|
|
 |
|
|
Sketchy result in JonBenet murder case
|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
UNITED STATES. Ten years have passed since six-year-old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered on 26 December 1996 in the basement of her home in Boulder, Colorado, but the case is still unsolved.
 In 2000, her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey – who initially came under suspicion but have always insisted their daughter was killed by an intruder – posted a sketch of a man, drawn with the help of a police artist, who had been “seen” by psychic Dorothy Allison, who has since passed on.
That drawing has suddenly been flashed around the world with the news that 41-year-old teacher John Mark Karr had confessed to the murder after being arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, on 16 August 2006, on child pornography charges.
Many commentators remarked on the striking similarity of the psychic sketch and photos of Karr, who also made a video confession.
But the latest development in this case require us to suspend judgment on Dorothy Allison’s psychic abilities – at least as far as JonBenet Ramsey is concerned.
On 28 August, prosecutors announced that Karr’s DNA did not match that found on JonBenet Ramsey’s body and so no murder charges would be brought against him.
 And a few days later, sceptical researcher and “Skeptical Inquirer contributor” Joe Nickell argued persuasively that the resemblance “was actually little more than that between countless other clean-shaven white men”.
He pointed out that the hair was different, as were the entire shape of the head and other features, such as Karr’s much fuller lower lip. Other information given by Dorothy Allison during the first showing of the sketch, on the 27 April 1998 broadcast of “LEEZA” (the Leeza Gibbons Show), included the names “Martin” and “Irving”.
“The mismatch serves as a warning against the tendency to retrofit,” Nickell concludes, “and against the temptation to accept uncritically the imaginings of a failed clairvoyant.”
But there, perhaps, our sceptic goes too far. After all, it is not Allison – who died in December 1999 – who has claimed that the drawing is similar to Karr. And until JonBenet’s murderer is found we must suspend judgment on the image and also the other impressions she gave in connection with this puzzling case.
|
Posted on Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Category: Psychic detectives
|
| Return |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|