Johnathan Ramsey, 11, starved to death by father and stepmom/Remains found belong to Jonathan!!UPDATE: April 17, 2012: Trial starts for the "father" today/Update: Father found Guilty! Sentenced to Life in Prison!

A boy was slowly starved to death by his parents as a punishment for bad behaviour, police have said.

Johnathan Ramsey, 11, had not been seen for at least nine months after allegedly being locked in his bedroom by his father and stepmother and restricted to a diet of bread and water.

According to police, his weight fell from 90 to 60 pounds at the family's home in Dallas, Texas, leaving the young boy unable to walk and eventually leading to his death.
Last August, Ramsey found his son unresponsive on the floor of his bedroom.
After questioning the parents and an extensive search, the child's body was found wrapped in a sleeping bag in an abandoned storm shelter, where he had reportedly been dumped by his father.

His father Aaron Ramsey, 34 and 31-year-old stepmother Elizabeth have been charged with first-degree felony of injury to a child and were in custody last night on $500,000 bond.
Police began looking for the boy on Friday after receiving a worried call from Johnathan's grandfather, according to Fox.



Ramsey told police his son had violent episodes and claimed that the child punched his stepmother so hard in the stomach that she had a miscarriage, according to Dallas Morning News


[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Why has nobody from school called and said he was not there for such a long time ? Why has nobody said they have not seen him in so long ? Family ...Friends ? Anybody ?
I just don't get how this can happen ???

Police began looking into the disappearance of Jonathan Ramsey after the child’s grandfather contacted them last week, concerned that the boy had not been seen since January 2011 and the boy’s father was giving him different reasons why.

After being questioned by police, 34-year-old Aaron and 31-year-old Elizabeth would finally admit that the boy was dead and that Aaron had disposed of his body in an unknown location. But an affidavit has been released that details exactly how the boy was killed and the details are absolutely sickening.
According to Elizabeth Ramsey, who is the boy’s stepmother, they began starving the boy in March 2011 after the boy punched her in the stomach while pregnant with triplets, supposedly causing her to lose the babies.
Elizabeth said that her husband Aaron locked Johnathan in a bedroom and only fed him bread, water, and occasionally milk. The boy went from 90-pounds to 60-pounds and according to the affidavit, the boy was so hungry that he ate his own feces.

When he died in August, he was so weak he could not stand. Elizabeth told detectives that he looked “like one of the kids you see on the commercials from Africa,” according to the affidavit. She admitted she should have contacted authorities while the boy was being tortured, but chose not to.

Aaron Ramsey told investigators that after his son’s death, he stuffed his body in a sleeping bag with dryer sheets to help cover the smell of his son’s rotting corpse. He then placed the body next door in a vacant home’s storm shelter for a few days before moving the body to a rural part of Ellis County, where police are currently searching.
The couple were both arrested and charged with felony injury to a child.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Couple held in starving death of Texas boy, 11
(AP) DALLAS - The father and stepmother of a missing 11-year-old boy were in custody Monday after Dallas police accused them of starving the child to death, perhaps as long as a year ago, by locking him in his bedroom and feeding him "military rations" as punishment, authorities said.

Johnathan Ramsey’s father, Aaron Ramsey, and stepmother, Elizabeth Ramsey, were charged with felony injury to a child. Police said they did not immediately expect to announce more charges.

According to police records, Aaron Ramsey confessed to limiting the boy’s meals to bread, water and sometimes milk, and confining him to his bedroom in the family’s Dallas home, the Dallas Morning News reported. The boy eventually stopped being able to walk and began to eat his own feces, police said.
Johnathan was found lying on the bedroom floor in August, according to the records. Aaron Ramsey told detectives he changed his son into his favorite T-shirt, placed him into a sleeping bag and inserted a dryer sheet to mask the smell of his body, the records said. He eventually left the boy’s body in rural Ellis County, south of Dallas, the records said.

Police said they searched Ellis County for the boy’s remains, but suspended their efforts Sunday.

Johnathan’s grandfather, Edward Ramsey, had contacted police Thursday to ask them to search for the child because he had not seen the boy since January 2011. Ramsey told WFAA-TV that the Ramseys "kept putting us off" when he asked to see the boy.

"Johnathan always had something else going on," Ramsey said. ". I told him (Aaron Ramsey) I was tired of the waiting and delays. I wanted to see my grandson."

Aaron Ramsey and the boy’s mother, Judy Williams, divorced in 2006, according to Williams’ stepmother, Starla Swanson. Williams took custody of the couple’s other son and re-married. She now lives in New Mexico and had not seen Johnathan in "several years," Swanson told The Associated Press.

