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All the pomp and circumstance of the pageant scene became tainted with holiday murder in the unlikeliest of homes - and at the heart of it was an innocent six-year-old child.

The discovery of JonBenét Ramsey's brutally murdered body on the morning after Christmas in 1996 in a spare room in the basement of the family's 7,000-square-foot home in the Chautauqua neighborhood of Boulder, Colorado, shocked the nation. But it was the events that unfolded after that truly raised eyebrows and scratched heads - to the extent that there is no definitive answer as to what happened on that winter evening more than two decades ago.

While the timeline of events leading up to the discovery of the body are unclear, those that transpired after are all we know of who killed JonBenét.
December 23, 1993: A 911 call is made from the Ramsey home
Three days before the body is found, a 911 call is made from the home. But on January 10, it's reported that it was likely a mistake made by a drunk party guest, according to CNN.
December 25, 1996: The Ramseys attend a Christmas party at a family friend's house
JonBenét gets a bike for Christmas. After attending a Christmas party hosted by family friend Fleet White, the Ramseys go home - and JonBenét goes to bed.

Some theories say she snuck back downstairs and fought with her brother over a late-night snack of pineapple. Indeed, the undigested tropical fruit was found in her stomach.

December 26, 1996: JonBenét goes missing

5:30 a.m.: When Patsy gets up to make coffee, she discovers a two-and-a-half page handwritten ransom note on the back stairs leading to the kitchen that says her daughter has been kidnapped, according to the Denver Post. "You will withdraw $118,000.00 from your account. $100,000 will be in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills," the note demanded, according to Psychology Today. Oddly, that was the exact amount of John's Christmas bonus. The note also said to not call the police. Patsy calls 911.

Before 6 a.m. Police officer Rick French arrives at the home and does a search. He pauses by the door that JonBenét was later found behind, but doesn't open it, according to .

Early Afternoon: The first detective on the scene, Linda Arndt, pulls aside John and White, who had come over to console his friends. Arndt tells them to do a "top to bottom" search of the home. It was during that search that John opened the door to the basement's spare room (ironically where the Christmas presents had been hidden) and saw JonBenét's body.

It looked like she had been strangled and her mouth and neck were covered with duct tape. He picked up the body and ran screaming upstairs. Arndt later moved the body closer to the Christmas tree upstairs - by bringing her upstairs and leaving the basement door open, much of the evidence became tainted.

10:45 p.m. The Boulder County coroner's team removed the young girl's body from the house.
December 28, 1996: The Ramseys cooperate with authorities
The family goes to the Boulder police station and they willingly give hair, blood and handwriting samples.

The police later state that John's grown children, John Andrew and Melinda, were out of town when the murder occurred, so are not suspected.
December 29, 1996: The family flies to Atlanta
Just days after the murder, the Ramseys go back to their former hometown of Atlanta.

December 31, 1996: JonBenét's funeral is held

The six-year-old is laid to rest in Marietta, Georgia, next to her older half-sister Elizabeth, who had died in a tragic car accident in 1992. About 200 family and friends attend a ceremony at the family's old church.

Photo: ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo

January 1, 1997: John and Patsy give a New Year's Day interview
JonBenét's parents give a "very difficult" 45-minute long interview to CNN from Atlanta, where they were now staying with family. While the Boulder police had been reassuring the community there wasn't a murderer on the run, Patsy said on television, "There is a killer on the loose... if I were a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep - keep your babies close to you, there's someone out there."

She added, "America is suffering because have lost faith in the American family," citing the example of the mystery of what had really happened with O.J. Simpson. "We are a Christian, God-fearing family. We love our children. We would do anything for our children."
January 2, 1997: Investigators follow the family to Georgia
A team of five detectives from Boulder fly to Atlanta, according to CNN. Investigators were shocked the Ramseys granted the TV interview since they had claimed to be too emotional to talk to the police.

January 3, 1997: Detectives reveal the ransom note was written inside the house

Detectives announce that the note was written on a paper pad from inside the house, meaning it was likely written after the murder.

John and Patsy return to Boulder.

