Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey:
The Most Likely Suspects
Larry Harriet, Investigative Journalist
October 2, 2006
Bill McReynolds (“Santa Bill”)
Theory: Santa Bill, a long time pedophile wanted to start a secret sexual relationship with JonBenet. He called Patsy and convinced her to have a christmas party. He made up a story about a TV production company wanting to come over and film him. He used the party as an opportunity to talk to JonBenet. When JonBenet was giving him a tour of the house, and showing him her room, he used the opportunity to tell JonBenet something. He asked her if she could keep a secret. He told her that he would pay her a special secret visit on christmas night and give her a special present. JonBenet promised to not tell anybody the secret. Before Santa left, he gave JonBenet a card that read, "You will receive a special suprise after christmas!"
The night of December 25th, when everybody at the McReynolds house was asleep, Santa Bill made his escape in a santa suit. He got to the Ramsey house and used his key to get through the backdoor. Everybody was asleep. He had been in the house many times before and knew where everything was. He made his way to the basement to get supplies. He constructed a garrote, he got cord and duct tape. He had the intention of carrying out a sex fantasy.
He made his way upstairs still in his Santa Claus suit. He knew exactly where JonBenet's room was. He touched JonBenet enough to have her semi-wake up but not 100%. He went out onto her balcony and closed the door behind him. He then knocked on the door and JonBenet heard it. She was so excited! Santa had come for her just like he promised. She opened the door for him and they made their way downstairs.
Once downstairs, Santa told JonBenet he had a secret suprise for her in the basement. Once in the basement, JonBenet realized that this probably wasn't Santa and their was no present. She screamed. Santa silenced her with his flashlight and then duct taped her mouth. He performed a sexual attack and used the garrote on JonBenet. He let the attack go on for too long and JonBenet wasn't breathing but at the same time, she wasn't dead. He then took a golf club that he found and bashed her in the head with it. She was dead.
He thought what would my wife the play writer do? A ransom note sounds good, I'm going to stage this to look like a kidnapping. He made his way upstairs to get paper and a pen. Then, he went back down to the basement to write the infamous ransom note. He had seen tons of movies because his wife was a movie critic. He knew about John's bonus from overhearing conversation. When he got to the bottom, he had to leave his mark, so he signed it S.B.T.C "Santa Bill The Claus"
He finished off staging the scene. He bound JonBenet's wrists, put a fresh new piece of duct tape on her mouth. He used a towel to wipe down her body to make sure his fingerprints could not be traced back to him. He then found a window and made it look like someone had broken in. He went back up to JonBenet's room with a towel and the ransom note. He wiped off the door handle to her balcony and put the ransom note on her pillow. Then he went to the 3rd floor to see if John and Patsy were asleep. Then he went to Burkes room and smiled because he had just gotten away with murder. He then went back to JonBenet's room and got the ransom note, thinking it would be better to put it on the stairs that Patsy walks down each morning... nice suprise!
He then went out the back door and was home free.
Motive: suspected pedophile
Means: has a key to Ramsey house, knows house, and knows family
Opportunity: if JonBenet thought Santa was in her room, she would not scream to alert her parents
Incriminating Evidence:
* A friend of the Ramseys told police JonBenet had confided in her that Santa promised her a special visit after Christmas was over.
* His own 9-year-old daughter, Jill, had been kidnapped by a sexual predator on Dec. 26, 1974. Jill and her friend were eventually brought home. Jill had escaped violence, but her friend, who was sexually molested, had not. The assailant was never found.
* Bill McReynolds gave JonBenet a card that said she would "receive a special suprise" after christmas. The card was found in her trash shortly after the murder.
* Janet McReynolds, a.k.a. Mrs. Claus, had written a play in 1976 called Hey Rube, about a girl adopted by foster parents who sexually abused her in a basement cellar. The play was a flop, but it didn't stop Boulder police from passing out copies to the Ramsey investigative team.
* McReynolds loved JonBenet. His fireplace was littered with photographs of her. When Newsweek reporter Dan Glick visited McReynolds at his Nederland home, McReynolds showed him a small wooden harp with the names of dead children carved on it's side. When McReynolds held the harp up, he shared a small secret with the veteran reporter, "I've saved a small place right here for JonBenet's name."
