JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (/ˌdʒɒnbəˈneɪ pəˈtrɪʃə ˈræmzi/; August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was an American child beauty queen who was killed in her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. A lengthy handwritten ransom note was found in the house, and JonBenét's father John found her body in the basement of their house about eight hours after she had been reported missing. She sustained a broken skull from a blow to the head and had been strangled; a garrote was found tied around her neck. The autopsy report stated that the official cause of death was "asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma."[1][2] Her death was ruled a homicide.[3] The case generated nationwide public and media interest, in part because her mother Patsy Ramsey (herself a former beauty queen) had entered JonBenét in a series of child beauty pageants. The crime is still unsolved and remains an open investigation with the Boulder Police Department.