Sept. 24, 2024

The Mystery of JonBenet: Inside the Coldest Case of the ’90s

The Mystery of JonBenet: Inside the Coldest Case of the ’90s

The Mystery of JonBenet: Inside the Coldest Case of the ’90s

In 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in her family’s home after her mother, Patsy Ramsey, reported her missing on Christmas morning. The case quickly took a bizarre turn...

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The Mystery of JonBenet: Inside the Coldest Case of the ’90s

In 1996, six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found dead in her family’s home after her mother, Patsy Ramsey, reported her missing on Christmas morning. The case quickly took a bizarre turn when a lengthy ransom note was discovered, asking for the exact amount of her father's Christmas bonus. In this episode, we break down the details of this tragic case, diving into the oddities of the investigation, theories about an intruder, and the suspicions surrounding the Ramsey family themselves. With no sign of forced entry and a staged crime scene, was JonBenet’s death the result of a tragic accident or something far more sinister? Revisit one of the most haunting cold cases in true crime history.


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WEBVTT

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On Christmas morning nineteen ninety six, the police in Boulder,

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Colorado received an unusual phone call. The caller was Patsy Ramsey,

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and she told them that her daughter, six year old

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John Bennay, had been kidnapped and ransom note had been

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left in the house. Within three minutes of the call,

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officers arrived at the Ramsey family house. They didn't see

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any signs that someone had broken in. From the very start,

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investigators noticed that the ransom note was unusual. While ransom

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notes were usually brief and rushed, this one was extremely

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detailed and it was two and a half pages long.

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The amount of money they asked for, one hundred eighteen

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thousand dollars, was the exact amount of money that John

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had received for last year's Christmas bonus at work. This

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made it appear as if the note had been written

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by someone intimately familiar with the Ramsey family, close enough

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that they would know how much John's Christmas bonus was.

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During the early part of the investigation, nobody made an

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effort to preserve the forensic evidence in the house. Apart

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from John Benet's bedroom. Patsy called several family friends and

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a minister, all of whom quickly arrived at the Ramsey

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house to support her and John John started making plans

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to pay the ransom. In the early afternoon of that day,

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one of the detectives asked John Ramsay and one of

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his friends to take another look through the house and

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see if they could find anything. John decided to examine

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the basement, and within minutes he found his daughter. John

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Benet was lying on the basement floor behind a closed door,

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her wrists tied with a nylon cord duct tape covering

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her mouth and a crudely made garrat around her neck.

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She was dead, and she had been dead since before

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she was reported missing. Instead of waiting for investigators to

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examine the crime scene, John immediately picked up his daughter

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and carried her body upstairs. Rigor mortis had already set

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in and John Benet's body was frozen in place, with

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her arms stretched above her head. Unable to cradle her

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in his arms, John held her at arm's length. There

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had never been a kidnapping. John Benet had never left

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the house. In the investigation, police recognized two main theories

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about who could have killed John Beney Ramsey. The first

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theory relied on the ransom note being at least partially true.

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Although John Benay was never actually kidnapped, an intruder broke

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into the house and murdered the six year old girl.

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The evidence for this theory was limited to the ransom

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notes and a partial bootmark left in the basement of

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the house, which was never matched to any of the ramseys.

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One of the detectives working the case theorized that an

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intruder broke into the house through one of the basement windows,

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which was broken. However, when searching the house, investigators had

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noted that the cobwebs on the broken window had not

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been disturbed, and neither had the dust on the windowsill.

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It seemed impossible that somebody had managed to squeeze through

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the window in the dark without touching any of the

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cobwebs or disturbing any of the dust. John Benay's autopsy

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ruled that her cause of death was a combination of

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a fractured skars goal and strangulation with the garrot. However,

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both the injuries had not occurred at once. John Beney

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had been hid in the head with a blunt object,

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causing an injury that would eventually become fatal, but it

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hadn't killed her instantly. She had laid dying for around

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an hour before the second injury, the strangulation had occurred.

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Her killer had used a paintbrush handle and some nylene

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cord to make a garrot, strangling the six year old

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to death. Although no seaman was found on John Benet's body,

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there was an injury to her genitalia which appeared to

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have been caused by the same broken paint brush which

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was later used to create the grot around her neck.

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The genital injury had occurred after the head wound, closer

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to the time that John Beney died. According to the pathologist.

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Somebody had also used a cloth to wipe her genitalia

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shortly before she died, and her stomach partially digested pieces

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of pineapple were found. There's one key problem with the

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intruder theory. Investigators never found any concrete evidence proving that

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an additional person had been inside the Ramsey house that night.

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In fact, the only people confirmed to be home that

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night where John, Patricia, their son Burke, and John Beney.

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The second theory, which is what the initial investigation focused on,

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is that one of the Ramses was the killer. While

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investigators didn't uncover evidence that somebody else had broken into

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the house, there was clear evidence that the crime scene

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had been staged. Someone had left behind a false ransom note,

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despite John Benney never being moved from the place where

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she was killed. Additionally, the Ramsey family weren't helpful to

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law enforcement during the early stages of the case. John

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and Patricia later claimed that this was because they were

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concerned that they would be framed. Most of the theories

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surrounding the Ramsey family focused on Patsy and nine year

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old Burke. Some people believed that John Bennay had infuriated

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her mother by wetting the bed, and Patsy had seriously

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injured her by hitting her on the head, then bizarrely

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decided to strangle her daughter with the garat and stage

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a kidnapping in an attempt to get away with the crime.

