What Happened To JonBenét Ramsey? True Story According To Autopsy

Nearly three decades after 6-year-old JonBenét was found dead in her home in Boulder, Colorado, on Dec. 26, 1996, the identity of her killer remains a mystery.

A new three-part Netflix documentary series, “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey” examines how the actions of law enforcement and the media at the time may have influenced the investigation.

Tips and leads have emerged in the case over the years, and experts are still piecing them together in the hopes of solving her murder.

“I believe this crime can be solved,” Joe Berlinger, the documentary’s director, tells TODAY.com.

Berlinger says he created the documentary partly to “put some pressure” on police to reexamine evidence from the original crime scene using today’s more advanced DNA testing technology.

“There were items that were tested, but the DNA technology back then was so primitive that it’s time to retest those items,” he says.

Berlinger also says that in his view, the evidence presented in the documentary suggests that an outside intruder, not JonBenét Ramsey’s parents, committed the crime.

“There is a disturbing amount of people in my mind who clinging to this theory that the Ramseys did it,” he says. “And I just hope that my reporting is so rock solid that I will change some hearts and minds on this subject.”

In December 2023, the Boulder Police Department brought together the Colorado Cold Case Review Team to examine the original homicide investigation.

“One focus of the new investigation is DNA testing. While forensic testing was available in 1996, the science behind DNA testing continues to rapidly evolve,” Boulder police said in a 2023 release, adding they are “working with leading DNA experts from across the county to ensure the latest forensic techniques are used to analyze remaining DNA samples.”

The review team also digitized and consolidated all the evidence collected over the years in the case, including more than 21,000 tips, more than 1,000 interviews, and samples of DNA, fingerprints, shoeprints and handwriting from more than 200 people, per the 2023 release.

“The overarching goal is to look at the facts and evidence with fresh eyes and an open mind, armed with the latest developments in forensic science,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said in the release.

While the identity of her killer, or killers, remains to be discovered, certain facts about the circumstances of JonBenét Ramsey’s death are known, including her cause of death and the details of the injuries she suffered the night of Dec. 26, 1996.

Read on to learn more about what happened to JonBenét Ramsey, according to her autopsy.

What does JonBenét Ramsey’s autopsy say?

JonBenét Ramsey’s cause of death was “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma,” according to an autopsy released by the Office of the Boulder County Coroner on Dec. 27, 1996.

According to the autopsy, she suffered from ligature strangulation and had a deep ligature furrow, or an indentation from something being tied, reaching all the way around her neck. There was also a ligature around her right wrist. 

A length of white cord was found “wrapped around the neck with a double knot in the midline of the posterior neck,” and the cord had been “cut on the right side of the neck and removed,” the autopsy says.

JonBenét also had a scalp contusion, or bruise, as well as a fracture on the right side of her skull.

Other head injuries included subarachnoid and subdural hemorrhage, which are both types of bleeding in the brain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

In addition, the autopsy notes abrasions on her right cheek, right shoulder, left lower back, and left lower leg. 

The autopsy also notes an “area of abrasion” involving the “hymen and distal right lateral vaginal wall,” as well as a “small amount of dried blood” on parts of the perineum and labia majora.

The report notes additionally that a toxicologic screening detected no drugs or ethanol in her blood.

What else did her autopsy find?

JonBenét was first examined at the Ramsey’s home by pathologist John E. Meyer on the night she was murdered on Dec. 26. 

“I initially viewed the body in the living room of the house,” Meyer wrote in the autopsy. “The decedent was laying on her back on the floor, covered by a blanket and a Colorado Avalanche sweatshirt. On removing these two items from the top of the body the decedent was found to be lying on her back with her arms extended up over her head.”

He noted that Ramsey was just under four feet tall and weighed an estimated 45 pounds. 

The autopsy also noted that she was found wearing a yellow bracelet with the name “JonBenét” on one side and the date “12/25/96” on the other side. She also had a “red ink line drawing in the form of a heart” located on her left palm.

According to the autopsy, JonBenét was found wearing a long-sleeved, white collarless shirt decorated with sequins, as well as white long underwear. 

Her underwear was “urine stained,” and “in the inner aspect of the crotch,” there were “several red areas of staining,” according to the autopsy.

Several items were turned over to the Boulder Police Department as evidence according to the autopsy, including fibers and hair, ligatures found on the scene, and clothing, as well as vaginal, rectal and oral swabs and smears. 

Pieces of evidence also turned over to the police included fingernail clippings, jewelry, samples of hair, eyelashes and eyebrows, and blood samples, among other items.

After Meyer’s initial examination of Ramsey at her family home, he conducted a full autopsy the following day, doing an internal exam of her body, including her lungs, heart, liver, musculoskeletal system, skull and brain.

JonBenét was buried on Dec. 31, 1996, in Marietta, Georgia.