The former classmate, Michael Vail, says he's confident that Oliva is responsible for JonBenét's 1996 murder, citing numerous red flags in the convicted pedophile's life, such as a phone call he supposedly made to Vail on the day that JonBenét's body was found, in which he reportedly told him, "I just hurt a little girl," while sobbing.
Then there's Oliva's alleged obsession with knots and art supplies; a broken paintbrush and knotted rope were used as a garrote to strangle JonBenét.
Sources close to the Ramsey family, however, aren't convinced — and JonBenét’s half-brother, John Andrew, dismisses the possibility of Oliva being his sister's killer in a statement to Westword.
"I am a numbers guy," he says. "Always looking for a way to improve the odds of catching JonBenét's killer. An easy way to improve the odds is to identify and investigate any child sex offenders living in Boulder in 1996. To further narrow the field, we are looking for a very rare breed of pedophile. A sadistic pedophile. A creature so craven they gain pleasure by torturing and quite often killing young children. These guys sit at the very top of [a] large pile of shit birds. Based on Gary’s past actions, it does not seem he rises to that level."
Oliva, who is currently serving a ten-year sentence for possession of child pornography and has a parole hearing in September, has been cleared several times by the Boulder Police Department after it investigated a series of alleged confessions he made in letters to Vail.
"By accident she died and it was my fault," Oliva said in one.
“I never loved anyone like I did JonBenét and yet I let her slip and her head bashed in half and I watched her die," he said in another, according to a 2019 Associated Press article covering an interview that Vail did with the Daily Mail that year. "It was an accident," Oliva added. "Please believe me. She was not like the other kids."
Arguably the most famous unsolved murder in Colorado history — maybe even the country — JonBenét's death has grabbed headlines for decades. The pageant-loving six-year-old was initially thought to have been kidnapped by an intruder after her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, woke up on December 26, 1996, to a three-page handwritten ransom note on their spiral staircase, and JonBenét missing from her room.
"JonBenét's been kidnapped," Patsy told her neighbor, Priscilla White, during a phone call that morning. "Come over right now. Call the FBI."
A search of the family's now-notorious home by John Ramsey and Priscilla's husband, Fleet White Jr., led to the discovery of JonBenét's body inside a storage room-turned-wine cellar in the basement. She had been bludgeoned, strangled and sexually abused, according to police.
JonBenét's parents and other older brother, Burke Ramsey — who was nine at the time and also lived in the home — were all treated as suspects by the Boulder police and eventually cleared through DNA testing. John Andrew, who is John's son from his first marriage, was twenty when his sister was killed and reportedly in Atlanta. He was publicly cleared as a suspect by authorities in March 1997.
John Andrew has been a vocal critic of the BPD and its investigative efforts, often calling out the department on social media for not solving JonBenét's murder and instead focusing on his family as suspects.
@boulderpolice are incompetent and biased investigators and have zero business running a complex cold case homicide investigation. Who is going to hold the police accountable @AaronBrockett12 @DADoughertyCO? #jonbenet #happyeasteryall pic.twitter.com/YZT2wG2X3R
— John Andrew Ramsey (@JRamsey_Truth) April 18, 2022
Oliva was first questioned by Boulder police in 2000 and has publicly denied killing or hurting JonBenét — but he has also admitted to being obsessed with the child pageant star, and claims to have "a problem" being around young girls. "I believe that she came to me after she was killed and revealed herself to me," Oliva told 48 Hours in 2004. A DNA sample that he provided to police did not match evidence found at the scene, according to cops.Good Dad + a good dog. @boulderpolice owe him a long and sincere apology but we will take some hard work and grit to get the job done. Do they have it? Doubt it. #boulder #jonbenet pic.twitter.com/gn1DLAyHiS
— John Andrew Ramsey (@JRamsey_Truth) June 19, 2022
And that wasn't the last time the DPD investigated him. When Vail came forward with his letters and spoke to the Daily Mail in 2019, the DPD released a statement: “The Boulder Police Department is aware of Gary Oliva and has investigated his potential involvement in this case, including several previous confessions. The department routinely receives information on this investigation. Information provided to the police department is reviewed along with the many tips and theories we receive.”
Vail has claimed on several occasions that he believes the smoking gun in the JonBenét case is Oliva's alleged affinity for art and knot-tying. “When we were at school, Gary used to creep into homes, buildings, and classrooms and steal art supplies … paintbrushes, glue, paint, things like that,” Vail told the U.S. Sun.
After seeing the garrote device that was used to strangle JonBenét, Vail told the tabloid he knew immediately that Oliva was involved somehow. "I never looked at that garrote until after 2016, and when I saw it all the hairs on my arm stood up straight away and goosebumps were all over my neck," a July 1 article quotes him as saying. “I said to myself, ‘Holy crap — that’s a paintbrush and there’s a knot on the fucking string.'"
Investigators believe the paintbrush handle that was used to construct the murder weapon came from Patsy Ramsey's art collection. Oliva, who is described as a drifter from Oregon, had frequented the Boulder area over the years and has been accused of entering the Ramsey home and other residences on numerous occasions to swipe art supplies.
"He was getting his mail 13 houses away from the Ramseys, and I think he broke into that home more than once," Vail alleges in a July 6 report by the U.S. Sun.
Despite the dead ends, John Andrew Ramsey believes it's important that investigators did their due diligence regarding Oliva — who has an estimated mandatory release date set for March 2024.
"It sure does seem prudent to run him to the ground as a potential suspect," he concludes.
