What Happened to JonBenét Ramsey’s House After Her Murder?

Early in the morning on Dec. 26, 1996, Patsy Ramsey called 911 to report that her daughter, 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, had been abducted from their Boulder, Colo., home.

Patsy claimed to have found a ransom note handwritten on stationery from the house. Hours later, JonBenét’s father, John Bennett Ramsey, found her dead body in the basement. The pageant queen had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled to death.

Patsy and John were considered suspects early in the investigation but were never charged. Patsy died from ovarian cancer in 2006, and two years later, she and John, as well as their son Burke Ramsey, were all publicly exonerated in the case of JonBenét’s death.

As of November 2024, the murder, which is explored in the new Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey? remains unsolved — but what happened to the Ramsey family home at the center of the nearly three-decade-old case?

Here’s everything to know about JonBenét Ramsey’s house and what happened to it after her murder.

Where did JonBenét Ramsey live?

JonBenét was around 1 year old when her parents bought their Boulder, Colo. home in November 1991 for $500,000, per The Denver Post. She lived in the home for her entire life.

After JonBenét’s body was found in the basement on Dec. 26, 1996, the newspaper reported that the Ramsey family never stayed overnight in the house ever again.

In 1997, a year after JonBenét’s murder, the house was estimated to be worth about $1 million and a local woman who knew the family described its features to PEOPLE.

At the time of the murder, the Ramsey home had amenities including a separate catering kitchen, “pricey European antiques” and a retractable screen in the primary bedroom.

Where is JonBenét Ramsey’s house?

JonBenét’s house was located in Boulder, Colo. within walking distance of the University of Colorado Boulder campus in the city’s University Hill neighborhood, according to the New York Post.

The 7,571-square-foot red-brick home has three stories, a Tudor-style roof and a finished basement on a quarter-acre plot.

The property includes a formal dining room, kitchen, five bedrooms (with a sprawling 1,141-square-foot penthouse suite on the third floor), game room, living room, sunroom, terrace, and five and a half bathrooms.

What happened to JonBenét’s house after her murder?

After JonBenét was murdered, her parents never stayed in the house overnight again. They sold the property to investors for $650,000 in February 1998, according to The Denver Post.

The investors pledged to re-sell the home and to donate the profits to the JonBenét Ramsey Children’s Foundation, which her parents created in 1997 to benefit “children who are in a variety of needs,” per a 1999 Daily Camera story.

From 1999 to 2001, E.J. “Doc” Kreiss, then a strength and conditioning coach for the University of Colorado, rented the home. In June 2001, the street address of the property was changed slightly, and a large fence, gate and tall trees were added to give the home more privacy, per The Denver Post.

Tim Milner and Carol Schuller Milner, daughter of televangelist Robert H. Schuller, bought the home in May 2004 for $1.05 million.

Carol explained the purchase to Westword in 2019, saying she was initially a bit worried about the house’s history. “I was like, ‘I don’t know about this,’ but I’ve never been one to back away from something just because it’s a challenge or odd,” she said. “As we walked around the home, I could tell it was really finely made — a well-built house from the ’20s.”

In July 2008, the Milners listed the property for $2.68 million but took it off the market without selling. They listed the home again in May 2009, taking the price down to $2.29 million and listed it once again in February 2011 for $2.3 million, but the house still didn’t sell. The price was cut even more steeply in 2014 when it was listed for $1.98 million, but the Milners still didn’t offload the house.

Carol said part of the reason they didn’t sell the home was that they didn’t want to let go of the property, not that they didn’t get interested buyers.

“The house is not vacant,” Carol told Westword. “We actually had offers on it — decent offers. But we didn’t take any of them, more out of our attachment to the house. It’s our home, and we really, really love it.”

The Milners then renovated the house and in November 2022, listed it for $7.25 million, Realtor.com reported. In March 2023, the Milners cut the price to $6.95 million, reducing it further to $6.24 million seven months later. As of March 2024, the house was pulled from the market once more without a buyer, according to the New York Post.

How much is JonBenét Ramsey’s house worth today?

The Ramsey home was most recently listed at $6.24 million in 2023, but its true value may not match that figure, according to one expert.

“The market perceives anything dealing with children who have been injured, abused, or murdered as the most heinous condition. It has a dramatic effect on property values,” Orell Anderson, a forensic real estate appraiser who assessed the property after the murder, told Realtor.com.

He added that properties with dark pasts, especially involving children, are typically sold at 10% to 25% discounts, and sometimes for even cheaper if the crimes were particularly disturbing. Anderson also noted that the property may potentially attract unwanted attention from tourists, who sometimes visit “murder houses” when they’re on vacation.