Unheilig: Ruin in the Shadow of Christmas – Part 2

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Warm light spills out from the living rooms onto the pavements. Snowflakes are dancing. The streets are deserted; the scent of incense candles wafts from cosy rooms. Presents lie beneath decorated fir trees. Little angels spin round and round, surrounded by Mary and Joseph, standing by a fretwork nativity scene. Candlelight casts the shadows of the pyramid’s wings onto the ceiling. It is Christmas.

But it is not only the wings above the candles that cast shadows. For whilst these festive days are filled with warmth and love, the devil is also up to his old tricks. We remind you of this with this short series.

Today: The Death of the Beauty Queen

Exploited, destroyed, made into a film

It ranks among the most baffling criminal cases in history: the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, aged just 6. The girl was found dead on 26 December 1996 in the basement of her parents’ home in Boulder, Colorado. Investigations revealed that the child had been killed the day before. Who killed her and what their motives were remains a mystery to this day.

JonBenét Ramsey was already famous during her short life: As a ‘child model’, she took part in beauty pageants, winning titles such as ‘Little Miss Colorado’ (1995), ‘Little Miss Charlevoix’, ‘National Tiny Miss Beauty’. Films and photographs from these competitions were part of the overwhelming media attention following her death.

Forensic scientists established that JonBenét died as a result of head injuries and strangulation. A ransom note demanding 118,000 US dollars was found in the family home. The fact that this sum corresponded to her father’s Christmas bonus did lead to speculation about the perpetrator. However, the case was never solved. Time and again, family members came under suspicion, but were never charged.

In 2006, a teacher came under the investigators’ scrutiny. He was arrested and made a confession. However, it transpired that his DNA did not match the evidence secured at the crime scene. He was cleared of suspicion and deemed innocent.

Over the years, the gruesome crime – the unsolved murder of JonBenét Ramsey – has become a fixture in the media landscape. Films and documentaries have explored the case, searching for background information without ultimately finding the right answers: the TV series ‘Perfect Murder, Perfect Town’ (based on the novel by Lawrence Schiller) and the feature film ‘Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenét Ramsey Story” were broadcast in 2000.

The documentary series ‘The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey’ was released in 2016, followed a year later by the documentary film ‘Casting JonBenét’ on Netflix. Further true-crime productions followed, re-examining the case using modern forensic methods.

Almost three decades after the crime, the name JonBenét Ramsey has come to symbolise a so-called ‘cold case’ (an unsolved old case), which to this day raises questions about media responsibility and investigative work. And about the line between sensationalism and public interest.

First stolen, then slipped away

A case, however, that virtually solved itself is reported on 25 December 2022.

On that day, Luis Sajbocho-Ordonez robbed a small grocery shop on Atlanta Highway in Gainesville (Georgia, USA). According to the investigating authorities, the perpetrator entered the shop through an open back door, threatened the staff with a pistol and demanded cash. A scuffle ensued. A shot was fired, which fortunately did not hit anyone. The robber panicked and fled.

Witnesses had by then alerted the police, and officers set off in pursuit of the suspect. He did not get far. The winter frost had caused the puddles near the scene of the crime to freeze over. Sajbocho-Ordonez misjudged the situation, slipped on a patch of ice and lay there dazed. The robber spent Christmas in custody and was later charged with aggravated robbery.

It didn’t go to plan: Robber Luis Sajbocho-Ordonez slipped on a patch of ice whilst fleeing and was arrested. Photo: Gainesville Police Department

The desperate Federal Councillor

Fridolin Anderwert, a member of the Swiss Federal Council and head of the Department of Justice and Police, was elected Federal President on 7 December 1880 for the 1881 term – a post he did not take up.

On 25 December, the President-elect shot himself in Bern. Immediately after the election, a dubious campaign began in sections of the press. Anderwert was mocked for his weight and his eating habits. Furthermore, unproven rumours about visits to brothels were doing the rounds.

The Swiss National Museum quotes from the now-lost suicide note that Fridolin Anderwert wrote to his mother and sister: “You want a sacrifice; you shall have one.”

Tomorrow you’ll read about a storm surge, hanged revolutionaries and an acquitted Santa Claus