On the morning of December 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey called 9-1-1 to report that her six-year-old daughter, JonBenét, was missing from their Boulder, Colorado home. Patsy claimed she had found a three-page ransom note on the back staircase demanding $118,000 for her daughter’s safe return. The amount was curiously close to the Christmas bonus her husband, John Ramsey, had received earlier that year.

Despite the house being declared a crime scene, friends and family moved in and out of the home throughout the morning. Just after 1:00 p.m., at the suggestion of a detective, John Ramsey searched the basement and discovered JonBenét’s body in a windowless wine cellar. She had been struck over the head and strangled with a garrote made from a piece of cord and a paintbrush handle. A piece of duct tape was found over her mouth.

The investigation quickly centered on the family, but the Boulder Police Department and the District Attorney’s office often clashed over the direction of the case. The Ramsey family maintained their innocence, suggesting an intruder had entered the home through a broken basement window. In 1999, a grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy Ramsey on charges of child abuse resulting in death, but the District Attorney refused to sign the indictment, citing a lack of evidence.

In 2008, new DNA technology revealed that "touch DNA" found on JonBenét’s clothing belonged to an unidentified male, leading the then-District Attorney to officially clear the Ramsey family. However, later experts have questioned the significance of this DNA, and the case remains one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in American history.