In 2016, Rolling Stone published a list of eight possible suspects in JonBenet Ramsey’s death. The way the news media may use the term, however, can be different from law enforcement officially declaring anyone a suspect in the case.
The article included Gary Oliva on that list, labeling him the “town drifter.” According to Rolling Stone, Oliva, then 32, was a convicted pedophile living in the area “off and on” who had a magazine cutout of JonBenet. Rolling Stone reported then that Ollie Gray, identified as the “Ramsey’s longtime private investigator,” had “lambasted the Boulder PD for failing to consider him as a more credible suspect.”
Vail described being troubled by “how the knots used to fashion the garrote that strangled JonBenét were similar to those used in an incident where Oliva attempted to choke his mother with telephone cord,” Rolling Stone reported.