<p>For some sick reason, I’ve always followed this case. It’s good that the family has finally been vindicated, but how horrible that the killer will likely never be found. I never believed that the parents did it.</p>
<p>[The</a> Associated Press: Prosecutor: DNA clears JonBenet Ramsey’s family](<a href=“http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJvIfyM8cZ9VpBrxEO0N4FhVAN_gD91QIGR81]The”>http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJvIfyM8cZ9VpBrxEO0N4FhVAN_gD91QIGR81)</p>
<p>It’s such a shame this couldn’t have happened while her mother was still living.</p>
<p>I was acquainted with the Ramseys prior to this horrible crime. The idea that that they were ever suspected was bizarre to me. They were incredibly loving, thoughtful, caring parents and good people.</p>
<p>I agree with zoosermom - I never thought it seemed likely that anyone in the family was responsible. It was horrifying to watch a certain segment of the press go after them so rabidly. I can’t bear to think of what it must have been like to feel the pain of losing a child so cruelly, and then have the entire country villify you as the perpetrator. </p>
<p>The situation brought to mind the Meryl Streep movie, “A Cry in the Dark” - based on the true story of an Australian woman who was accused and actually convicted of murdering her daughter, largely because she was an unsympathetic person who didn’t grieve as the country thought she should have. (The conviction was later reversed when evidence was found supporting her testimony.) People didn’t like the Ramseys, and they found the beauty pageant thing creepy (as do I) - but that doesn’t mean they murdered their daughter.</p>
<p>frazzled1 took the words out of my mouth ! </p>
<p>I didn’t know whether they were guilty in the beginning. But I always thought how horrible it was if they were innocent and to be written and talked about that way when they faced this unfathomable tragedy. </p>
<p>I wished we have a higher standard of journalism and decency on TV and newsprint. I wonder what all those talking heads has to say now. I have long since stopped watching these programs, so I won’t know.</p>
<p>It just never made any sense to me that the Ramseys would have killed their daughter. I know parents do occasionally do that, but it just didn’t fit here. The Ramseys doted on their children. There was no evidence of any history of any trouble in this family, no evidence of anything the parents would have to kill their daughter to hide. </p>
<p>It seemed to me that Patsy Ramsey was a bit of a stage mother (no worse than many sports dads who are re-living their own glory days thru their sons, or hoping their sons will have the success that eluded them and the dads can say, “That’s my boy!”). The LAST thing a stage mother or sports dad would do would be to kill their little star, because it’s the little star that’s making the parent feel important.</p>
<p>I always thought they were innocent. It’s just such a shame that Patsy died before hearing this. I think the Boulder Police were incompetent from the beginning.</p>
<p>I don’t want to imagine the ache of losing a child. Compounding that by being falsely accused of being the murderer, I cannot comprehend how these two parents held up with as much grace as they did.</p>
<p>What made the story so creepy was not just the killing of that poor little girl, but the pageant side of the story added an extra element.</p>
<p>I felt sorry for them, but a part of me was angry that they would do that to a little girl- the makeup the hair, the making a little girl look like a harlot and parading them around on stage to me is just very very sad.</p>
<p>“…The situation brought to mind the Meryl Streep movie, “A Cry in the Dark” - based on the true story of an Australian woman who was accused and actually convicted of murdering her daughter, largely because she was an unsympathetic person who didn’t grieve as the country thought she should have…”</p>
<p>It’s a true story, and not at all amusing, but everyone I know thought Meryl Streep was hilarious with her phony Australian accent shrieking, “My God, my God, the dingo’s got my baby!”</p>
<p>I’m philosophically opposed to the child pageant phenomenon, too. But I don’t think Jon Benet was ever made to look “like a harlot”—like a miniature adult, certainly—but not like a harlot. From all accounts, Jon Benet loved participating in pageants. There are, of course, many instances of children who are literally forced to participate in these events, but somehow, I doubt Jon Benet was one of them.</p>
<p>I feel very relieved that at least John Ramsey lived to see vindication, and I’m hoping that “somewhere” Patsy has a ringside seat to the newest developments, too. I never believed they killed their child either. Theirs is a tragedy that has always saddened me greatly.</p>
<p>the Ramsey’s didn’t fit the profile of parents who murder their children, aka, Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, etc…</p>
<p>Police really do sometimes get mis-focused and totally blow it. And innocent people do get convicted.</p>
<p>I remember the case of a 5 month old abducted from her bedroom, Samantha ?. That case has never been solved and I don’t know if the parents were ever officially cleared as suspects.</p>
<p>Or that girl, Maddy in Portugal (or England?) who was on vacation. Yes it was stupid that the parents left kids alone, no resolution to that either.</p>
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<p>Like Stephanie Crowe (?) case in our neck of the woods. The police got a “confession” from her brother and his friends that they had killed her. Another man convicted of the crime. </p>
<p>This experience has made me re-think the validity of confessions.</p>
<p>Several years ago, I heard a program on NPR about the whole phenomenon of people confessing, under pessure, to crimes that they did not commit. Apparently, police are free to, among other things, make things up (such as saying “Well, your friend confessed that you told him about the murder” or “We have analyzed the blood at the scene and there is no question it’s yours”) when interrogating suspects. People who have confessed under pressure to crimes that they didn’t commit say that they become very confused (thinking "Well, I guess it’s possible that I blacked out and did it and don’t remember) or they think that it is easier to just confess and that the whole thing will be straightened out later. It’s shocking, really.
