JonBenet Ramsey’s brother Burke to sue CBS TV network after crime show claimed he killed his beauty queen sister
JONBENET Ramsey's brother is planning to sue American TV network CBS after they aired a special suggesting he killed his sister this week.
The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey came to its conclusion on Monday night with investigators deciding that based on their research, Burke Ramsey was responsible for her death.
The team said they believed the six-year-old beauty queen was beaten to death with a torch by her brother, then nine, as the siblings fought over a midnight snack of pineapples.
It was also claimed in the special that the pair's parents then covered up the killing.
Burke and his parents, John and Patsy Ramsey have denied having anything to do with the young girls demise.
TMZ asked Burke's lawyer, L. Lin Wood, if he planned to file a suit against CBS on Tuesday, to which he replied: "You damn betcha I'm gonna sue CBS, the phony experts and everyone else that put this thing together."
Sleuths investigating the death of the six-year-old for a TV show claim Burke Ramsey, now 29, "has a history of scatological problems".
They cited the evidence of a housekeeper who said excrement the size of a grapefruit was once smeared on the young girl's bed sheets.
Linda Hoffman-Pugh said: "After they sealed off JonBenet's room, the crime scene technicians went through it, they apparently found faeces smeared on a box of candy she had got for Christmas."
And behavioural experts - who earlier suggested Burke could have killed his sister in a pique or rage after she nicked some of his midnight snack - said he had mental issues around the time.
Dr Werner Spitz said: "The brother is not exactly thinking straight, the behaviour is... of somebody who's got a problem.
"When I think of putting faeces in the sister's bed... He was doing that."
The revelation comes just one day after a never-before-heard phone conversation was described in which JonBenet's family are claimed to have said "What have you done?".
Six seconds of conversation at the end of the original 911 call have now been deciphered using cutting-edge technology.
And sleuths investigating the case believe the comments were made because the family did not realise the phone was still off the hook.
Beauty pageant champion JonBenet's mum Patsy called police after her daughter went missing on Boxing Day 1996 from their Colorado home.
But now, using high-tech methods, experts claim an adult can be heard exclaiming: "What did you do? Help me, Jesus."
It is allegedly answered by Burke, who says: "What did you find?"
The family have always insisted young Burke was asleep at the time.
The operator who took the call, Kim Archuletta, said: "It sounded like she said, 'OK, we've called the police, now what?' and that disturbed me.
"So I remained on the phone trying to listen to what was being said. It sounded like there were two voices in the room, maybe three.
"Different ones. I had a bad feeling about this, to me it sounded rehearsed."
The revelation came shortly after allegations JonBenet was killed by Burke in a fight over a PINEAPPLE.
One sleuth on TV show The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey proposed the six-year-old pageant queen was killed after she tried to pilfer some of his midnight snack.
James Kolar claims Burke lashed out at his sister with a torch when he realised his fruit had been taken.
And the former chief investigation for the District Attorney in Boulder also revealed that Burke had scarred his sibling just one year earlier after whacking her with a golf club.
He said: "My hypothesis was that I think the Ramseys came home at around 9.30, 10 o'clock.
"I think JonBenet was asleep. I think John did carry her upstairs, Patsy remained downstairs with Burke and served him the tea and the pineapple.
"I think that accounts for the physical evidence as well as the latent print. Then she got JonBenet up to make sure she used the toilet, so she didn't wet the bed that night."
Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? Everything we know about the case that shocked America
Kolar continued: "JonBenet was up, she may or may not have brushed her teeth, that stuff was out on the counter, then I think she was up and awake enough that she was maybe still hungry and she went downstairs.
"In the meantime, Patsy continued packing for the Michigan trip. I think if Burke was upset about circumstances or Christmas presents, he probably would have been upset about her trying to snag a piece of pineapple - out of anger he may have struck her with that flashlight. "
Burke dismissed the claims in an interview on the Dr Phil Show.
He said: "I don't know what to say to that, because I know that's not what happened. There's been people who have said that's not even physically possible for a nine-year-old to do that.
Incredible call recording from the scene discovered
An astonishing six-second call snippet in which a voice can be heard to say 'What did you do?' has been uncovered, experts have revealed
Cutting-edge technology has been used to record a conversation after Mrs Ramsey had called to report her daughter's disappearance.
Experts reckon she believed she had hung up when the words were uttered.
Three people are heard to have a conversation.
One voice believed to be Mr Ramsey's says: "We're not speaking to you."
Another, this time Mrs Ramsey, replies: "What did you do? Help me, Jesus."
JonBenet's brother then says: "What did you find?" the experts claim.
The parents had always maintained Burke had been asleep at the time.
“Like you won't find any evidence, because I didn't do it.”
The brutal murder of little JonBenet has gripped the world for 20 years.
