On December 16, 1996, a bizarre murder occurred in Colorado, USA, the victim was a 6-year-old girl named Joan Bennett Ramsay (hereinafter referred to as Joan Bennett), and she also had a special identity, that is, the "Miss America" who won the championship in the American children's beauty pageant that year.
In the basement of Joan Bennett's home, the body of the girl was found tragically, she was not only beaten before her death, but also violated by the murderer, of course, what is more concerning is that Joan Bennett's parents and brother have become major suspects in this case, but none of them have been convicted in the end.
Now that 28 years have passed, has the murderer been caught?
This time, let's review this extremely bizarre murder case.
A ransom note found in the home
First, let's talk about the main character, Joan Bennett.
When it comes to Joan Bennett's family of origin, it can only be described as perfect, her father John is a businessman, her mother Patsy is a former beauty queen, and the whole family is a serious American elite.
Due to work, John and Pazzy moved to Colorado and changed to a new living environment, both John and Pazzy are very hospitable people, and for their one-year-old daughter Joan Bennett, they are even more precious and treat her as an angel given by God.
Joan Bennett, who has inherited Patzi's beauty since she was a child, is really like a little angel, she likes to perform since she can remember, she always likes to imitate the posture and demeanor of actors and models on TV, and she also has her own pursuit of clothes, so John and Patzzy decided that in the future, they want their daughter to go to the big screen and become a beauty queen like Patzi.
When Joan Bennett was 6 years old, John and Pazzy signed her up for the American Children's Beauty Pageant, and unsurprisingly, Joan Bennett won the beauty queen crown in one fell swoop.
However, this new star suddenly fell on Christmas Day of the same year.
In 1996, John's family was busy very early, and in the evening, John drove the whole family to a friend's house to celebrate Christmas Eve, and played until late, Joan Bennett fell asleep on the way home, but the next morning, Joan Bennett disappeared mysteriously.
Pazzi opened the room, and did not find her daughter's figure, she did not remember that Joan Bennett had the habit of going out in the morning, and she had been looking for her daughter for a long time, but there was no figure of her daughter, Pazzi seemed a little panicked, at this time she suddenly noticed a note on the stairs, and when she opened it, she panicked instantly, and the content recorded on it was full of blackmail-related words.
No wonder Joan Bennett couldn't be found, it turned out to be in the hands of the kidnappers, and the ransom was written at $118,000, at this time Patsy didn't know what to do, and hurriedly told John, and the two chose to call the police.
Unfortunately, there was limited information available on the ransom note, and to make matters worse, the search effort saw Joan Bennett's bedroom turned into a mess and destroy a lot of things that could be key evidence.
However, in the afternoon of the same day, Joan Bennett was still found, but unfortunately, she had turned into a cold corpse and was lying in the basement of her house.
After forensic laboratory tests, the following information was preliminarily determined.
One: The deceased had been beaten and had many visible injuries on her body.
Second: The deceased had been violated before her death, and the DNA of the suspected murderer was found on her underwear.
Third: The parents and brother of the deceased are very suspected of committing the crime, and some of the suspected murder weapons found at the scene are confirmed to be from John's family.
So, how suspicious is Joan Bennett's family?
Confusing truth
Since the forensic doctor raised the relevant suspicions, Joan Bennett's family has been involved in the list of key suspects, and the suspicions of the three are introduced in turn.
First of all, let's talk about the first person to be suspected, the mother who found the ransom note, Pazzi.
As Joan Bennett's mother, Pazzy has always loved her daughter deeply, and it was she who discovered Joan Bennett's talent and embarked on the road of child star, but why did she suspect Pazzy's head?
The reason is actually quite puzzling, because the paper of the blackmail letter belongs to Pazzi, and the handwriting also has obvious similarities, although it is not ruled out that the murderer's handwriting pretending to be Pazzi is confusing, but it is only the first suspect of the person who found the blackmail letter, which is already a very fatal point.
Moreover, in the basement where Joan Bennett's body was found, no other traces of destruction were found, and there is more reason to suspect that the family committed the crime, and it cannot be ruled out that Pazzi killed his daughter by mistake after he got angry.
Let's move on to the second suspect, John, who is suspected of violating his daughter.
This point is even more abstract, the murderer's DNA collected on Patzi's body was determined to be owned by a man, so it is reasonable to suspect that John also had the possibility of committing the crime, after all, many of the physical evidence found at the scene was determined to come from John's house, and the place where the body was found was also the basement of John's house.
John was very angry about this, he hired a number of lawyers and detectives to help investigate the case, and hired a news consultant from Washington to search the whereabouts of the murderer throughout the United States, and also offered a reward, if he was really the murderer, why would he do these fanfares?
Finally, the third object of suspicion is Joan Bennett's brother Burke.
