The Murder of Jonbenet Ramsey

Accordingly, this report will resort to help of this science to consider the medicolegal details of the notorious and still unsolved case of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. The paper will start by examining the murder scene, proceed to the body autopsy, its results, and assessment of the opinions of famous criminologists, and will come to the conclusions on the case.

Murder Scene

Body Found at the Murder Scene

The murder of JonBenet Ramsey is one of the most mysterious cases in the modern criminology, and to the great extent this fact is conditioned by the improper handling of the murder scene and the body in the first hours after police arrival. The was allegedly kidnapped according to her mother, Patsy Ramsey, who found a ransom note on the stairs of their house. However, when police arrived following the parents, John and Patsys, call, the investigation taken through the house resulted in the body of the girl being found in the basement.

Nevertheless, the police failed to provide the degree of security for the murder scene at that moment that was necessary to protect the possible evidence in the location and facilitate the further investigation. As Bardley & Bellamy (2009) argue, that the police did not conduct a proper search of the house, the area was not sealed off and friends were allowed to walk in and out at their leisure. No moves were made to protect any forensic evidence (Bardley & Bellamy, 2009). Further on, before the police and pathologists could examine the location and the body in it, the body was relocated to the living room where, according to Meyer (1996), the first expertise was carried out (p. 2).

Evidence Retrieved from the Scene Examination

According to Bardley & Bellamy (2009) such a careless handling of the murder scene might be one of the causes of the fact that the case is still unsolved. The murder scene usually presents great interest for the investigators as not only the body location and circumstances can be examined, but also the evidence about the potential murderer might be retrieved, including footsteps, hair samples, etc (Dix, 2001, p. 123). Under the given murder scene conditions, all the police managed to find, together with John Ramsey, JonBenets father, was the body of the girl covered with a white blanket. There were no obvious traces of anybody intruding into the house, or basement, and committing the murder (Bardley & Bellamy, 2009).

After the pathologist Dr. John E. Meyer, arrived at the Ramseys house at 8 PM on December 26, 1996, he managed to examine the body and found out that several abrasions could be observed on the body; the cord was tied around the girls neck and the her right wrist (Meyer, 1996, p. 2). The pathologist failed to identify the cause of the death at once and set the date of autopsy to be December 27, 2009.

Autopsy Results

Wounds Examination

The autopsy carried out by Dr. John E. Meyer presented the following results. As the major part of the autopsy dealt with the wounds examination, the pathologist found several injuries ranging from a observed below the right ear and on the cheeks and neck to the deep ligature furrows observed on the neck and the right wrist where the cords were tied.