After Patsy Ramsey called 911 at 5:52am on December 26, 1996 to report that her daughter, John Bennett Ramsey, had been invited, she and her husband, John Ramsey, also contacted many friends who came quickly to support the couple.
In turn, in addition to responding officers, there were people shattering around the 5,000-square-foot house in Ramsey all day long before John found John Bennett’s body in the basement after 1:30pm.
“We should have removed all the people who were wrong at the crime scene from the scene,” said Bob Whitson of the retired Boulder Police Department, who killed Netflix Docuseries Cold Case: Jonbenét Ramsey. “But at the time it looked like a legitimate invitation. So I thought these were Ramsey’s support systems, so I let them stay.”
John didn’t know she was dead when she found her, and John said in the series he first tried to unleash the code that tied her hands. The knot was too tight, he said, but he removed the duct tape that had covered her mouth and threw it into the blanket where she was with her body.
He then carried her upstairs. Investigators assured that evidence gathered from her body, the pajamas she was wearing, tape and more had been contaminated.
“If it wasn’t removed, there could have been some evidence on the duct tape,” Whitson said in the series.
