Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey

I remember when this case was unavoidable in the news and a national obsession, people passionately "believed" the parents were guilty based on weak circumstantial evidence, opinions about child beauty pageants, and police supposition.

Ignore the other reviewers who say it's a documentary series made by/for the Ramseys. The actual facts of the case are that the police jumped to conclusions, ignored and kept secret the DNA evidence that exonerated the family, but the police just "believed" the parents were guilty. Everything flowed from there. It was sickening media and police malpractice. The hell this family was put through reveals a lot more about the public's relationship to sensational "news" that was really just entertainment and clickbait.

And an investigation.

Our so-called media just loves to paint people into corners, especially when the people are wealthy, famous, and/or can be perceived as 'controversial'. The Ramsey family were certainly wealthy, and some viewed the pageant circuit as controversial. It could also be argued that the family was somewhat famous, at least in the immediate area, so check, check and check.

Given Joel Berlingers diving into other cases, I went in hoping for a documentary that explored all aspects, and not just the popular narrative driven by legacy media. I was not disappointed.

Given the perspective of The West Memphis Three, and how his and one other doc managed to overturn the insanity of 'Satanic Panic' and ultimately free three completely innocent young men, I'm hopeful that we may someday be able to say that Jon Benet wasn't harmed by Patsy, by Jon, or (the worst accusation I've heard) her brother, Burke.

The ultimate failure ultimate goes to the ridiculous handling of the crime scene and that of the police. I've never seen such a mismanaged cluster by so many, who jumped to immediate conclusions, yet made absolutely zero effort to explore all options, and not just one.

OF COURSE any investigation should and usually does center on the small inner circle, HOWEVER, you must simultaneously and methodically gather as much evidence as humanly possible, retain the integrity of the scene (remove all family immediately) and perform extensive and thorough forensic searches AND NOT TELL THE FAMILY TO DO SO, and CERTAINLY not alone. It's nothing short of a miracle that none of the family were charged- but they've certainly endured an ugly cloud of suspicion and ludicrous accusations since that day, and due to the complete and utter ineptitude of numerous law enforcement representatives, nothing of any substance was ever found.

One hopes that, much the same as the Memphis Three case, if no one is arrested, maybe innocent people are able to prove their innocence. Which is directly contrary to how our justice system is structured to work- INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY- not the other way around.

I knew the case of the mysterious death of JonBenét Ramsey from podcasts. At first view, the case is like hundreds of others - the child goes missing, no one knows anything, no one has saw anything, so the parents are suspects. The difference, however, is that here the police literally did everything not to solve the investigation. They make a lot of mistakes, and while collecting evidence, they forget why they called.

Could we find out who killed the girl if only the police did what they should? I don't know, but it would be nice if the police were not extremely incompetent in such delicate cases.

The documentary doesn't talk about anything that hasn't already been said. However, it's a very good summary of the investigation, the collected evidence and the theorys about the girl's death (perhaps focusing too much on one of the theories, but still).

It's sad to watch documentaries like these, because they remind us that sometimes the perfect crime is the result of a lack of knowledge and investigative skills, not a calculating villain with super intelligence.

It's worth watching, but it's even better to google the case and listen to a podcast about it (for example, "Deception Detective", who recorded 7.5 hours of material on the subject), because Netflix, as usual, omits a lot of police negligence, and oversimplifies some threads.

Documentary compilation of one of the most controversial and talked about cases during the late 90s.

Who really killed this 6 year old girl still remains a mystery and although there have been many suspects, the real culprit has never been found.

This documentary is clearly biased towards the vision of JonBenet's father and his family, focusing on how badly the Boulder police acted. By saying this I don't mean that everything is bad...it is obvious that the police acted irresponsibly, negligently, that they planted false evidence and hid information that could have exonerated the family of guilt and yet they didn't. A witch hunt that only slowed down the investigation for years. Perhaps only Lou Smith, the detective who from day one said that the theory of the family's guilt was impossible, was the only one who did things right.

As with any case that is so old, contaminated forensic evidence prevented any culprit from being found.

It is a strange case from any angle, from the letter written asking for ransom, from the location of the body, the marks, everything that happened. The United States society has a huge problem that goes beyond beauty pageants for 6-year-old girls, which are aberrant in themselves; but also in terms of the possibility and access that sick people have who only want to satisfy their carnal and sick desires at the expense of the innocence of their victims.

One more case that I unfortunately doubt will ever be resolved and that left a family devastated and a society exposed to shame.

Like many, I had my suspicions that someone in the immediate family was guilty of Jonbenet's murder. However in viewing this documentary, I realize that's exactly what the Boulder PD wanted us all to think with the lies and misinformation they fed to the media. I am shocked that reviewers here are still clinging to the idea that the family was involved when the series showed a deposition of a police detective ADMITTING that there was ZERO evidence implicating the family. The same detective also admitted that the Boulder PD planted false information in the media and WITHHELD the exonerating DNA evidence, probably to cover up their absolute bungling of this case/crime scene. These poor people were put through the wringer and while I didn't learn who murdered this poor child, I did learn once and for all that it was no one in the family. I am so sorry that they had to go through this in addition to the horror of losing their daughter.