Police initially investigated the case as a kidnapping, after “pageant mum” Patsy called 911 on Boxing Day morning 1996 to say she had found a ransom note demanding $157,000 and that her daughter was missing from their home in Boulder, Colorado.
That afternoon, JonBenet’s father John found his child’s small, strangled body bound and gagged in the family basement, by which time friends and family had trampled through the house, destroying forensic evidence forever.
There has been hysteria around the high-profile case which made law enforcement’s job far harder
Former FBI special agent Jim Clemente says the killing preyed on his mind more than all the other violent crimes and sex attacks he came across in his career.
So he gathered a crack team of world-leading experts to analyse the evidence, and they have agreed upon the identity of the person they believe is the murderer.
The wealthy family were at first named as suspects. Officers could not find any sign of a break-in and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said there were indications Patsy had written the ransom note, although they reached no “definitive conclusion”.
A police report also claimed Mrs Ramsey had changed her story about whether she discovered the note or JonBenet’s absence first.
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But in 2008, the family were cleared by Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy on the basis of DNA taken from the little girl’s clothes.
“We all came to one complete theory that explains everything that happened,” Mr Clemente told .
“When a six-year-old innocent girl is killed and never got justice, that case is going to bother you. It bothers me.
“The world has heard so many false rumours. The people of the community need to know the truth so they can put pressure on the district attorney. We really want this case to be solved.
“It’s important for her to be able to rest in peace.”
Mr Clemente, a co-producer on Criminal Minds, says this was a major error. “DA Lacy did not know what she was talking about when she exonerated the family,” he said. “That doesn’t mean they are guilty, but the world was misled.”
Was JonBenet killed after being struck with a torch?
Investigators have proposed a theory that JonBenet Ramsey was killed after being struck with a torch.
TV show sleuths have already suggested that a flashlight could have been used to cause a skull fracture on the six-year-old pageant queen.
A torch was found on the kitchen side at the family home during the initial investigation.
But forensic experts dismissed the theory, saying there was no DNA on the object.
JonBenet's official cause of death was given as strangulation by a coroner following the tragic episode 20 years ago.
Animosity between the Boulder DA and the local police force over the high-profile case also muddied the waters.
“The tension was exacerbated because there was so much outside media scrutiny,” said Mr Clemente.
“Instead of working together, they were at loggerheads. There were a lot of politics.”
The FBI agent worked on the case free of charge after his retirement, before finally hitting upon a radical solution to get to the bottom of the mystery — creating a documentary in the style of Making a Murderer, Serial and The Jinx, in which a team of experts dig deep into the facts.
The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey, an ambitious two-part series, premieres tonight on Australia's Channel Nine.
Production crews rebuilt the relevant parts of the house in a warehouse and used state-of-the-art technology so the team of experts could test out the theories about JonBenet’s violent death.
“We could walk through the rooms, see the spatial relationships, test egress and ingress — who came in and who went out, and what could be seen and heard,” said Mr Clemente. “Being there tells a million words.”
His team included former New Scotland Yard criminal behavioural analyst Laura Richards, forensic scientist Henry Lee, Boulder DA’s former chief investigator Kolar, forensic pathologist Werner Spitz and former FBI agent and forensic linguistic profiler James Fitzgerald.
In the documentary, they examine the claim JonBenet was silenced with a stun gun, analyse footage of evidence given over the years, hold extensive interviews and introduce new theories.
The team will also revisit the suspects.
In December 2003, forensic investigators said they had found a DNA sample belonging to an unknown male on JonBenet’s underwear.
Investigators found 38 registered sex offenders living within a three-kilometre radius of the Ramseys’ home.
Elementary teacher John Karr, 41, falsely confessed to the murder in August 2006 while being held on child porn charge.
One-time person of interest Gary Oliva, 52, was held on child pornography charges this June.
He was found with a photo of JonBenet in his backpack in December 2000 along with a stun gun, which he said had been given to him by a friend.
Ollie Gray, a private investigator hired by the family, claimed in April that the killer was Michael Helgoth, a then 26-year-old whose family owned a junkyard in the city.
The experts also examine the character of her brother Burke, who was nine at the time of her death, and gave an awkward interview with Dr Phil last week.
Much was made of the fact the 29-year-old, who once gave evidence to a grand jury, smiled as he talked about his sister’s murder.
But Mr Clemente said it was “irresponsible to try to do a personality assessment from a TV interview”.
Instead, the analysts looked at interviews and behaviour over a far longer time period, which told them “a tremendous amount more”, to be revealed in the program.
What is central to this confusing case is JonBenet’s visible profile as winner of titles including Little Miss Colorado, America’s Royale Miss, National Tiny Miss Beauty and Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl.
“She was exposed to more people in the world,” said Mr Clemente. “Most six-year-olds live sheltered lives, she was out there in public, in parades ... she could have been noticed by a sexual offender.”
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