The first images of JonBenet Ramsey that were broadcast to the world showed a pretty little girl in heavy make-up and flamboyant costumes parading across a stage. At the time, the media described her as being "a painted baby, a sexualized toddler beauty queen."

From the day in 1996, when JonBenet was found dead in the basement of her home in Boulder Colorado, the Boulder police and a large proportion of the world's media believed that her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were responsible for her death. 

Prior to the murder of their daughter, John and Patsy Ramsey's life seemed almost ideal.  Patsy, a former beauty queen, was married to a successful businessman. They had moved to Boulder in 1991 where John ran a computer company that had started in his garage. The Ramsey's readily adapted to their new life in Colorado and made several new friends. They built a large house in an elite suburb, and entertained often. Their last party in Boulder, just three days before the murder, was particularly happy. Over a hundred guests were present at a Christmas function with a difference as the Ramsey's had good reason to celebrate. Patsy had warded off   cancer and John had been voted Boulder's "businessman of the year."

According to the Ramsey's testimony, they drove home the few blocks from a party at a friend's house on Christmas night. JonBenet had fallen asleep in the car so they carried her up the stairs to her room and put her to bed at 9:30 p. m. Shortly after, Patsy and John went to bed as they planned to get up early to prepare for a trip to their holiday home on Lake Michigan.

The next day, Patsy woke just after 5: 0 am and walked down the stairs to the kitchen. At the foot of the staircase, she found a two-and-a-half page ransom note that said that JonBenet had been kidnapped by a "small local faction" and was being held for a ransom of $118,000. She was to be exchanged for the money later the same day. The letter warned that if the money was not delivered, the child would be beheaded. Patsy yelled to John as she ran back up the stairs and opened the door to JonBenet's room. Finding she wasn't there they made the decision to phone the police. The 911 dispatcher recorded Patsy's call at 5:25 am. The police arrived at the house seven minutes later.

The uniformed police officers that attended were openly suspicious from the start. The Ramseys, treating the demand seriously, were already taking steps to raise the ransom. The note said that the kidnappers would call John Ramsey between 8-10 am but no call came. It was while the police were waiting for the call that they made several critical mistakes. They did not conduct a proper search of the house, the area was not sealed off and friends were allowed to walk in and out at their leisure. No moves were made to protect any forensic evidence. The scale of their mistakes became apparent later that afternoon when a detective asked Fleet White, a friend of the Ramseys, to take John and search the house for "anything unusual." They started in the basement. Later, during the documentary  Who Killed JonBenet?, made by Channel Four in London, John Ramsey describes what they found: -

"As I was walking through the basement, I opened the door to a room and knew immediately that I'd found her because there was a white blanket - her eyes were closed, I feared the worse but yet - I'd found her."

While the Ramseys went to stay with friends, their home became a major crime scene. Being the only murder in Boulder that year, the investigating police had little experience in that type of crime, with very few of them having conducted a murder investigation at all. Regardless, they immediately assumed the Ramseys were guilty. The fact that JonBenet had been found in her own home by her father was considered highly suspicious. By the time her body had been taken from the house that evening, some of their suspicions had been passed to a local journalist.

On December 27, the Rocky Mountain News quoted an Assistant District Attorney as saying, "It was very unusual for a kidnap victim's body to be found at home - it's not adding up." According to Charlie Brennan, the journalist who wrote the story, the police had also indicated to him that they held a strong belief that the parents were responsible. Julie Hayden, a television reporter for Denver's Channel 7, also covered the story on the same day and drew the same conclusion. She later explained that from her first exposure to the case, the police had made it very clear that they were not scouring the area looking for "some mad kidnapper" but instead, concentrating their efforts on John and Patsy Ramsey.

From that day on, a clear pattern emerged in the coverage of the case. While police chief, Tom Koby, made little comment, reporters had their own sources, which tended to implicate the Ramseys. At that point, John and Patsy were placed under police protection but were largely unaware of the mounting suspicion against them. One man, however, saw the early warning signs and acted. Mike Bynum, a lawyer friend of John's hired Brian Morgan to act as their personal council. In the same documentary he defended his appointment, stating: -

"It is foolish to blindly throw oneself into the maw of the justice system and to trust the result. One simply must be thoughtful about the way one acts, especially in a case of media attention that reaches the point of near hysteria and especially in a case of media attention which, from the outset, portrays certain people as clearly guilty."

He also defended the need for legal representation: - 

"If you're guilty, you want to think about having a lawyer, and I want to tell you what, if you're innocent you better have a lawyer - there is no difference."