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Author: Police Hope JonBenet's Brother May Yield Clues

Sep 29, 2010 – 4:35 PM
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Karen Schwartz

Karen Schwartz Contributor

(Sept. 29) -- The author of a book about the slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey says police want to reinterview her brother, who was 9 when the young beauty queen was killed in 1996.

Burke Ramsey, now 23, graduated from Purdue University in Indiana last year and lives in Atlanta, according to his Facebook page.

JonBenet Ramsey is seen in a crown and sash after winning a beauty pageant in July, 2006.
Mark Fix / ZUMA Press
Boulder, Colo., police refuse to confirm a report that they want to question the brother of JonBenet Ramsey, shown here at a pageant in July 1996, regarding her death.
He was exonerated by DNA testing after JonBenet was strangled in the Ramsey family home in Boulder, Colo., but authorities are reportedly hoping that he may remember additional details.

Lawrence Schiller, author of a book about the Ramsey case titled "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town," told CBS's "The Early Show" on Tuesday that his sources had told him police were hoping to question the young man.

"They said the police had sent on their business cards and asked Burke, if his time permitted, if he could get in touch with them," Schiller said.

Boulder police refused today to confirm the report.

"We are not going to publicly reveal details about the investigation unless doing so would further the needs of the investigation," Police Chief Mark Beckner said in a statement.

After a seven-year hiatus, Boulder police became involved in the case again last year, creating a task force to review details and make recommendations. Beckner said at that time that advances in DNA testing and linguistics technology might help solve the case. He said agencies participating in the task force were the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado attorney general's office, the Denver district attorney's office, and the Boulder County and Jefferson County sheriff's departments.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly told AOL News today that he had not heard of any developments in the case. Ramsey could not be reached for comment. His phone number is unlisted.

Last year, Beckner said authorities had investigated 140 people as potential suspects. He said in his statement today that based on recommendations from the task force, there has been additional contact with those who may have information pertaining to the case. Authorities refused to elaborate.

JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family's house on Dec. 26, 1996. A ransom note seeking $118,000 was also found in the 7,000-square-foot home.

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Boulder, an affluent community 35 miles northwest of Denver, was shaken by the crime, the only murder in 1996. Initially, prosecutors said JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy, were under "an umbrella of suspicion." A grand jury refused to indict them, but they weren't officially cleared until 2008.

Patsy Ramsey died in June 2006 of ovarian cancer. Less than two months later, John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old teacher in Thailand obsessed with JonBenet's killing, was arrested after making bizarre, detailed confessions in her death. He was brought back to the United States, but he was released after authorities said his DNA did not match evidence in the case. No one has ever been tried for the crime.

John Ramsey, who now lives in Michigan, ran unsuccessfully for the Michigan House of Representatives in 2004.
Filed under: Nation, Crime
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