6 Things I Wonder about the JonBenet Ramsey Murder House

In true crime circles, the Boulder, Colorado house located on the 700 block of 15th Street is known as the JonBenet Ramsey murder house. Sadly. Because the “stately and modernized 1920’s Tudor estate,” as described in its most recent Zillow description, is stunning.

“Zillow?” you may be wondering. And also, “Is the JonBenet Ramsey murder house for sale?”

Yes. (Again.)

I was torn about whether or not to write about it after seeing an E! News article about how it was recently listed for $7 million. E! News wasn’t the only one to carry the story. Many other news outlets did too. Why rehash that?

I’d decided not to, but it wouldn’t leave my brain. I’ve always been interested in (haunted by) the JonBenet Ramsey murder (for reasons I’ll get to below). Over the years, every time I’ve seen anything about it since, it takes me a while to stop thinking about it again. So here I am, writing about some things rattling around in my brain this time. Maybe it will help.

How big is the house?

I’ve always known it was a nice old home, but I never really knew any specifics about it. Zillow stats indicate it’s almost 7,000 square feet on .26 acres and has five bedrooms and eight bathrooms.

How many times has the house changed owners since JonBenet’s murder?

According to a Realtor.com article, John and Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet’s parents, sold the house for $650,000 in 1998 to a group of investors after their daughter’s death. (The Ramseys bought it in 1991 for $500,000.)

In 2004, Carol Schuller Milner (whose dad is televangelist Robert H. Schuller) and her husband Tim Milner paid $1.05 million for the home.

Over the years, the Milners have tried to sell it —for more than they paid for it but for substantially less than what they’re asking for it now. Here’s a breakdown of that:

• Listed for sale 6/2008 for $2,680,000. Listing removed 12/2008.
• Listed for sale 5/2009 for $2,290,000. Price dropped to $1,995,000 10/2009. Listing removed 12/2009.
• Listed for sale 2/2011 for $2,300,000. Listing removed 4/2012.
• Listed for sale 7/2012 for $2,450,000. Listing removed 12/2012.
• Listed for sale 3/2013 for $2,390,000. Price dropped to $2,289,00 5/2013. Price dropped to $2,100,000 8/2013. Price dropped to $1,985,000 11/2013. Listing removed 7/2014.

If the Milners can sell this time, it would mark the third time the house changed owners since 1991, when the Ramseys bought it. However, the Realtor.com article quoted Christina Van De Water, real estate agent and co-host of the REal Crime Podcast, as speculating that it wouldn’t be an easy sale. “The price is astronomical for the history of the home,” Van De Water said. “It’s going to take a very special person to comfortably move into that home.”

Not to mention someone with deep pockets. (Zillow estimates the monthly payment at being somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 a month!)

Is $7 million the going rate for a home in that neighborhood?

 

As many of us know, real estate has skyrocketed, especially in recent years. Boulder’s never been cheap, but now? Holy hell. I’d heard things had gotten even more expensive there, but wow. I saw a few listings under $1 million (barely), but most things are at least $1 million and up.

The “on up” is especially true in the area where the Ramsey house is located.  Prices seem to range anywhere from $2-6 million, but $6 million is on the high side. There are a couple of listings that are even more, one for $9.5 million and the most expensive listing at just under $13 million. However, the almost $7 million asking price for the JonBenet Ramsey murder house is really high.

What’s it like living in the JonBenet Ramsey murder house? (And is it haunted?)

In the Realtor.com article, Van De Water said this isn’t your “run-of-the-mill” home and that whoever buys it will “have to be willing to take on the harassment of the public.”

Because just like Amityville, the Lizzie Borden house, or any other famous murder house, the beaut in Boulder known as the JonBenet Ramsey murder house is also going to draw looky-loos, potential trespassers, and otherwise non-boundary respecting folks.

So, basically, whoever buys it is going to have to be made of some special stuff.

Which makes it a little sad that the Milners are selling. In many respects, they’ve been the perfect family. Carol Schuller Milner is particularly fascinating for her outlook on the house. When she has done interviews, she’s been very candid about the house’s dark side. Like in a 2011 Westworld article when they had listed the house back then.

She explained she had been reluctant to view the house when they were first considering buying it. She admitted to being “very sensitive and spiritually based.” Would what happened there affect her?

Not really. But the house itself sure did. As she said in the article:

“The minute I walked through the door, this sense of peace came over me, and I absolutely fell in love with the home.”

