This is an opinion article piece.  Colleen McMenamin is a senior at Mendham who writes for Arts and Entertainment. All opinions expressed in the following editorial are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Patriot.  

On the morning of December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey woke up to find a ransom note for her missing daughter JonBenet. The note warned her not to call the police, but she immediately did. The Boulder Police made two crucial mistakes at the beginning of this investigation. Initially, they only cautioned off JonBenet’s room, allowing for possible evidence around the house to get tainted, then they questioned the parents together making for an unreliable questioning. Later on that day JonBenet’s body was found in the basement of the house with almost no clues to develop one strong lead. 

The case continues to remain open and unsolved. Since this case has made a place in mainstream media, the MHS Patriot interviewed two people who have opposing views.

Cat Holtz believes that the brother, Burke is guilty. Although he would have been nine years old at the time of the murder there is substantial evidence against him. The first piece being that the ransom note was suspicious. This leads to her believing it was “completely fake”. There were misspellings and strange words used. She believes that the mother wrote the note after her son accidentally killed JonBenet. Four years ago, in 2016, it was the twenty-year anniversary. Burke went for a public interview where he revealed key information not shared with the public before. She mentions how he “laughed and smiled the entire time which is so incredibly suspicious”… she also says, “he said he doesn’t remember much of the night but how do you forget the night that your sister dies that’s a pretty defining moment.”

Although everyone will have their own opinions on this case it remains unclosed, even twenty-four years after.