Boulder cops also go to Charlevoix, Michigan, to search through a summer home the Ramsey family owns.
January 6, 1997: School resumes at JonBenét's school
After the Christmas and New Year holidays, class resumes at JonBenét's former school. Teachers and counselors help the young children try to understand what happened, even though it continues to be a mystery.
January 8, 1997: News comes out that there may have been a "practice" ransom note
Reportedly there is evidence that the person who wrote the ransom note first practiced it on another piece of paper.
February 27, 1997: JonBenét's half-brother is questioned
The alibi of John Andrew is reexamined, even though he was allegedly out of town when it happened.
March 8, 1997: The police search the Ramsey's Michigan home again
March 7, 1997: A handwriting analysis eliminates John, but not Patsy
April 3, 1997: DNA testing takes place
Based on expert analysis, detectives confirm that John didn't write the ransom note, but say there is a chance Patsy may have.

The police head back there, reportedly looking for "unrehearsed" handwriting samples to see if Patsy wrote the ransom note.

While there had already been a DNA test done by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, a secondary one was done by Maryland's Cellmark laboratories, according to the Denver Post.
April 30, 1997: Patsy is questioned for six-and-a-half hours
April 19, 1997: JonBenét's parents become the prime suspects
May 2, 1997: John and Patsy speak to local media
John and Patsy become the prime suspects of the investigation, according to CNN. "Obviously, the focus is on these people," Boulder's D.A. Alex Hunter says.

Photo: Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post

May 14, 1997: The DNA results have "no surprises"
"Formal interviews" are conducted with John for two hours and Patsy for six-and-a-half hours. These new statements replace the initial ones made right after the murder.
July 12, 1997: JonBenét's bedroom furniture is moved to Atlanta
The victim's parents talk to the local press, including 9News. John stumbles over his daughter's name and addresses the rumors of her possibly being sexually molested, calling those "most hurtful innuendos." Patsy says, "I'm appalled that anyone would think that John or I would be involved with such a hideous and heinous crime, but let me assure you I didn't not kill JonBenét."
July 14, 1997: Autopsy reports are released
Sources report that there are "no surprises" in the results of the DNA test, but don't specify what that means.
January 15, 1998: The Ramseys refuse to interview with authorities
The former child beauty queen's belongings are moved across the country on a moving truck.
January 29, 1998: John and Patsy submit the clothes they were wearing
The previously sealed autopsy results are released. They confirm "a deep ligature around the victim's neck and another around the right wrist - evidence she was bound and strangled" and also say that "blood and abrasions were found in the girl's vaginal area - and that she was struck on the head violently enough to cause bleeding and an 8.5-inch fracture to her skull," according to CNN.

The Ramseys ask to review evidence before giving more interviews to the police. Their request is rejected, according to the Denver Post.

Two months after the police requested the parents hand over the clothes they were wearing the night of the crime, the Ramseys turn in two shirts, a pair of pants and a sweater.
June 3, 1998: Evidential investigations continue
March 12, 1998: A grand jury investigation is called

Investigators formerly call for a grand jury investigation since 15 months have already passed since the murder.

The case's lead investigator, Mark Beckner says there are "significant results" from the 1,058 pieces of evidence taken from the home. Details are not shared.
August 6, 1998: Denver detective Steve Thomas resigns, calling the case "crippled"
June 10-12, 1998: JonBenét's brother Burke is questioned
August 19, 1998: White asks for Hunter to be dismissed
JonBenét's older brother Burke, who was 9 at the time of the crime and the only other one known to be in the house that night, is also questioned for the first time. He's now 11.
August 20, 1998: Burke's voice is reportedly overheard on 911 call
Detective Steve Thomas writes an eight-page resignation letter, saying that Hunter's office has "crippled" the case since elements have been "thoroughly compromised," according to the Denver Post. Governor Roy Romer inquires as to whether he needs to step in. He eventually does.

Family friend White asks to have someone other than Hunter assigned to the JonBenét case.

Originally, the Ramseys had said Burke was asleep the morning his sister was discovered missing - and didn't wake up until the police arrived. However, in the 911 tape that has now been enhanced, Burke's voice is reportedly heard in the background.
September 24, 1998: Another detective quits
September 15, 1998: The grand jury begins their investigation
October 13, 1998: The grand jury begins hearing forensic evidence
Even though they were selected five months prior, the grand jury starts their investigation, according to CNN.
October 20, 1998: John faces Stephen Miles in court
Citing too much focus on the Ramsey parents, homicide detective Lou Smit quits and says in his resignation letter that a "very dangerous killer is still out there." This gives the Ramseys the fuel they need to convince authorities to shift the focus of the investigation.
December 3, 1998: More family DNA is collected
The grand jury starts hearing the case - learning about forensic evidence, like DNA, hair and fibers from the scene. They also tour the family's home in Boulder nine days later.
January 28, 1999: A teddy bear takes center stage
Two stories in the National Enquirer had said an anonymous source said John believed photographer Stephen Miles killed JonBenét. John goes back to Colorado to face Miles in the civil case.
March 18, 1999: The first detective on the case resigns
Almost two years after the killing, DNA evidence is requested of five Ramsey family members. Though they are not suspects though - investigators simply want to try to identify who the DNA in the house belongs to.

