Patricia Ann Ramsey ( Paugh; December 29, 1956 – June 24, 2006) was an American beauty pageant winner who won the Miss West Virginia Pageant at age 20 in 1977. She was best known as the mother of JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old child beauty pageant queen who was found dead in her family's home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996. Background Ramsey was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the daughter of Nedra Ellen Ann (née Rymer) and Donald Ray Paugh, an engineer and manager at Union Carbide. She graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1975. She attended West Virginia University, where she belonged to the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, and from which she graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 1978. She won the Miss West Virginia beauty title in 1977. Her sister, Pamela Ellen Paugh, won the Miss West Virginia title at age 24 in 1980. Patsy was 23 when she married businessman John Ramsey on November 5, 1980. He had three children from his first marriage to Lucinda Pasch from 1966 to 1978, which had ended in divorce. Patsy and John's son, Burke Ramsey, was born on January 27, 1987. She gave birth to their second child, daughter JonBenét, on August 6, 1990, in Atlanta. The family moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1991 for her husband's business. Starting from when her daughter was young, Patsy entered her in children's beauty contests, and she won some titles before the age of six. JonBenét's homicide Her daughter JonBenét disappeared on the morning after Christmas Day 1996. A lengthy ransom note claimed that she had been kidnapped, demanding $118,000 for her return; Patsy reported finding this note at the foot of the stairs. Seven hours after Patsy contacted authorities, JonBenét's body was found in an isolated area of the Ramseys' basement. She had been killed by strangulation and a blow to the head. After the homicide of JonBenét was discovered, Boulder law enforcement officials declared that Patsy and her husband were "under an umbrella of suspicion" because of their possible involvement in the crime. The couple spent the next 10 years defending themselves against the allegations by insisting that an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the parents of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey on charges of child abuse resulting in death, but Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter did not sign the indictment. Multiple sources, including