US Politics | Inside secret JonBenet Ramsey linked probe by dad who turned sleuth to find ‘rapist ninja ghost’ who attacked daughter
A FATHER who believes the unsolved rape of his daughter may be linked to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey launched his own investigation to find the masked culprit after losing faith in police. The dad, who asked to remain anonymous, has never given up hope that he'll one day find the darkly-clad man who broke into his Boulder, Colorado home in Sept. 1997 and assaulted his 12-year-old daughter in her bed. 
DatelineJonBenet Ramsey's murder is one of the most infamous unsolved cases in US history '/ ' 
GettyShe was found dead in the basement of her family's Boulder, Colorado home on Dec. 16, 1996 '/ ' Catching the elusive assailant may also help to solve another decades-old mystery \- the murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, the dad believes. JonBenet \- who attended the same dance school as the victim, identified only by the pseudonym ...Amy... \- was found dead in the basement of her parent's home on December 26, 1996. The mysterious killing happened less than two miles away from where Amy and her family lived. Amy's father has spent the last 25 years investigating whether the same person who killed JonBenet may have carried out the attack on his daughter nine months later. Read More On Crime 
DARK WHISPERS Chilling words of rapist in case 'linked to JonBenet Ramsey' murder revealed 
'GOING TO HELL' Lori Vallow's mother-in-law issues haunting message to cult mom He first raised the possibility to The Boulder Police Department (BPD) in the immediate wake of the attack on Amy but claims any potential parallels were laughed off by investigators. According to Amy's dad, investigators were ...convinced at the time... that JonBenet's parents, John and Betsy, were responsible for her death, and weren't ...interested... in pursuing any other leads. In the two-and-a-half decades since he started his own investigation, Amy's dad has uncovered a number of promising leads and potentially crucial items of evidence. He remains optimistic that, against the odds, the individual who attacked Amy will one day finally be brought to justice. Most read in The US Sun FIND HIM Cops pause landfill search for body of Quinton Simon who vanished 6 weeks ago GIVE UP THE GHOST Moment 'ghost patient' is greeted by hospital worker a day after DYING WHAT HAPPENED? Eerie details emerge after plane disappears with 239 people onboard ODD PAST Dark details emerge about America's most inbred family who live in eerie shack CHEAP DESSERTS Aldi is offering three tasty treats at great prices this week RISKY People tell me to wear a bra under my cheerleading uniform, I don't think I need it The dad told The U.S. Sun: ...As they say, the wheels of justice grind slowly but they're going to find him sooner or later. The wheel of karma is going to come back around. ...You never give up,... he added. ...Something could come up at any time.... HORRIFIC ATTACK Amy awoke sometime around midnight on Sept. 14, 1997, to find a masked man dressed in all-black standing over her bed with his hand clasped over her mouth. ...I know who you are,... the man told her over and over again, calling her by her first name, before warning: ...I'll knock you out, shut up.... Over a period of several horrifying minutes, Amy was sexually assaulted by the sicko and forced to perform sex acts on him. Amy's family believes the man intended to abduct her, however, the potential plan was foiled when Amy's mom burst into the room, having woken up after hearing the sound of whispering voices from down the hall. The assailant, who Amy's family likened to a ...Ninja..., fled the home by leaping out of a second-floor window and then vanished like a ghost in the night. He has never been found. The level of incompetence was pretty impressive 'among Boulder PD ', but the worst thing was that they were dishonest. Amy's dad Amy's dad says the police were ...uninterested... in his daughter's case from the beginning and failed to collect key evidence or properly investigate other glaring clues during their lackadaisical probe. ...They were completely uninterested,... Amy's dad said. ...They didn't care about this at all ... they would just lie, telling us they'd look into this or that \- but they hadn't. ...They were total bozos.... Among the evidence he claims they overlooked was a handprint found on the wall of Amy's bedroom. Investigators also allegedly failed to examine the duvet cover of Amy's bed for DNA evidence, declined to provide the family with images of known sex offenders in the area, and refused to send over an artist to create a composite sketch of the assailant. ...The level of incompetence was pretty impressive, but the worst thing was that they were dishonest,... reflected Amy's dad. ...I had a number of pretty intense confrontations with the chief of police at the time, who also lied about multiple things \- so it was an eye-opener for sure.... TURNING SLEUTH Apparently so dismayed with Boulder PD's handling of