Standard News

Hide Advertisement
  • Business
  • Culture
  • News
  • Technology
  • Trending
Site logo
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

JonBenet Ramsey’s brother, in TV interview, recalls morning sister slain

By Reuters 2 min read
Advertisement - Continue reading below
Burke Ramsey arrives for the burial service of his mother Patsy Ramsey in Marietta.

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The brother of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, whose gruesome murder two decades ago remains unsolved, appeared on Monday in his first televised interview but shed little light on the high-profile cold case.

Advertisement

Burke Ramsey was 9 when his sister went missing from her bedroom in the family’s Boulder, Colorado home early on Dec. 26, 1996, to be found hours eight hours later beaten and strangled to death in the basement.

The grim crime touched off a media frenzy, fueled by controversy over her participation in child beauty pageants, video clips of which were shown exhaustively on cable TV networks.

Burke Ramsey, during the first segment of a three-part interview on the “Dr. Phil” show, recalled the first moments after his mother realized the girl was gone, a threatening ransom note on the stairs.

“The first thing I remember is my mom bursting in my room really frantic, saying, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!, running around the room, now I know, looking for JonBenet,” he told the show’s host, Phil McGraw.

Ramsey said he remained in bed as a police officer entered next, shining a flashlight in the predawn darkness.

“I was scared I think,” he said. “I didn’t know if some bad guy was downstairs (who) my dad was chasing off with a gun or … I had no idea.”

Ramsey remembered later being asked by another police officer where JonBenet might be and suggesting that she might be hiding. Later, at the home of a family friend, his father John Ramsey told him that his sister was dead.

“My dad just said, ‘She’s in heaven,'” he said. “I was kind of like, ‘How is that possible?'”

Despite McGraw’s assertion during the broadcast that Burke Ramsey was the “missing link” in the case who had “never answered questions” about what happened in the house that morning, the boy was questioned at length by investigators following his sister’s murder and again years later.

Though John and Patsy Ramsey fell under police suspicion at the time, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said in 2008 they were no longer considered suspects in the case after new DNA testing techniques proved that male DNA found in the murdered girl’s underwear did not match anyone in the family, including Burke.

The DNA profile has been entered into a national crime database but no matches have turned up, Lacy said.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Keith Coffman in Denver, Colorado; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

tagreuters.com2016binary_LYNXNPEC8C00Q-VIEWIMAGE

Advertisement - Continue reading below

Drake joins Forbes list of top five richest hip-hop stars
News
Reuters 2 min read

Drake joins Forbes list of top five richest hip-hop stars

Judge orders State Department to review 14,900 Clinton emails
News
Reuters 4 min read

Judge orders State Department to review 14,900 Clinton emails

Man charged over drugs sold to Rangers’ Boogaard reaches plea deal
News
Reuters 2 min read

Man charged over drugs sold to Rangers’ Boogaard reaches plea deal

Reagan’s would-be assassin now Virginia suburb’s infamous new resident
News
Reuters 3 min read

Reagan’s would-be assassin now Virginia suburb’s infamous new resident

Man who scaled Trump Tower in New York facing criminal charges
News
Reuters 2 min read

Man who scaled Trump Tower in New York facing criminal charges

U.S. states signed pact to keep Exxon climate probe confidential
News
Reuters 3 min read

U.S. states signed pact to keep Exxon climate probe confidential

Washington’s 2015 subway fire showed widespread safety lapses: agency
News
Reuters 2 min read

Washington’s 2015 subway fire showed widespread safety lapses: agency

The First Presidential Debate in America Featured Two Women
Entertainment
Michelle Ranken 3 min read

The First Presidential Debate in America Featured Two Women

94% of Americans Can’t Score at Least 7/15 in This Insane Knowledge Quiz
Business
Jason Owen 1 min read

94% of Americans Can’t Score at Least 7/15 in This Insane Knowledge Quiz

California wildfire prompts new round of evacuations
News
Reuters 2 min read

California wildfire prompts new round of evacuations

load more Loading posts...

sidebar

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

sidebar-alt

  • About Us
  • Imprint
  • Contact Us
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • For Advertisers