Burke Ramsey offers to take lie detector test over JonBenet Ramsey murder after experts blame him for death
Burke's lawyers said they'd be willing to comply with further investigation - but also insisted he had 'nothing to prove' as no new evidence had come to light
THE brother of child murder victim JonBenet Ramsey has offered to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence - but only if asked by cops.
TV investigators this week concluded that the 29-year-old was responsible for the death of his beauty pageant queen sister, in a murder-mystery which has captivated the world for 20 years.
He was just nine when his six-year-old sibling JonBenet was discovered strangled to death in the basement of their family home in Boulder, Colorado.
A team of experts – including a British ex-Scotland Yard behavioural analyst – claimed she was accidentally killed by her brother in a squabble over a piece of pineapple.
But his lawyer Lin Wood – who is now suing the American TV channel which made the show - told The Sun On Sunday: “Burke Ramsey doesn’t have anything to prove.
“If the Boulder Police Department called me and said we’d like to talk to Burke and have a lie detector test done, yeah I’m happy to consider it.
“But that’s never going to happen because the Boulder Police and the Boulder District Attorney’s Office have recognised that Burke Ramsey is not even a possible suspect.
“Anyone who thinks there is a basis for Burke Ramsey to take a lie detector test because of an accusation on a TV show is an idiot.”
He added: “In my view the TV show perpetrated a fraud on the viewing public.”
No-one has ever been convicted over the bizarre 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, which has led to years of suspicion falling on her family.
Her mum Patsy – also a former beauty queen who lived with husband John and kids Burke and JonBenet - dialled 911 to report that her daughter had been kidnapped at 5.50am on Boxing Day.
A ransom of $118,000 (£88,500) - close to the value of a bonus that John had received earlier that year – was found in their home telling the family not to contact police.
John arranged to pay the ransom but at 1.05pm that day JonBenet’s body was discovered by her father in a little-used utility room in the family’s basement.
She had her hands tied, duct tape placed on her mouth and a wooden garrotte around her neck.
Her parents remained the prime suspects for over a decade, but were cleared in 2008 following DNA tests - two years after Patsy died of a long battle with ovarian cancer.
In August 2008 former schoolteacher John Mark Karr confessed to JonBenet’s murder, but evidence showed he could not possibly have committed it.
Older brother Burke had been ruled out as a suspect by cops in 1999, but his role was examined in this week’s CBS television documentary The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey.
Experts including James Kolar, a former chief investigator for the District Attorney in Boulder, ex-Met analyst Laura Richards and former FBI profiler Jim Clemente, concluded that he did it.
They claimed that when JonBenet tried to take some of the fruit snack from her brother, Burke lashed out and forcefully struck his sister with a torch.
The TV sleuths alleged that in the ensuing panic, she was strangled to death.
But Burke’s lawyer blasted the show and said that no new evidence had been analysed by the team.
Mr Wood said: “The police investigated the case in 1999 and said he was not even a possible suspect.
“The only new evidence has been the DNA testing which was done in 2008. There’s no new evidence. What changed between 1999 and now?
“It is unconscionable conduct for CBS to have posed this permanent stain on the young boy’s reputation.”
Last week Burke broke his silence on the killing in an interview with US TV psychologist Phil McGraw.
He stuck up for his family, including surviving dad John, 72, and said: “What more evidence do you need that we didn’t do it?
“Look at the evidence or the lack thereof. There have been a few people who have said that it’s not even physically possible for a 9-year-old to do that.”
But the TV investigators, while all agreed there was no premeditation to kill, thought there was a clear intent by the family to mislead the police.
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They also branded Patsy’s 911 call to the cops “rehearsed” and cast doubt on the validity of the ransom note.
Jim Clemente said: “The Ramsey family did not want law enforcement to resolve this case and that’s why it remains unresolved.”
Burke’s lawyer told how his client would now have to live with the unproven TV claim that he was a killer.
Mr Wood said: “Burke did not watch the show – he knew in essence what was going to be said. He has now put this in the hands of his lawyers.
“I think Burke, just as he has done in the past, does the best to go about living his life as normally as he can. If there is any such thing as a normal life for the brother of the deceased.
“This is a 29-year-old young man. He is going to spend the rest of his life with people doing Google searches with headlines that ‘CBS proves Burke Ramsey killed his sister’.
“In desire for ratings a profits, they decided that the sensational story to go with was the story that would accuse Burke Ramsey. And they did it in a fashion which was totally misleading.”
In a statement, CBS defended the JonBenet Ramsey show.
It said: “The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey was meticulously and responsibly researched, and its information was responsibly presented. CBS stands by the broadcast in every regard.”