his daughter's case, Amy's dad hired private investigator Pete Peterson to conduct an investigation of his own. During Peterson's probe, he discovered a collection of Camel Blue cigarette butts outside of the family's home. Interestingly, stubbings of the same cigarettes were found in an alleyway next to the Ramsey home in the wake of JonBenet's murder. Peterson and Amy's father tried to get Boulder PD to test the cigarette butts for DNA but they \- once again \- reportedly refused. The PI, who has since died, also carried out background checks on a number of people who worked in the surrounding neighborhood and found a group of individuals with criminal histories, who often roamed the neighborhood late at night. He made surveillance tapes and tailed some members of the group, once apparently following them to within two blocks of the Ramsey home. Additionally, Peterson said during his investigation he found evidence of 19 burglaries, breaking and entering, or trespassing reports in a two-month period in the surrounding neighborhood. The PI conducted background checks on a number of people of interest in Amy's case and found that some of them had reportedly once worked at the Ramsey home. ...I expected it to be a serene, quiet, safe area,... Peterson told CBS in 2000 of the Boulder suburbs. ...It's fairly serene and quiet, but you find that there's a real undercurrent of activity at night that would give me pause for concern if I lived here. ...Two or three people we were looking at had associations with both 'the Ramseys' and Amy's ' neighborhoods. ...I think there's a really good likelihood 'the cases are connected '. ...That's what we're pursuing. We're pursuing that angle still.... ...GLARING SIMILARITIES' Peterson, according to Amy's dad, would later prove to be a ...disaster... and he was forced to investigate the case alone. During his own probe, he claims to have uncovered a handful of other instances of home invasion rapes and sexual assaults involving children and young women in the Boulder area around the time of the attack on Amy. Just as his daughter had, Amy's dad said the victims typically awoke in the middle of the night to find a man in dark clothing standing in their bedroom. The Boulder Police Department was unable to provide data to affirm or contradict Amy's dad's claims when contacted by The U.S. Sun. However, a number of serial rapists were active in the Boulder area at the time, including Keith Aaron Schwinaman, and the so-called Tantra Lake Rapist Bradford Wagner. Both men have been previously identified as potential suspects in connection with the JonBenet probe but neither was ever charged and evidence gathered didn't place either of them at the scene. 
Getty - ContributorPatsy and John Ramsey, the girl's parents, are seen during a press conference shortly after her death '/ ' 
Ramsey was a regular on the child beauty pageant circuit and may have been targeted during one of her public performances, some investigators believeRex Features 
Family HandoutJonBenet Ramsey attended the same dance studio as Amy before her death '/ ' Still, Amy's father believes his daughter's attack and the killing of JonBenet may have been the work of a local serial rapist who was quietly terrorizing the area. It's his belief that the rapist may have drawn a bead... on both Amy and JonBenet at their dance studio, Dance West, and surveilled them for several weeks before striking. He explained: ...If you were someone who wanted to sit and watch young girls dance, that would've been a good place to do it. It was very easy to come and go undetected. ...I think someone could've drawn a bead on 'Amy ' there and put us under some kind of surveillance that we weren't aware of at the time. ...It's hard to say for certain but it seems to be a strong possibility.... The owner of the since-demolished studio, Lee Klinger, previously told local media that he was never contacted by law enforcement investigating either case. While BPD investigators have never publicly acknowledged a link between Amy and JonBenet, Amy's dad said there are so many glaring similarities in the case. ...There are so many similarities between the two cases that I think there's a very good chance it was the same person,... Amy's dad said. ...In both cases, this is someone who was able to get past an alarm, past a dog, and was probably hiding inside the home for some time before attacking. ...It looks like someone who hid in the house while people were out and then came out in the middle of the night after they came home and locked up. ...The only difference is my daughter survived,... Amy's dad added. ...But had it not been for my wife being a light sleeper, we may have been in the newspapers for the same reasons as the Ramsey family.... ...COPS SHOULD BE ASHAMED' Amy's dad believes the Boulder PD's handling of his daughter's case may have squandered any chance they had of ever solving the murder of JonBenet. The six-year-old was reported missing by her mother just after 5am on Dec. 26. 