"There’s a 12- to 14-hour drive between the two places that they lived," Swanson said. "It is financially unfeasible for either one of them to make that trip. Judy could not with two other children and a husband, and Aaron was unwilling."

Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey initially claimed the boy had gone to live with his mother, but later confessed, police said.

Aaron Ramsey, a U.S. Army veteran who left active duty in 2003 and later served in the Texas National Guard, said he put his son on "military rations" because the boy began to misbehave early last year. Ramsey said the boy had punched his stepmother in the stomach when she was pregnant, causing a miscarriage. Ramsey said he hit Johnathan in the chest and then locked him in a bedroom, according to the records.

Elizabeth Ramsey said she tried to feed the boy more regular meals, but his health declined when Aaron Ramsey took over feeding. As the boy’s weight plummeted, Johnathan began to look "like one of those kids you see on commercials from Africa," she told police.

Williams talked with her son _ who Swanson called "J.L." _ on the phone and by email, Swanson said. Williams, who could not be reached Wednesday, thought something was wrong the last time she spoke to Johnathan. Swanson said she didn’t know when that was. Williams tried to fight for visitation and was scheduled to have a court hearing on the issue soon, Swanson said.

"The last conversation that Judy had with J.L. is she knew something was wrong and J.L. would not tell her what," Swanson said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks for posting this! Horrific!!!!!!

Thank you for this video he looked like such a sweet kid it breaks my heart ... and those poor grandparents

No way would I go 14 mo w/out seeing my grandson's, no matter what my son or DIL said. I am NOT blaming the grandparent's at all. They believed their son, just as The Ant's (supposedly) believed TMLS! That being said, if I went more than one month (as I live 3 hours away now) from seeing them and got even 1 excuse, I would be there as fast as I could drive my car!

They give that poor little boy just bread and water, starve him enough he eats his own feces and dies but look at them, they sure didn't go w/o a meal. Absolutely horrific and sickening. They should only be fed food and water themselves.

What gets me is all the nice photo's of him w/his dad and the FP photo's and then nothing. How could a parent be so cold??

Well it is true Grand Parents have no rights. That needs to change. Would more Grand Parents get involved and protect the little ones if we had rights to see them? I am like Wrap even if I have no legal rights, watch me show up demanding to see my Grand Child.

Amen, sista's!!

April 22, 2012 8:47 PM

DALLAS (AP) – Police searching for the body of a missing 11-year-old boy say it will take several weeks before skeletal remains found in a rural creek south of Dallas are identified.

Dallas police Sgt. Brenda Nichols in the child abuse unit said Sunday that authorities are awaiting DNA test results from the Dallas County Medical Examiner that have not yet begun.

Police have said the remains discovered Saturday appear to be those of a child or small adult.

Nichols said she could not comment on whether authorities believe the bones are those of Johnathan Ramsey.

Johnathan’s father and stepmother are accused of starving the Dallas boy to death. Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey remain jailed on felony injury to a child charges, according to electronic jail records.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thursday, Apr 26, 2012 | Updated 9:15 AM CDT

According to arrest affidavits released Monday, Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey said they starved 11-year-old Johnathan Ramsey as punishment.

Judge Bill Woody says the Dallas County medical examiner believes skeletal remains found in a rural creek south of Dallas on Saturday are those of Johnathan Ramsey, a 10-year-old boy who was allegedly starved to death by his parents.

Wood said the medical examiner's analysis is based on circumstances of the case as described by investigators, and that DNA test results are still pending and that x-ray tests will be conducted to determine if the boy was starved to death.

The medical examiner's office declined to comment because the case involves remains found in another county.

Ramsey's father and stepmother are jailed on charges of felony injury to a child.

Authorities say the boy was confined to a room and starved as punishment.

According to affidavits, the boy's father said he found the boy unconscious in his room and that he wrapped the child up and put him in a vacant house's storm shelter next door. Ramsey told investigators he dumped the boy's body in Ennis a day or two later.

Bond has been set for each of the boy's parents at $500,000.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Posted: May 14, 2012 5:48 PM CDT
Updated: May 14, 2012 7:38 PM CDT


DALLAS (AP) - Authorities have identified skeletal remains found in a rural creek near Dallas as those of a 10-year-old boy allegedly starved to death by his father and stepmother, police and a family member said Monday.

