JonBenet Ramsey's Brother Breaks Silence 20 Years After Her Murder

the murder of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey captivated the nation and put her family under the microscope with many speculating that her father mother brother or all three were involved in her killing tonight her brother Burke speaks after 20 years of silence about that painful saga and new evidence is brought to light here's my Nightline co-anchor juju Chang I remember the casket is small and her eyes were closed I think one of her eyes was a little bit like droopy or something that was big how did you feel seeing her sadness I don't think I really fully grasps like after this don't see her again Burke Ramsey now 29 breaking a 20-year silence coming out of the shadows to speak publicly for the first time about his sister JonBenet's murder in an interview with dr. Phil the next thing I remember and my dad came and told me Jean Monnet isn't heaven now and he started crying that I started crying he was just nine when his little sister was found viciously strangled in the basement of their own home the child beauty-queen eternally six years old whose gruesome unsolved murder became America's fixation two competing theories lingered for years did an intruder break in and kill or were the Ramseys themselves somehow responsible Burke who was reportedly paid for the interview is the only family member in the house the night of the murder who's never come forward with his side of the story did you hit your sister over the head with a baseball bat or a flashlight absolutely not Burke says he stayed in bed for hours as dozens of investigators and loved ones swarmed the house critics would say you weren't curious because you already knew he didn't have to get up go check because he knew exactly what had happened I didn't know if there's some bad guy downstairs my dad was chasing off with a gun everyone looks at the interview of Burke and thinks why is this young man smiling I don't see a smile as much as I see an uncomfortable facial expression but I don't see that as smile happy smile I see that as uncomfortable Gai ABC's chief legal analyst Dan Abrams spent years covering the saga Burke Ramsey's one of the most sought after interviews by every news and tabloid organization out there because back at the time people were saying oh maybe Burke did it or what is Burke now at the time the incessant media attention smothered the family under a cloud of suspicion then nine-year-old Burke was not immune years later John Ramsey JonBenet's and Burke's father told me that they were simply trying to protect their nine-year-old from the media onslaught there was one day when he and Patsy managed to escape the paparazzi and they made it to a grocery store and there was a headline that Burke brother did it and he burst into tears well what was his reaction well it works a very quiet private person we tried very hard to keep Burke's life normal and that just was like a huge interruption to that the mystery began the morning after Christmas 20 years ago with a horrifying ransom note left in the Ramsey home demanding a hundred and eighteen thousand dollars in exchange for the safe return of their little girl but soon John Ramsey JonBenet's father found her lifeless body in the basement a moment he told me about in 2012 when I found her it was a rush of relief and then of course within moments I realized that she probably was dead but she was back in my arms the family home hours after the discovery captured in these crime scene videos seen for the first time in an investigation discovery docu-series airing this week JonBenet had been strangled with a garrote her skull fractured and there were signs of sexual abuse at first investigators found no apparent signs of a break-in and the Ramsey family came under the investigative microscope Burke too placed under the harsh lights of the interrogation room you saw John Pinette alive as seen in these newly discovered tapes of police interviews included in an A&E documentary the theory was that Burke killed her accidentally and the family was covering up the crime inside the ramsey home a flashlight heavy enough to be a murder weapon the strangulation device made from the broken handle of Patsy's paintbrush the bizarre ransom note was found to have been written on Patsy's notepad the ransom note is the single most important piece of evidence that led the authorities to think it had to be someone in the house ie John and Patsy Ramsey because who else would have the time they would say to write that intricate note and practice it beforehand other than someone trying to cover up a crime the police play hardball bluffing about the evidence they have but Patsy never wavered always adamant about their innocence outside the Ramseys home a constant crush of cameras looking back on it was looks like madness but at the time we were so crushed by the loss of her child they didn't matter John and Patsy Ramsey were never charged with the crime but were nonetheless skewered in the court of public opinion this is the first time that you've sat for an extended interview they eventually tried to set the record straight with Barbara Walters mr. Ramsey did you kill Jon Benet no I did not mrs. Ramsey did you kill your daughter no I did not kill my daughter but if not the Ramseys then who did it Jon Benet was a pedophiles dream come true Lou Schmitt the late detective who was brought in by the Boulder District Attorney's Office to conduct an independent investigation believed a sexual predator killed Jon Benet I believe he brought her down to the farthest deepest part of that basement and did very brutal thanks to her Smit uncovered evidence that had reportedly been overlooked by the boulder police a broken window where the killer could have entered a footprint marks on JonBenet indicative of a stun gun that was a little parade in Charleroi when I spoke to John Ramsey in 2012 he had a lingering sense of regret child beauty pageants made him uncomfortable and he told me if he had another chance he wouldn't let Jon Benet compete publicly were you naive about letting her compete in pageants yeah probably yeah but your lesson was what if we inadvertently exposed her to the killer obviously you don't want to keep him locked in the house but it's just an awareness not everyone around you is a nice good person a reexamination of the DNA evidence using new technology found an unidentified males DNA on JonBenet's Underpants essentially clearing the Ramsey family this is the only case where I think I have fundamentally turned as much as I have thinking probably to no way over the course of an intense investigation the new District Attorney Mary Lacey took the extraordinary step of formally exonerating the Ramseys but vindication didn't come soon enough for the Ramseys patsy died from ovarian cancer in 2006 today John is remarried and lives a quiet life in Michigan I struggled a lot with forgiveness and what that meant the first phase was I can't forgive this creature you know let me give hands on him we won't need a trial no one would blame you for being angry and bitter and I was for a time absolutely but but you can't stay there and because it's establishing to you as a person it's it's a gift to give yourself to let it go as for Burke he's now a software engineer and once again back in the headlines it's sort of surprising that Burke gave up his anonymity and I think in retrospect it was probably a mistake I don't think he came across that well even though he's totally innocent and yet twenty years later JonBenet's case still an unsolved murder the boulder police chief releasing this video statement we remain focused on this investigation and finding justice for JonBenet her murder remains America's great whodunit mystery still haunting the public imagination the notion that these rich parents might have killed their child was an amazing question / soap opera / mystery and it was a true unsolved mystery to this day and it will never be solved for Nightline I'm juju Chang in New York

Channel: ABC News

Views: 11,483,597

Rating: 4.6966157 out of 5

Keywords: JonBenet, Ramsey, Burke, Dr, Phil, Show, Brother, Breaks, Silence, pageant, star, found, dead, 1996, murder, abc, abcnews

Id: wa5GaQOmee0

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 14 2016