This week brought a startling arrest in the decade old child murder case of six-year-old Jon Benet Ramsey. Jon Benet brutally murdered was found in the basement of her parent’s Boulder Colorado home in the early hours of December 26th a decade ago. Since that day, her parents John and Patsy Ramsey have fallen under constant scrutiny and suspicion, after initially refusing to cooperate with police on certain aspects of the murder investigation, including refusing to submit to a polygraph test. John Ramsey maintains that at the time of his daughters murder his focus was on burying his daughter and providing for his family.

Patsy Ramsey apparently discovers a hand written ransom note on the stairs early that morning, checks on Jon Benet, finds her missing, believes Jon Benet has been kidnapped, and calls 911. The responding officers admit they were openly critical of the Ramsey’s feeling they were some how involved in their daughter’s disappearance. Unfortunately, due to the feeling the officers have they fail to adhered to basic police protocol and vital forensic evidence is lost when the integrity of the murder scene is not secured or maintained. The police never search the house. Friends and family enter and exit the house all day long, and later in the day at the request of one of the officer’s, a friend of John’s walks with him on a search of the house to see if anything was missing or out of place. This is when John Ramsey finds his daughter in the basement and carries her body upstairs.

There was only one murder in Boulder in 1996, and it was Jon Benet Ramsey. The police are not the only ones to convict the Ramsey’s of killing their daughter with out a trial. Many Americans were convinced John Ramsey had killed his daughter and Patsy Ramsey had some how helped him cover it up or vice versa. Police quickly cleared Jon Benet’s adult half sister, adult half brother, and nine-year-old brother of any suspicion.

In addition to the harsh criticism both John and Patsy Ramsey received regarding their refusal to cooperate with police in the investigation, Patsy Ramsey received additional criticism revolving around her decision to enter Jon Benet into multiple beauty contests. The media displayed constant images of Jon Benet looking like a miniature adult, rather than a six-year-old girl, wearing sparkly dresses, high heel shoes, thick makeup and dancing around on stage. Sadly, Patsy Ramsey died in June from ovarian cancer, prior to the arrest of 41-year-old John Mark Karr, although she was aware that police were looking at a suspect.

John Mark Karr is an American, living in Bangkok when arrested and although he has lived in both Georgia and Colorado, it is uncertain how he knows the Ramsey’s prior to Jon Benet’s death. Karr has confessed to aspects of Jon Benet’s death that are not public knowledge. John Mark Karr is in the process of returning to the United States for further questioning by police. While walking with police through a public area the news media asks John Mark Karr several questions. When asked, are you an innocent man? John answers firmly no. When asked, what happened? John clearly and slowly states, her death was an accident. John states on his own, I loved Jon Benet and she died accidentally. There are more questions than answers right now, yet with hope the DNA evidence gathered from the death scene of Jon Benet Ramsey will successfully conclude whether or not John Mark Karr is indeed her killer.

I never thought I would see an arrest in the case of Jon Benet Ramsey’s murder. I never thought this day would come because I was one of the many Americans to watch John and Patsy Ramsey on television and quickly decide they must be guilty for their lack of cooperation with authorities. As a parent myself, I would be screaming from the rooftops for the police to be finding the murderer of my child. As a mother who would have taken a thousand polygraph tests if it meant the police would work harder to find the killer I still do not understand why the Ramsey’s would not talk to police initially. The end to Jon Benet’s story will have to wait for the results of DNA tests, and further questioning of John Mark Karr by police, until then judge not least ye be judged.