Into Compassion: Why It Matters, How Siblings Contribute to "The Good Life", What "Poker Face" Gets Wrong About Lie Detection, A Profile of Oregon's Pseudocommando Killer. McReynolds' big heart made him a popular instructor, said Doug Cosper, who taught with him at CU. I thought this was [going to] be a fairly easy case. Indeed, despite their apparently good friendship, Bill McReynolds was cited by John Ramsey himself during a taped interview after JonBenet's gruesome death as being suspect in his own mind. William Arthur "Bill" Weasley (b. The idea that a parents first thought upon finding their child murdered is to start a coverup out of pure survival instinct is fantastical. When Hunter called for a grand jury to assess the evidence in 1998, two years after JonBent was killed, they listened to Smits intruder theory. Bill allegedly had an unusually close and trusting relationship with JonBenet, and easy access to both her and her brother, Burke. And they didn't just lie that morning. In 1976, Janet McReynolds had written an award-winning play about the sexual assault, torture and murder of a girl whose body was found in a basement. But even as dozens of people visited him each day to pay their respects at the hospital, and later in hospice, he never stopped talking about JonBents case, according to his other daughter, Dawn Miller. 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. However, with the Ramseys friends showing up for moral support, they also contaminated the scene by moving about the house. Elections to select Councilmembers are held on the . That is when McReynolds' fascination with Santa Claus began, said his wife. Before we apply the Statement Analysis techniques, let's first review what happened 20 years ago. JonBent Patricia Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty pageant contestant who was brutally murdered (and possibly raped) in her home, on the night of 25 to 26 December 1996. The real Killer doesn't know the Ramsey's personally so he is never questioned or identified. Kolar scoured through lab and police reports, witness statements and other information when he took over the case. Arndt confirmed to him that the child had died. A memorial service is scheduled for Friday in Massachusetts. 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. That was probably another reason there was some interest in him as a possible suspect. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. He told the Denver Post that when he first met JonBent in 1995 he was struck by her smile, her "pensive, almost retiring" demeanor, and her angelic glow. | Photos In a 911 call just before 6 a.m., her mother Patsy Ramsey was inconsolable as she told the dispatcher that her daughter was missing and that shed found a ransom note at the bottom of her stairs. Or, in this case, an evil Santa? Staying Single: What Most People Do If They Divorce After 50, A Psychological Diagnosis for People Who Lie About Everything. In Part 2, we examined the alleged ransom note in the JonBenet Ramsey case. But they also know that he couldn't have written the note and they know that neither one of them wrote it or did anything wrong because they were together the entire time. Bill McReynolds, a man who dressed up as Santa Claus for Christmas parties at the Ramseys home for three years, was also investigated but ultimately cleared when his DNA did not match that found by investigators. 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. Because almost none of it is supported by anything - there is nothing to imply that McReynolds was interested in snuff movies, could have hired a killer, that the killer recorded anything, etc. (b1930-d:09-02-2002) (Rollinsville, Colorado) Retired CU Journalism Professor 1968-1992. He believed the answer to the identity of JonBents killer lay in the DNA found in her underwear and underneath her fingernails. Either this grand jury was totally incompetent, confused, and/or grossly misled by the prosecution, or they heard certain testimony behind closed doors that compellingly convinced them of the peripheral (rather than direct) involvement of John and Patsy in JonBenet's murder and deliberately aiding and abetting their own daughter's killer! Reviewed by Ekua Hagan. "I spoke to Bill McReynolds once in my life, and that was during a class that he was teaching," Wolf said. Cold case investigator Lou Smit talks about the case of confessed serial killer Robert Charles Browne at the El Paso County Sheriff's Department in Colorado Springs, Colo., Aug. 4, 2006. Meet Son Brandon McReynolds. They didn't follow procedure with the nail clippers. Or it may have been deliberately staged to leave this impression. The tragic incident changed everything. Were not interrogating possible suspects. dave crawford obituary; used 3 horse trailer with living quarters and slide out; bill mcreynolds daughter Categories. The 6-year-old girl was found dead on the morning after Christmas 1996. Mr. McReynolds died in 2002 of a heart attack at the age of 72, six years after the death of JonBenet. 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. For other inquiries, Contact Us. Karr had been living in Thailand, avoiding child pornography charges in the US. He knew they were at the party and he knew how to get into the Ramsey's home because McReynolds told him. We were outraged. But it wasn't just Santa that investigators were interested in. Go retest. He said she told him it was impossible for them to have physical evidence linking her to the crime. Then Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter took what appears to have been the latter tack, rejecting these recommendations on grounds that they were not sufficiently well-founded and would not lead to a conviction in a court of law, where such criminal charges require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The family has not lost the will to fight and the will to find the killer, John Andrew Ramsey said. I found my daughter, John Ramsey told Walters in 2000. I thought there was something drastically wrong and that there was a gross injustice in this case, he said in the tapes. 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). 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. The 26-year-old committed suicide two days after a 1997 press conference where the Boulder DA announced that they were looking at a new suspect. Tracey reported Karr to the police who arrested him in Bangkok. YouTube Yes. Stephen Diamond, Ph.D., is a clinical and forensic psychologist in Los Angeles, and the author of Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity. This seems really strange and coincidental. As we looked at each other, I remember -- and I wore a shoulder holster -- tucking my gun right next to me and consciously counting [that] Ive got 18 bullets, Arndt said, adding, I didnt know if wed all be alive when people showed up.. No one was ever arrested for the crime. While elected by Districts, each member represents the interests of the City as a whole. She wakes Burke up and the two go downstairs together where they eat pineapple. Karr eventually came out as a transgender woman in 2010. We dont want them there.. But like police, the jury didnt believe someone couldve entered the window with the cobwebs remaining intact. No suspects were ever found in the case, but both children were found. Now, twenty-five years after the shocking discovering, there are still many unanswered questions about the case as experts and amateurs alike try to uncover what happened that night. They search the house and find JonBenet murdered. Apart from it, how come the killer left no traces behind? Other suspects included neighbor Bill McReynolds, a local Santa Claus who visited the Ramseys a few days before the girls death. Im gonna guess not a lot of people, Garrett said. It was a very sad thing in his life because he genuinely loved children, and it was the happiest part of his life.". The team referred to the database Smit had created to begin narrowing down suspects. Whoever committed it, the crime appears to me to bear the signature of a sadistic pedophile. Advertisement. 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. Right from the start, Bill McReynolds raised the suspicions on people by the way he was behaving and the things he was saying about JonBenet Bill McReynolds quoted in The Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO - December 29, 1996 "She had an angel's spirit, which is unusual not only among adults, but children, and I'm just devastated that she's gone," said Bill McReynolds, who played Santa at the . He worked his way up the ladder and took his first crew chief job in 1985. The family friend, who died in 2002, was considered in JonBent's murder. 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. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. "Of course, he would never get over what happened to him. It is often jokingly stated in legal circles that a grand jury, by its very nature and relatively low burden of proof required, "will indict a ham sandwich" if asked to by the District Attorney. 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 killer resembled JonBenet's brother John Andrew. 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