1996, who frantically told the operator ...my daughter's been kidnapped.... Her father John Ramsey found her dead in the basement later the same day minutes after being told by police to go and search the home for clues as to where she might be. JonBenet had suffered a traumatic blow to the side of her head, likely caused by a hard, rounded object, and had a rope tied around her neck which had been used to strangle her to death. The girl also had tape over her mouth and rope around her wrist, both of which appeared to have been placed on her body post-mortem, investigators said. At the center of the investigation's tangled web is a strange, haphazardly written ransom note that JonBenet's mother Patsy claimed to have found on a stairwell inside the home moments after finding her daughter missing from her bed. The two-and-a-half-page letter, which was crafted using stationary found inside the Ramsey home, was addressed to John and demanded $118,000 in exchange for the girl's safe return. If the family alerted the police or failed to follow their instructions to the letter then JonBenet would be beheaded, the apparent captors warned in the note, which was signed ...Victory! S.B.T.C... Many potential suspects and figures of suspicion have emerged in the more than two-and-a-half decades since her gruesome death, but no culprit has ever been apprehended. John and Patsy Ramsey were heavily scrutinized and interrogated by police, with investigators questioning whether JonBenet may have been accidentally killed by a member of her own family and her death then staged to look like a fatal kidnapping. But the Ramseys maintained their innocence. They were never formally named as suspects and ultimately absolved of all suspicion in 2008 thanks to advancements in DNA technology. Despite the exoneration, suspicions and conspiracy theories persist. Speaking to the lack of closure in both his daughter's and JonBenet's cases, Amy's dad said: ...I think if they'd actually investigated the Ramsey murder, a lot of other people in town who were accosted in various ways probably wouldn't have been harmed. ...If they would've investigated any number of the things we found or better-preserved evidence in the JonBenet case, I think they would've had a good chance of finding the perpetrator. Read More on The US Sun 
HEARTBREAKING END Remains found in search for toddler with mother arrested in his death 
KIM'S VICTORY? Kim Kardashian 'could win full custody' in divorce from Kanye after misstep ...But it was just abysmal, irresponsible police work. ...They really should be ashamed of themselves.... 
AlamyJonBenet was reported missing by her mother just after 5am on Dec. 26. 1996, who frantically told the operator ...my daughter's been kidnapped... '/ ' 
Boulder District AttorneyThe final page of a ransom note left at the scene of JonBenet's murder is seen above '/ '
DatelineJonBenet Ramsey's murder is one of the most infamous unsolved cases in US history '/ ' GettyShe was found dead in the basement of her family's Boulder, Colorado home on Dec. 16, 1996 '/ ' Catching the elusive assailant may also help to solve another decades-old mystery \- the murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, the dad believes. JonBenet \- who attended the same dance school as the victim, identified only by the pseudonym ...Amy... \- was found dead in the basement of her parent's home on December 26, 1996. The mysterious killing happened less than two miles away from where Amy and her family lived. Amy's father has spent the last 25 years investigating whether the same person who killed JonBenet may have carried out the attack on his daughter nine months later. Read More On Crime DARK WHISPERS Chilling words of rapist in case 'linked to JonBenet Ramsey' murder revealed 'GOING TO HELL' Lori Vallow's mother-in-law issues haunting message to cult mom He first raised the possibility to The Boulder Police Department (BPD) in the immediate wake of the attack on Amy but claims any potential parallels were laughed off by investigators. According to Amy's dad, investigators were ...convinced at the time... that JonBenet's parents, John and Betsy, were responsible for her death, and weren't ...interested... in pursuing any other leads. In the two-and-a-half decades since he started his own investigation, Amy's dad has uncovered a number of promising leads and potentially crucial items of evidence. He remains optimistic that, against the odds, the individual who attacked Amy will one day finally be brought to justice. Most read in The US Sun FIND HIM Cops pause landfill search for body of Quinton Simon who vanished 6 weeks ago GIVE UP THE GHOST Moment 'ghost patient' is greeted by hospital worker a day after DYING WHAT HAPPENED? Eerie details emerge after plane disappears with 239 people onboard ODD PAST Dark details emerge about America's most inbred family who live in eerie shack CHEAP DESSERTS Aldi is offering three tasty treats at great prices this week RISKY People tell me to wear a bra under my cheerleading uniform, I don't think I need it The dad told The U.S. Sun: ...As they say, the wheels of justice grind slowly but they're