* Janet McReynolds was a movie critic for "The Denver Post" hence all the movie references in the ransom note.
* Janet McReynolds wrote a play 20 years before JonBenet's death called "Hey Rube," where a child is tortured and killed in a basement. The play had so many similarities to JonBenet's death, the police took it in as evidence.
* Bill and Janet were each other's alibi for the night of December 25th 1996.
* SBTC could stand for "Santa Bill the Claus" or "Santa Bill and The Critic."
* The McReynolds son has a prior conviction for kidnapping and no alibi for JonBenet's murder.
* Bill McReynolds is a suspected pedophile.
Exculpatory Evidence:
* McReynolds had a full beard and it is difficult to believe he could have taken JonBenet from her bed, assaulted her and killed her without leaving hair evidence that to date has never been reported.
* McReynolds had heart problems and it is difficult to imagine him having the strength for the head-blow to JonBenet which reportedly could have felled a 250-lb. man.
* McReynolds and his wife have been cleared as suspects.
Janet McReynolds:
Theory: Because Bill took narcotic sedatives to help him sleep, Janet could have left and returned hours later, without being noticed.
Motive: Nobody can find a motive as to why Janet wanted to kill JonBenet.
Means: Janet was near the spiral staircase two days before JonBenet died, this location was also where Patsy's notebook was. Janet could have taken the notebook or paper from it to write the note
Opportunity: Because Bill took narcotic sedatives to help him sleep, Janet could left and returned hours later, without being noticed.
Incriminating Evidence:
* Janet McReynolds had a daughter who had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted 22 years to the day before JonBenet’s death.
* Janet also wrote a play 20 years before JonBenet’s death in which a child is abused and tortured in a basement.
* There was so many parallels to the facts of the JonBenet Ramsey case that Boulder Police took the play “Hey Rube” as evidence.
* The ransom note is made up primarily of movie quotes. Janet was a movie critic for The Denver Post.
* SBTC could stand for Santa Bill & The Critic.
* The McReynolds son has a prior conviction for kidnapping and no alibi for the night of JonBenet’s murder.
Exculpatory Evidence:
* Janet McReynolds was cleared by the Boulder Police Department.
Michael Helgoth and John Steven Gigax (Helgoth’s Accomplice)
Theory: Michael Helgoth knew the Ramsey’s from a property dispute. John Steven Gigax, Helgoth’s accomplice worked on the Ramsey’s home. It is suspected that the two conspired to break into the Ramsey home, hide in the basement, kidnap, and kill JonBenet.
Means: Helgoth owned a stun gun
Motive: Helgoth knew the Ramsey’s from a property dispute, Gigax was a convicted pedophile
Opportunity: It is suspected that Helgoth and Gigax might have been responsible for a rash of burgarlies in Boulder, which would of given them means to break into the Ramsey home.
Incriminating Evidence:
* Helgoth committed suicide just one day after Alex Hunter announced to the world: “I want to say something to the person or persons who took this baby from us, the list of suspects narrows. Soon there will be no-one on the list but you.” The timing seems suspicious.
* A stun gun was found near Helgoth’s body, and Detective Lou Smit swears that a stun gun was used on JonBenet’s body.
* A HI-TEC logo boot print was found in the Ramsey basement where JonBenet’s body was. Helgoth owned a pair of HI-TEC boots and inside the logo was an algae, that looked consistent with the algae on the floor of the Ramsey’s basement.
* Documentary producer Michael Tracey believes that while Helgoth was involved, he was not the actual killer. Tracey’s documentary “Who Killed The Pageant Queen?” identifies Helgoth’s accomplice John Steven Gigax as the killer, even though it also identifies Helgoth as being inside the Ramsey home the night of the murder.
* Documentary producer Michael Tracey also believes that Helgoth’s death may of not been a suicide, but a homicide committed by John Steven Gigax to prevent Helgoth from talking.
* Helgoth owned two wolfdog puppies whose fur, according to the Tracey documentary, “exactly matched” the 2 different colors of animal hairs found on JonBenet’s body and inside the basement.
