At around 1:00 p.m. on December 26, 1990, the lifeless body of JonBenét Ramsey was discovered by her father in the basement of their family home. The six-year-old kiddie-pageant queen had been violently struck in the head resulting in a shattered skull, then strangled with an apparatus created from a cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush. While no overt signs of sexual assault were uncovered, it was noted that JonBenét’s vagina had been wiped with a cloth of some sort. The official cause of death was determined to be “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma.”

Upon investigation of the home, detectives found no signs of forced entry. What’s more, evidence suggested that the 2 1/2-page ransom note discovered by JonBenét’s mother — Patsy Ramsey — had not only been composed within the household, but was preceded by a draft found in a nearby wastebasket. Despite the letter’s request for $118,000 (a number almost identical to the bonus JonBenét’s father had recently received) and the instruction to refrain from contacting police or family, no one ever surfaced to claim the ransom money and Patsy Ramsey notified authorities and family & friends almost immediately.

Although more than 1,600 persons of interest had been documented by 1997 — JonBenét’s mother and father included — her murder remains unsolved today. However, several sturdy theories do exist. One of which points at JonBenét’s brother Burke as the murderer (he was never formally considered a suspect), ostensibly making JonBenét’s parents responsible for both the ransom note and the majority of the cover up.