RAKING UP PAINFUL MEMORIES: Joe Van Langenberg

Photo source:eOnline

The savage murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey on December 26th 1996, scarred the nation’s soul; shaking the rest of the civilized world to its very foundations.

According to coronial reports, death had been as a result of strangulation, combined with extensive craniocerebral trauma.

The ”little beauty” as she was aptly called, accomplished much in her short life, winning America’s Royale Miss, Little Miss Charlevoix, Little Miss Colorado, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl & the National Tiny Miss Beauty.

Considering that her mother Patsy Ramsey won the Miss West Virginia in 1977, it wasn’t surprising that her daughter JonBenet would turn out to be a natural. JonBenet was only six years old, when she was so cruelly butchered. She would have been 25 years old, should she have been around today. Initially, 41-year-old school teacher John Mark Karr confessed to the killing, when picked up in Thailand, but later released, due to the DNA found on the gir’s underwear, been incompatible to Karr’s.

Psychologists were of the view that Karr craved for attention, even going to the extent of claiming to have been in love with JonBenet; fantasizing so extensively, that the line between fantasy & reality became blurred. The gir’s parents John & Patsy Ramsey, who since their daughter’s death, had firstly been persons of interest & subsequently prime suspects, were exonerated in 2003, once DNA taken from various pieces of JonBenet’s clothing, ruled out John & Patsy’s involvement, directly or otherwise.

Nonetheless, it was only in 2008, that both of them were totally cleared. Sadly by then, Patsy had succumbed to ovarian cancer in 2006, going to her grave, knowing not whether the cloud of suspicion hanging over her head, had been removed. In an unexpected twist to this nightmarish saga, private investigator Ollie Gray has named his top suspect, well over a decade after the girl’s murder; seemingly convinced an electrician named Michael Helgoth, had a hand in the gruesome killing. Helgoth was eventually cleared of JonBenet’s death, when it was revealed that none of his DNA was found under the gir’s fingernails, or in her underwear. Hypothetically, even if Helgoth could have been charged due to damning evidence, he cannot be brought to justice, on account of his death due to ”suicide”, a claim made by Ollie Gray himself.

Many still believe that a family member, with some still convinced that brother Burke (now 29-years-old), who had been nine years old at the time of his sister’s death, has a lot to answer to. Be that as it may, raking up painful memories & re-opening old wounds 20 years after JonBenet’s murder, doesn’t serve any useful purpose, given the fact that Gray’s ”top suspect” Helgoth remains dead as dodo.

Gray’s half-baked theories seem to be nothing more than a figment of his imagination & a feeble attempt to boost his self-importance. All his dubious claims which have surfaced rather late in the day, are not to be taken seriously.The greatest service he could render to the Ramsey family, is by not rehasing the past, thus allowing JonBenet to rest in eternal peace, with her pristine image intact.