Records Show 911 Call Before Child’s Death

BOULDER, Colo. — A 911 call was made from JonBenet Ramsey’s home three days before the 6-year-old was found strangled, but the call ended before the dispatcher could talk to the person on the line, police records show.

Within minutes, police tried to call back and then sent an officer to the home. The officer left minutes later and didn’t file a report, according to the police records.

No complaint was filed as a result of the call, and it was unclear if it was related to the slaying of the child beauty queen, whose body was found Dec. 26 in the basement of her home.

Police would not comment on the call.

The police records showed that the emergency call was placed at 6:48 p.m. Dec. 23. And when police tried to call back six minutes later, the response was a voice-mail message. About five minutes after that, the police officer was sent.

JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey, is founder of Access Graphics, a billion-dollar computer company, and her mother, Patricia, is a former Miss West Virginia.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday that JonBenet’s body was behind a basement-room door that was jammed shut when police first searched the family’s expensive Tudor home after they were summoned by Patricia Ramsey. She called 911 after finding a three-page ransom note demanding $118,000, the paper said.

The coroner said the former Little Miss Colorado was strangled. Denver newspapers have reported that JonBenet’s killer also fractured her skull, placed duct tape over her mouth and a white cord around her neck and sexually assaulted her.

The Boulder Daily Camera reported Thursday that the ransom note stipulated that $100,000 of the $118,000 be paid with $100 bills. The newspaper quoted an unidentified source as saying a Boulder bank provided Ramsey with the cash the morning of Dec. 26.

Robert Ressler, former head of the FBI’s behavioral research division, said in a television interview that the note could have been an attempt to make the slaying appear to be an attempted kidnapping.

He said that was suggested by the note’s length and the extreme violence suffered by JonBenet--far more than would be needed to subdue her.

Boulder Police Chief Tom Koby said Thursday night that the murder was an isolated incident not tied to any other crimes.

“The best judgment of the Boulder Police Department is that this is a one-time occurrence. The killing of JonBenet does not appear to be linked to any other similar event,” Koby said in a news briefing telecast over a public-access cable television station in Boulder.