Investigators appeal to the online community to try to find information about a Santa Claus teddy bear that was reportedly found in JonBenét's bedroom. They hope by finding the manufacturer and where it was sold, they can link more dots.

Yet another resignation. Arndt resigns because of all the criticism.
September 13, 1999: Detective Arndt says he knows who killed JonBenét
May 19, 1999: Burke is no longer a suspect
September 30, 1999: JonBenét's half-siblings testify
Now 12 years old, Burke is secretly questioned by the grand jury - and he is officially declared a witness only, not a suspect.

In an interview on Good Morning America, Arndt says she knows who the killer is, but won't say who.

John Andrew and Melinda - who had already been cleared in March 1997 - testify in front of the grand jury.
March 17, 2000: The Ramseys publish a book
October 13, 1999: The district attorney says there is no "sufficient evidence"
May 24, 2000: John and Patsy hold a press conference
Hunter says that there isn't "sufficient evidence" to charge anyone in the murder.

John and Patsy release The Death of Innocence about their daughter's murderer, along with a publicity campaign to promote it.

JonBenét's parents hold a news conference to announce that lie detector tests confirm they are innocent in the death of their daughter. However, the test wasn't run by the FBI and not acceptable to investigators.
June 29, 2006: Patsy is buried next to JonBenét
June 24, 2006: Patsy dies of cancer
September 12, 2016: Burke breaks his silence - but reveals no answers
With no answers in sight at the time of her death, JonBenét's mother Patsy - a former pageant queen herself - passes away at the age of 49 from ovarian cancer. She had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in 1993.
Watch Who Killed JonBenet? on Lifetime Movie Club
Patsy is buried in Marietta, Georgia, next to her daughter JonBenét.

After 20 years, JonBenét's brother Burke sits down for an interview with Dr. Phil. "It probably was some pedophile in the pageant audience," he said - twice.

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JonBenét Ramsey's Murder: Timeline of the Child Pageant Star's Death and Investigation

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All the pomp and circumstance of the pageant scene became tainted with holiday murder in the unlikeliest of homes - and at the heart of it was an innocent six-year-old child. The discovery of JonBenét Ramsey's brutally murdered body on the morning after Christmas in 1996 in a spare room in the basement of the family's 7,000-square-foot home in the Chautauqua neighborhood of Boulder, Colorado, shocked the nation.

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Louise Cheer for Daily Mail Australia Khaleda Rahman For Dailymail.com

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JonBenet Ramsey was ‘killed by brother who smeared feces on wall’

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JonBenet Ramsey’s older brother Burke killed the American child beauty queen as well as covering the six-year-old’s Christmas present and bedrooms walls with feces, investigators claim.

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Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? An investigator’s dying wish keeps the search going with his family

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Lou Smit was hired to reexamine the unsolved Ramsey case and the first to suggest police should investigate an unknown intruder. Investigators cleared the Ramsey family as suspects.

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A former Boulder, Colo., police detective who spent almost two years investigating the killing of JonBenet Ramsey says in a new book that he and other investigators concluded that the 6-year-old girl had been killed by her mother, Patsy Ramsey.

The detective, Steve Thomas, who resigned from the police department in mid-1998, writes that he concluded that Mrs. Ramsey strangled her daughter in a panic on Christmas night 1996 after accidentally causing a serious wound to the little girl's head. He also contends that the girl's father, John Ramsey, after realizing what had happened, ''chose to protect his wife'' rather than help the authorities determine what had happened.

By outlining his theory in ''JonBenet: Inside the Ramsey Murder Investigation'' (St. Martin's Press), which is scheduled to be released to the public on Tuesday, Mr. Thomas has become the first person with direct knowledge of the investigation to publicly accuse Mrs. Ramsey of killing her daughter. He also says he concluded that Mr. Ramsey played no role in the girl's death.

