Patsy Ramsey's Handwriting Sample Is Strikingly Similar to the JonBenét Ransom Note
"It's highly probable that she wrote the ransom note."
Published Dec. 3 2024, 9:25 a.m. ET
The mystery around who killed little JonBenét Ramsey continues to plague the world. The former beauty pageant star went missing in December 1996 from her family's Boulder, Colo., home. From the beginning, JonBenét's parents Patsy Ramsey and John Ramsey said that they believed that an intruder had broken in and kidnapped their daughter. A ransom note demanded a large sum of money for her safe return.
Yet the worst was realized when John found his daughter's body in the basement of their expansive Boulder home. Up until Patsy died from cancer in 2006, she maintained that an unknown intruder ended her daughter's life. However, there has always been some suspicion cast back on the Ramsey family for several reasons. One is the fact that Patsy's handwriting sample is eerily similar to the handwriting sample found in the ransom note. Here's what we know.
Patsy Ramsey's handwriting sample has raised suspicions for years.
In 2024, Netflix released a documentary called Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey. It revisited some of the mysteries surrounding the JonBenet case and posed questions surrounding the possible involvement of Patsy and John in their daughter's disappearance and death. While the documentary seems to exonerate the Ramsey family, internet sleuths are unmoved and continue to speculate about the Ramseys' possible involvement.
On TikTok, users have created ample videos exploring the similarities between a handwriting sampler that investigators demanded of Patsy to the handwriting in the ransom note, and it's hard to ignore the striking similarities. Several handwriting experts have come forward to say they believe Patsy wrote the note, which is a dark and disturbing potential revelation.
One such expert, Cina Wong, spent three weeks comparing the note to 100 handwriting samples from Patsy in 2000.
She concluded, "It's highly probable that she wrote the ransom note." In an interview with 20/20 (via The New Zealand Herald) looking back on the case, Cina explained that she found over 200 similarities between letters found in the note and those found in samples provided from Patsy's own hand.
There was another striking detail that pointed fingers at Patsy Ramsey, or at least her involvement in some way.
It's not a new theory, but those who have long followed the cold case have often pushed the theory that Patsy knew more than she let on before her death. Many have suggested that Patsy and John's other child, their son Burke, actually killed little JonBenét, who was just 6 years old when she was sexually assaulted and killed in her family's basement.
There's one other detail that conspiracy theorists have long pointed to that they say proves that either Patsy or John was involved in JonBenét's death or knows who was involved. The amount of money asked for in the ransom note was exactly $118,000. This happens to be the same amount of money John had just received for his yearly bonus.
Whether it's a coincidence or not is a mystery that remains to this day.
However, despite handwriting theories, the ransom note sum, and other oddities that suggested that the Ramseys may be withholding some truths at the least, the case remains unsolved.