Murder of JonBenét Ramsey

The Confession

On September 10, 2001, the case leapt back into news when The Daily Camera reported that an email dated August 8 had been sent to Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner from an informant, stating that an AOL subscriber had allegedly posted a message on an Internet bulletin board claiming to have witnessed the 1996 slaying of JonBenet Ramsey.

In response, the Boulder authorities contacted the Loudoun County police in Virginia, where AOL's Internet service is based, and requested that a search warrant be filed to "seek information that may lead to the identity of the subscriber."

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham confirmed that the warrant had been served and complied with within days of the request.

After extensive investigations, the Boulder police later announced that the supposed "confession" was nothing more than a hoax, the work of a 14-year-old Ohio girl.

Boulder detectives, who had traveled to the girl's home to investigate the claim, told CNN that she and her parents had been "cooperative" and no charges would be laid.

Police Chief Mark Beckner later told the media, "We never thought that this was legitimate because what was being reported didn't match the evidence."

The "informant," Susan Bennett, was the same woman who sent two DNA samples of "possible murder suspects" to Boulder authorities earlier this year. Bennett manages a web site devoted to the Ramsey case.

Bennett claimed she had an online conversation with the girl, who told her "she had been abducted by three men after she overheard their plan to murder JonBenet. The men then forced her to go inside the Ramsey home and watch as they undressed JonBenet, assaulted her, then dressed her."

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1. Exposure
2. Suspicion
   Mounts
3. The Media Evidence
4. Personal Attack
5. "A Killer on the Loose"
6. Serious Allegations
7. John did it!
8. No Wait, Patsy did it!
9. Who Did It?
10. Someone
    Outside the House
11. Time of Death
12. A Continuing Saga
13. The Death of Innocence
14. The Case Goes Cold
15. Fighting Back
16. Fighting Back
    — the Deposition
17. Fighting Back
    — the Police
18. A Possible Witness
19. The Intruder Theory
20. A Stun Gun
21. The Book
22. The Book II
23. Still Under Suspicion
24. The Other Book
25. A Startling Revelation
26. Testing Time
27. The Ramseys Pass
28. The Media Circus
29. The Interviews
30. Put Up or
    Shut Up
31. The Confession
32. A Blocking Move
33. Smit's Investigative Analysis
34. Vindications
    At Last
35. The DNA Evidence
36. **New Chapter:
    John Mark Karr
37. **New Chapter:
    Hasty Investigation
38. Bibliography