Izz
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 15, 2010
- 750
- 322
The 1996 homicide investigation
of six-year-old JonBenet
Ramsey provides valuable lessons
in proper crime-scene
investigation procedures. From
this case, we learn how important
it is to secure a crime
scene. Key forensic evidence
can be lost forever without a
secure crime scene.
In the Ramsey case, the
police in Boulder, Colorado,
allowed extensive contamination
of the crime scene. Police
first thought JonBenet had
been kidnapped because of
a ransom note found by her
mother. For this reason, the police did not search
the house until seven hours after the family
called 911. The first-responding police officer
was investigating the report of the kidnapping.
The officer did not think to open the basement
door, and so did not discover the murdered body
of the girl.
Believing the crime was a kidnapping, the
police blocked off JonBenets bedroom with
yellow and black crime-scene tape to preserve
evidence her kidnapper may have left behind.
But they did not seal off the rest of the house
which was also part of the crime
scene. Then the victims father,
John Ramsey, discovered his
daughters body in the basement
of the home. He covered
her body with a blanket and
carried her to the living room. In
doing so, he contaminated the
crime scene and may have disturbed
evidence. That evidence
might have identified the killer.
Once the body was found,
family, friends, and police officers
remained close by. The
Ramseys and visitors were
allowed to move freely around
the house. One friend even
helped clean the kitchen, wiping down the
counters with a spray cleanerpossibly wiping
away evidence. Many hours passed before police
blocked off the basement room. A pathologist
did not examine the body until more than 18
hours after the crime took place.
Officers at this crime scene obviously made
serious mistakes that may have resulted in the
contamination or destruction of evidence. To this
day, the crime remains unsolved.