Burke Ramsey, brother of slain beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey, will be featured in a three-part interview on the Dr. Phil show airing in September. JonBenet, who was 6 when she died in 1996, is buried in Marietta, next to her mother.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
"Speaking out publicly for the first time, JonBenet's 29-year-old brother, Burke, reveals what he knows about his sister's mysterious murder in a ripped-from-the-headlines exclusive interview with Dr. Phil," the show said in a publicity statement. "After 20 years, it's finally time for answers."
The interview airs on Sept. 12-13 and Sept. 19. See this link for local listings.
JonBenet's murder remains unsolved.
Her mother Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 from cancer. The same year, Conyers native John Mark Karr issued a bizarre confession and was apprehended in Bangkok, Thailand. Charges were dropped when DNA tests found no match to Karr on the dead girl's body. After he was cleared, Karr moved back to Atlanta and lived with his father.
A grand jury that reviewed evidence in the case believed JonBenet's parents were involved somehow but didn't say who killed the beauty queen, according to documents released in 2013, 14 years after the grand jury made its recommendation.
At the time, the panel recommended that both parents be charged with child abuse resulting in death and being an accessory to a crime, including murder.
The documents allege that both parents intended to delay or prevent the arrest of the person who killed their daughter. The proposed charges were disclosed for the first time in the documents.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Prosecutors, however, declined to file charges against John and Patsy Ramsey. The district attorney at the time, Alex Hunter, who presented the evidence to the grand jury, said in 1999: "I and my prosecutorial team believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at this time."
John Ramsey's attorney, Hal Haddon, issued a letter earlier opposing release of the indictments, pointing out that Hunter's successor, former district attorney Mary Lacy, cleared the Ramseys based on new DNA testing in 2008.
He also cited Lacy's apology in a letter to John Ramsey at the time, in which she said "no innocent person should have to endure such an extensive trial in the court of public opinion, especially when public officials have not had sufficient evidence to initiate a trial in a court of law."
Another Ramsey attorney, L. Lin Wood, said the indictments that were released in 2013 were "nonsensical."
"They reveal nothing about the evidence reviewed by the grand jury and are clearly the result of a confused and compromised process, " he said at the time.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Information from an Associated Press report was used in this article.