* John Steven Gigax has a long criminal history and is a convicted pedophile.
* John Steven Gigax, according to the Tracey documentary, worked on the Rasmey house.
* Michael Helgoth knew the Ramsey’s from a property dispute.
* A friend of John Steven Gigax has asserted “the man who raped and murdered JonBenet Ramsey also murdered Michael Helgoth over the division of their spoils of their numerous burglaries.”
* John Steven Gigax has mysteriously disappeared.
Exculpatory Evidence:
* Michael Helgoth’s DNA was not a match from the DNA left behind at the crime scene.
* Friends and family of Michael Helgoth believe he committed suicide because his girlfriend broke up with him. The suicide occurred on Valentine’s day.
* The Boulder Police Department say John Steven Gigax or Helgoth were never suspects.
Chris Wolf
Theory: Chris Wolf’s strange behavior on Christmas and early on Christmas morning, raised his girlfriend’s concerns about what Wolf had been doing on Christmas night.
Means: Jacqueline Dilson has testified that she saw white cord on her boyfriend’s dressor.
Motive: Chris Wolf was a business columnist for the Colorado Daily and hated big business. He had very strong political views and was a conspiracy theorist. It has been reported that he hated John Ramsey’s business “Access Graphics” for trading with 3rd world countries.
Opportunity: Jacqueline Dilson has testified that Chris Wolf mysteriously disappeared on Christmas night. She was upset about this because she wanted him to have dinner with her parents. She fell asleep on Christmas night, not knowing where Chris was. She was awoken by the sound of the shower at 5:30AM on December 26th. Her boyfriend’s pants were filthy and he smelled bad. She had no idea where he was.
Incriminating Evidence:
* In the Ramsey’s book, “another lead identified by Detective Smit was Chris Wolf, who in his estimation presented too many “unanswered questions.”
* Dilson had spent Christmas Day with Wolf, but he would not stay to have supper with her and her family. Somewhere around 10:00PM, Jacqueline went to bed, thinking Wolf had gone off on a spree of some kind or another.
* At around 5:30AM, sounds from the bathroom woke Jackie up, and she realized that Wolf was getting out of the shower. He had left dirty clothes all over the floor. Without explanation of where he’d been, Wolf went to sleep.
* Later that day, Dilson and Wolf watch television news reports of JonBenet’s death. To her suprise, she observed him becoming quite agitated. Wolf cursed and said that he believed JonBenet had been sexually abused by her father. For the rest of the evening, Wolf brooded over the case.
* According to Dilson, Wolf hated big business and had a fascination with world political disputes and political violence.
* Most importantly, she said that Chris Wolf had been given a sweatshirt with the initials SBTC (the signature on the ransom note), which stood for Santa Barbara Tennis Club.
* On January 30 police officers stopped Wolf at 11:00AM as he drove into Boulder; they discovered he was driving with a suspended license. The woman officer took him to the police station for further questioning when Wolf abruptly told her that the police should be chasing the killer of JonBenet Ramsey instead of harassing him. He definitely caught everyone’s attention with that remark.
* Detectives Ron Gosage and Steve Thomas started interrogating Chris Wolf with hard questions about the JonBenet Ramsey case. When they asked Wolf to write some words from the ransom note, he refused. The police put him in handcuffs, but he still refused. Finally, the two detectives put him in jail, pending charges on a suspended license. Later that day Wolf was released.
* One person had seen Wolf go into an angry tirade aimed at John Ramsey after he read an article about his company printed in the Boulder Daily Camera in early 1996. Apparently Wolf accused John’s company of selling arms to South American countries.
* Forensic document examiner Lloyd Cunningham cannot eliminate Chris Wolf as the author of the ransom note.
* Wolf’s girlfriend testified that she was “struck by how the handwriting in the note resembled Chris Wolf’s handwriting” and she believes he is the note’s author.
* Chris Wolf has been a long standing suspect of both Boulder Police Department and DA’s office. He has yet to be cleared and was the first suspect to be arrested in connection with the JonBenet’s murder.
Exculpatory Evidence:
* Steve Thomas called Wolf a few weeks after the initial interrogation to come down to the police station. Steve Thomas told him, “We have no interest in you.”
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