Here’s who the Ramsey family thinks killed JonBenét

Nearly twenty years after JonBenét Ramsey’s murder first took the world by storm, her father John Ramsey and older brother Burke recently offered their theories on who may have killed her.

If you haven’t heard the sordid tale, here’s the quick synopsis. The 6-year-old, well-known for participating in beauty pageants, was found dead in the basement of the Ramsey’s Boulder, Colorado home on December 26th, 1996 a few hours after they reported her missing. Since then, her parents John and Patsy (who died of cancer in 2006), and her brother Burke have been suspected multiple times for playing a part in her death, but they were officially exonerated in 2008.

During the three-part interview with Burkey Ramsay on September 19th, Dr. Phil asked, “There still are people that believe that you killed your sister. What do you say about that?”

Dr. Phil added, "Part of their rationale, these people, say you are the only one that your parents would go to the lengths they went to to cover up everything that happened. When they say 'covered up,' they’re talking about fabricating this ransom note, if she was strangled, then causing the head injury. Doing all of this cover-up was all done to protect you because they didn’t want to lose two children. That’s their theory.

"I don’t know what to say to that because I know that’s not what happened. There’s been a few people that said that’s not even physically possible for a 9-year-old to do that," Burke Ramsey replied. 

During the same interview, JonBenét and Burke’s father, John Ramsey, suspects that the real murderer is that “some pedophile” became enamored with his younger sister during her pageants and is responsible for her death. John believes an intruder broke into their home while they were celebrating Christmas Day away from the house, waiting until they were asleep to the kill the young girl.

Burke, who was nine years old when she died, maintained a mental closeness with his sister in the years following her death.

"Sometimes I would talk to her. Like there's some important thing I was doing, [I'd] be like, 'Hey, thanks for looking out for me,'" he said.

John announced during the interview that he’s officially finished with the media.

Burkey Ramsey says, "I have no intention to speak out ... in the future. The real story here is not that a child was murdered," he said.

However, that’s not what experts think. This week, CBS’s docuseries The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey aired on television. Experts on the show, after going through the evidence available from the crime scene and multiple possibilities, concluded that Burke Ramsey killed his sister.

Family members previously described young Burke as being “bad-tempered and violent.” Experts suggested that Burke was eating a bowl of pineapples when JonBenét helped herself to it. Upset, Burke hit his sister in the head with a Maglite flashlight.

His parents supposedly later conspired to cover up the murder and protect him. Is this what happened? Perhaps one day we’ll learn the truth once and for all.