Here is Why John Ramsey Claims Police Focused Him After JonBenét’s Homicide
Nearly 30 years after the shocking death of JonBenét Ramsey, her father John Ramsey is still speaking out about what he believes went terribly wrong during the investigation — including why he says police unfairly pointed the finger at him and his late wife, Patsy Ramsey.
In a new interview with RadarOnline.com, John, now 80, recalled how quickly the Boulder, Colorado, authorities turned their attention toward the grieving parents in the days following JonBenét’s murder in December 1996. According to him, investigators were convinced he and Patsy were involved before any real evidence was gathered.
John claims the couple became suspects on “day one before any evidence” surfaced. Years later, he says a district attorney privately admitted why: police didn’t like the way he behaved while waiting for a phone call referenced in the ransom note left beside the six-year-old’s body.
“They accused the parents because he ‘didn’t act right that morning, between the time that we discovered JonBenét was missing and found her,’” he revealed.
John explained that one officer misinterpreted nearly everything he did on that chaotic morning — including simply sorting through his mail.
“For example, she said, ‘John was casually going through the mail while we waited for the phone call [from the alleged murderer].’ Well, I was looking through the mail that was piled at the front of our door to see if there were any other communications from the kidnapper. That’s what I was doing,” he said. “She should have been doing that.”
According to John, things escalated when a call didn’t come at the expected time — something police viewed as suspicious.
“[The cop] said, ‘Oh, 10 o’clock came and went, and John didn’t go crazy.’ 10 o ‘o’clock was when the note said, ‘We will call you tomorrow at 10.’ Well, I didn’t know if tomorrow was the day we were in, or literally tomorrow,” he explained. “Since we didn’t get a call at 10 today, I assumed, my God, I gotta wait till 10 o’clock tomorrow. It’s gonna be horrible. But because I didn’t beat my head against the wall and jump up and down and scream at 10 o ‘o’clock that day, she thought I was acting weird.”
“She was clueless,” John added. “She went later on national television and said, ‘I knew John was guilty because I saw [it] in his eyes.’ I thought, ‘Wow, what a talent that is.’”
Looking back, John believes the Boulder police were “in way, way over their heads,” adding, “The fact that they didn’t accept help when they desperately needed it was just a total failure of leadership.”
Though no one has been charged in JonBenét’s murder, John recently shared that police have submitted new items for DNA testing — offering a glimmer of hope in a case that continues to haunt the nation.
“Chief [Stephen] Redfearn told us, gosh, I don’t know, September, we had a meeting with him, and that he had submitted evidence for additional DNA testing,” John said. “He didn’t say what the evidence was, but that it was submitted again, or perhaps new.”