Dallas police said they confirmed with the Dallas County medical examiner that DNA tests have linked the remains to Johnathan Ramsey. The boy's remains were found April 21 in rural Ellis County, south of the city.

The medical examiner declined to comment on the case because the remains were found in another county. However, Starla Swanson, stepmother to Johnathan's mother, confirmed that the family had been informed that a positive identification of Johnathan had been made.

The boy's father and stepmother, Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey, remain jailed on charges of felony injury to a child. Both are being held on $500,000 bail. Attorneys for each did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Aaron Ramsey allegedly told police he limited the boy's meals to bread, water and sometimes milk for several months. According to police records, the boy was confined to his bedroom in the family's Dallas home, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The boy's mother, Judy Williams, and other relatives did not see him for months. Williams lives in New Mexico and has custody of the couple's other son, Swanson said.

Johnathan's grandfather Edward Ramsey had contacted police earlier this year to ask them to search for the child because he had not seen the boy for more than a year.

Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey initially claimed the boy had gone to live with his mother, but later confessed to starving the boy to death, police said.

According to police, Aaron Ramsey said he put his son on "military rations" because the boy began to misbehave early last year. Ramsey said the boy had punched his stepmother in the stomach when she was pregnant, causing a miscarriage. Ramsey said he hit Johnathan in the chest and then locked him in a bedroom, according to the records.

A spokeswoman for the Dallas County district attorney did not immediately comment on whether prosecutors would seek additional charges now that the remains had been identified.

The child's remains were to be cremated and his ashes sent to his mother, Swanson said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Body found in creek identified as starved Texas boy
May 15, 2012|Jon Nielsen | Reuters

DALLAS (Reuters) - Officials with the Dallas County medical examiner's office said on Tuesday they have identified a body found in a Texas creek bed in March as that of 10-year-old Johnathan Ramsey, who police have said was apparently starved to death by his parents.

Police began searching for the boy on March 30 after Johnathan's grandfather reported him missing.

The boy's father and stepmother told police they punished him for punching his pregnant stepmother in the stomach and causing a miscarriage, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The pair locked Johnathan in a bedroom for months and fed him only bread and water, the paper reported. Police believe he died of starvation in August, the paper said.

The boy's father, Aaron Ramsey, 34, and his stepmother, Elizabeth Ramsey, 31, have been charged with injury to a child.

They both remained in the Dallas County Jail Tuesday, each on $500,000 bond. A Dallas police spokesman could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Ellis County Justice of the Peace Bill Woody has said the medical examiner's report listed the boy's death as a homicide.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

By Tanya Eiserer/Reporter
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
9:00 pm on January 11, 2013

Lloyd and Starla Swanson keep the ashes of their 10-year-old grandson Johnathan Lloyd Ramsey in their home.

They had originally planned to spread “J.L’s” ashes around a rosebush they planted in his memory outside of their Iowa home.

But “we couldn’t quite bring ourselves to do that because Iowa gets pretty cold so we put him in an urn and he’s here with us,” said Starla Swanson, his step-grandmother.

For the Swansons, his mother, Judy Williams and his younger brother, it was the first holiday season since a volunteer rescue group helped authorities find his remains in rural Ellis County in April 2012. Police say the boy was starved to death by his father, Aaron Ramsey, and stepmother, Elizabeth Ramsey. Both remain in the Dallas County jail. They each face one count of injury to a child, a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison.

“It has been a hard year for all of us,” wrote his mother, who lives in New Mexico, in an email. “Christmas was very hard to get through knowing he is gone.”

Police believe Jonathan had been dead for months when his paternal grandfather contacted local authorizes in March 2012, telling them that he had not heard from his grandson for more than a year. Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey gave a number of reasons why he couldn’t visit the child, including saying that the boy was with his mother in New Mexico.

The couple soon confessed to locking him in a bedroom for months, according to police records. He was fed mostly bread and water, and he became so frail and hungry that he ate his own feces, court documents show. Aaron Ramsey told police that after Johnathan died sometime in 2011, he put him into a sleeping bag and later dumped his body in a wooded area in Ellis County.

Family members say the situation has been particularly tough for 9-year-old Eric Ramsey, J.L.’s brother. Eric Ramsey had had little contact with Aaron Ramsey because his mother had custody of him and the couple split up when he was only a few months old.

“He’s nine going on 20 now,” his grandfather said.

Aaron Ramsey is scheduled to go to trial in March – almost one year after family members found out that the boy had died months earlier without anybody being aware.

