Murder of JonBenet Ramsey

Inexperienced intruder theory

John E. Douglas, former head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, was hired by the Ramsey family to review the case and in his opinion the most likely theory is the kidnapping attempt made by the inexperienced, most probably young, intruder.

Facts that are supporting the theory:

  • if there were signs of sexual assault it would support the theory of young man (maybe even teenager) involved in the kidnapping (in Douglas’ theory it was motivated by a naive curiosity about female anatomy),
  • if the phrases used in the ransom note were identical to quotes from films it would support the theory - inexperienced kidnapper would look for inspiration on the internet or the movies,
  • the garrote used to kill JonBenet was made out of paintbrush found inside the house, which means that the killer had to improvise and did not brought any weapon with him, thus he did not plan anything else than perfect execution of the main plan, which sounds like inexperienced criminal.


Facts that oppose the theory:

  • it took some skills to make the garrotte, not many young men have those skills and would come up with the idea to make garrotte,
  • when the plan did not work and girl was badly hurt the kidnapper / killer did not panic, he prepared a garrotte to make sure she won’t be able to tell anything, which means that either he wasn’t that inexperienced or was a psychopath,
  • the amount of ransom money does not suggest the single inexperienced intruder theory - since he assumed that the family is wealthy why wouldn’t he ask for $500,000 or a million? he asked for sum they actually had available in short time, which doesn’t sound like young inexperienced man, he must have had pretty good idea of the family finances,
  • the killer gained the access to the house without leaving any signs of forced entry, he carried the kidnapping and leaving the ransom note without gaining any attention from rest of the family, improvised the garrotte to silently kill JonBenet and left the house still undetected - he must have had good idea about the house plan and the family haits, thus he could not been that inexperienced,
  • apart from DNA sample on JonBenet’s clothes there were no signs of the presence of the intruder in the house, which means that he had to be well organized, well prepared for the kidnapping, did his homework when it comes to amount of money he demanded, did not panic even when the plan went wrong and most probably did not leave anything behind - does this sound like young inexperienced man?
  • is seems that the kidnapper did not leave any fingerprints, only small DNA sample, killed the girl using tool that would not leave any signs of his hands on her body, which also took him extra time to find the paintbrush and prepare garrotte while he could have just strangle her with his hands - again does it sound like an inexperienced man that panicked?


John E. Douglas prepared interesting solution to the mystery, but it seems that from one evidence - alleged sexual assault - he derived the whole theory, while some of the elements of the case point to completely opposite conclusions.



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