Questions we Can Help you to Answer

Paper Instructions:

Read the following Scenario:

Jon Benet Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty pageant contestant who was first reported kidnapped by her parents but, several hours later, was found dead by her father in a remote basement room of their house. The Jon Benet Ramsey case was extensively covered by the media (especially television), using film footage of the pageants Jon Benet had entered and usually won.

The police and much of the public believed Jon Benet’s parents, John Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey, were involved in the death of their child. The Ramseys never appeared before the grand jury, which was desired by the police, because the district attorney thought they did not have probable cause. The Ramseys claim in their book, The Death of Innocence, that they “offered to testify before the Grand Jury, but they were never subpoenaed.”

John Ramsey and his friend Fleet White were sent by the police officer left in charge to search again throughout the house for Jon Benet. Ramsey recounted: “We head down stairs, and I take Fleet over to the broken window pane and explain my breaking in their last summer. We look for glass splinters and find some small ones.” Does it not appear strange that this wealthy man would not have had the broken pane replaced? Remember this is now December and cold air is seeping into his basement. Why was it important for Ramsey to point out to Fleet that the window was broken in the summer from the outside? Perhaps because it was recently broken from the inside? Why Ramsey would break the window from the inside is of legitimate interest to investigators. Elsewhere in this text is a discussion of the difficulty an inexperienced person has in staging a crime.

Sometimes a killer makes an effort to disguise a crime. Several means can be employed to make a death appear accidental or explainable, to misdirect the efforts of investigators, or to conceal the perpetrator’s own involvement. This possibility is further supported by the anomalous kidnap note in the Ramsey case. Among other unusual things was its length (about 400 words), compared to an average length of about 40 words (as in the first Lindbergh ransom note).

Write an essay based on the information below:

In a minimum of 2 pages, write a paper that starts by identifying at least four different types of evidence that is found in the Ramsey case and then focuses specifically on the glass evidence in the Ramsey case.

After reviewing Ramsey case, you learned that the broken window in the basement in the middle of December was a key piece of evidence in the case.

    What is the first officer's responsibility at a crime scene and what was done or not done in the Ramsey case?
    Describe how to collect and preserve glass evidence.
    Would the way the glass evidence at the crime scene was documented, collected, and preserved have any impact on the examination results at the lab? Support your conclusions.
    Was there any other evidence in the case that concerns you as an Investigator, why or why not?