“Even if they’re given life in prison and they’re tortured by inmates, there is no way to call it just because J.L. is dead and they’re still alive,” Starla Swanson said.

The Swansons have sought to channel their grief and anger into doing something good and have been raising money for volunteer search and rescue group, including one of the Dallas area groups that helped locate their grandson’s remains. They are also working on a fundraiser for an Iowa group.

“We’re trying to do positive things to try to make some sense of this,” Starla Swanson said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

These poor people..and even w/all their grief they are all about helping others. Pay it forward.

What a sad, sad story.

By Christina Rosales
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
9:12 am on April 17, 2013

The trial for a father accused of starving his son to death and dumping the boy’s remains in Ennis is scheduled to begin in a Dallas County courtroom this morning.

Aaron Ramsey, along with the boy’s stepmother, Elizabeth Ramsey, was charged with injury to a child and faces up to life in prison. Her trial has not yet begun.

Extended family of the boy, Jonathan Lloyd Ramsey, reported him missing when they didn’t hear from him for months. An investigation began in late March 2012. The remains were found in a creek bed in Ellis County and authorities questioned the father and stepmother.

Both Elizabeth and Aaron Ramsey confessed to locking Johnathan or JL, as his family called him, in a bedroom for months, police said. He was fed mostly bread and water, and he became so frail and hungry that he ate his own feces, court documents show. Police believe the young boy died in August 2011.

The lead prosecutor in the case is Eren Price, and the trial is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Criminal District Court 2.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Update, 12:15 p.m. Just before the lunch break, defense attorneys were cross examining Edward Ramsey, grandfather of Johnathan Ramsey and father of the defendant, Aaron Ramsey.

The grandfather described Johnathan as “a regular little boy,” who loved airplanes and cars and playing catch.

The man, a pastor from Ennis, testified this morning that he became concerned when his son moved with his new wife, Elizabeth to Dallas in January 2011.

He said he didn’t say any goodbyes because “with the close proximity, I knew I’d see them again soon.”

It would be the last time he saw his grandson, he testified.

For more than a year, he had asked to see his grandson, he testified. Instead, he spoke to Johnathan on the phone and could sense that his stepmother was “over his shoulder making sure he said the right things.” He exchanged texts with Johnathan but “sensed” the stepmother had a hand in those words, too, he said. The couple claimed Johnathan was busy with church or extended family and didn’t have time to see his grandfather.

In March 2012, he decided he had had enough and demanded he see his grandson. The couple told him it would not be possible. The grandfather began his search on his own, first going to his son’s father-in-law, asking if he could provide a good phone number and address for the Aaron Ramsey.

The man told the grandfather he had heard that Johnathan was tested and was not in fact Aaron’s biological son, Edward Ramsey testified. “And he said Johnathan moved to New Mexico” with his biological mother and “he might have died.”

The grandfather said he felt “sad, very upset and lost,” after hearing that. He called police and an investigation began days later, he said. According to prosecutors, Johnathan Ramsey had been dead for more than six months, his body lying in a creek bed in Ennis, and found by police after Aaron Ramsey pointed the location out to officers, prosecutors said.

The defense cross-examined the defendant’s father and asked if Aaron Ramsey’s personality changed after he married his second wife, Elizabeth Ramsey. He replied no, but said his son was at times “easily manipulated.”

Testimony is scheduled to resume at 1 p.m.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

By CHRISTINA ROSALES Staff Writer [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Published: 17 April 2013 11:20 PM

During the months that her son’s remains lay in an Ellis County creek bed, Judy Williams, living in New Mexico, received emails from her ex-husband and his wife telling her the 10-year-old boy was thriving and had made the honor roll at school in Dallas.

In March 2012, she learned her son, Johnathan Ramsey, had been dead seven months. (She never had a phone conversation w/her son in 7 months???)

“I went into a panic,” Williams said.

Testimony in the trial of the boy’s father, Aaron Ramsey, 35, began Tuesday morning in a Dallas County courtroom. Ramsey is charged with injury to a child and could face up to life in prison if convicted.

Police say Aaron Ramsey and his wife, Elizabeth Ramsey, locked Johnathan in a filthy bedroom in their northeast Dallas home for months, feeding him only bread and water. Medical experts say the boy died in August 2011; his remains weren’t found until the following April.

Ramsey confessed to wrapping the body in a sleeping bag and dumping it in a wooded area in Ennis, the father’s hometown, police say.