The accusations against Mrs. Ramsey were disputed by her lawyer, L. Lin Wood, who called them ''fiction and utter nonsense,'' and other Boulder officials are believed to have views that differ from Mr. Thomas's.

Mr. Wood said in an interview that Mr. Thomas's theory ''is refuted in its entirety by medical evidence.''

Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey deny they were involved in the killing. In their own book, ''Death of Innocence'' (Thomas Nelson), which was released last month, they argue that JonBenet was killed by an intruder, a theory that some detectives favor. Mr. Thomas concedes in his book that one veteran homicide detective who worked on the case, Lou Smit, believes that the evidence suggests someone broke into the Ramseys' home in Boulder, strangled JonBenet ''in some sort of autoerotic fantasy'' and hid her body in the basement where Mr. Ramsey discovered it the next morning.

Guided by a police axiom that ''murders are usually what they seem,'' Mr. Thomas counters, ''the simplest explanation for what has gone into the books as one of the most perplexing and notorious murders of the decade is also the truth.''

Mr. Thomas's book is unlikely to spur any new police action. His theory of the crime, as well as Mr. Smit's, have been vetted by investigators and Alex Hunter, the Boulder district attorney. The conflicting views, which mirror conflicting evidence, were largely the reason Mr. Hunter dismissed a grand jury last October that heard evidence in the case for 13 months without indicting anyone. As Mr. Thomas admits in his book, Mr. Hunter and others did not feel confident that all the evidence pointed in one direction.

Mr. Hunter declined to discuss any specific points raised by Mr. Thomas, but said in an interview, ''It is improper in my judgment for a cop to be talking about confidential information in an ongoing case.''

Despite the lack of any indictments, the authorities in Boulder said they were keeping the Ramseys ''under the umbrella of suspicion,'' as Mark Beckner, Boulder police chief, told reporters after the grand jury was dismissed. But nobody in the case before Mr. Thomas had revealed how detectives believed one sequence of events might point to Mrs. Ramsey as the killer.

By Mr. Thomas's analysis, Mrs. Ramsey had grown frazzled by Christmas night 1996 because of ''an approaching 40th birthday, the busy holiday season, an exhausting Christmas Day and an argument with JonBenet'' over a bed-wetting incident that led to ''some sort of explosive encounter in the child's bathroom'' that resulted in a mortal head wound.

Mr. Thomas says he concluded that while JonBenet's head was probably injured by accident, Mrs. Ramsey, rather than summon help, panicked after her daughter fell unconscious. That, he says, led her to write a note suggesting that JonBenet had been kidnapped, after which she ''faced the major problem of what to do with the body.''

It was at that point, Mr. Thomas concludes, that the accident turned to murder. He says that on the way to placing her in a remote room of the basement, Mrs. Ramsey realized JonBenet was still alive. ''Only feet away was her paint tote,'' he writes. ''She grabbed a paintbrush and broke it to fashion the garrote with some cord. Then she looped the cord around the girl's neck.'' To make it look like a kidnapping, he says, Mrs. Ramsey tied the girl's wrists and taped over her mouth.

Mr. Smit, a former Colorado Springs detective who worked on hundreds of homicide cases before joining the Ramsey case at Mr. Hunter's invitation in 1997, has often said that he believes the parents are innocent. He contends that JonBenet was a victim of a pedophile who molested her, used a stun gun to disable her and, after JonBenet began screaming, killed her with a blow to the head, possibly with a flashlight. Mr. Smit, who resigned from the case after a year, has also said that medical evidence supports his theory more than Mr. Thomas's.

But Mr. Thomas, certain of his interpretation of the evidence, still regards Mr. Smit as a friend but ultimately dismisses him in the book ''as a major problem'' whose views went a long way toward what the author contends was deferential treatment of the Ramseys by prosecutors in the district attorney's office. That stance, more than anything, Mr. Thomas writes, led to his resignation from the police force.

Mr. Wood said that Mr. Thomas's accusations could expose him to a lawsuit, a view echoed by Hal Haddon, a lawyer who represents Mr. Ramsey. Mr. Wood also said it was inconceivable that either of the Ramseys could have killed their daughter, or if one had, that the other could have covered it up.

