Burke Ramsey Says He Wasn't On That 911 Call

As the 20th anniversary of JonBenét Ramsey's tragic murder nears, national attention is focusing in once again on the unsolved case. One major figure in the events was JonBenét's brother, Burke, who until recently has stayed quiet on the topic of his sister's death. But thanks to an exclusive three-part interview with Dr. Phil, the public has gained a little insight into what was going on during the fateful event. In the second part of the interview, which aired Tuesday, Burke Ramsey denied that he was on the 911 call his mother placed after she found a ransom note and realized that her daughter was missing.

During the conversation, Dr. Phil brings up the call, and asks Burke, who was 9 years old at the time of the murder, if he's heard of it.

Burke: Oh, it's been brought up a bunch of times, because they think I'm on it or something.

Dr. Phil: Where were you during the phone call?

Burke: In my bed.

Dr. Phil: How do you know?

Burke: I don't remember getting up until my dad came in there.

Dr. Phil (to John Ramsey): Where was Burke?

John: We checked his bedroom immediately, he was asleep in bed. That was pure fiction.

The 911 operator who received Patsy Ramsey's call that night claims to have heard voices on the other end of the line during the call, and speculation has spread around wondering if Burke's was one of them. John and Patsy Ramsey were cleared of suspicion in the case years ago.

Burke has remained removed from the coverage of his sister's death, because John Ramsey wanted to shield him from the attention of the tabloids. John told Barbara Walters in a 2015 interview that in order to safeguard his young son from the coverage of his sister's death, he tried to get images of his family taken off newsstands. "Friends would ask us, 'What can we do to help?'" said Ramsey. "We said, 'Next time you go in the supermarket, call the manager over when you see our child's photo on the cover, and ask him to remove it.' A lot of them did."

While it's certainly reasonable for parents to want to protect a child from a traumatic experience, it's also interesting to now hear from someone so close to the events after all this time. In the first part of his interview, Burke explained his reluctance to speak out about the case, saying, "For the last 20 years, I wanted to grow up like a normal kid, which does not involve going in front of TV cameras." Fair point.