Q: Regarding JonBenet Ramsey, is that case closed? Are her parents dead? Are the police still investigating the murder?
—Eddie Webster, Douglasville
A: Even though JonBenet Ramsey – the 6-year-old beauty pageant winner — and her family lived in Boulder, Colo., at the time of her murder in December 1996, the well-publicized case has many Atlanta connections. John and Patsy Ramsey met and married in Atlanta, and JonBenet was born here in 1990. The Ramseys returned to the city several months after her death, moving to an upscale neighborhood near Buckhead.
Much of their family lived in the Atlanta area when they returned in 1997 and JonBenet is buried in Marietta’s St. James Episcopal Cemetery, which is on Polk Street, next to Marietta Middle School.
Credit: Barry Williams/Getty Images
Credit: Barry Williams/Getty Images
“They have a pretty good support group here,” John Ramsey’s brother Jeff told People magazine at the time.
The Ramseys moved to Charlevoix, Mich., in 2003, but Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer at her father's Roswell home in 2006 and is buried next to JonBenet.
John Ramsey remarried in 2011 and published “The Other Side of Suffering: The Father of JonBenet Ramsey Tells the Story of His Journey from Grief to Grace,” in 2012, telling ABC at the time: “We were so naive. I now believe with all my heart that it’s not a good idea to put your child on public display.”
JonBenet’s case occasionally still makes news. Documents from 1999 that were released last year stated a grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy, but the district attorney at the time said there wasn’t enough evidence to convict them, so there was no trial.
The Ramseys were exonerated in 2008, when new forensic analysis techniques found DNA traces of an unidentified man on JonBenet’s clothing and underwear. Attempts to find that man have been unsuccessful, so her murder is still unsolved.
JonBenet’s case is considered cold and not under active investigation, the Associated Press reported in October.
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