Dateline NBC: What happened to Jennifer Ramsaran?

The New Berlin stay-at-home mother, Jennifer Ramsaran, went missing on December 11, 2012, when she went shopping for her daughter's annual holiday concert in Syracuse. Her husband, Ganesh Remy Ramsaran, also called Remy, reported her prolonged absence to the local police the same day but soon became the focus of the investigation.

Remy recovered Jennifer's phone from an overgrown area near a bridge outside town. Her minivan was subsequently discovered in the parking lot of a Norwich apartment complex by her father. Jennifer had reportedly sustained blunt force trauma to her head and her frozen remains were discovered three months later in a desolate stretch of land in Pharsalia on February 26, 2013.

Dateline season 32 episode 27 titled The Perfect Life focused on Jennifer Ramsaran's death when it aired on February 16, 2024. The synopsis read:

"A mystery looms over a small New York town when a woman is murdered and a stunning secret is exposed; more than a decade later, new developments lead to an unexpected conclusion."

---

What happened to Jennifer Ramsaran? Details explored

The mother of three, Jennifer Ramsaran, left her New Berlin residence before 11 pm local time on December 11, 2012, to buy a dress for her daughter's upcoming holiday concert. Her husband, Remy Ramsaran, notified the local police of her prolonged absence the same day. He spoke to Dateline earlier saying:

“I told them that my wife’s a few hours late but the reason I’m worried is I haven’t heard from her since about 11 am when she left, which is highly unusual."

The next day he reportedly tracked down Jennifer Ramsaran's cell phone using Apple's Find My iPhone application and got hold of the device from an area outside town, as per Distractify. Oxygen reported that this raised suspicions as the police had initially searched the area and not made any notable findings.

Jennifer's father, Thomas Renz, later found her 2006 Chrysler Town and Country minivan abandoned in a parking lot in Norwich, Pharsalia - eight miles away from Jen and Remy's residence.

Jennifer Ramsaran's frozen and naked body was found three months later on February 26, 2013, at an uninhabited stretch of land in Pharsalia. A medical examiner confirmed evidence of blunt force trauma to her head and the presence of male DNA underneath her fingernails.

Remy told authorities that he went for a run to the YMCA after his wife went shopping but the police were unable to verify his alibi using surveillance footage from businesses along the said run route. Moreover, the investigators discovered a spot of blood on Remy and Jennifer Ramsaran's mattress and on the sweatshirt the former wore the day his wife was last seen.

As per The Cinemaholic, prosecutors believed that Remy dropped the kids at school before he came back home and allegedly used a blunt object to hit his wife in the head. Former Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride spoke to Dateline about the case and said:

"In our theory of the case, he actually killed his wife at home, and cleaned up for a few hours and then he dumped the body, then he dumped the phone, then he dumped the van and then he continued on that straight line to the YMCA."

While the Chenango County Sheriff’s Office was unable to establish an extramarital affair from Jennifer's side, they found that Remy Ramsaran had been involved with Jen's best friend from Girl Scouts, Eileen Sayles.

With the extramarital affair with Eileen Sayles and a $200,000 life insurance policy payout serving as possible motives, Ganesh Remy Ramsaran was arrested on charges of second-degree murder and eventually convicted as well. He was found guilty by a jury in September 2014 and sentenced to 25 years to life in jail. However, he was ordered a new trial in October 2022 due to "blatant dishonesty" from his former attorney, as per The Cinemaholic.

Remy then pleaded guilty in October 2023, to a reduced charge of first-degree manslaughter and is presently serving 18-22 years at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.