Will the truth about the murder of the child beauty pageant queen finally be revealed? Director Joe Berlinger certainly thinks so.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Nikki Peach<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-22-at-11.34.32.png” alt=”JonBenet Ramsey” title_text=”JonBenet Ramsey (IMAGO)” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] It\u2019s been almost 30 years since six-year-old beauty pageant queen JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family home on Boxing Day in 1996. The case gripped the world, with Ramsey\u2019s parents, John and Patsy, subject to speculation in the media that they were somehow complicit. However, no one has ever been charged with her murder.<\/p>\n Enter Netflix. In a new three-part documentary,\u00a0Cold Case: Who Killed JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey?<\/em>, Oscar-nominated director Joe Berlinger re-examines the infamous case and hopes to flip the script. \u2018I think the Ramseys have been perhaps the most mistreated people in American history by both the police and the media,\u2019 Berlinger tells Grazia. \u2018I believe that they\u2019re innocent. If you really look at the facts of the case, it\u2019s absurd [to think] that the parents had anything to do with the crime.\u2019<\/p>\n The series exposes the gross mishandling of the case both at the time and since \u2013 a contaminated crime scene, defective DNA sampling, salacious and biased reporting to frame the family, with wild conspiracy theories shared online in recent years and a string of inadequate detectives investigating. The Ramseys, while never charged, were ostracised by their community and sentenced in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n The only Boulder police officer in the house when John discovered his daughter\u2019s body in the basement, Linda Arndt, later went on national television to explicitly accuse him of murder. \u2018I know who killed JonBen\u00e9t,\u2019 she told ABC News. \u2018There\u2019s no doubt in my mind who killed JonBen\u00e9t.\u2019 Her explanation was that John had \u2018a look in his eyes\u2019 and went to search the basement too quickly. John reflects on the significance of this interview in the documentary and says, \u2018that\u2019s how it got started.\u2019<\/p>\n By 2000, the former leading detective on the case, Steve Thomas, published a well-received book called JonBen\u00e9t: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation where he accuses Patsy of her daughter\u2019s murder. \u00a0It was hailed as ‘thorough’ and ‘holding a treasure trove of facts’ by reviewers.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Berlinger admits he \u2018fell for all the hype\u2019 at the time, as the father of a then two-year-old girl. \u2018Often, incompetent or inexperienced police lock into an initial theory, because there\u2019s pressure to solve a crime and they have tunnel vision,\u2019 he says. \u2018Years later, I was introduced to the work of Lou Smit and realised it\u2019s the opposite that\u2019s true.\u2019<\/p>\n Detective Andrew \u2018Lou\u2019 Smit worked on the case at the time but resigned after he concluded that the Ramseys were not responsible and that Boulder Police Department had, he believed, been unjustifiably pursuing them. The series also features journalist and political commentator Michael Tracey, who claims he secured a recorded confession from one of the other suspects following his own investigative reporting.<\/p>\n The agenda of the documentary is clear: to reopen one of the biggest cold cases in history. Berlinger thinks it is a crime that can still be solved. \u2018There are certain items that need to be re-tested because DNA technology has advanced. There are certain items that weren\u2019t ever tested and there\u2019s a very specific test that needs to be done regarding unidentified male DNA that was found in [JonBen\u00e9t\u2019s] underpants.\u2019<\/p>\n For the family of JonBen\u00e9t, it may already be too late. Her father, now 80, has lived much of his life under a cloud of perceived culpability. Patsy died from ovarian cancer in June 2006 without ever seeing anyone convicted for her daughter\u2019s murder. And JonBen\u00e9t\u2019s older brother, Burke, who was nine and at home when she died, has also been subject to irresponsible media reports, Reddit sleuths and various conspiracy theories that name him as the killer. One wild but widely reported theory at the time was that Burke strangled his sister because she \u2018ate some of his snack\u2019. He declined to feature in the series.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy, in these instances, to see how a curious public pieced together the so-called evidence they were presented with and reached a presumptuous conclusion. It\u2019s also easy to see how that can, and perhaps has, perverted the course of justice.<\/p>\n In a streaming landscape occupied by insatiable true crime fans, there\u2019s no doubt that Netflix\u2019s latest offering will be another hit. We saw the real-life impact that can have with Monsters \u2013 the dramatised true crime series about Lyle and Eric Menendez, who were sentenced to life imprisonment for the first-degree murder of their parents in 1996 \u2013 when, in October this year, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon recommended that the brothers be re-sentenced and made eligible for parole.<\/p>\n All of which poses the question: is being the subject of a hit Netflix documentary your only chance at justice? Berlinger certainly hopes that his documentary series \u2013 which he believes is the \u2018most comprehensive\u2019 offering on the case to date \u2013 will achieve just that. \u2018For me, the reason to do this is to try to give this family some peace, both in getting something responsible out into the media about the case and, more importantly, to apply pressure to get the authorities to finally right this terrible wrong.\u2019<\/p>\n Stream Cold Case: Who Killed JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey?<\/em> on Netflix from 25 November.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo: <\/b>IMAGO<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new Netflix documentary about JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey’s murder is the ‘most comprehensive’ to date, says director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5181"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5242,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5181\/revisions\/5242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘I think the Ramseys have been perhaps the most mistreated people in American history by both the police and the media’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]