going to find him sooner or later. The wheel of karma is going to come back around. ...You never give up,... he added. ...Something could come up at any time.... HORRIFIC ATTACK Amy awoke sometime around midnight on Sept. 14, 1997, to find a masked man dressed in all-black standing over her bed with his hand clasped over her mouth. ...I know who you are,... the man told her over and over again, calling her by her first name, before warning: ...I'll knock you out, shut up.... Over a period of several horrifying minutes, Amy was sexually assaulted by the sicko and forced to perform sex acts on him. Amy's family believes the man intended to abduct her, however, the potential plan was foiled when Amy's mom burst into the room, having woken up after hearing the sound of whispering voices from down the hall. The assailant, who Amy's family likened to a ...Ninja..., fled the home by leaping out of a second-floor window and then vanished like a ghost in the night. He has never been found. The level of incompetence was pretty impressive 'among Boulder PD ', but the worst thing was that they were dishonest. Amy's dad Amy's dad says the police were ...uninterested... in his daughter's case from the beginning and failed to collect key evidence or properly investigate other glaring clues during their lackadaisical probe. ...They were completely uninterested,... Amy's dad said. ...They didn't care about this at all ... they would just lie, telling us they'd look into this or that \- but they hadn't. ...They were total bozos.... Among the evidence he claims they overlooked was a handprint found on the wall of Amy's bedroom. Investigators also allegedly failed to examine the duvet cover of Amy's bed for DNA evidence, declined to provide the family with images of known sex offenders in the area, and refused to send over an artist to create a composite sketch of the assailant. ...The level of incompetence was pretty impressive, but the worst thing was that they were dishonest,... reflected Amy's dad. ...I had a number of pretty intense confrontations with the chief of police at the time, who also lied about multiple things \- so it was an eye-opener for sure.... TURNING SLEUTH Apparently so dismayed with Boulder PD's handling of his daughter's case, Amy's dad hired private investigator Pete Peterson to conduct an investigation of his own. During Peterson's probe, he discovered a collection of Camel Blue cigarette butts outside of the family's home. Interestingly, stubbings of the same cigarettes were found in an alleyway next to the Ramsey home in the wake of JonBenet's murder. Peterson and Amy's father tried to get Boulder PD to test the cigarette butts for DNA but they \- once again \- reportedly refused. The PI, who has since died, also carried out background checks on a number of people who worked in the surrounding neighborhood and found a group of individuals with criminal histories, who often roamed the neighborhood late at night. He made surveillance tapes and tailed some members of the group, once apparently following them to within two blocks of the Ramsey home. Additionally, Peterson said during his investigation he found evidence of 19 burglaries, breaking and entering, or trespassing reports in a two-month period in the surrounding neighborhood. The PI conducted background checks on a number of people of interest in Amy's case and found that some of them had reportedly once worked at the Ramsey home. ...I expected it to be a serene, quiet, safe area,... Peterson told CBS in 2000 of the Boulder suburbs. ...It's fairly serene and quiet, but you find that there's a real undercurrent of activity at night that would give me pause for concern if I lived here. ...Two or three people we were looking at had associations with both 'the Ramseys' and Amy's ' neighborhoods. ...I think there's a really good likelihood 'the cases are connected '. ...That's what we're pursuing. We're pursuing that angle still.... ...GLARING SIMILARITIES' Peterson, according to Amy's dad, would later prove to be a ...disaster... and he was forced to investigate the case alone. During his own probe, he claims to have uncovered a handful of other instances of home invasion rapes and sexual assaults involving children and young women in the Boulder area around the time of the attack on Amy. Just as his daughter had, Amy's dad said the victims typically awoke in the middle of the night to find a man in dark clothing standing in their bedroom. The Boulder Police Department was unable to provide data to affirm or contradict Amy's dad's claims when contacted by The U.S. Sun. However, a number of serial rapists were active in the Boulder area at the time, including Keith Aaron Schwinaman, and the so-called Tantra Lake Rapist Bradford Wagner. Both men have been previously identified as potential suspects in connection with the JonBenet probe but neither was ever charged and evidence gathered didn't place either of them at the scene. Getty - ContributorPatsy and John Ramsey, the girl's parents, are seen during a press conference shortly after her death '/ ' Ramsey was a