New Netflix docuseries asks who killed JonBenet Ramsey

A new three-part Netflix docuseries shines a light on one of the most mysterious cold cases in history: Who killed JonBenet Ramsey?

The new Netflix arrival Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey, directed by Joe Berlinger, is a three-part docuseries that tries to shine new light on the still-unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the six-year-old girl who went missing on December 26, 1996, and was found hours later in the basement of her house in Boulder, Colorado.

The case captured the world’s imagination for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact there were plenty of photos and video footage of JonBenét in makeup and costume on the pageant circuit.

Suspicion soon focused on JonBenét’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. John is among the people interviewed for this series; archival interviews with Patsy, who died in 2006, are also included.

JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey were met with suspicion by the media and public. Picture: Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post

Also interviewed are journalists who covered the case at the time, as well as members of the Boulder police department (PD). Their handling of the case came under heavy suspicion even back then; JonBenét’s death was the city’s first homicide of 1996 — six days before the end of the year — and the department’s inexperience with such investigations was evident. The biggest issue is that they didn’t search the basement room where JonBenét was found; John Ramsey found her, and carried her upstairs before the scene could be processed.

At the end of the episode, it’s revealed that Boulder PD had DNA results from JonBenét’s body that didn’t match anyone in the Ramsey family, but didn’t release that information to the media or even the district attorney. Did they really hold back that evidence because it contradicted what they had created around the family’s guilt?

The case became a tabloid sensation, with all manner of lurid accusations splashed across front pages.

The initial thought when you sit down to watch Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey is, essentially, what kind of new information can this docuseries impart that anyone who has followed the case for 28 years hasn’t already heard?

But what people forget is that the case has never been solved; suspicions that were raised against members of the Ramsey family, including JonBenét’s then-nine-year-old brother Burke, have died down but that’s about it.

So it’s interesting to get a viewpoint of the case that goes beyond the narrative we got in the ’90s, which mainly had to do with the “pageant kid” angle, with scenes of the painted-and-coiffed JonBenét parading around on stage.

The new three-part docuseries may help solve a case that’s remained a mystery for almost 30 years.

Berlinger is trying to show the narrative that has pretty much hard set into our brains in the almost-three decades since JonBenét’s murder is one-sided at best, not true at worst. There certainly is a sympathy towards John and Patsy in the narrative of the first episode, given that John’s interview and Patsy’s cancer battles are significant parts of the episode’s narrative.

The idea, as it is in many true crime documentaries, is to point out the deficits in both the police investigation and the media coverage, and we came away from the first episode with a better picture of the day JonBenét’s body was found than we ever had in the past.

John Andrew Ramsey, JonBenét’s older half-brother, who was about 19 at the time of her murder, gives some good perspective on what his family went through during the ’90s, including the death of his sister Elizabeth in 1991 in an auto accident.

Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey fills in blanks in the JonBenet Ramsey case that have faded over the decades, and brings information to light that gives an indication that the case could still end up being solved.

This story originally appeared on Decider and is republished here with permission.

Originally published as New Netflix docuseries asks who killed JonBenet Ramsey