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One of the main reasons that Patsy was suspected was

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the belief that she had been the one to write

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the ransom note. During the nine to one one call,

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Patsy stated that she had realized John Bena had gone

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missing after she discovered the note, which had been left

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sitting on the stairs. Not only was the ransom note

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incredibly long, but there was evidence that it had been

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written inside the Ramsey house, meaning that the author had

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risked being discovered while they took the time to write

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not only a two and a half page long ransom note,

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but also a first draft which was discarded. The author

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of the note appeared to have no idea what a

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ransom note should actually contain. Instead, they referenced dialogue from

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several movies, including Dirty Harry and Escape from New York.

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Despite the note warning that any attempts to contact the

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police or the FBI would result in John Benay being beheaded,

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Patsy had read the note and immediately called nine to

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one one. The pen and the paper used to write

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the note both belonged to the Ramseys. No unknown fingerprints

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were found on the paper. The only person who had

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handled it appeared to be Patsy. Forensic pathologist Michael Bodden

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stated that in his sixty years in the field, he

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had never seen a ransom note similar to the one

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found in the John Benney case, and he believed that

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there was no way an intruder unknown to the family

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had written it. A Colorado Bureau of investigation report came

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to the conclusion that there were indications that the author

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of the note was Patsy Ramsey. However, they didn't find

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enough evidence to say for sure. Likewise, another theory is

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that Burke her brother hit John Benay due to a

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sibling dispute, and when he or one of his parents

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realized how seriously she was injured, they fatally strangled her

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and then staged the kidnapping. Burke was interviewed by the

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police several times, and unlike his parents, he was never

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officially considered to be a suspect. By two thousand and two,

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the case remained unsolved and a new district attorney took over.

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While the previous investigation had focused almost exclusively on the

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Ramses as suspects, the new DA was interested in looking

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into the intruder theory. A year later, trace amounts of

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unknown male DNA were found on swabs taken from John

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Benney's clothing. Investigations carried out numerous DNA tests trying to

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find somebody who matched. Despite a long list of potential suspects,

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they never found a match. In two thousand and eight,

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the d D sent a letter to the family apologizing

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for the suspicion and claiming that they were now completely

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cleared as suspects. By this time, Patsy Ramsey had been

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dead for two years. She died of cancer at the

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age of forty nine. However, not everyone agreed with the

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decision to clear the Ramses. The following year, the Bolder

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Police Force reclaimed the case and opened the investigation again.

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It has remained open ever since. In twenty sixteen, a

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show titled The Case of John Beney Ramsey was released

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on CBS. The experts featured on the show explained the theory

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that nine year old Burke had hit John Bennay in

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the head with a flashlight, and that even though he

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hadn't meant to kill her, the injury had been fatal

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and the ransom letter had been written by Patsy to

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try and avoid her son facing the consequences. Burke then

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filed several defamation lawsuits and response to the show's claims,

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which were settled in Janey twenty nineteen. That's ten minute

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Murder for today, brief and binge able true crime. My

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name is Joe. I'm the host, and thank you for listening.

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If you are a new listener to the podcast hit

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subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That doesn't mean just

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in the future. For me, I know, I jump through

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about three different podcasts listening apps on a daily basis,

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and I've got the podcast that I most listened to

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subscribe to on all of those, so that anyone I'm

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listening to at that particular moment, I can access that podcast.

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I know that sounds like a weird way to do things,

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but I found it's the most convenient way to keep

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up with what I'm listening to. Also, Hey, if you

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haven't followed the podcast on all of the social media places,

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go ahead and do that. There are links in the

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show notes. You can go to ten minute Murder dot com,

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or just go to whatever place you want to follow

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the podcast, like TikTok. Type in ten minute Murder and

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it's gonna pop up. If you'd like to get in

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touch with me, you can do that with email Joe

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at ten minute Murder dot com. And here is one

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of those emails, Hi Joe. The obligatory gush of fanism

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for the show. I love the podcast, Always listening wherever

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I can I always wonder what the people in the

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grocery store would think if they knew the shit I

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was listening to on my AirPods as I shop for

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the ingredients for my family's dinner. Anyway, I got to know,

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where do you get the background info in these people?

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Like how do you find out about their abusive backgrounds

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and what their childhood was like? Not just the victims,

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but the purpse too. I can hardly find my high

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school bully on Facebook to make sure she's miserable, and

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you can find the literal entire life of these people.

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It amazes me. Thanks for always doing the best episodes

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and og listener Sarah. And first of all, Sarah, thank

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you so much for taking the time to send me

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an email, and I appreciate you sticking around to become

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an og listener. And the answer is, I can't tell you, Jak.

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It's just search engines. Some of them take a long time,

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some of them take a short amount of time. It

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just depends on how much information is out on the Internet.

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Sometimes it's difficult to find. Sometimes it's not very difficult,

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like in the episode today. Everyone knows that there's a

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ton of information on the internet. A lot of its

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conspiracy theories, so you have to wade through that the

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stuff that isn't true to find the stuff that is true.

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But most cases aren't like that. Most cases are pretty

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black and white, cut and dry. But let's take an

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ordinary episode. There was probably an interview done at some

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point with family members or people close to the victims

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or the perpetrator. They will have said some things, so

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there's background information on that. News stories that happen, there

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are documentaries that happen, and all of that combined is

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where you get the information. And that's mostly how the

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information is found. There are a couple other ways that

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you probably can guess, but I'm not going to go

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into and that's going to do it. That is your

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episode for today. Thank you for listening to ten minute Murder.