Convicted pedophile who allegedly confessed to JonBenét murder seen following early prison release
A convicted pedophile and former suspect in the murder of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey has been seen in public for the first time since his early prison release on child pornography charges.
Gary Oliva, who allegedly confessed to the 1996 killing of JonBenét Ramsey, was released from the Arkansas Valley Correction Facility in Ordway, Colo. on Jan. 31 after serving less than eight years of a 10-year sentence.
He was first spotted in public on Feb. 23 outside a seedy Denver motel and halfway house, according to the U.S. Sun.
Oliva — wearing a black sweatshirt with its hood pulled tightly around his bearded face — tried to keep a low profile as he chatted with neighbors, the snaps show.
Oliva reportedly took some unknown items from a box from a neighbor and returned to his room.
He did not emerge for four days.
Photographers saw him again on Tuesday, when he hopped on a bus, then a train in Denver and then disappeared, the outlet reported.
Oliva was caught in 2016 with 695 images depicting child pornography, including 335 of or relating to JonBenét, according to reports.
The terms of his release include “intensive” supervision, compliance with all prescribed medications and participation in mental health treatment and a sex offender program.
DNA evidence never linked Oliva — who has also said he never harmed JonBenét — to the murder of the girl who was found beaten, strangled and potentially sexually assaulted in her family’s home in Boulder.
Former classmate Michael Vail, however, reportedly has said that Oliva confessed to accidentally killing her in a series of letters to him.
Oliva subsequently denied hurting the girl.
Vail also says he received a call from his old schoolmate days after the girl’s body was found.
“He kept moaning, ‘I hurt a little girl. I hurt a little girl,’” Vail told In Touch magazine in 2018.
Last year, he told the Sun that Oliva had a fixation with knots, nooses and stealing art supplies like paintbrushes back in high school.
That signaled to him that Oliva was the culprit in the pageant princess’ murder.
The child was strangled with a rope affixed by a knot to a broken paintbrush handle, according to her autopsy report, which was published by the Denver Post.
