JonBenet Ramsey: Father Says Son Learned He Was A Suspect At Supermarket

JonBenet Ramsey has fascinated and haunted America for almost two decades now; the tiny blonde beauty queen was just 6-years-old when she was found dead in her family’s basement, sexually assaulted and covered with a blanket. For nineteen years, questions have surrounded the crime, the investigation, and her family, who were eventually cleared of any wrongdoing when unfamiliar male DNA was found at the scene. Before those findings, however, Ramsey’s older brother, Burke, was a suspect. John Ramsey said he tried to protect his son as much as possible from that fact to no avail.

Burke, who was nine at the time of JonBenet’s murder, didn’t know police were looking at him as a potential killer until he saw his picture on the cover of a tabloid at the supermarket.

“The headlines from a tabloid screamed out that Burke had done it. She dropped her produce and rushed Burke out, but the damage had been done,” John Ramsey said of his former wife, Patsy, in a recent Barbara Walters interview.

The sit-down was part of a special for American Scandal on Investigation Discovery with Walters, who delved back into the case with John Ramsey and his new wife, Jan. Patsy passed away in 2006 of ovarian cancer.

“We tried to shield him from that. Friends would ask us, ‘What can we do to help?’ We said, ‘Next time you go in the supermarket, call the manager over when you see our child’s photo on the front cover, and ask him to remove it.’ A lot of them did that,” John said.

While many still believe that one or more of the Ramseys had something to do with JonBenet’s death, John Ramsey maintains their innocence and says he believes the killer will be caught someday, despite the 19 years that have passed.

“I think we will have two ways that will happen. It will either be a DNA match or someone who knows something will become angry or bitter against this person and will tell,” Ramsey said.

Former Colorado Police Chief Mark Beckner says he believes the investigation was “mishandled,” pointing out that officials never separated John and Patsy to get statements from them one-on-one after they called police about then-missing JonBenet and a ransom note found in their home.

“It was the Christmas holiday and we were short staffed, we faced a situation as I said earlier that no one in the country had ever seen before or since, and there was confusion at the scene as people were arriving before we had enough personnel on the scene,” Beckner said in a Reddit AMA. “I wish we would have done a better job of securing and controlling the crime scene on day one. We also should have separated John and Patsy and gotten full statements from them that day. Letting them go was a big mistake, as they soon lawyered up and we did not get to formally interview them again until May of 1997, five months after their daughter was murdered.”

Beckner claims John and Patsy did not act “normal” under the extremely troubling circumstances when investigators arrived, and that many of the officials on the scene never believed that a third party had entered the home because a point of entry was never found. The DNA taken from the crime scene wasn’t processed until 2008 and has never been matched to a suspect. Officials believe it either came from saliva or sweat. Beckner says that is what investigators need to focus on.

“I’m not involved any more, but that has got to be the focus of the investigation. In my opinion, at this point, that’s your suspect,” he said.

[Photo via Investigation Discovery]