Overview:
Carol McKinley, who has covered some of the nation's most important news stories for over 30 years, talks about her life and retirement.
Within the world of journalism, Emmy award-winning Carol McKinley has done it all. McKinley has covered some of the most significant events in the country for over four decades, including the JonBenét Ramsey investigation and the Columbine and Aurora theater shootings. She also covered the Iraq War and the end of Saddam Hussein.
Now, after firmly establishing herself as one of the most prolific reporters in Denver, McKinley has decided to retire and call it a career. Carol joined us on the April episode of the “Bucket List Community Cafe Podcast” to discuss her legendary career.
“I’ve been on the sidelines to so many wonderful events, terrible events and tragedies,” McKinley said. “A friend of mine said that all we are doing is getting information and talking about it. That’s all we do, really. It’s just so much fun to be the one who can shape what’s happening and cater to people in the way you think is the most important and unbiased way you can.”
After growing up on a military base in Germany and attending the University of Colorado, McKinley got her start in media at a small radio station in Northern Wyoming in 1982. McKinley then took a job at KOA Denver in 1988 as a morning radio reporter, where she got her big break by covering the Boulder murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey in 1996, which has since become one of the most famous cold cases of all time.
“When JonBenét Ramsey was killed, I just went in feet first,” McKinley said. “I didn’t know the difference between a prosecutor or a defense attorney. I think the reason I got my first big interview was that they knew I was naive, and they chose me because they wanted to walk all over me. I used being naive to my best advantage, and I learned so much.”
As the Ramsey case has seen a resurgence in popularity after the 2024 Netflix documentary about it, McKinley took her opportunity to clear up what she believes are some of the biggest misconceptions about the case. The first misconception that she addressed concerned the Boulder Police Department’s questionable competence while handling the crime scene and investigation.
“I think people thought the [Boulder] Police were a bumbling, ‘Keystone Cops’ group of people, but they really weren’t,” McKinley said. “They were on the first day, but after that, they brought in the secret service and knot experts. They had many people who understood handwriting. The autopsy was really good. I just feel like the law enforcement folks took a bashing early on, which was a misconception.”
Another misconception that McKinley addressed was concerning Patsy Ramsey, the mother of JonBenét. In the media, Patsy was often portrayed as a fragile person but McKinley says this was also untrue.
“I think the idea that Patsy Ramsey was a weeping, magnolia southern belle was also a misconception,” McKinley said. “She was a really smart lady, really smart. She understood people. She had been the foreman of a jury in Boulder. She was chosen as a foreman and knew how the justice system worked. People did not give her enough credit for how smart she was.”
While McKinley was featured prominently in Netflix’s new JonBenét Ramsey documentary and praised the company’s professionalism and storytelling, she says she still has problems with the three-episode docuseries.
“My problem with it is that they didn’t really introduce much about the police investigation,” McKinley said. “To me, I thought it was one-sided and intruder-driven. They made [detective] Steve Thomas look like some idiot in a corner, and that’s not how he was. I knew Steve Thomas, and that’s not how he was. They also made it seem like John Mark Karr killed JonBenét, which he didn’t. He wasn’t in Boulder on December 26, 1996.”
The documentary’s allusion to Karr being the murderer of JonBenét is especially concerning to McKinley, as younger generations who are being introduced to the case are getting bad information.
“They left [Karr’s confession] hanging at the end,” McKinley said. “All these young people that are JonBenét’s age or weren’t even born when JonBenét was killed are all thinking that the parents are innocent, and that hasn’t been determined.”
Despite the cold case being over 29 years old, McKinley thinks that the case will be solved someday, but has fears that new DNA testing could complicate that process.
“Yeah, I do [think the case will be solved],” McKinley said. “If they get that [crime scene] DNA and find out who it belongs to and it’s not the killer, they’re going to have to start over. If that DNA belongs to someone who has an alibi… they’re going to have to say, ‘Oops, DNA is not going to find the killer. Let’s start over.’ And then they’re going to have to have a confession of some kind.”
McKinley became a celebrity for her reporting on the Ramsey investigation, but says that reporting on the shooting at Columbine High School in April 1999 is the story that left the greatest impact on her.
“I would say that Columbine has left a big impact on a lot of us just because it happened here and it was one of the first [school shootings],” McKinley said. “It was just so sad and so unbelievable. Everyone was so shocked, and everyone was touched by it. It would say that was a biggie for everyone who covered it back in 1999.”
It isn’t easy to cover crime stories like the Ramsey investigation, the Columbine shooting, the Oklahoma City bombing and her National Emmy-winning interview with the ex-wife of the Pulse Nightclub shooter. McKinley says that it’s taken a great toll on her.
“[The toll has been] a lot,” McKinley said. “You don’t realize it’s happening, but I would bring it home and be short with my family. I would go inside myself and wouldn’t want to talk to anyone. I’d get mad at things that I shouldn’t be mad at. I think you insulate yourself when you cover that stuff for such a long time.”
The biggest highlight of McKinley’s career had nothing to do with her extensive experience as an investigative journalist. Instead, it came during her time working on the pregame show for Colorado Buffaloes Football with KOA during the 1990 season when the Buffs won the national championship, their first and only to date.
“The most fun I’ve ever had was covering the CU Buffs win the national championship,” McKinley said. “That was just an indescribable event, and I’ll never feel that one again, but it was worth it and really fantastic to watch that team win that night.”
McKinley’s favorite memory from that national championship season came in Miami ahead of the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame, where Buffs fans lined the beaches and slept together like a massive slumber party.
“[All the Buffs fans] would sleep on the beach,” McKinley said. “Our radio show started really early in the morning, so I’d just stay on the beach with them and get all kinds of sounds of them partying. One of our favorite talk show hosts was running up and down the beach with balloons. Ralphie made the trip and nobody knew what a Buffalo was [in Miami] and they did not know what to make of her. Just stuff like that.”
One of her first plans in retirement is traveling with her husband in an RV and exploring the Pacific Northwest. “We are going to Washington and the Oregon Coast,” McKinley said. “I’ve never seen that. I grew up in Europe, so I’d love to see America a little more than I have in my life.”
She also says she might trade in her journalistic pen for a new one, and write an original historical fiction novel with her newfound extra time.
As Denver prepares for a future without McKinley as one of its most prolific journalists, she believes that smaller, local outlets like Bucket List Community Cafe will play a major role in gaining and retaining community trust going forward.
“Bucket List Community Cafe covers a certain neighborhood, and people will turn to Bucket List for that information,” McKinley said. “Community journalism has gotten stronger and stronger. That’s not a lot of money in it, so you need to find people who love it so much that they’re willing to do it. I’m seeing a lot of the trust going towards these community newspapers, radio shows and podcasts.”
