If you were old enough to watch the news in the 1990s, then you probably remember the name JonBenet Ramsey.
The six-year-old pageant contestant was found murdered in her parents’ basement on Christmas Day of 1996, and the crime remains unsolved thirty years later.
Now, many social media users have become convinced that the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein may have been involved in Ramsey’s death.
To be clear, there’s no good reason to believe that, but social media hoaxes have become much more sophisticated in recent years.
The rumor seems to have started with a TikTok user who claimed that a portrait hanging in Epstein’s home showed the deceased financier with JonBenet sitting on his shoulders.
“I mean, if you don’t see it, you don’t see it, but I’m sure you see it. Is that JonBenét?” asked the user.
“I don’t think it’s a stretch at all,” one person wrote in the comments.
“Yes. I believe it’s JonBenet,” a second agreed, adding:
“My mind is blown. So sad!”
Other users alleged that Epstein’s friend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was in attendance at JonBenet’s sixth birthday party.
While there’s no evidence to support that claim, there is a loose connection between Maxwell and JonBenet’s father, John Bennett Ramsey.
“Did you know that JonBenet Ramsey’s father, who was a lifelong conservative, also shares the same attorney with Ghislaine Maxwell?” one TikTok user asked.
That part is actually true. As Radar Online points out, John Bennett hired the Denver law firm of Haddon, Morgan, and Foreman following the murder of his daughter.
And Maxwell hired the same firm in 2015 for a civil lawsuit brought by Epstein trafficking victim Virginia Giuffre. She hired the firm a second time in 2021, when she was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
But the rest of these claims? As Ramsey tells TMZ, they appear to be completely fabricated.
“Absolutely no truth to it. I haven’t seen this, but with A.I., anything is possible,” Ramsey said this week.
“I figured one of these days I would be accused of being an Epstein pal. Hasn’t happened yet. Internet people can be very cruel.”
Epstein took his own life in a New York City jail cell in 2019. Many still believe he was murdered in order to protect the identities of his wealthy friends and clients.
The so-called “Epstein files” remain a source of controversy, with the Trump administration vowing to release reams of new information about the investigation, but thus far failing to do so.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.