The disappearance of Zachary Ramsay
Great Falls, Cascade County, Montana · February 6, 1996
The only man ever charged with killing ten-year-old Zachary Ramsay was a convicted child predator whose coded notes prosecutors said described cooking a child — and the charge collapsed because the boy's own mother said she would testify that her son was still alive.
Overview
On the morning of February 6, 1996, ten-year-old Zachary Ramsay left his family's apartment in Great Falls, Montana, at about 7:30 a.m. to walk to Whittier Elementary School, where he was a fifth-grader. He cut through an alley a few blocks from home and never arrived. A witness later described seeing an upset boy near North Sixth Street followed by an agitated man, and a neighbor placed Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, a Massachusetts sex offender who had been released to Montana in 1991, in the same alley that morning. Bar-Jonah was arrested outside another school in December 1999 carrying a stun gun and a police badge; searches of his apartment produced photo albums of children and twenty-eight boxes of papers. In December 2000 prosecutors charged him with Zachary's kidnapping and murder, alleging, on the basis of coded notes and neighbors' accounts of strange meals, that he had killed the boy and served his remains to others. He pleaded not guilty. He was convicted in 2002 of assaulting other boys and sentenced to 130 years, but the Ramsay charges were dismissed in October 2002 after Zachary's mother said she would testify that she believed her son was alive. Bar-Jonah died in prison in April 2008. Zachary has never been found.
Where it stands
The case is open and unsolved, and Zachary Ramsay remains listed as a missing child by the Great Falls Police Department and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It is unusual among cold cases because it came within sight of a verdict and then backed away. Prosecutors charged Nathaniel Bar-Jonah with kidnapping and murder in December 2000, said they would seek the death penalty, and told the court the boy's body would never be recovered. Their case rested on encrypted writings that FBI agents deciphered, on neighbors who recalled being served unusual-tasting meat, and on witnesses who placed Bar-Jonah near the alley on the morning Zachary vanished. It had no body. A bone from his garage was DNA-tested in 2001 and was not Zachary's. And it had a victim's mother who did not believe her son was dead; she had seen a child on a videotape in 2000 that she took to be Zachary, and although investigators traced the child to Italy and found that dental records and fingerprints did not match, she told authorities she would testify that she believed he was alive. Associated Press reporting at the time of Bar-Jonah's death said prosecutors were forced to dismiss the murder charge for that reason; the Charley Project records the dismissal as October 2002 for lack of evidence. Bar-Jonah was convicted on February 25, 2002, of sexually assaulting and kidnapping other boys and was sentenced to 130 years without parole, a judgment the Montana Supreme Court affirmed in December 2004 while noting that the Ramsay case had been dismissed. He maintained his innocence and died at Montana State Prison on April 13, 2008, of a blood clot. In January 2011 a judge declared Zachary legally dead at his biological father's request, over his mother's objection. The authorities' theory of the case has been public for a quarter century; it was simply never tested before a jury, and the only person who could have answered it is dead.
Persons of interest
The theories below are reported strictly as attributed to the cited sources. Naming a person here is not an accusation. Individuals are named only where they are deceased, were formally charged, were officially named by authorities, or have been publicly cleared.
- Nathaniel Bar-JonahDeceased
Prosecutors charged Bar-Jonah, a Massachusetts sex offender released to Montana in 1991, with Zachary's kidnapping and murder in December 2000. Authorities said encrypted notes deciphered by the FBI, neighbors' accounts of unusual-tasting meals he served, and witnesses placing him near the alley supported their allegation that he killed the boy and disposed of the remains in food. He pleaded not guilty and denied any involvement; the charges were dismissed in October 2002 after Zachary's mother said she would testify that she believed her son was alive. He died in prison in April 2008 without ever being tried for the case.[3]
Sources
- Remembering Zachary Ramsay 30 years after his disappearance
“Today marks 30 years since 10-year-old Zachary Ramsay disappeared while walking to school in Great Falls, Montana. He never made it to school and was never seen again.”
- Zachary Xerxes Ramsay
“All charges related to Zachary's case were dismissed against Bar-Jonah in October 2002 as the result of a lack of evidence.”
- Accused Cannibal, Convicted Sex Offender Dies in Prison
“In 2000, authorities also charged Bar-Jonah with murder in the 1996 disappearance of 10-year-old Zach Ramsay. Bar-Jonah was serving a 130-year sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and choking a teenage neighbor boy.”
- Bar-Jonah Died From Blood Clot
“He was found unresponsive in his cell at 6 a.m. Sunday and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital about an hour later. The autopsy findings indicate that the cause of death was a blood clot and that no foul play was involved in the death,”
- Accused Cannibal Pleads Not Guilty
“Ramsay disappeared in February 1996 while walking to his elementary school, where he was a fifth-grader. Montana investigators say they received no warning that Bar-Jonah was headed their way”
- Accused cannibal dies in Montana prison
“Officials don't know what killed Nathaniel Bar-Jonah but they say he'd been in poor health. Bar-Jonah moved to Montana after pleading guilty to kidnapping two boys in Massachusetts in the 1970s.”
- Cannibalism Charges Stun Montana Town
“A friend said this stuff doesn't happen in Great Falls”
- State v. Bar-Jonah, 2004 MT 344
“Based on the foregoing, we affirm the judgment and sentence of the District Court.”
- Nathaniel Bar-Jonah
“Despite the objections of his mother, a judge declared Zachary Ramsay legally dead in 2011. He maintained his innocence up until his death.”
- Missing: Zachary Xerxes Ramsay
“He was last seen leaving his residence for school at approximately 7:30 a.m. on February 6, 1996.”
- Zachary Xerxes Ramsay
“He was walking to Whittier School at the time, and never arrived there.”