Fresh JonBenét Ramsey Twist: Director of Netflix Documentary on Killing Reveals Who He Believes Was Really Behind Child Beauty Queen's Brutal Murder
Netflix documentary Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey has sparked fresh scrutiny on murder.
Nov. 26 2024, Published 11:07 a.m. ET
The director of Netflix's JonBenét Ramsey documentary has revealed who he thinks murdered the child beauty queen.
RadarOnline.com can reveal U.S filmmaker Joe Berlinger believes the six-year-old's family are innocent, admitting an unrelated "intruder" who entered their house and kidnapped the pageant princess is the culprit.
The child beauty queen's murderer has never been caught.
The documentary — Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey — takes aim at detectives for botching the investigation and the media for presenting the girl's family as the main suspects.
The six-year-old was reported missing after her family found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the child's return inside their Boulder home in a Colorado on December 26, 1996.
Her body was later found by her father in the basement of the family's upscale home, brutally beaten and strangled to death.
Family video footage of Ramsey family before daughter's death.
Speaking to the New York Post, Joe said: "I am firmly convinced that the Ramsey family is innocent. And I am also firmly convinced that this case can be solved, if the Boulder Police Department finally does what it's supposed to do."
He added that he believes all suspects should be "put back on the table" as many "likely suspects" were ruled out at the time because of the faulty DNA analysis.
However he did acknowledge that even the Ramsey family should also be DNA tested again because they would be more than happy to assist.
The documentary delves into detectives' botched investigation at the time.
Bereaved father John Ramsey, 80, took part in the Netflix documentary in the hopes it could find the answers to his daughter's murder case.
Joe said: "John Ramsey agreed to sit down with us, did not ask to be paid, and was not paid — we don't pay our subjects — and asked for no editorial input.
"No questions were off limits. To me, that is an 80-year-old guy who... wants to get that case solved. It's just unthinkable that the family had anything to do with this."
Joe told the publication that he believes an intruder entered the home and murdered the little girl, calling it "a much more plausible scenario".
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JonBenet Ramsey's father is still desperately seeking answers.
JonBenét's brutal death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted and the case remains cold.
The details of the crime and video footage of JonBenét from her beauty pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the US.
She'd been crowned Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.
The mystery unleashed a series of true-crime books and television specials.
The district attorney at the time of JonBenét's death said her parents were under "an umbrella of suspicion" early on.
Theorists have also questioned whether their son Burke, who was aged nine at the time of JonBenet's death, killed his sister accidentally in a moment of rage, and his parents covered it up.
But tests in 2008 on newly discovered DNA on her clothing pointed to the involvement of an "unexplained third party" in her slaying, and not her parents or Burke.
That led former district attorney Mary Lacy to clear the Ramseys of any involvement, two years after mom Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006, calling the couple "victims of this crime".
JonBenet's brother was once considered a murder suspect.
Investigators had identified other suspects, and developed a theory about an intruder, or several intruders, entering the home and killed the pageant princess.
Among the suspects was convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, who allegedly confessed to the killing.
Others included the Ramsey's housekeeper, as well as the man who portrayed Santa Claus at a holiday party the youngster attended.
Officials in 2006 announced that another suspect, John Mark Karr, had been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.
He'd allegedly told an American investigator that he drugged JonBenét and sexually assaulted her before accidentally killing her.
But prosecutors dropped that probe after DNA tests failed to link him to the crime scene.
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