Chris Wolf Spotted: One-Time JonBenét Ramsey Suspect Pictured for the First Time in Years Working as Shutterbug in LA
June 25 2024, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
Former Colorado reporter Robert "Chris" Wolf was spotted out and about while working as a paparazzo in Los Angeles decades after he was a suspect in the murder of child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Wolf was pictured in Studio City on Monday with a large camera in tow.
The shutterbug was sporting a white T-shirt and blue jeans in the rare new photos obtained by The Sun. Wolf fled Boulder shortly after the murder due to the negative publicity he has since put behind him.
Wolf became a suspect in the cold case after his then-girlfriend called authorities to report that he had stormed out of the house on Christmas night and came back the following morning with muddy clothes.
JonBenét was only 6 years old when she was tragically found dead on Dec. 26, 1996, soon after her mother, Patsy, discovered a ransom note written on a pad of paper with a Sharpie that belonged to the family.
The note demanded $118,000 in exchange for the return of JonBenét. It happened to be the very same number her father, John, had received in a work bonus.
The ransom note was signed "S.B.T.C." Wolf also had a sweatshirt emblazoned with those same initials, which stood for Santa Barbara Tennis Club.
Wolf was never charged but was briefly detained by cops for refusing to submit a handwriting sample to see if his style matched that of the random note.
"I was outraged by this, as a lot of people were," Wolf told Boulder Weekly back in 2000. "This was just something on the news that had absolutely no direct connection to my life whatsoever."
As for the denied writing sample, he added, "I was thinking 'This isn't going to help you solve this case.' I didn't want to be involved in it in any way, so I refused."
He repeatedly denied wrongdoing and police chief Mark Beckner also said Wolf had already been "thoroughly investigated." Furthermore, a Colorado Bureau of Investigation handwriting expert determined he had not written the note.
Wolf, one of the suspects listed in the Ramseys' book, The Death of Innocence, notably sued John and Patsy for defamation but the $50 million suit was ultimately tossed out by a judge because he couldn't prove they were involved in their daughter's death.
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To this day, the murder case has yet to be solved.