When the Milners and their kids moved in, neighbors were thrilled to see a family bringing the home to life again. Schuller Milner never believed the accusations of abuse leveled against JonBenet’s family. In fact, she felt if something like that had occurred, it would’ve tainted the house as much (if not more) than the murder. It would’ve lingered palpably in the home.

And as far as the murder went, she had a mind-blowing beautiful way of focusing on the “tons and tons of wonderful memories existing in that home both from when the Ramsey family was there and all the many years leading up to them moving in.”

Rather than focusing on the home’s negative history, which was tragic, yes, but just one moment in time, she chose to look at all the love that home harbored too and give power to that instead.

“Some people are making this a dark monument as opposed to thinking about the restoration that can occur after a tragedy. And I believe that in our darkest tragedies, God doesn’t run. He comes.

“As a Christian, we have a different view on death. Death is not the last word, and God is not bound by death. I just don’t believe it’s in his character to abandon us, and that effects my ability to look at this house and see all the beautiful things about it.”

Are they ever going to catch the killer?

As I mentioned earlier, the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey has always haunted me. Not because I knew the family or had any connection to them. It has to do with my dad. The first time I heard about the case was from him.

Back at Christmastime 1996, he, his girlfriend, Ellen, Wayne, and I were on a bus “up to the hills.” That’s what we called taking the bus up to Black Hawk to do some gambling. Wayne especially, but even myself, really aren’t gamblers, but it was a favorite pastime for my dad and his girlfriend back then. Since we lived in Arizona and were just home for the holidays, the bus ride was a good way to spend some extra time together.

My dad had his paper out and showed me the front-page story. A large photo of one of the now-iconic photos of JonBenet covered the page with a headline about her murder. (Not like the one below, which is from the Chicago Tribune. But it was that photo.)

“Isn’t it tragic?” my dad asked.

“What happened to her?” I asked. He handed me the paper so I could read about her murder and the weird ransom note for myself.

For all his gruffness, my dad always had a soft spot for two things: kids and animals. Stories about either, whether they were feel-good ones or awful ones like the JonBenet case, often moved him to tears. He felt things more deeply than most people did. (I’m convinced that’s where I get it from.)

He also had the gift of sight, even though we didn’t call it that. But sometimes, he’d make very confident statements (predictions) about things that would come true. These statements felt different and could sometimes be creepy. Which is probably why we never talked about it. We just knew it was “one of those” declarations, and we’d accept it. Like the time I won a 10-speed bike in a fishing competition that they held every year in Denver’s Washington Park. We didn’t go every year, but when we had, he’d never said what he did to me that day.

“Sit here, Court. This is where you’re going to catch the winning fish today.”

I always wanted to believe my dad, but I especially did that day. I was about to turn 11, and, more than anything, I wanted a 10-speed bike, which we could not afford. One look at my dad’s earnest face told me he wasn’t bluffing, which sometimes he did. He was also a master storyteller and jokester. But this was not him trying to pull my leg or to will something to happen just because he knew how badly I wanted a bike. He had that look he got when he just “knew” something.

Sure enough. I caught the biggest fish that day and won that bike.

Anyway, that’s why I believed him on the bus up to the hills that day when he said (as he wiped a tear away), “They’ll catch her killer. One day.”

I remember thinking, “Why one day? Why not soon?” but I never asked him. I just believed him because I recognized that statement for what it was: one of his predictions.

We talked about that day shortly before he died.

“Guess I was wrong about them catching that little girl’s murderer, huh, Monkey?” (Monkey was his nickname for me.) “I really thought they’d have him by now.”

Like I had at other times in my life, I wondered if he regretted not “knowing” more that could help the police. I just knew he regretted, like so many of us do, that there’s been no justice in that regard —yet. (The little girl in me still believes her dad was right when he said they’d catch JonBenet’s killer one day.)

Who will the next owner of the JonBenet Ramsey murder house be? (And what will they do with it?)

I have no idea who will buy the home next. It might not even sell this time around either. The Milners may end up taking the listing down again.

One thing we can all infer, though, is that it will be someone who can afford a multi-million dollar house. I just hope they’ll be as wonderful as the Milners. People who will appreciate it for what it is, a beautiful home where love can thrive, not just a sensational “murder house” that, for now, is the site of one of America’s biggest unsolved murders.

Rather, I hope they feel what Schuller Milner did and recognize it for what it is: a haven and a harbor for the souls who live there, in good times and in bad.

For More Info

To check out the Zillow listing and see how gorgeous the house is inside and out, visit https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/749-15th-St-Boulder-CO-80302/13182008_zpid.

Check-In

What kind of things do you wonder about the JonBenet murder house? The same things I do or other things?