Crime & Safety

JonBenet Ramsey's Brother to Speak on TV on Monday

Twenty years ago, a 6-year-old, Atlanta-born beauty queen was found murdered. The unsolved case is now returning to the nation's attention.

An unsolved 20-year-old murder that revealed an often-unseen side of American culture is once again taking center stage of the nation's consciousness.

The brother of JonBenet Ramsey, who was six years old when she was murdered in Boulder, CO, is set to break his silence regarding the murder this week.

Burke Ramsey was nine when the body of his sister -- buried in Marietta's St. James Episcopal Cemetery -- was found. Ramsey, now 29, will appear in a three-part interview beginning Monday, Sept. 12, on Dr. Phil.

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"I know people think I did it, that my parents did it," Ramsey said in the interview, which has been previewed on People.com.

JonBenet Ramsey was born in Atlanta on Aug. 6, 1990. Like her mother, the girl had competed in several child beauty pageants and won Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, America's Royale Miss, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.

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Shortly before 6 am on Dec. 26, 1996, a 911 call came in from the home of John and Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's and Burke's parents. Patsy Ramsey, as reported by NBC, was hysterical on the other end, screaming that her daughter has gone missing. Then she seemingly hung up the phone.

Police immediately began an investigation into the case, believing it to be a kidnapping. Patsy Ramsey told police she had found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for JonBenet's return.

But later that day, John Ramsey, according to CNN, found his daughter's body in the basement, bludgeoned and strangled. An autopsy revealed the girl died from strangulation and a skull fracture. She was buried in Marietta on Dec. 31 next to her half-sister, Elizabeth, who was killed in a 1992 car crash.

Speculation about the case immediately focused on the girl's parents and her brother, as well as the often made-up world of child beauty pageants. Burke Ramsey never left his room that day, but he and his parents maintained their innocence in the crime.

"I guess I kind of like to avoid conflict or, I don't know, I guess I just felt safer there," Burke Ramsey told Dr. Phil McGraw. "I'm not the worried type ... I guess part of me doesn't want to know what's going on."

"You, of course, know that critics would say you weren't curious because you already knew," McGraw responds. "You didn't have to get up and check because you knew exactly what had happened."

As the investigation proceeded, both John and Patsy Ramsey said an intruder broke into their house and killed their daughter. They were both indicted in 1999, but the DA never signed the indictments and they were never charged. Subsequent DNA investigations cleared the family of any involvement in JonBenet's murder.

Over the next several years, the case took several strange and bizarre twists and turns, including a 2006 confession from a former schoolteacher, John Mark Karr, who had been living in Bangkok, Thailand. Authorities soon discounted Karr's confession.

Patsy Ramsey, who died from ovarian cancer in 2006, is also buried in Marietta next to her children.

The interview continues on Tuesday, Sept. 13, and concludes on Monday, Sept. 19. A new A&E documentary, "The Killing of JonBenet: The Truth Uncovered," also has been recently aired. It includes new footage from Burke Ramsey's 1998 interview with police.

Image via Shutterstock

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