Media’s Influence on JonBenet Ramsey’s Murder

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Sue Grafton once stated: “Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right.” This is clearly the thought the Boulder Colorado police conceived in the case of little beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. As many have observed from the onslaught of media coverage, the day after Christmas 1996, six year old Jon Benet Ramsey was found buried under a white blanket, bound, beaten, and strangled to death in the wine cellar of their Boulder home. With such a strikingly rare and glamorous story of a six year old beauty queen dead, who was a part of a “perfect American upper-middle class family”, combined with a lack of a lead and ever mounting suspicion piling up against the parents it was no surprise to find that it was fuel to the media and soon stories sold and became a matter of competition between the press. So, like wildfire, this heart-breaking story spread, stretching across the nation, shattering the souls of the world. News broadcasts, magazine and newspaper articles, and television specials all shaped and molded peoples perceptions of this beautiful child’s murder, especially her parents, John and Pasty Ramsey’s involvement or lack there of. The police and FBI’s merciless quest to connect Jon Benet’s murder to her parents, seemed to cause the them to overlook important evidence, or at the very least dismiss suspicious findings that would otherwise send red flags to investigators. There are many contributors as to why this case remains unsolved including lack of investigative expertise, failure to protect valuable evidence, and focusing too much on the parents as suspects but, ultimately, the over involvement of... ... middle of paper ... ...ary n.pag. Web. 2 Mar 2014. Churchwell, Sarah. "The Death of Innocence." New York Times 18 Aug 2008, n. pag. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. Fox, RichardL., Robert W. Van Sickle, and Thomas L. Steiger. Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice in an Age of Media Frenzy. 2nd. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007. 1-15. Print. Jones, Aphrodite, dir. "JonBenet Ramsey." True Crime with Aphrodite Jones. Investigation Discovery : 31 Mar 2011. Television. McKinley, Carol. "Ramsey Case Spawns Media Feeding Frenzy and Public Obsession."Fox News. N.p., 22 May 2001. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. Mitchell, Kirk. "Boulder Involeved in JonBenet Case Often Clashed ." Denver Post 25 oct 2013, n. pag. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. "Grand jury prepared child abuse indictment against JonBenet Ramse'ys parents, newly released documents show." NBC News 25 oct 2013, n. pag. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.

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