The unsolved murder case of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is in the spotlight once again 28 years after the crime, with the upcoming release of the Netflix documentary titled Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey airing on Nov. 25.
In recent months, the little girl’s father, John Ramsey, has been going on interviews and discussing the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s death and the aftermath of the investigation.
On Dec. 26, 1996, JonBenét’s mother, Patsy, discovered that her daughter was missing. She found a ransom note demanding $118,000 in exchange for her daughter and called authorities. The young girl was found deceased in the basement of the Ramsey home in Boulder, Colorado, and the autopsy determined that she died of strangulation.
Throughout the years of investigation, authorities followed leads and looked into more than 1,000 people, but to this day, no one has been arrested for the crime. Among those investigated were John and Patsy, and JonBenét’s brother Burke — who was 9 years old at the time of the murder. The case turned into a media circus, and many criticized the parents for their behavior following the little girl’s death. Some accused Patsy, a former pageant queen, of projecting her aspirations onto her daughter by entering her in numerous child beauty pageants. Recently, John came out in defense of his late wife, who died in 2006, and slammed the accusations for being “totally wrong.”
JonBenét loved participating in and winning beauty pageants
In an interview with People, John stated that Patsy did not force JonBenét to enter pageants. “JonBenét loved doing that stuff,” he said, adding that it was an activity that allowed Patsy and their daughter to bond. Patsy was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer in 1993 and was in remission. She was grateful to have more time with her family, and she seized the opportunity. Addressing the child pageant issue, John said Patsy just wanted to do an activity with their daughter, which they both enjoyed. Unfortunately, Patsy’s cancer returned in 2002, and she succumbed to her illness four years later.
“I think she was trying to pack a lot of stuff into her mother-daughter relationship, knowing that she might not live.”
John described his daughter as an extrovert, and participating — and winning — in pageants fueled her. Moreover, John revealed that their children were always encouraged to take on whatever activities they liked until they found what they truly wanted to focus on. JonBenét engaged in other extracurriculars including playing the piano and violin, as well as a few sports. In fact, she was scheduled to start rock climbing lessons after the 1996 holidays.
Most of the photos that circulated in the media after JonBenét’s murder were of her wearing makeup and hair styled to perfection. That was just one of her facets, however, as John said. JonBenét also loved hiking and playing with her brother, but she enjoyed the glamor of pageants, too. In an interview, John admitted he wasn’t into the pageant scene, but he didn’t stop her daughter from doing it because he saw how much she enjoyed it.
“JonBenét loved to do it because she loved to perform and sing and dance.”
As for how the case is going, John, who is now 80 years old, believes that it could be solved if authorities ask for help from other professionals and institutions, which he claims they didn’t — and still aren’t — think of. Hopefully, the new documentary will reignite investigative efforts and finally give JonBenét’s family the answers they need, while delivering justice for the young girl whose life was taken far too soon.