The director of the new Netflix documentary, JonBenét Ramsey, has revealed why she believes the family of the murdered six-year-old boy is innocent and who could be behind the mystery.
American documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger spoke about his own thoughts on the 1996 Colorado murder after directing Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, which takes aim at detectives for botching the investigation and the media for outing the girl’s family as the main suspects.
The six-year-old pageant princess was reported missing after her family found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the girl’s return inside their Boulder home on December 26, 1996.
The girl’s body was later found by her father in the basement of the family’s luxurious home, brutally beaten and strangled to death.
Talking to him New York PostJoe said: “I am firmly convinced that the Ramsey family are innocent.” And I also firmly believe that this case can be solved if the Boulder Police Department finally does what it is supposed to do.’
He added that he believes all suspects should be “put back on the table,” as many “possible suspects” were ruled out at the time due to faulty DNA analysis.
However, he acknowledged that even the Ramsey family should get a DNA test again because they would be more than happy to help.
Grieving father John Ramsey, 80, took part in the Netflix documentary in the hope of finding answers to his daughter’s murder case.
The director of JonBenét Ramsey’s new three-part Netflix documentary, American documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (pictured), believes the family of the murdered six-year-old boy is innocent.
Joe said: ‘John Ramsey agreed to sit down with us, he didn’t ask to be paid, and he wasn’t paid (we don’t pay our subjects) and he didn’t ask for any editorial input.
‘No question was off limits. To me, that’s an 80-year-old guy who… wants that case solved. It’s simply unthinkable that the family had anything to do with this.’
Joe told the publication that he believes an intruder entered the home and murdered the girl, calling it “a much more plausible scenario.”
JonBenét was found brutally beaten and strangled to death and it was ruled a homicide, but no one was ever prosecuted and the case remains unsolved.
The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenét from her beauty pageants made the case one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States.
She had been crowned Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl and Little Miss National Beauty.
The mystery sparked a series of true crime books and television specials.
The district attorney at the time of JonBenét’s death said her parents were under “an umbrella of suspicion” from the beginning.
The six-year-old pageant princess was reported missing after her family found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the girl’s return inside their Boulder home on December 26, 1996.
Heartbroken father John Ramsey, 80, participated in the Netflix documentary in hopes of finding answers in his daughter’s murder case.
Theorists have also questioned whether her son Burke, who was nine years old at the time of JonBenet’s death, accidentally killed his sister in a moment of anger and his parents covered it up.
But tests conducted in 2008 on newly discovered DNA on her clothing pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her murder, and not her parents or Burke.
That led former District Attorney Mary Lacy to clear the Ramseys of any involvement, two years after their mother Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006, calling the couple “victims of this crime.”
Investigators had identified other suspects and developed a theory about an intruder, or several intruders, entering the home and killing the pageant princess.
Among the suspects was convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, who allegedly confessed to the murder.
Others included Ramsey’s housekeeper, as well as the man who played Santa Claus at a party the young man attended.
In 2006, authorities announced that another suspect, John Mark Karr, had been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
He had allegedly told a US investigator that he drugged JonBenét and sexually assaulted her before accidentally killing her.
JonBenet had been crowned Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl and Tiny Miss National Beauty.
The three-part documentary series seeks to open up one of the most tragic unsolved cases in American criminal history.
The pageant star’s cause of death was “asphyxia due to strangulation associated with head trauma,” meaning she had been suffocated and beaten.
But prosecutors dropped that investigation after DNA testing failed to link him to the crime scene.
Investigations are ongoing. Boulder police and officials said in December 2021 that they had processed 1,500 tests and analyzed nearly 1,000 DNA samples in their search for the killer.
Detectives have digitized all the handwriting, fingerprints and shoeprint samples collected over the years, and periodically check for DNA matches in hopes of solving the case.
But dad John has questioned whether they are doing their job correctly. In May 2022 he asked that an outside agency take responsibility for DNA testing in the case.
The new series brings together archival footage of JonBenét happily walking through the family home and the frantic recording of mom Patsy’s 911 call declaring that her “daughter is gone.”
The show, which will air starting Nov. 25, focuses on police mistakes, including a lack of security at the home and the possible disposal of evidence.
It includes an interview with Burke, who describes the Ramseys as “just a normal family” before the fateful Christmas.
The trailer shows Father John, 80, recalling how the “unbelievable” tragedy unfolded.
The crime scene at Ramsey’s luxurious Colorado home following the murder of his six-year-old son.
The Ramsey family appears in a Christmas photo from December 1993. (Left to right) JonBenét, John, Patsy and Burke Ramsey
It also includes a clip from a person involved in the case saying, “We’ve been ruling out people for the wrong reasons.”
‘Everyone should be back on the table. We have to go deeper,” says the person.
The show also investigates whether Patsy, a former beauty queen, made JonBenet a target for predators by encouraging her to dress up for her beauty pageants.
She was buried in Marietta, Georgia, next to her mother and half-sister Elizabeth Ramsey, who died in a car accident in 1992.
Director Joe Berlinger says the series takes aim at those who “played armchair detective for three decades, often cruelly pointing the finger at the very people who suffered such an unthinkable loss.”
He added: “Through unprecedented access and an exhaustive multi-year investigation, we revealed the deep flaws in how the case was originally handled, resulting in a sea of conspiracy theories that nearly destroyed the Ramsey family for a second time.” time”.
Dionne Waugh, spokesperson for the Boulder Police Department, declined to comment on an “open and ongoing investigation.” Anyone with information about the murder is asked to call the tip line at 303-441-1974, he said.
Shannon Carbone, a spokeswoman for the Boulder district attorney’s office, said a recent review of the case had been “helpful” and that investigators were continuing to “make progress in this tragic case.”
“The overall goal is to examine the facts and evidence with fresh eyes and an open mind, armed with the latest advances in forensic science,” Carbone told DailyMail.com.