Ramsey’s father, Edward Ramsey, testified Tuesday that his grandson had lived in Ennis most of his life and that he saw his grandson regularly. Aaron Ramsey regularly sent cellphone pictures of the happy boy and arranged weekly phone calls with Johnathan’s mother and two siblings in New Mexico.

Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey married in 2010, according to testimony. They and Johnathan moved to Dallas in January 2011.

After the move, Williams testified, “everything changed” and communication became less frequent. She tried to arrange visits from New Mexico but was turned away in emails from the Ramseys, she testified. I would have hottailed it to Dallas to see my son!! I cry BS!!

Through Williams, Johnathan’s maternal grandmother tried to get an address to send presents to the boy for his 11th birthday and Christmas. In emailed responses, the Ramseys told Williams to stop emailing and said they’d send post offfice box information for the gifts later.

“And don’t contact Aaron’s family,” one email from Elizabeth Ramsey’s account said, according to evidence presented by lead prosecutor Eren Price. “They don’t know where we moved to. Nor will they.”

Meanwhile, in Ennis, grandfather Edward Ramsey grew impatient with excuses the couple offered for why he couldn’t see his grandson. He hadn’t seen the boy since January 2011.

“Our contact was limited or awkward,” he testified about his phone calls with Johnathan. It seemed “Elizabeth was over his shoulder … like his words were being controlled.”

In March 2012, Edward Ramsey drove to Plano to begin searching for the boy, first stopping to see his son’s father-in-law at the shoe repair shop he owns. He asked if the man knew where Johnathan had been for the last year.

“He said Johnathan had moved to New Mexico and that he might have died,” Edward Ramsey testified. “He showed no emotion.”

He called Dallas police in mid-March, and they conducted a welfare check at the Ramseys’ home on Clearwater Drive. Officers questioned Elizabeth and Aaron Ramsey separately but never entered the home. WHY NOT? Get a search warrant FGS! Their stories didn’t match, officers testified.

At one point during the visit, Elizabeth Ramsey told officers she was 37 weeks pregnant and was having contractions. After she was taken by Dallas Fire-Rescue to the hospital, officials learned she was not pregnant.
Police opened a child abuse investigation and searched the couple’s cluttered, filthy home for evidence. They found more than a dozen cats and four dogs living there, healthy and well-fed, though living in their own waste.
And they searched the bedroom in which Johnathan was kept for months until he died, according to police testimony. The room’s wooden door had a bolt and receiver and could only be opened from outside the bedroom. The door was brought into the courtroom for evidence Tuesday.
“This is the door behind which Johnathan Ramsey died?” Price asked Detective Daniel Greene. He replied: “Yes it is.”
Elizabeth Ramsey will face life in prison if convicted when she is tried separately.

Testimony in Aaron Ramsey’s trial before Judge Don Adams is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas father accused of slowly starving his 10-year-old son to death, slipping his body into a sleeping bag and dumping it in a rural area where it went undiscovered for a year was sentenced late Tuesday to life in prison.

A Dallas County jury took less than an hour to convict Aaron Ramsey earlier Tuesday of severely injuring a child in the death of his son, Johnathan. Jurors later decided that the 35-year-old Dallas man should receive a life sentence.

Prosecutors said the father locked his son in his room, where he slowly starved on a diet of bread and water. They contend Ramsey dumped the child’s emaciated body in a rural area south of Dallas in 2011. The boy’s remains were found in the area a year ago in a creek.

Aaron Ramsey allegedly told police he limited the boy’s meals to bread, water and sometimes milk for several months. According to police records, the boy was confined to his bedroom in the family’s Dallas home.

The boy’s mother, Judy Williams, and other relatives did not see him for months. Williams lives in New Mexico and has custody of the couple’s other son, according to relatives.

Johnathan’s grandfather, Edward Ramsey, had contacted police early last year to ask them to search for the child because he had not seen the boy for more than a year.

Police said Aaron and Elizabeth Ramsey, the child’s stepmother, initially claimed the boy had gone to live with his mother but later confessed to starving the boy to death.

According to police, Aaron Ramsey said he put his son on “military rations” because the boy began to misbehave early last year. Ramsey said the boy had punched his stepmother in the stomach when she was pregnant, causing a miscarriage. Ramsey said he hit Johnathan in the chest and then locked him in a bedroom, according to the records.

Johnathan was found lying on the bedroom floor in August, according to court records. Aaron Ramsey told detectives he changed his son into his favorite T-shirt, placed him into a sleeping bag and inserted a dryer sheet to mask the smell of his body, the records said.

Elizabeth Ramsey also is charged with the crime and will be tried separately.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]