© Courtesy of Netflix
Netflix has dropped a new trailer for three-part documentary, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey which is examining the whodunit murder investigation. The series traces the pageant princess’s murder along with how law enforcement and the media are alleged to have mishandled the case. Joe Berlinger, who worked on Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, directs the docuseries, which releases Nov. 25.
On the morning of Dec. 26, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey discovered their daughter JonBenét was missing along with a chilling note. The same day, John Ramsey discovered his daughter’s body in their basement: a nylon cord wrapped around her neck, her wrists tied above her head, and her mouth taped shut. The six-year-old had been sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. As Boulder, Colorado, police hopped on the investigation, they began to look at Ramsey family members as suspects. A local and national media storm quickly ensued.
Some believed a member of JonBenét’s family staged her death to look like a kidnapping, but DNA evidence in 2008 exonerated the immediate family members. Others believed former school teacher John Mark Karr, who confessed to the 1996 strangulation in 2006, as a prime suspect; the family housekeeper Linda Hoffman-Pugh; or the town’s Santa Claus Bill McReynolds as the potential killer. The Daily Mail reported in 2019 that longtime suspect and convicted pedophile Gary Olivia confessed to “accidentally” killing the six-year-old in a series of letters.
Around the cold case’s 20th anniversary, several networks released TV specials commemorating the contentious case: CBS’s aired The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey, A&E released The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, Lifetime dropped Who Killed JonBenét?, and Investigation Discovery released JonBenét: An American Murder Mystery.
On Dec. 26, 1996, John and Patsy Ramsey awoke to a nightmare. Their youngest child, 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, was missing, with a chilling ransom note left behind. The day took a devastating turn when John Ramsey discovered JonBenét’s lifeless body in the basement, revealing the horrifying truth that she had been sexually assaulted and brutally murdered within the supposed safety of her own home.
The Boulder police, inexperienced in handling homicide investigations, quickly turned their suspicions toward the Ramsey family, igniting a media frenzy that painted them as the prime suspects. This one-sided reporting fueled a national obsession, casting a long shadow over the case that remains unsolved 28 years later.
Now, Academy Award–nominated director Joe Berlinger is reexamining the infamous cold case in a compelling three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? The series scrutinizes the missteps of law enforcement and the media, highlighting the relatively straightforward measures that could potentially solve this haunting mystery. As the series unfolds, it poses a critical question: Will Colorado authorities finally take the necessary actions to bring JonBenét Ramsey’s killer to justice and offer her family the peace they’ve long sought?
Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? is produced by Joe Berlinger, Craig D’Entrone, Jon Kamen, Jen Isaacson, and Tim Young. The series premieres on Netflix on Nov. 25.
