On December 26, 1996, six-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado. At the time, a handwritten ransom note was also found in the home, which officials initially linked to Ramsey’s mother, Patsy, her suspected attempt to cover up the crime.
In 2008, DNA evidence cleared Ramsey’s entire family in the case, though the murder remained a mystery. One year later, Boulder Police took the case back from the District Attorney’s office and reopened the investigation.
Now, more than two decades after the infamous murder, a longtime suspect and pedophile has finally confessed to the crime.
In letters obtained by DailyMailTV, 54-year-old Gary Oliva, who is currently serving a 10-year sentence for child pornography, said he killed the budding beauty queen by accident.
“I never loved anyone like I did JonBenét and yet I let her slip and her head bashed in half and I watched her die,” Oliva wrote. “It was an accident. Please believe me. She was not like the other kids.”
According to an autopsy, Ramsey was killed by strangulation and a skull fracture. A garrote, made of nylon cord and a paintbrush, was tied around Ramsey’s neck, which was apparently used to strangle her.
In another letter, Oliva said, “JonBenét completely changed me and removed all evil from me. Just one look at her beautiful face, her glowing beautiful skin, and her divine God-body, I realized I was wrong to kill other kids. Yet by accident she died and it was my fault.”
Oliva sent the letters to music publicist Michael Vail, a former high school classmate of the convict, who in turn turned the information over to police. According to the publication, Oliva wrote the letters after his 2016 arrest for child porn on his phone, which also uncovered several hundred photos of Ramsey.
Although Oliva is due for parole in October 2020, Vail believes the letters will be the final piece of evidence to convict Oliva with the crime, as he’s live with the suspicion for the last 22.
“My suspicions began when Gary called me late at night on December 26, 1996. He was sobbing and said, ‘I hurt a little girl,” Vail told DailyMail TV. “I had known Gary from my time at high school and we had kept in touch. When he said he had hurt a little girl I tried to get more information out of him. The only other thing he told me was that he was in Boulder, Colorado area.”
Vail said he tried to tell police what he’d known, but he never received a call back. But now, with the letters, he says he hopes this “helps bring justice for JonBenét and peace for her family.”
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