seeing the killer

After JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in 1996 authorities, media, psychics and the general public have been all over the board with criminal profiles in sometimes pointed speculation that JonBenet's killer was a woman, and or a Ramsey. This occurred despite less that 3 weeks after the murder it was established there was male DNA left on JonBenet's undergarment and that this male DNA did not belong to any of the Ramseys. Twelve years later, leaps in proven technologies, it is broadly recognized this same unidentified male left DNA from 3 of his bodily sources in 4 different locations on JonBenet's person.

There are signs that someday emerging technologies like forensic molecular photo fitting will produce an image of this evil person. On the path of research and development toward photo fitting and much closer to real life application is the capability of extracting basic personal characteristics and associating the killer's relatives from DNA. These general characteristic techniques can pinpoint race; height; hair or eye color are now being put through the expected legal, ethical and privacy paces so that once released for appropriate use this information will be of tremendous benefit in creating a verifiable criminal profile in many cases, including JonBenet's. In the meantime that new task force over at Boulder PD submits weekly the killers DNA profile to CODIS on the chance they may get a match to one of the 7m+ criminals whose DNA profile is contained in CODIS.

Offender profiling, outside what characteristics found in crime scene DNA will eventually tell us, can be a risky business most especially for a layperson. It is not replicable, validated and tested meaning it does not qualify as science in standard. Sort of like handwriting analysis or forensic linguistics. Because these practices are qualitative opinion based methods admissibility of results and expert opinions can be challenged, frequently limited, in state and federal courts. Criminal profiling can be useful investigative tool where it is understood by users that it's application is subject to unestablished fault and error rates, again like document examination and linguistic stylistics.

Offender profiling by subject matter experts like John Douglas is can be of high investigative value based on education and experience, often a source of clues in a specific crime scene as derived from historical crime conditions and behaviors of known criminals. With that in mind, and somewhat more realistic than attempting to tie guilt to someone wearing the same clothes two days in a row, because there was a sexual element to this crime we may have more hints to ponder about JonBenet's killer than in 1997--

He is most likely of Caucasian descent

He is now probably at least in his mid-forties

He may be shorter than the average in height

He could be left-handed

In the past, prior to the crime, he might have had a head injury

May prefer alcohol over street drugs

His choice of victim may have been totally random

Is likely to feel he suffered more than the victim; lack of empathy for the victims

Ramseys update own probe
1997, Denver Post
By Marilyn Robinson

"Frustrated at the pace of the police investigation, JonBenet Ramsey's father stepped up his efforts Wednesday to find her killer...

• JonBenét's killer may have been suffering from some stress in the weeks and months preceding the crime;
• A triggering event, such as a job crisis or crisis in a personal relationship may have caused this individual to vent anger, perhaps at a female close to him, or perhaps at me personally;
• Since the murder, this individual may rabidly read news reports of the investigation, listen to talk radio shows oriented to coverage of the murder;
• He possibly has increased his consumption of alcohol or drugs;
• He may have even turned to religion;
• He may be rigid, nervous and preoccupied in casual conversation;
• He may have tried to appear very cooperative with the authorities if he was contacted during the course of the police investigation;
• He may have quickly constructed an alibi for his whereabouts the night JonBenét was killed and may have repeated it several times to key individuals around him as if rehearsing them in the answer;
• The killer is someone who may have previously been in my home..."