Police to interview Burke Ramsey RE: JonBenet. Possible break in the case?

[fgg]

Author: Police Hope JonBenet's Brother May Yield Clues

(Sept. 29) -- The author of a book about the slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey says police want to reinterview her brother, who was 9 when the young beauty queen was killed in 1996.

Burke Ramsey, now 23, graduated from Purdue University in Indiana last year and lives in Atlanta, according to his Facebook page.


Mark Fix / ZUMA Press

Boulder, Colo., police refuse to confirm a report that they want to question the brother of JonBenet Ramsey, shown here at a pageant in July 1996, regarding her death.


He was exonerated by DNA testing after JonBenet was strangled in the Ramsey family home in Boulder, Colo., but authorities are reportedly hoping that he may remember additional details.

Lawrence Schiller, author of a book about the Ramsey case titled "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town," told CBS's "The Early Show" on Tuesday that his sources had told him police were hoping to question the young man.

"They said the police had sent on their business cards and asked Burke, if his time permitted, if he could get in touch with them," Schiller said.

Boulder police refused today to confirm the report.

"We are not going to publicly reveal details about the investigation unless doing so would further the needs of the investigation," Police Chief Mark Beckner said in a statement.

After a seven-year hiatus, Boulder police became involved in the case again last year, creating a task force to review details and make recommendations. Beckner said at that time that advances in DNA testing and linguistics technology might help solve the case. He said agencies participating in the task force were the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado attorney general's office, the Denver district attorney's office, and the Boulder County and Jefferson County sheriff's departments.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly told AOL News today that he had not heard of any developments in the case. Ramsey could not be reached for comment. His phone number is unlisted.

Last year, Beckner said authorities had investigated 140 people as potential suspects. He said in his statement today that based on recommendations from the task force, there has been additional contact with those who may have information pertaining to the case. Authorities refused to elaborate.

JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family's house on Dec. 26, 1996. A ransom note seeking $118,000 was also found in the 7,000-square-foot home.

Boulder, an affluent community 35 miles northwest of Denver, was shaken by the crime, the only murder in 1996. Initially, prosecutors said JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy, were under "an umbrella of suspicion." A grand jury refused to indict them, but they weren't officially cleared until 2008.

Patsy Ramsey died in June 2006 of ovarian cancer. Less than two months later, John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old teacher in Thailand obsessed with JonBenet's killing, was arrested after making bizarre, detailed confessions in her death. He was brought back to the United States, but he was released after authorities said his DNA did not match evidence in the case. No one has ever been tried for the crime.

John Ramsey, who now lives in Michigan, ran unsuccessfully for the Michigan House of Representatives in 2004.


Police Reportedly Want to Interview JonBenet Ramsey's Brother Burke

[LynnieD]

Jesus, that was in 1996?

Meh, this one will probably never be solved, which is sad for the family.

[olivia]

Patsy killed her. Let's move on.

The DNA evidence was so old it probably came from the factory where the panties were made. That was totally a red herring put out by the Ramsey camp.

[MohandasKGanja]

I am very pessimistic about any more progress being made at this point.

[rollo]

Such a sad case. Let's hope it will be solved one day.

[AliceInWonderland]

yeah still sad how fucking awful this poor little girl never had a chance. i cant believe these "pageants" are legal! they're fucking disgusting!

[OZZYSBITCH]

Sadly, I don't think this will ever be solved. These pageant kids photo's are so creepy.

[A*O]

If the parents didn't actually kill her they were definitely involved. I don't want to drag up the whole case but the ransom note demanding a very random and specific amount of $ which happened to coincide EXACTLY with a recent bonus the father had received has never been properly explained.

If Patsy did it she got her just reward. If she didn't do it I'm damn sure she knew who did.

[Laurent]

Jesus, that was in 1996?

I know, it doesn't seem like so long ago. I remember opening the paper that morning and reading about this case for the first time.

[C_is_for_Cookie]

I don't think this will ever be solved. What's the point of re-interviewing the brother, I sure as hell don't remember much from when I was 9 years old, he might remember more because I'm sure it was very traumatic, but still.

[january]

If the parents didn't actually kill her they were definitely involved. I don't want to drag up the whole case but the ransom note demanding a very random and specific amount of $ which happened to coincide EXACTLY with a recent bonus the father had received has never been properly explained.

If Patsy did it she got her just reward. If she didn't do it I'm damn sure she knew who did.

Yep. IIRC the ransom note was also proven conclusively to have been written on a notepad found inside the house. I think handwriting analysis also was linked to Patsy. Now who the fuck goes into a house, takes a child but then decides to molest her INSIDE the house, kills her and then before fleeing decides to write a fucking ransom note while he's there? No one, that's fucking who. If it was someone looking for ransom, they sure as hell wouldn't risk a valuable commodity by not getting her out of the house quickly. And no one I know who steals kids for ransom writes the fucking note while they're inside the house. Oh, and also decides to molest the said kid in the house. Come on now. If they didn't kill her, they were complicit in the cover up for whatever reason. No doubt in my head, 100% sure there. And what in the hell would provoke two parents to cover up a murder if they weren't involved? Well, I can think of one thing, and it involves covering for another child.....hmmmm.....but more likely it was sex game gone wrong and they were covering their own asses. Pisses me right off.

[sweetness]

They need to leave that poor young man alone and let him move on with his life. Enough already.

[A*O]

Yep. IIRC the ransom note was also proven conclusively to have been written on a notepad found inside the house. I think handwriting analysis also was linked to Patsy. Now who the fuck goes into a house, takes a child but then decides to molest her INSIDE the house, kills her and then before fleeing decides to write a fucking ransom note while he's there? No one, that's fucking who. If it was someone looking for ransom, they sure as hell wouldn't risk a valuable commodity by not getting her out of the house quickly. And no one I know who steals kids for ransom writes the fucking note while they're inside the house. Oh, and also decides to molest the said kid in the house.

This was so bungled and illogical with so many glaring "errors" I can totally see a young, dumb brother being the perp who was then protected by his parents. Maybe the fact he's being re-interviewed by the cops isn't quite as "routine" as they are making out. Maybe some more evidence has emerged which they need to grill him about. The local police department acted like the Keystone Cops the first time so maybe there's some new rookie detective there now who has seen the files and wants to get to the bottom of this and get a promotion too.

[Laurent]

One sticking point for me is whose DNA JonBenét had on her. It matched no one in the family, but was established as being from a male. I think the only way this might be solved is if one day the authorities get a CODIS hit on that DNA.

[bellini]

I always thought it was a case of Patsy losing it over JonBenet wetting the bed again and accidentally killing her. I think the molestation and extortion were attempts to cover it up.