The Psychology of JonBenet Ramsey (Chap 3 - The Murder)
Added 2025-10-10 11:00:08 +0000 UTCDr Kirk Honda and Humberto Castaneda dive deep into the JonBenet Ramsey story.
00:00 Autopsy details
35:50 Barbara Walters interview with the Ramseys
45:14 Detective Ardnt's account
57:46 Mystery DNA and additional evidence
1:24:51 Psychology of the audience
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October 10, 2025
The Psychology In Seattle Podcast ®
Trigger Warning: This episode may include topics such as assault, trauma, and discrimination. If necessary, listeners are encouraged to refrain from listening and care for their safety and well-being.
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Comments
Regarding the “did they feed her pineapple” adamantly claiming they didn’t… I get why they would be so adamant in this case, and it’s probably so that they can be consistent. Because if they ever said we didn’t feed her pineapple, if they went to “oh well maybe I can’t remember” people would jump at the opportunity to add that to “evidence” they were changing their story. That’s my best guess-and I think the pineapple probably isn’t all that relevant.
Maria J.
2025-10-26 17:18:59 +0000 UTCAgree! And as much as the topics are morbid they are approached with SO much care and focus on the humanity of everyone involved that they feel less morbid. It’s such a refreshing approach to “true crime”
Bunny Rosenberg
2025-10-24 02:25:38 +0000 UTCI didn’t realize there was milk in it! It’s also hard evidence, which is why I think people get stuck on it. Better to be stuck on that than John checking the mail lol
Colleen
2025-10-23 19:24:28 +0000 UTCI think it’s because at this point in the story, it’s all social! Mostly social for the parents. I enjoy true crime and it’s hard for me to put any weight into people’s emotional reactions, to critique 911 calls, etc.
Colleen
2025-10-23 19:21:16 +0000 UTCEdit: oh I forgot to say! It is so hard for me to take any social deduction as evidence one way or another. Phone calls, saying how someone would act in that scenario. Unless something egregiously strange is done, none of it says anything for sure. The pineapple is some of the only hard evidence in the case, so I completely understand why people focus on it. Even I get caught up with it, because to me it means she may have gotten up on her own. Also wish I knew if the pineapple was cut already or not, cause I’m an adult and struggle with cutting pineapple lol It is beyond funny to me that Dr. Honda keeps referring to the cop as believing in magic 😂 I like seeing his righteous frustration with the cops too! I usually shrug and go “well that’s cops for you”, but he’s right!
Colleen
2025-10-23 18:26:50 +0000 UTCYou asked about similar story. It is not based on a real story but I would really recommend Kokuhaku (Confession), a great Japanese movie and a book. It is about child killers. My suspicion is actually the brother that would push her and the parents panicked and tried to cover it up. Or the mother. But I am curious about more data.
Martina Purba
2025-10-23 07:25:51 +0000 UTCSo happy you’re covering this! Great work Humberto!!! I will say that, there is way more data pointing to the Ramsey’s did it. Although ofcourse we do not know the truth at this stage. I will say that generally more people would lean towards the family being involved one way or another, most theories are on the side of the murder being an accident that the Ramsey’s covered. I don’t know why Dr Honda seems so adamant to be dismissive of the Ramsey’s being involved. I wonder why Dr Honda seems so against anything that points to the family 🤔 Anyways do I love that we have differing views and that this case is deffo one that spilts opinions. In UK we have similar divisive case with Madeline Mcaan, one minute I think it’s them, then the next minute I think it’s an intruder ⚖️
Angelina
2025-10-17 19:39:30 +0000 UTCJust FYI; The podcast The Consult (former FBI profilers) have a two part episode on JonBenet in 11/2024. It’s very interesting
Shauna
2025-10-13 18:44:00 +0000 UTCHere’s my theory. At minimum, Patsy THOUGHT Burke did it and so she worked up the whole plan with the ransom note to save him. And John didn’t know she’d done that until later. That would explain the whole morning chaos and note. The intruder theory works is still possible, but the thing is, why would an adult need the extra torque. However if it WAS a stranger, I think it’s likely that because there was jealousy and because Burke is somewhat on the spectrum, Patsy may have believed it was him. I wouldn’t say there’s anything that proves he did it, but the fact that there was no semen and that Jon-Benet wasn’t simply manually strangled makes me suspect it wasn’t an adult. I don’t believe the mom did it, but I’m certain she helped cover it up and her thibking it was burke would be a good reason for her to do it. She couldn’t lose both of them at the same time.
Erika Wood
2025-10-11 23:09:31 +0000 UTCThanks for covering this case! Can't wait for the other chapters to be released!
Berenice Cassler
2025-10-11 15:59:10 +0000 UTCI sense he's very dismissive of anything Humberto brings up, so I would be surprised if he just said 'that's one person's view and maybe they're lying or maybe they're missremembering'
Viqui
2025-10-11 14:11:13 +0000 UTCThe highlight
Sarah
2025-10-11 13:39:09 +0000 UTCThe pineapple was in milk which was her favourite snack. It wasn’t just pineapple. So clearly someone who knows her and is close to her got her that snack, unless we want to think that a 6 year old girl woke up after midnight and got herself pineapple and milk - either opening a tin or chopping up fresh fruit. It’s a pretty important picture of what happened right before she was killed - and the autopsy shows that the pineapple had just been eaten before being killed, if I remember correctly. To be fair I think that’s why people have zoomed in on the pineapple detail.
Sarah
2025-10-11 13:38:05 +0000 UTCThanks for the words of reassurance at the end. I didn’t even notice I was feeling a little scared. 😄
Mitzi Vivar
2025-10-11 00:11:42 +0000 UTCThe pineapple is important because we have context for family dynamics that we know from the house cleaner. I think we’re going to find it VERY interesting once those dynamics are revealed and I CANNOT wait for that reveal.
Lauren King
2025-10-10 20:56:10 +0000 UTCGotta say, I’ve seen so many disjointed programs about this topic and honestly your coverage is great! Berto is just gonna have to do more of these topics as morbid as they are.
A
2025-10-10 20:10:02 +0000 UTCPeople thought Burke did it after they watched the Dr. Phil interview (fuck him btw) because Burke was smiling awkwardly 🙄
Haley Kukan
2025-10-10 20:03:21 +0000 UTCKirk is not getting over Fleet’s name any time soon. 😂
Julia Smith
2025-10-10 19:04:08 +0000 UTCFirst of all ❤️ I subscribed this month finally because it’s inside season and I’m back on the psych fixation and attended my first live that I enjoyed hearing and half participating in. 🥰 this story definitely played me because I was on YouTube and I needed to hear the rest. So I subscribed to your YouTube and it still didn’t work lmfao so here we are now. 😂 (I ramble) Second of all… I haven’t been excited for a new episode of anything since cable tv haha. I’m also wondering if you do one on one therapy shit. I won’t go into detail publicly but Jade.shepherd91@gmail.com if that’s something you offer :) But love the brain food regardless.
Jade Shepherd
2025-10-10 16:49:19 +0000 UTCThat Linda Arendt redemption arc didn’t last long. What a debacle that crime scene was.
Lisa Skibenes
2025-10-10 16:14:01 +0000 UTCDr. Honda’s fashion pose 👩🏼🍳👌🏻
Bunny Rosenberg
2025-10-10 15:29:00 +0000 UTCI kept wondering why y’all were posting these twice… just realized one is audio and one is video 😂 can’t wait to watch!
Kaylie zeigler
2025-10-10 12:14:36 +0000 UTC
