Former JonBenét Ramsey Detective Breaks Silence: The Shocking Theory He Refuses to Abandon
Who really killed JonBenét Ramsey? Nearly three decades after the tragic death of the young pageant queen, fresh eyes and bold theories still stir the pot. Steve Thomas, the lead detective who threw in the towel back in ’98, didn’t just resign — he dropped a bombshell, finger-pointing at Patsy Ramsey in a chilling Christmas night scenario. Was it an accidental injury turned deadly cover-up? Or just one cop’s controversial take clashing with medical evidence and the district attorney’s judgment? With Patsy cleared posthumously and her husband and son officially exonerated, the case remains a maddening puzzle, proving some mysteries just refuse to die. As Netflix gears up with another juicy dramatization, one can’t help but wonder: will new storytelling finally crack this cold case, or will it remain locked in the shadows forever? Dive into the tangled web below and decide for yourself. LEARN MORE
A detective who worked on the unsolved murder of pageant queen JonBenét Ramsey shared a theory he had about who committed the crime.
JonBenét was killed in December 1996, found with horrific injuries in the basement of her family home in the US around seven hours after she was reported missing.
Two years later in 1998 a grand jury would indict her parents John and Patsy Ramsey for child abuse resulting in death, though no charges would be filed against them as the district attorney at the time did not think that the evidence against them was sufficient.
Steve Thomas was the lead investigator on the case at the time, and would resign from the police department in 1998, believed firmly that Patsy Ramsey had been responsible for her daughter’s death, claims Patsy’s lawyer L. Lin Wood called ‘fiction and utter nonsense’, the New York Times reported.
Mr Thomas has claimed in his book JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation that Patsy had strangled her daughter on Christmas night in 1996 after she accidentally seriously injured her, and that John Ramsey then ‘chose to protect his wife’ in the resulting investigation, though he claimed he believed that Mr Ramsey had not had a role in his daughter’s death.
John and Patsy Ramsey (Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)
Other officials in the Boulder Police Department also had views which differ from those of Mr Thomas.
Mr Wood said previously that the Mr Thomas’ theory ‘is refuted in its entirety by medical evidence’.
In his book Mr Thomas said that a veteran homicide detective called Lou Smit had interpreted the evidence as suggesting that someone had broken into the Ramsey’s home and strangled JonBenéy ‘in some sort of autoerotic fantasy.
Explaining his theory, Mr Thomas theorised that after being exhausted from Christmas Day, Patsy had ‘some sort of explosive encounter in the child’s bathroom’ which resulted in a fatal head injury.
He theorised that Patsy had panicked and in an attempt to conceal what had happened she had ‘grabbed a paintbrush and broke it to fashion the garrote with some cord’ and ‘looped the cord around the girl’s neck’.
John and Patsy would be cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to their daughter’s death (Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)
Mr Thomas’ book was criticised by Boulder district attorney at the time Alex Hunter, who said: ‘It is improper in my judgment for a cop to be talking about confidential information in an ongoing case.”
Patsy, John, and their son Burke would all be cleared of wrongdoing in relation to JonBenét’s death in 2008 after DNA evidence found a man’s DNA on JonBenét’s clothing.
However, Patsy would not live to know of her exoneration as she died from ovarian cancer in 2006, aged 49.
Nearly 30 years after the awful tragedy the crime remains unsolved, and John Ramsey told PEOPLE in 2024: “If it stays in the hands of the Boulder Police, it will not be solved, period.
“If they accept help, all the help that’s out there, that’s available and offered, it will be solved. Yes, I believe it will be solved.”
In 2024 Netflix released a docuseries called Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, which went over the evidence once again.
Now, two years on from that series Netflix is releasing a further series, a dramatisation of the case called The Murder of JonBenét Ramsey, which is scheduled to be released on 10 December.
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