A convicted paedophile and suspect in the JonBenét Ramsey murder case has a macabre obsession with cannibalism and 'eating kids', according to conversations with a former classmate.
Gary Oliva, 59, is currently serving an indeterminate prison sentence for possession of child pornography in Limon, Colorado - he will only be considered for release if he passes the state's sex offender treatment program..
He was identified as a suspect in the JonBenét murder case in the early 2000s. Ramsey is the six-year-old American child beauty queen who was killed at the age of six in her family's home in Boulder.
When he was arrested, he was found to own more than 300 images of JonBenét, including pictures of her autopsy and images depicting cannibalism and the mutilation of corpses.
He was identified as a suspect when a former classmate, Michael Vail, told police he had received a call from Oliva during which he cried: "I hurt a little girl."
Vail later revealed that over years-long exchanged with Oliva, he spoke of cannibalistic urges and necrophilia fantasies.
One interaction included Oliva allegedly sending Vail pencil drawings of JonBenét eating chunks of his corpse and countless other depraved artworks.
Vail also claims that Oliva told him he once ate the skin of one of his abuse victims.
Recounting his conversation with Oliva, Vail told the US Sun: "From around 2016, I started getting letters from Gary where he talked about not just being a pedophile [...] but also wanting to eat kids.
"It was so disturbing [...] but he talked about cannibalism and he talked about the girl in Oregon, and how he took her out and got her sunburnt just so he could taste her burnt skin.
"He told me he got her sunburned just so he could peel off her skin and taste it.
"It just makes me sick."
JonBenét was just six years old when her body was found in the basement of her family's sprawling Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996.
She had been strangled with a garrotte made from white rope and a broken paintbrush handle.
She was reported missing hours earlier after her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, awoke to find the girl missing from her bed and a bizarre three-page ransom note at the foot of a staircase.
It was John who discovered JonBenét's body swaddled in a white blanket inside a seldom-used room the family referred to as the wine cellar.
Authorities initially considered the girl’s parents as suspects in her death. They were not officially cleared as suspects until 2008, after DNA from an unknown person was discovered on the girl’s pajamas.
According to an autopsy, she had been the victim of sexual abuse, with DNA samples found on her underwear and long johns.
The case received international attention and but more than 25 years on, no one has ever been convicted of her murder.
After alerting Boulder Police Department to what Oliva had told him, Vail claims police never followed up on his call.
Oliva was DNA tested sometime after his arrest but sources say he was not found to be a match for the DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene.
However, very little DNA exists in the case. Over the years, Boulder Police has been accused of failing to properly secure the crime scene after JonBenét was found dead.
The Boulder Police Department has said little about Oliva.
“The Boulder Police Department is aware of Gary Oliva and has investigated his potential involvement in this case, including several previous confessions,” the department said in the 2019 statement, according to reports.
“The department routinely receives information on this investigation. Information provided to the police department is reviewed along with the many tips and theories we receive.”
