ZACHARY RAMSAY - 10 yo (1996) - Great Falls MT

Divorced for decades and now living thousands of miles apart, Zachary
Ramsay's parents shared a moment of grief Wednesday after District
Judge Kenneth Neill declared the then-10-year-old who has been missing
for nearly 15 years legally dead.Watching
by Vision Net video conference from Virginia, Zachary's father Franz
Ramsay wiped tears from his eyes after hearing the judge's decision.
Zachary's mother Rachel Howard dropped her head to her knees and, with
her daughter Simone's arms wrapped around her, the women sobbed.Franz
Ramsay petitioned the court to declare his son dead, saying the legal
decision was necessary for his own emotional closure and so he could
stop paying into and collect a life insurance policy in Zachary's name."I
have suffered a great deal every day, thinking about what happened to
him," Franz Ramsay said Wednesday. "His birthdays were the worst."Zachary
Xerxes Ramsay was last seen Feb. 6, 1996, walking down an alley on his
way to Whittier Elementary School. His backpack loaded with drawings,
Zachary left home early that day to attend a "Good Guys" breakfast,
where he was to be recognized for his artwork.In
December 1999, police arrested Nathan Bar-Jonah for impersonating an
officer near Lincoln Elementary School. While executing a search
warrant, investigators unearthed more than 500 boxes of Bar-Jonah's
writings and other evidence that led them to charge the convicted child
kidnapper with killing Zachary in December 2000.Howard testified in court Wednesday that she always has maintained faith that her son is alive."They
had a lot of hearsay, but all of the DNA testing came back negative,"
Howard told the court. "I believe my son is alive. I believe there is
enough evidence out there that has been ignored."Zach would have celebrated his 25th birthday in December.Retired
Great Falls Police detective John Cameron testified that during the two
years he spent investigating Bar-Jonah, investigators found a witness
who saw Zachary crying the morning he disappeared and an angry man who
looked like Bar-Jonah in a police uniform following him.
Police also decoded Bar-Jonah's writings and did rubbings to reveal
destroyed diary entries. In the writings, Bar-Jonah described torturing
and killing a boy in his basement. Another list of 11 known child
victims of Bar-Jonah's included Zachary Ramsay's name and "dead" written
after it.At
one point, investigators hoped they had found a small piece of
Zachary's arm bone wrapped in Bar-Jonah's stationary and buried in the
man's dirt floor garage. DNA testing in 2000 came back inconclusive.Cameron
revealed Wednesday that the University of Texas DNA lab intends to test
the fragment again — hoping the technology has improved enough to
discern an identity despite all the contamination.Great Falls Police detectives had no comment Wednesday on the new tests.Neill questioned Cameron about the tests, asking if a negative match would shake his faith that Bar-Jonah killed Zachary."No.
Mr. Bar-Jonah was free to roam Montana and the United States for years,
we suspect that he killed other kids also," Cameron said.Charges
against Bar-Jonah alleging he kidnapped and killed Zachary Ramsay were
dropped in 2002. Then-County Attorney Brant Light feared the case would
be too difficult to prosecute without a body and because of Howard's
firm convictions that her son was alive.Bar-Jonah
died in Montana State Prison in 2008, while serving a 130-year sentence
for kidnapping and sexually assaulting another boy. He was 51.Franz Ramsay said that with Bar-Jonah dead, he had no hope for the resolution a confession would bring."I need some type of closure," he said. "This has been very painful for me."Franz
Ramsay was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base when he met and
married Howard in 1984. Their only child was just 2 when they divorced
in 1987.Their
custody agreement allowed Zachary to stay with his father six weeks a
year, Franz Ramsay testified that he did whatever he could to establish a
bond with his boy during that time.Transferred
to Alabama in 1989 and later to Germany and Colorado, Franz Ramsay said
he got a phone call from a friend telling him Zachary was missing.
Franz Ramsay said he immediately called police and has closely followed
the progress in the case ever since then.
"Sometimes I would think that my calling would interfere with their
investigation," he said. "But Zachary was my son, and I knew I needed to
be involved."He said he most recently talked to police Tuesday.Franz
Ramsay said he never heard from or saw Zachary in the 15 years since
his son vanished. While he empathizes with Howard's hope, Franz Ramsay
testified Wednesday that he is convinced Bar-Jonah killed his son.Without an attorney to represent her in court, Howard was given the opportunity to question her ex-husband.She
asked Franz Ramsay if he abducted Zachary, saying she had to get
officers involved to have Zachary returned to her care prior to the boy
going missing."Abduct? Abduct? Why would I abduct my son?" Franz Ramsay said.During
further questioning from his lawyer, Ken Olson, Franz Ramsay said he
works in the Pentagon for the Defense Intelligence Agency. The job
requires top secret security clearance, which meant he passed numerous
criminal and financial background checks, and even cleared mental health
tests."Too much
time has passed," Franz Ramsay said. "Knowing the evidence against Mr.
Bar-Jonah ... it has been very difficult — I just need some closure on
all this."Howard
also testified on the stand that she hadn't spoken to or seen Zachary in
the last 15 years. However, she insisted that any of the unknown
callers over the years could have been her son.Further
fueling her convictions, Howard pointed to a boy born in Butte, but who
lived in Italy during the Bar-Jonah investigation. The boy not only
shares a striking resemblance to her son, but also shares his name —
though spelled differently — and his birthday.When
Zachary's disappearance made the national news, an Italian neighbor
contacted the Great Falls police about the other Zackary. Cameron
testified Wednesday that police checked the other boy's fingerprints and
dental records and confirmed he wasn't Zachary Ramsay.Howard told the court that she also tried to contact the other Zachary's family, who asked her not to call them again.
"This boy that was in Italy is my son Zachary," she said. "I don't
believe a parent would ever give up on their child — no matter how many
years have gone by."She
pointed to cases of children who turned up 13, 20 and even 27 years
later, having thought for years that their parents were dead."My son's alive and I'm gonna find him, even though everyone is against me," Howard said.Franz
Ramsay said that shortly after Zachary was born, he began paying a life
insurance policy through the military. Now that Franz Ramsay is retired
from the military, the payments continue to come out of his check.Howard
asked the court to set aside $15,000 of the $20,000 policy to cover
funeral and burial costs, should there ever be a funeral for Zachary.State
law requires convincing evidence of a death or at least five years when
no one has contacted the person in order for a person to be declared
dead.Neill, who oversaw all of the allegations against Bar-Jonah, said Zachary's case meets both standards.Speaking
delicately, Neill explained that while he understood Howard's position,
he had to make a legal decision based on statute.He
described the search for Zachary as diligent and extensive, and said he
was satisfied that every effort was made to find the boy."We
do not know with the same certainty that the sun is going to rise in
the East that Zachary is not alive," Neill said. "It is my conclusion
that the evidence is clear and convincing that Zachary is deceased and
we have no credible evidence to the contrary."