Burke is only 9 years old, and he can suspect him, but it is actually more abstract than suspecting John, as far as the $118,000 on the blackmail letter is concerned, this money is the amount of bonus that John received not long ago, and only John's family knows about it, so it is suspected that Burke is likely to covet this money.
In addition, Burke and Joan Bennett have a very close relationship, and it is not impossible to take the opportunity to lure and kidnap his sister, and even said that Burke took revenge on Joan Bennett in anger after hearing that his parents called the police, which caused the tragedy, so Burke's suspicion is not small.
So, how much credibility is there about the above three suspicions?
The answer is very low.
First, Pazzi's motive for committing the crime is not established, she did not have any reason for murdering her daughter, and the handwriting and paper problems cannot prove that Pazzi must have written it.
Second: The male DNA collected from Joan Bennett's body does not belong to John, just like what he did, John used all his energy to dig up the murderer, and it is difficult to associate him with the murderer.
Third, Burke has no motive to commit the crime, maybe $118,000 is a huge amount of money for ordinary children, but John's family is not too short of money, and Burke usually does not have the habit of spending money lavishly, just ask a 9-year-old child, what is the use of asking for so much money?
Also, it is impossible for Burke to commit murder against Joan Bennett, Patzzy proves that his son slept late that day, and Burke and Joan Bennett's brother and sister relationship is very good, although there will be some normal small friction occasionally, but he usually takes good care of his sister, and there is no reason to do evil deeds that lose his conscience.
It's just that the media in the United States has completely defined the John family, and there are people everywhere who cast unkind and suspicious eyes on them, and the focus of the investigation has never shifted from them, and even later in 2006, Pazzy died of illness, there are still different opinions, and the truth is becoming more and more confusing.
It wasn't until a decade later that a turning point came.
Will the murderer come to light?
Multiple reversed endings
Actually, it has not completely surfaced, and will be introduced one by one below.
John's family, who didn't want to continue to endure the interference of the outside world, moved out of their original residence, and every time they recalled Joan Bennett's death, John and Pazzi thought about committing suicide, but there was Burke at home, and the murderer was not found.
The words are divided into two ends, the police involved in the investigation, during which they locked up two men, with the suspicion of committing the crime, but in the end they were erased because of DNA mismatch, but in 2006, there was a sudden new discovery, 41-year-old Carl, arrested in Bangkok, he was accused of being the murderer of the Joan Bennett case, and was about to be transferred to Colorado.
Who is this Carl? Carl is a teacher who teaches at a school in Bangkok, according to Carl's confession, ten years ago, he did see Joan Bennett and went to the scene of the crime, but Joan Bennett's death was an accident, and Carl also said that he loved Joan Bennett very much.
The reason why he can attack Joan Bennett is because Carl lives near John's house, but Carl refuses to explain how he met Joan Bennett.
At this point, after ten years of trouble, the case of Joan Bennett has finally been solved, and people are no longer suspicious of Joan Bennett's family, and John's family has finally cleared their suspicions.
But is the case really closed?
Of course it is impossible, Carl was acquitted in less than two months, although Carl has a special penchant for children, but after DNA testing, the possibility of Carl's murder was directly ruled out, or in other words, Carl actually didn't know Joan Bennett at all, and he never explained how the two met.
As Carl's suspicion was ruled out, the clue was broken again, and the turning point turned back to the original point, and since then, the mysterious death of Joan Bennett has become a major unsolved case in the United States, and the investigation has come to a standstill.
As a result, another decade later, that is, in 2016, Chinese-American doctor Changyu Li provided a new idea for the death of Joan Bennett.
DNA is not necessarily the only clue to solve the case, the DNA remaining on Joan Bennett's underwear is very likely to be left by the person who made the clothes, and the newly manufactured underwear, after not being washed, will leave the DNA of the contact person on it, so the direction of the investigation is likely to be wrong from the beginning.
If it is really as Dr. Li Changyu said, the suspects who were once ruled out will no longer be able to stay out of the matter, and the identity of the murderer is likely to be among them.
But unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, when searching Joan Bennett's room, a large number of things that could be used as key evidence were destroyed, which made the investigation of the case more difficult, so it has been almost 28 years since then, and the truth of this case has still not surfaced, and the identity of the murderer is still a mystery.
epilogue
This case makes people feel very embarrassed, Joan Bennett's death is full of bizarre and twists and turns, a child who is only 6 years old, his life has not yet begun, and it is hastily ended, it is difficult to imagine how painful it was at the last moment of his life, the inhuman murderer, cruelly deprived her of life, but at large for so many years.
Finally, may the deceased rest in peace as soon as possible, may future generations find out the truth as soon as possible, let the murderer be brought to justice as soon as possible, and return justice to the deceased, and may such tragedies not be repeated again.