After Patsy Ramsey called 911 at 5:52 a.m. on Dec. 26, 1996, to report that her daughter JonBenét Ramsey had been kidnapped, she and her husband John Ramsey also reached out to several friends, who came immediately to support the couple.
Consequently, in addition to responding officers, numerous individuals were present at the Ramseys’ 5,000-square-foot home throughout the day before John discovered JonBenét’s body in the basement shortly after 1:30 p.m.
“I should have removed all those people from the scene; that was a crime scene mistake,” retired Boulder Police Detective Bob Whitson recalled in the Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey. “But at the time, it appeared to be a legitimate kidnapping. So I thought, Well, these are the support system for the Ramseys, and I let them stay.”
Unaware she was deceased when he found her, John stated in the series that he initially attempted to untie the cord binding her hands. The knots were too tight, he noted, but he did remove a piece of duct tape covering her mouth and tossed it onto a blanket that had been with the body.
He then carried her upstairs, which investigators indicated compromised the evidence collected from her body, including the pajamas she was wearing and the tape.
“There may have been some evidence on the duct tape if that hadn’t been removed,” Whitson said in the series.