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JonBenet's Mother Was Killer, Detective Says (Published 2000)

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Steve Thomas, former Boulder, Colo, police detective who spent almost two years investigating killing of JonBenet Ramsey, says in new book that he and other investigators concluded that girl was killed by her mother, Patsy Ramsey; Thomas is first person with direct knowledge of investigation to publicly accuse Patsy Ramsey

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Here is some background information about the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation. The 6-year-old beauty pageant queen was found murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996. No one has ever been charged in the case and the investigation is still open. Early suspicion fell on her parents, but they were exonerated after DNA at the scene was found to belong to a male unrelated to the Ramsey family.

Personal

Birth date: August 6, 1990

Birth place: Atlanta, Georgia

Birth name: JonBenét Ramsey

Parents: John and Patricia "Patsy" Ramsey

Siblings: Burke Ramsey; John Andrew Ramsey, (half-brother); Melinda Ramsey Long, (half-sister); Elizabeth Ramsey, (half-sister), died in 1992 at age 22

Other Facts

JonBenét was named after her father, John Bennett Ramsey, and her name is pronounced in a French style. (zhawn ben-AY)

She won the following beauty pageants - Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, America's Royale Miss, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.

She is buried in Marietta, Georgia, beside her mother, who died from ovarian cancer in 2006, and her half-sister Elizabeth Ramsey, who died in a car crash in 1992.

Timeline

December 26, 1996 - JonBenét is murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, home. Her body is found in her basement that same day. JonBenét's mother, Patsy, says she found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for JonBenét's return.

January 4, 1997 - Reports reveal that JonBenét's skull had been fractured.

April 30, 1997 - Police conduct their first formal interviews with John and Patsy Ramsey.

December 1997 - Boulder police say John and Patsy Ramsey remain under "an umbrella of suspicion."

January 15, 1998 - JonBenét's parents decline to participate in a second interview with detectives, saying that they won't cooperate unless police allow them to review evidence in the case.

October 13, 1999 - Boulder CountyDistrict Attorney Alex Hunter states that no indictments will be issued due to a lack of evidence in the case.

December 2003 - A new DNA sample is submitted to the FBI database in the hope of finding new leads.

June 24, 2006 - Patsy Ramsey, age 49, dies of ovarian cancer.

August 16, 2006 - Officials announce that 41-year-old John Mark Karr has been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand as a suspect in the case. Karr allegedly told an American investigator that he drugged JonBenét and sexually assaulted her before accidentally killing her. Prosecutors later drop the case after DNA tests fail to link him to the crime scene.

July 9, 2008 - Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy says no one in the Ramsey family is considered a suspect and formally apologizes in a letter to John Ramsey.

February 2009 - The Boulder Police Department resumes its status as the lead agency investigating the case.

October 2, 2010 - Police investigators conduct new rounds of interviews.

January 27, 2013 - The Boulder Daily Camera reports that in 1999 the grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy Ramsey on charges of child abuse resulting in death, but Hunter decided there was not enough evidence to file charges and did not sign the indictment.

December 28, 2016 - After CBS airs a docu-series about the case suggesting that JonBenét's brother, Burke Ramsey, may have been the culprit, Burke files a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the network, the production company that made the documentary and one of the experts featured in the special, Dr. Werner Spitz. Burke had filed a separate defamation lawsuit against Spitz in October, stemming from a comment the doctor made during a radio interview. John Ramsey later files his own suit against CBS in Michigan state court.

January 2, 2019 - Following an undisclosed settlement, Michigan Circuit Court Judge David Groner signs an order of dismissal in the defamation lawsuit filed by Burke against CBS. Court documents appear to show that John Ramsey's separate lawsuit against the media company is also settled and dismissed on the same day.

December 20, 2021 - The City of Boulder releases a statement saying they have processed more than 1,500 pieces of evidence and analyzed nearly 1,000 DNA samples related to the child's murder. In the release, Boulder Police Department say they actively "use new technology to enhance the investigation" and check regularly for DNA matches in order to solve the case.

May 2, 2022 - In a petition sent to Colorado Governor Jared Polis, John Ramsey is asking the governor to intervene and let an outside agency take over DNA testing in the ongoing investigation. The petition claims Boulder Police have not worked fast enough to test the DNA evidence, and "given the lack of progress" the petitioners are asking the governor to "move DNA decisions in this case away from the BPD to an independent agency so that JonBenét has a last chance at the justice she deserves." The office of Gov. Polis' office says it is reviewing a petition asking him to intervene in the investigation.

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Here is some background information about the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation. The 6-year-old beauty pageant queen was found murdered in her Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996. No one has ever been charged in the case and the investigation is still open.