COLORADO – It has been almost 20 years since JonBenét Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in her parents’ home in Boulder.
Now her brother, Burke, is speaking publicly for the first time about the unsolved murder.
Burke, who is now 29, will speak with Dr. Phil in an exclusive three-part interview, the show’s producers announced Monday.
The interview will reveal “shocking, never-before-heard details about one of America’s most talked about cold cases,” according to the website.
“After 20 years, it’s finally time for answers,” the website states.
The three-part season premiere airs Monday, September 12th; Tuesday September 13th; and Monday September 19th.
JonBenét’s parents reported her missing on Christmas Day 1996, after finding a note demanding a ransom of $118,000.
The 6-year-old beauty queen was found about eight hours later by her father, John, in the basement of the home. An autopsy revealed she had been beaten and strangled.
Her parents consistently maintained they had nothing to do with JonBenét’s death.
Though the Ramseys were never named as suspects, they were the focus of the grand jury, which first convened in September 1998.
Thirteen months later, the grand jury revealed that they would not indict anyone in JonBenét’s death. They swore not to talk about the case in which they heard from dozens of witnesses, considered 30,000 pieces of evidence.
We now know the jury did decide to indict JonBenét’s parents, but that then-Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter did not sign the indictment. It was sealed for years.
(Aired October 25, 2013)
Hunter said that there was not enough evidence to file charges against John and Patsy and it would be unethical to pursue a court case against the couple if prosecutors did not believe they could win the case.
Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006.
In 2008, then-District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote a letter to John Ramsey, saying that new DNA evidence had cleared him, his wife and son. She formally apologized for the cloud of suspicion the Ramseys lived under for years.
Boulder police released a statement regarding the indictment release saying, “We believe at this point it is unlikely there will ever be a prosecution.”