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20110127/NEWS01/101270305

Zachary Ramsay

On the morning of February 6, 1996, 10-year-old Zachary Ramsay left his home in Great Falls, Montana to walk to school. He did not arrive and was never seen again. Shortly before his disappearance, a witness claimed to have seen Zachary crying while being followed by an unidentified man. Authorities suspected that this man was a local resident named Nathaniel Bar-Jonah. Under his original name, David P. Brown, he had been convicted of the 1977 kidnapping and attempted murder of two boys in Massachusetts. After being released and changing his name, Bar-Jonah moved to Great Falls.

In 1999, Bar-Jonah was given a 130-year sentence for the kidnapping and sexual assault of three Great Falls boys. Authorities discovered disturbing evidence—that Bar-Jonah was into cannibalism—and had to acknowledge the horrifying possibility that he may have cooked the remains of Zachary Ramsay and eaten them himself or served them to unsuspecting guests. A human bone was found in Bar-Jonah’s garage, but DNA testing ruled out the possibility that it belonged to Zachary. In fact, the identity of the bone’s owner is still unknown. Authorities attempted to charge Bar-Jonah with Zachary’s murder, but the case fell through because Zachary’s mother kept pursuing leads that suggested her son was still alive somewhere. The extra charges against Bar-Jonah were dismissed, and he died in 2008. In 2011, Zachary was declared legally dead, but if the theory about Bar-Jonah’s cannibalism is correct, recovering Zachary’s remains might be impossible.

http://listverse.com/2013/08/13/10-potentially-unconfirmed-victims-of-famous-murderers/