A man who collects pop culture memorabilia is trying to flog off a pink tricycle that used to belong to JonBenét Ramsey, the six-year-old Colorado pageant beauty who was found dead in her family home on Christmas Day in 1996. A lengthy, handwritten ransom note was also uncovered in the house.
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Her death was ruled to be a homicide, but it is still not known who murdered Ramsey. Some, including forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz, who appeared in CBS‘ 2016 doco The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey, suspect Ramsey’s brother Burke, then nine years old, may have killed her accidentally – and that their parents, John and Patsy attempted to cover it up.
Speaking to Radar Online, the seller, Colorado native Andrew Novick, said he was looking to sell the trike for $US100,000, which is about $143K in Aussie dollars. After the family moved away, Novick reportedly found the tricycle while rummaging through a pile of stuff they had left in an alley behind their house.
Novick, who has owned the trike for 22 years, created a film called JonBenét’s Tricycle which aired at Denver Film Festival last year, where he took the bike to psychics, and also tried to interrogate our cultural fascination with both Ramsey and grisly, unsolved crimes.
He explained to Radar why he was looking to sell the trike, which is definitely haunted: “Once I made the movie it kinda made the tricycle famous, and I think, if i’m going to sell it, now would be the time. I kind of [have] gotten my use from it so I think someone else can take it on its next journey.”
Novick also spoke about the impact of the movie – and the aim to keep the case in the spotlight in the hopes it might one day be solved:
Collecting the tricycle spawned ideas, spawned creativity – and it keeps the story alive. It’s a tragic story where a child died and never really got justice. So, part of the movie is showing how we deal with this kind of tragedy and how [by] keeping the story going maybe they will arrest somebody.
If you’re far too interested in true crime, like the murder of JonBenét Ramsey, you might be interested in PEDESTRIAN.TV‘s All Aussie Mystery Hour podcast, where we discuss some of Australia‘s most-enduring mysteries. Subscribe on iTunes HERE, or on Spotify HERE. Or, you can just listen / download below.