There are entire books written about how the Ramseys likely killed their daughter. The most-put-forth scenario has Patsy becoming enraged when JonBenet wet the bed, and pushing her so hard she falls and strikes her head against the bathroom sink. The theory is that the parents then staged everything to look like a kidnapping/homicide to save Patsy.</p>
<p>The Innocence Project reports that at least 25% of those that have been exonorated for crimes “confessed” to the crimes they were accussed of, often to the full crime. Yet they were innocent</p>
<p>WHy is it that the Ramsey don’t fit the “profile”- they are rich? Would you also say they wouldn’t fit the profile for child abuse? What is that profile by the way.</p>
<p>Of COURSE they should have looked at the family and looked at them very seriouslly. Aren’t most child killers know to the child? To not look at them would have been poor police work, and just because they spoke well, and were rich shouldn’t be the “they didn’t fit the profile” reason to not look at them.</p>
<p>
To look at them exclusively was very poor police work. The profile has to do with having prior contact with child welfare authorities or a history of drug abuse. Nothing to do with socio-economic issues. Little touchy are you? I’m very impressed with your compassion for people who lost their child in a hideous manner, had their lives destroyed, and the mother, who died under that umbrella of suspicion. Not. But I guess if they’re “rich” they aren’t deserving of compassion because money fixes everything, right?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is saying that the Ramseys should not have been looked at or should not have been under suspicion. That would have been foolish: people from all socioeconomic “levels” abuse and even kill their children.</p>
<p>But some observers posit that the Boulder police concentrated so hard on the Ramseys as suspects that they failed to consider other possibilities, such as an intruder. I heard FBI profiler John Douglas lecture about this (and other cases) and he told the audience that there is no way that the parents committed this crime. He was adamant about that. He also said (cryptically, I thought) that if we could see the photos of the child’s garrotted body, it would be clear to us that this wasn’t the work of a parent.</p>
<p>"“the Ramsey’s didn’t fit the profile of parents who murder their children, aka, Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, etc…”</p>
<p>That bothers me, that the rich don’t fit the profile, and the examples given were poor people and just because she loved the pageants, doesn’t mean it was right to parade her around like that looiking more made up than dolly parton.</p>
<p>I feel sorry for them, no one should lose their child, but I find those pageants offensive and sickening and I do judge the parents that participate in them.</p>
<p>It is VERY different from sports, dance recitals, and the like. </p>
<p>But that is just me.</p>
<p>I admit that I often wondered if the brother had killed her, and the parents made up the note and so forth in an attempt to shield him. I also wondered if someone else entirely did it, but the parents made up the note and so forth because they were afraid he had done it. Mostly because the note cited some exact bonus amount.</p>
<p>I never thought the parents actually killed her.</p>
<p>Again, I say the “stage moms” and “sports dads” seem less likely to kill their kid because it’s their kid’s success that makes the parent feel important. That’s why I don’t think they fit the profile; not the fact that they were rich.</p>
<p>The fact that Patsy Ramsey was a former pageant queen who had her daughter participate in the same activity she did as a child should have NO bearing on her guilt or innocence. BUT… I can’t help but wonder if some pedophile didn’t watch those pageants and target Jon Benet. If and when they ever find the killer, my personal theory has always been that it will be a creep who saw Jon Benet at a pageant and turned her into his sick fantasy. </p>
<p>My daughter is a competitive dancer, and I used to worry about her at the competitions. She wanted to hang out with her friends all day at the competition, but I felt the need to keep an eye on her, because I couldn’t help but think that events that attract lots of kids, especially kids dressed up with make-up, etc, would be amazingly attractive to pedophiles. I should clarify that I’ve never heard of an incident arising from a dance competition, but I can really see it being a problem for pageants.</p>
<p>This case probably won’t get solved until the murderer gets caught committing another crime and either confesses or the DNA will get a cold case hit (from someone who watches a lot of Forensic Files on TV).</p>
<p>It seems unlikely that the person who did this only did it once.</p>
<p>In no way did I say, imply or mean that they didn’t fit the profile because of their socio-economic ‘status’. I meant they didn’t fit the profile of the type of person who commits murder against their children. These people were really involved with their kids. There was no history of abuse or mental illness.</p>