LINCOLN COUNTY, COLORADO: Convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey, reportedly still asks for her pictures from behind bars, stating that "she's my religious right.” The 59-year-old Oliva is currently serving a 10-year sentence in a Colorado prison after being arrested in June 2016 for possessing child pornography.
For several years prior to his arrest, Oliva was considered the prime suspect in the murder of Ramsey, who was only six years old when she was discovered battered and bound in the basement of her family's home on December 26, 1996. Initially, the child pageant queen’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were considered the main suspects but more than ten years after her death, DNA evidence cleared them of any wrongdoing. Then, officials investigated several other suspects before finally getting their hands on Oliva. He reportedly came under the radar after authorities discovered that he had connections to a property only 13 houses away from the Ramseys, and he attended a candlelight memorial held for the youngster following her heinous murder.
Has Gary Oliva been charged in JonBenet Ramsey's murder?
After his arrest in 2016, Oliva eventually confessed to killing the child pageant queen in a string of unsettling letters he sent to his high school classmate Michael Vail in 2019. Vail previously revealed that the convicted pedophile contacted him on the day Ramsey was discovered dead and sobbed through the call, saying, "I hurt a little girl." Oliva, who is currently housed at the Limon Correctional Facility, has confessed to murdering Ramsey numerous times but he has never been charged with any crimes associated with her death.
It has been more than two decades since Ramsey died but Vail claims that Oliva still demonstrates a disturbing fascination with her. He revealed that in one of their recent conversations, Oliva asked him to send him more pictures of the slain young girl. "In that phone call - I hadn't talked to him for quite some time - I was on friendly terms and I wasn't bringing up JonBenet," he said, according to the US Sun. Vail continued by noting, "But right away, he brings up that he wants more photographs of JonBenet. He wants me to send him photographs of JonBenet. And I told him, 'I don't think I can do that. And he told me, 'But she's my Jesus Christ. She's my religious right. And people in prison have a religious right to pursue their religious beliefs."
Oliva kept over 300 pics of Ramsey on his phone
"He just has this fascination with this girl," Vail claimed, adding. "It's bizarre. I can't believe he hasn't been arrested for [her murder]. Me, there's no doubt in my mind that he did this. I'm puzzled and there's so much evidence." Vail’s claims came after an arrest affidavit revealed that the authorities recovered approximately 695 images depicting child pornography on Oliva’s phone when they arrested him on June 6, 2016. The documents noted that he also had around 335 images of and related to JonBenet. "Some were regular photographs of her probably found online. Of those photographs, 19 were images of JonBenet's autopsy like from photographs that had previously leaked to the press in years past. There were also many photographs of what appear to be shrines to JonBenet Ramsey. It is unknown where these shrines are located or if they were created by Oliva or not,” the report stated.
