JonBenet Arrest Has Eerie Parallels To Cecilia Zhang Case

The arrest in the JonBenet Ramsey case provides eerie parallels to one of Toronto’s most notorious recent murders.

Cecilia Zhang disappeared from her Whitehorn Crescent home on October 20, 2003. When her parents went to wake her up for school that day, she was nowhere to be found.

And now that a man has confessed to killing 6-year-old JonBenet in Colorado in 1996, the comparisons between the two terrible cases are remarkable.

–Although the accused, John Mark Karr, has so far refused to say how he got into the Ramsey home, it’s believed he may have entered through an open window and gone to her bedroom.

Min Chen, the man who pleaded guilty to killing Cecilia last May, also entered her home through a kitchen window which he pried open. He then went to the child’s bedroom.

–Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note demanding money for her child’s safe return.

The Zhangs received several unusual phone calls the day Cecilia disappeared and Chen would later reveal he kidnapped the girl because he was broke and needed money for an arranged marriage that would allow him to stay in Canada.

–Karr alleges he didn’t mean to kill the youngster and that her death was an accident.

Chen confessed that he didn’t mean to murder Cecilia and that she died by mistake after he tried to keep her quiet as he spirited her out of her home.

–The Ramseys insist they have no idea who Karr is and can’t imagine what ties he may have to them.

The Zhangs had never heard of Chen either, although he was friends with a boarder who once lived in their home and had apparently visited there before, leaving him familiar with the layout of the house.

–Police were baffled in both cases, and had no clue about who committed the crime. Cops in Colorado didn’t initially search the Ramsey home and didn’t find JonBenet’s body in the basement for some time.

Cecilia’s body wasn’t found until months later, when a hiker stumbled across human remains in a remote field in Mississauga.

–Chen was here on a student visa and was a stranger to Canada. He was arrested after authorities believed he was about to flee the country. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for at least 15 years. In a surprise move, he confessed to the killing on the first day of his trial, and was convicted of second-degree murder.

Karr was in Bangkok on a visa and was a stranger to Thailand. He was arrested there and   the Colorado D.A. has hinted his nomadic existence may have expedited his detention. In a surprise move, he openly confessed to the crime, and waits extradition and his trial back in Colorado.  

–There is at least one big difference between the two cases. Unlike Karr, there is no evidence that Chen ever had any interest in child pornography and his crime appears to have been committed strictly for money.