The killer of the psychiatrist in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case has been found dead of an apparent suicide.
TMZ reports that the assumed gunman, Dwight Lamon Jones, was found dead when police swarmed his Scottsdale, Arizona hotel room on Monday morning.
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Reportedly, police located Jones’ location and sent tear gas into the room in order to incapacitate him. They then sent in a robotic camera, which revealed Jones lying dead on the floor.
Jones was wanted in connection with the murder of Dr. Steven Pitt, who was a well-respected psychiatrist, once working on the aforementioned case of the murdered child beauty-pageant queen.
As was previously reported, Pitt was shot outside of his Scottsdale office in the late afternoon on Friday, June 1.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud argument taking place, followed by gunshots. When first responders arrived they pronounced Pitt dead on the scene.
Dan Barr, an attorney friend of Pitt, spoke fondly of the psychiatrist following his death, describing the man as very intelligent and full of passion for his work. According to AZ Family, Barr also explained that Pitt was not a spotlight-seeker, but that he was always willing to cooperate with the news media when the public’s best interest was a concern.
“He thought it was important that the public understand the nuances and intricacies of the story,” Barr added. “He was quite willing and enthusiastic about spending his time doing it, but it was never out of self-promotion.”
Pitt was most well-known as serving on the case of JonBenet Ramsey, whose murder he theorized had details that were being covered up by family members.
Throughout his many years, Pitt worked on a number of other cases as well — such as the Columbine school shooting and the Jodi Arias trial — assisting law enforcement with everything from unusual murder mysteries to serial killers.
“Each subsequent offense becomes more intoxicating for the offender and ultimately it’s that intoxication that leads them to become sloppy,” Pitt once said in a 2016 interview. “Sloppiness leads them to leave physical evidence and physical evidence leads to apprehension and arrest.”
Pitt also worked tirelessly to understand the minds of killers, and dedicated his life to gaining new insights into how they think.
“It’s highly unusual for someone to wake up on a morning and say, ‘you know what today is? The day I want to become a serial killer.’ ” Pitt explained in a 2017 interview. “It just doesn’t work that way.”