regular on the child beauty pageant circuit and may have been targeted during one of her public performances, some investigators believeRex Features Family HandoutJonBenet Ramsey attended the same dance studio as Amy before her death '/ ' Still, Amy's father believes his daughter's attack and the killing of JonBenet may have been the work of a local serial rapist who was quietly terrorizing the area. It's his belief that the rapist may have drawn a bead... on both Amy and JonBenet at their dance studio, Dance West, and surveilled them for several weeks before striking. He explained: ...If you were someone who wanted to sit and watch young girls dance, that would've been a good place to do it. It was very easy to come and go undetected. ...I think someone could've drawn a bead on 'Amy ' there and put us under some kind of surveillance that we weren't aware of at the time. ...It's hard to say for certain but it seems to be a strong possibility.... The owner of the since-demolished studio, Lee Klinger, previously told local media that he was never contacted by law enforcement investigating either case. While BPD investigators have never publicly acknowledged a link between Amy and JonBenet, Amy's dad said there are so many glaring similarities in the case. ...There are so many similarities between the two cases that I think there's a very good chance it was the same person,... Amy's dad said. ...In both cases, this is someone who was able to get past an alarm, past a dog, and was probably hiding inside the home for some time before attacking. ...It looks like someone who hid in the house while people were out and then came out in the middle of the night after they came home and locked up. ...The only difference is my daughter survived,... Amy's dad added. ...But had it not been for my wife being a light sleeper, we may have been in the newspapers for the same reasons as the Ramsey family.... ...COPS SHOULD BE ASHAMED' Amy's dad believes the Boulder PD's handling of his daughter's case may have squandered any chance they had of ever solving the murder of JonBenet. The six-year-old was reported missing by her mother just after 5am on Dec. 26. 1996, who frantically told the operator ...my daughter's been kidnapped.... Her father John Ramsey found her dead in the basement later the same day minutes after being told by police to go and search the home for clues as to where she might be. JonBenet had suffered a traumatic blow to the side of her head, likely caused by a hard, rounded object, and had a rope tied around her neck which had been used to strangle her to death. The girl also had tape over her mouth and rope around her wrist, both of which appeared to have been placed on her body post-mortem, investigators said. At the center of the investigation's tangled web is a strange, haphazardly written ransom note that JonBenet's mother Patsy claimed to have found on a stairwell inside the home moments after finding her daughter missing from her bed. The two-and-a-half-page letter, which was crafted using stationary found inside the Ramsey home, was addressed to John and demanded $118,000 in exchange for the girl's safe return. If the family alerted the police or failed to follow their instructions to the letter then JonBenet would be beheaded, the apparent captors warned in the note, which was signed ...Victory! S.B.T.C... Many potential suspects and figures of suspicion have emerged in the more than two-and-a-half decades since her gruesome death, but no culprit has ever been apprehended. John and Patsy Ramsey were heavily scrutinized and interrogated by police, with investigators questioning whether JonBenet may have been accidentally killed by a member of her own family and her death then staged to look like a fatal kidnapping. But the Ramseys maintained their innocence. They were never formally named as suspects and ultimately absolved of all suspicion in 2008 thanks to advancements in DNA technology. Despite the exoneration, suspicions and conspiracy theories persist. Speaking to the lack of closure in both his daughter's and JonBenet's cases, Amy's dad said: ...I think if they'd actually investigated the Ramsey murder, a lot of other people in town who were accosted in various ways probably wouldn't have been harmed. ...If they would've investigated any number of the things we found or better-preserved evidence in the JonBenet case, I think they would've had a good chance of finding the perpetrator. Read More on The US Sun HEARTBREAKING END Remains found in search for toddler with mother arrested in his death KIM'S VICTORY? Kim Kardashian 'could win full custody' in divorce from Kanye after misstep ...But it was just abysmal, irresponsible police work. ...They really should be ashamed of themselves.... AlamyJonBenet was reported missing by her mother just after 5am on Dec. 26. 1996, who frantically told the operator ...my daughter's been kidnapped... '/ ' Boulder District AttorneyThe final page of a ransom note left at the scene of JonBenet's murder is seen above '/ '
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