The news that a suspect has been arrested in the murder of the young beauty queen ten years ago brought relief to some and more questions to others. The statements by John Mark Karr that he drugged and had sex with Jonbenet but killed her “by accident” doesn’t seem to square with the details of her death. No semen was found at the scene, and there was no sign of drugs, and this news has reopened the mystery of who killed Jonbenet Ramsey. No one escaped suspicion in the murder – not the father, the mother, the brother or the family friends.

Jonbenet’s chart (birth data from Astrodatabank) has a creepy quality to me – there’s a Grand Cross in fixed planets that includes Mars in Taurus (motivated to maintain security and harmony) in the twelfth house (a karmic placement that often involves sacrifice (12th house) of the will (Mars) of the individual, often to the family dynamic. Mars exactly opposes (180 degrees) Pluto in Scorpio in the sixth house. Taurus and Scorpio both have a strong sexual component; Taurus is sensual and requires sensory stimulation and Pluto deals with the darker and more obsessive aspects of sexuality. Mars and Pluto similarly deal with sex – Mars with the pure sex drive and Pluto with, again, the more compulsive need to transform through sexuality. The Mars/Pluto opposition in Taurus/Scorpio is strongly sexual and often indicates either a tendency to attract violence (particularly in the twelfth house where it remains hidden).

This opposition squares another opposition: the opposition between the Sun and the Moon. The Sun often represents the father in a birthchart and the Moon the mother, and here it appears that the father was the more nurturing parent and the mother was more dominant. Jonbenet’s Moon conjuncts the Midheaven, or cusp of the tenth house of career and public life, showing Patsy Ramsey (Moon) was instrumental in Jonbenet’s young stage life (having herself been a beauty queen). The Sun, or the father, is conjunct the cusp of the fourth house of the home and Jonbenet may have been close to her father, but the square of both Mars and Pluto to both the father and mother archetypes (Sun and Moon) shows that there was very little safety in the relationship with either parent. Pluto in particular, when in challenging aspect to the Sun (the essential Spirit) and the Moon (emotional security and safety), can be deeply frightening and there is a sense that the parents, and life itself, are dangerous.

Jonbenet had Venus in Cancer, demonstrating her desire to nurture and care for those she loved and in order to keep peace (Mars in Taurus) she would have put aside her own will (Mars opposite Pluto) and done what she could to make those she loved as happy as possible (Venus in Cancer). Venus in her chart was exactly conjunct Chiron (wounding and healing) which could indicate the damage done to her (Chiron) by her beauty (Venus), but also shows that she is wounded, perhaps by her mother (with Chiron in Cancer) BECAUSE of her beauty. Venus is also nearly exactly opposed by Saturn, indicating a deep insecurity (Saturn) about her intrinsic value (Venus) as a female and as an individual. Saturn is retrograde in her chart, a signature of deep self-criticism as the negative voice of Saturn turns inward.

Patsy Ramsey’s chart shows Pluto (the planet that rules death and rebirth) exactly square to Jonbenet”s ascendant/descendant axis, which is significant not only in terms of its affect on Jonbenet’s identity, which is tied to the ascendant, but also because the ascendant often shows the birth process itself. When one person’s Pluto strongly affects the chart of another like this, there is a sense of danger and fear of that person, and typically an intensely combative relationship. Patsy’s Chiron (wounding and healing) is exactly conjunct Jonbenet’s Moon (emotions and the mother), identifying an excruciatingly painful relationship between them. Chiron in Patsy’s chart also squares Neptune (illusion and fantasy) and therefore her Neptune squares Jonbenet’s Moon; a morass of blurred identities and failed dreams.

We so often find Jupiter in death charts, and at the time of Jonbenet’s murder Jupiter was transiting this difficult Venus/Saturn/Chiron system, releasing her from what was likely a lifetime of deeply painful experiences. This is the kind of chart that is very difficult to navigate until the individual passes the Saturn Return and enters into midlife, which Jonbenet did not have an opportunity to do.

We will probably never know who really killed Jonbenet Ramsey, but the mystery that surrounds her life as well as her death will keep the fascination alive for years to come.