John Ramsey speaks out ahead of premiere of new Netflix series about JonBenét's unsolved 1996 murder

By 
 November 22, 2024

Millions of Americans remain fascinated by the unsolved murder of 6-year-old beauty pageant queen JonBenét Ramsey, who was found dead in her family's Boulder, Colorado home on the morning of Dec. 26, 1996.

Now her still-grieving father, John Ramsey, is speaking out about his continuing efforts to find his daughter's killer ahead of the premiere on Netflix of a new documentary that reexamines the cold case, according to the "Today" show.

Ramsey, who was once considered a prime suspect in JonBenét's death, will prompt the police to renew their investigation and finally solve the mystery of his daughter's untimely death so that the family can find closure and peace.

New docuseries reexamines unsolved murder mystery

On Nov. 25, the new three-part docuseries "Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey" will premiere on Netflix, and it "scrutinizes the missteps of law enforcement and the media, highlighting the relatively straightforward measures that could potentially solve this haunting mystery."

The series, directed and produced by Academy Award-nominated Joe Berlinger, asks the question: "Will Colorado authorities finally take the necessary actions to bring JonBenét Ramsey’s killer to justice and offer her family the peace they’ve long sought?"

In an October interview with Deadline, Berlinger said, "Many people think they know the JonBenét Ramsey story and have played armchair detective for three decades, often callously pointing a finger at the very people who suffered such an unthinkable loss."

"Through unprecedented access and a comprehensive multi-year investigation, we reveal the deep flaws in how the case was originally handled, resulting in a sea of conspiracy theories that nearly destroyed the Ramsey family for a second time," he added.

Family were initially viewed as the primary suspects

According to Newsweek, the Ramsey family awoke on that fateful day in 1996 to find JonBenét missing and a ransom note that suggested she'd been kidnapped, only to later find her brutalized body dead in the basement from suspected sexual assault and strangulation.

For several years, police eyed the girl's parents, John and Patsy, as well as her older brother Burke, who was nine at the time, as the primary suspects in the horrific murder, though they were eventually cleared more than a decade later, albeit after Patsy had died from cancer in 2006.

Part of what led to their vindication of any wrongdoing was the discovery in 2003 of DNA from the crime scene that did not match the family. The father is now hopeful that the unmatched DNA can be used to find the real killer nearly three decades later.

John Ramsey speaks out

"I believe it can be solved if the police accept help from outside their their system. That’s been the flaw for 25 years," John Ramsey told "Today" in a recent interview, and explained, "I’m doing this for the sake of my children and my grandchildren. This cloud over our family’s name needs to be lifted. They need to be able to go on and close this chapter and go on with their lives. It’s hard on them."

"Finding the killer is not going to change my life. I’ve lost JonBenét and it’s not going to bring JonBenét back. I would like to close this chapter so we can be more rest and at peace," he continued. "I won’t give up pressing the authorities to do their job until I see that they do their job, and that’s been the frustration for 25 years."

"You don’t get over it. One mother described the loss of her child as a hole in her heart that won’t heal, and that’s a good description," Ramsey added of the heartbreaking loss of his daughter. "You’re different going forward. What we realized early on was we needed to be stronger now than ever, for our other children who are still living, this was a horrible tragedy for them, and for us, too."

Berlinger told "Today" of Ramsey, "This is the most brutalized man, I think, in American history. Imagine losing your child in the way that that child was lost and being blamed by the media, in large part because the police fed false stories or incomplete stories to the press, and it was just a wildfire of wrongful accusation."

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