The six-year-old's death has spurred countless theories and immeasurable media attention since JonBenét's body was discovered in the basement of her Boulder home on December 26, 1996. The theories can largely be separated into two camps — either an intruder killed JonBenét, or her family members are responsible.
Only one of those camps will be represented during CrimeCon, however. The convention booked three speakers for a presentation and meet-and-greet on September 6 related to the case: the father, John Ramsey; his attorney, Hal Haddon; and a journalist who has written extensively in defense of the family's innocence, Paula Woodward.
CrimeCon is seemingly avoiding other mentions of the case. An exhibitor booth for the documentary JonBenét's Tricycle was canceled after organizers confirmed members of the Ramsey family would be attending the event, according to emails reviewed by Westword.
The documentary does not speculate on who murdered JonBenét, instead revolving around how the case was treated by the media and true crime fans through the perspective of filmmaker Andrew Novick, who acquired a tricycle he believes belonged to JonBenét. Though not its focus, the film at times mentions the possibility of the Ramsey parents' involvement in the murder, in addition to discussing various other suspects outside of the family.
In the documentary, Novick questions the parents' actions that contaminated the crime scene, and references how their 2008 exoneration by then-District Attorney Mary Lacy was later challenged due to Lacy misrepresenting DNA evidence as conclusive proof, while independent reviews described the DNA samples as possibly "worthless as evidence."
"It feels like they are very much picking a side," Novick says of CrimeCon. "If they're going to have one side of a case and not the other side, then they're choosing the narrative, which the media has always done."
A still from the documentary, JonBenet's Tricycle.
Denver Film Society
"This wasn’t an easy call, and I’m truly sorry for the late notice," Powers wrote in the email shared with Westword. "We recently confirmed that members of the Ramsey family will be attending the event — and we just don’t feel 100 percent comfortable with the products/imagery or know how they would react to seeing it onsite. Out of respect for their presence, we felt it was best to err on the side of caution."
According to Novick, he planned to sell merchandise and copies of the film at his booth — and to display the namesake tricycle, which he found in an alley beside the Ramsey house in 1997, after the family moved following the murder. In the documentary, multiple people are shown riding the tricycle, and Novick brings it to psychics and spiritual mediums to evaluate. Near the end of the film, he appears to leave the toy at JonBenét's grave, though it is still in his possession today.
Novick defends his conduct in the documentary, contrasting it to how tabloids at the time published autopsy, crime scene and salacious pageant photos of JonBenét, all of which he steered away from.
"This movie is about the people obsessed with unsolved crimes and 'murderabilia.' And I am one of those cases in the film, I'm exposing people like myself," Novick explains. "It could be disturbing for [JonBenét's family members] to see [the tricycle] whether they killed her or not, but no more disturbing than any newspaper article or tabloid from the last thirty years. I don't think that my movie is exploiting her in that way."
None of the listed exhibitors at CrimeCon Denver reference the JonBenét case. Specific murder cases featured among the exhibitors include the 2004 slaying of Brittany Phillips in Oklahoma and a 2005 triple homicide out of Nebraska.
Neither Powers nor representatives from CrimeCon responded to inquiries from Westword regarding the cancellation of Novick's booth or whether all JonBenét-related applications were rejected.
Ramsey has participated in CrimeCon multiple times since it began in 2017, appearing at the Nashville convention in 2024 and the Las Vegas convention in 2022. Woodward credited the founder of CrimeCon, Kevin Balfe, with creating a 2022 petition that called on Governor Jared Polis to take decisions about DNA testing in JonBenét's case away from the Boulder Police Department and assign them to an independent agency. Ramsey was a lead supporter of the petition.
After applying for a CrimeCon booth in January, Novick received an automatic response that said his application would be reviewed within thirty business days. Months passed and he never heard another word, but CrimeCon had taken the $1,250 booth fee from Novick's application, he says, so he figured he was in.
Novick reached out to organizers in July to inquire about logistical details. That's when Powers emailed him, breaking the news that his booth was canceled. Novick says the $1,250 fee was quickly refunded, but no one from CrimeCon has responded to any of his outreach attempts since.
Novick says he has never participated in a true crime convention before, but jumped at the opportunity after CrimeCon announced it was coming to Colorado. Though his documentary premiered in 2017, it was added to Amazon Prime and Tubi within the last year, so he hoped the convention would spur traffic to the film on those streaming services.
"I think they're just kissing up to John Ramsey," Novick says. "They're favoring their featured speaker instead of making it a dialogue. ...If they really wanted to be well-rounded, they should have a panel discussion. They should have detractors. They should have my documentary, which is about how we deal with tragedy in our society and how it turns into pop culture."
(From left) JonBenét, John, Patsy and Burke Ramsey in an early 1990s family photo.
Family photo/Access Hollywood via YouTube
JonBenét Ramsey Case Timeline
The morning after Christmas 1996, Patsy Ramsey called 911, reporting that she had found a ransom note in her home demanding $118,000 for the return of her daughter, JonBenét. The note was written on paper taken from Patsy’s notepad, and investigators found no immediate signs of forced entry into the house.For hours, family friends came and went freely into the home as police failed to secure the crime scene. John Ramsey discovered JonBenét's body nearly eight hours after she was reported missing, lying inside a small room in the family's basement. JonBenét's father reportedly removed a piece of duct tape from her mouth and picked up the body, carrying her upstairs.
The young beauty queen had been strangled with a cord and suffered an 8.5-inch skull fracture from blunt head trauma. There was also evidence that she had been sexually assaulted.
A grand jury indicted John and Patsy Ramsey of child abuse resulting in death in 1999, but then-District Attorney Alex Hunter refused to prosecute the Ramseys, citing lack of evidence. The indictment was not revealed publicly until 2013.
In 2008, DA Lacy apologized to and exonerated the parents, citing new DNA evidence that pointed to an unknown male as JonBenét's killer. Independent reviews released in 2016 strongly disputed that decision, finding that the DNA samples taken from JonBenét's clothing came from multiple people and were so minute that they could have been the result of inconsequential contact or been transferred from another piece of clothing.
The Ramseys have always maintained their innocence.
CrimeCon Denver will be held September 5-7 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora.
