Page 40 - Ransom Note News Today

With the 20 year anniversary of her death, cnn is digging into the mystery. jean casarez has a rare interview with her father john ramsey about finding his daughters body and that odd ransom note. >> on new years eve in their hometown, atlanta, georgia, the family buried jonbenet. >> i think its the worst thing a human being can experience, is the loss of a child. >> but things for john and patsy were about to get even worse. investigators had grown suspicisu suspicio suspicious. >> a lot of thi...

Wanted, the exact amount, right, of his bonus. >> and so all of a sudden because this ransom note is too mr. ramsey, theyre asking for the amount of his bonus, police hone in on him. his good friend comes to him, a former d.a., and says, look, they believe you murdered your daughter. get yourself a defense attorney, get it now, and make it the best one you can. >> we know theyre still investigating. all of that is tonight in the special report. thank you so much. jean casarez. be sure to watch "...

Without disturbing them. >> reporter: officers examined the ransom note and tapped the phone. >> the kidnapping note said ill tall you between 8:00 and 10:00. >> reporter: as the deadline came and went, john ramsey was pacing so police asked him to search the house for clues. >> one of the detectives asked me and my friend who was there to go through every inch of the house. started in the basement. we have one room in the basement that there are no windows in that room. when i opened the door a...

These. i cant wait to see it. you had a long sit-down interview with her father, with john ramsey. what did he say? >> he lives a long ways away in a very remote area. he wants his privacy, but he allowed us to travel there to get to him. i spoke with him for hours. we heard things that id never heard before. what its done to his life. he told me hes lost his privacy. he lost his money. he lost his reputation. and he truly says for the rest of his life he is trying to find who murdered his daugh...

Killed his daughter to this day? >> he believes its someone he worked with. remember, he had a company that had made $1 billion that year in boulder. he believes it was someone within the company that knew of him. because of that $118,000, which was the bonus that year. they knew intricate things about him in the ransom note which was a hoax because it wasnt a kidnapping at all. but thats watt experts tell him. >> well, you know what many people suspect, they suspect his son. his son was on dr. ...

John gave them two notepads. >> these pads were pads that were kept by the telephone and each john and patsy had their own pads. >> reporter: detectives concluded the ranson note was written on pages torn out of patsys notepad. >> jean casarez joins me now. they could literally see the imprint, right, on the notepad, and whoever did it had taken a lot of time to write that ransom note. >> 2 1/2 pages long. >> pivotal. >> written to mr. ramsey. a small foreign faction, weve got your daughter, don...

The loss of a child. >> reporter: but things for john and patsy were about to get even worse. investigators had grown suspicious. >> a lot of things didnt make sense. why would they leave a ransom note with her body still in the house? >> my first impression was that this guy wrote the magna carta. >> will withdraw $118,000 from your account. >> if i were kidnapping this guys daughter, id ask for a quarter million, half million, a million dollars, so the amount of money is just really odd to me....

>> whats that mean? we looked at psalm 118. was it a biblical -- where did this number come from? >> when did it hit you the $118,000 equated to your christmas bonus? >> it didnt initially. because that bonus had actually occurred a year earlier, in january of 96, but it was on every pay stub that i got. >> police asked the ramseys for handwriting samples. john gave them two notepads. >> these pads were pads that were kept by the telephone and each, john and patsy had their own pads. >> detectiv...

House? >> my first impression was that this guy wrote the magna carta. >> you will withdraw $118,000 from your account. >> if i were kidnapping this guys daughter, id ask for a quarter million, a half million, a million. so the amount of money is just odd to me. >> reporter: the ramseys thought so, too. >> what does that mean? we looked at psalm 118, was it a biblical reference? where did this number come from? >> reporter: when did it hit you that the $118,000 equated to your christmas bonus? >...

>> we have a kidnapping. theres a ransom note here. >> reporter: a little girl vanishes from home christmas night. >> its just like you got hit in the stomach. wheres my child? >> reporter: hours later, shes found strangled to death. >> i couldnt do anything but scream. >> keep your babies close to you. theres someone out there. >> reporter: surreal images of the pageant star transfixed the nation. >> were you a stage mother? >> probably. whats wrong with that? >> reporter: no charges have ever ...