SPRINGFIELD, OR. (THECOUNT) — Randall DeWitt Simons, a former photographer of the late child beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey, was arrested on several counts of crimes against children after a year-long investigation, according to Oregon officials.
Simons, 66, was taken into custody on July 2 in Springfield, Oregon, and charged by a grand jury for 15 counts of encouraging second-degree child sex abuse, Breitbart reported Saturday.
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Simons worked as a professional photographer for the six-year-old slain beauty queen months before her 1996 unsolved murder, according to a 1998 article circulated by the Associated Press.
The Register-Guard reported that he had been suspected of using an Oregon restaurant’s WiFi system to download the pornographic images.
JonBenet Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty pageant contestant who went missing and had later been found murdered and sexually assaulted.
On December 26, 1996, Ramsey’s mother, Patsy, called the police to report her daughter missing. She also found a ransom note demanding that the family fork over $118,000 in cash.
The father, John Ramsey, discovered the child’s body hours later in a basement. She had been struck in the head, strangled, and showed signs of sexual assault.
Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer when she was 49 in 2006.
The case remains unsolved to this day, and no one has been arrested in connection with JonBenet’s slaying.
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Geo quick facts: Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Separated from Eugene to the west, mainly by Interstate 5, Springfield is the second-most populous city in the metropolitan area after Eugene – Wikipedia.