When JonBenét Ramsey was killed on Christmas 1996, the investigation started the way many do — by examining and analyzing the people closest to the victim. Though they have always maintained their innocence and in 2008 were officially cleared of any involvement in JonBenét's murder due to DNA evidence, John, Patsy, and Burke Ramsey (JonBenét's parents and brother, respectively) all faced public scrutiny. Since they've already been in the spotlight so much over this tragedy, I want to know what John Ramsey thinks about The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey , the latest docuseries about his daughter's death to debut this fall. The Ramseys' lawyer told Bustle that John does not have any comment on the docuseries at this time.
Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 from ovarian cancer, so she never got to see her name cleared. And while John Ramsey has not spoken specifically about the recent influx of shows about JonBenét's death, he did discuss the rumors surrounding the case on Dr. Phil earlier this week. The point he seems angriest about 20 years later is how his son was treated by the press. Though Burke Ramsey was only nine years old at the time of JonBenét's death, he was at the center of many conspiracy theories and accusations. (Like his parents, Burke has maintained his innocence and was cleared of any involvement.) John told Dr. Phil about this treatment of Burke:
“I've heard rumors that we were hiding Burke, because he was this crazy kid, when that wasn't the case at all. Yes, we were hiding him from the media, but no, we didn't hide him from anybody. We protected him, we hid him... I mean, we were under assault by the media and press and cameras and people, we didn't know who they were. We just didn't want Burke recognized, because he was growing up. He was not a 9-year-old boy anymore… We wanted him to have a normal life."
John touched on this point more in The Killing Of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, which aired on A&E earlier this month, when he said of people that came "banging on [their] door":
“It makes me mad. This is not entertainment. This is my child that was murdered. She was a wonderful, innocent child that was murdered."
John doesn’t seem angry about the renewed interest in his daughter’s case — if anything, it could lead to new theories and perhaps even some new breaks — but rather about what the media put his family through during the investigation. The Ramseys spent years dealing with negative public opinion, and now that their names are officially clear, John is speaking out about how difficult that was for them to go through.
