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JonBenét Ramsey’s father, John Ramsey, has come to grips with some people believing he murdered his daughter when she was just 6 years old.
“Once your reputation is tarnished, rightly or wrongly, it never goes back to pure white,” John, 80, told People in an article published on Sunday, November 24. “That’s just life. And it doesn’t bother me. I mean, we were so overwhelmed by kind people and caring people, and that 5 percent or 10 percent is irrelevant, and I’m not worried about it.”
John’s remarks come the day before Netflix is set to premiere Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, a new docuseries taking a closer look at the murder of the young beauty queen and the case that has puzzled the nation for decades. After her murder, John and his late wife, Patsy Ramsey, along with their son, Burke Ramsey, were investigated as suspects. Burke was just 9 years old at the time.
“We assumed that the police would show some level of discernment and wisdom and say, ‘Yeah, well this is crazy, to think [we] murdered our child,’” John admitted to People in a previous interview on November 21. Well, they never did. They made that decision on day one, and tried desperately to prove it.”
John also told the publication that the Boulder, Colorado, police department has been reluctant to continue to help with the case.
“We’re begging the police to engage. There are cutting edge DNA labs that want to help and who believe they can move the case forward,” John said. “The chief of police is in charge. Nobody can come in and help him with solving a crime unless he asks for help. We’re not asking them to do anything weird. Just do your job. Test the DNA.”
John claimed that there were several items found at the scene that were either never tested for DNA or were tested with outdated methods, and he believes the new technology could help find some answers.
“Of the items sent to labs in the beginning, six or seven of them were returned untested,” John explained. “We don’t know why they were not tested, but they were not tested. The garrote used to strangle JonBenét and a number of items just were sent back. But to do the latest stuff, this whole genealogy research, they needed a different format of the sample. And that’s why we’ve been advocating more testing be done by one or two of these very cutting edge labs, to retrieve a sample in the right format, which they can use to do genealogy research and searching, basically.”
John admitted that he doesn’t believe the case will make any advancements without the help of the Boulder Police Department, especially if the authorities refuse to accept any help from outside sources.
“If it stays in the hands of the Boulder Police, it will not be solved, period,” John confessed. “If they accept help, all the help that’s out there, that’s available and offered, it will be solved. Yes, I believe it will be solved.”
On December 26, 1996, JonBenét’s body was discovered in the basement of the Ramsey family home, hours after she’d been reported missing. She died from strangulation and blunt force trauma to her head, but there was evidence she had been sexually assaulted as well.
English (US) ·