In 1996 Burke Ramsey was only nine years old when he went from ordinary kid to potential suspect in the murder of his sister, JonBenét Ramsey, 6, who was found murdered in the Ramsey home. The story captured the attention of the nation and Burke’s life was never the same again. Somehow, he found a way to move on as an adult. This is his story.
Maybe the most bizarre thing about the JonBenét is that to this day, no one except the killer knows what happened. She was discovered in the basement of the Ramsey home on the day after Christmas. The scene was especially gruesome. Her skull was broken from some kind of blow and there was a garrote around her neck. Her official cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma.
Ligature around her wrist indicated that she had been bound before strangulation. There were blood and some abrasions found in her vaginal area and broken blood vessels in her eyes.
Burke Ramsey becomes a suspect
Burke Ramsey was born on Jan. 27, 1987 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the Ramsey’s first child, and his father was a successful businessman. His mother was a former beauty queen.
One of the theories involving her death was that Burke accidentally killed his sister and that parents John and Patsy Ramsey covered it up so their son wouldn’t get into trouble. There are a few reasons for this theory that involve some of the more out-there details about the investigation.
When the coroner did the autopsy, they found an undigested pineapple in JonBenét’s stomach. Because there was a bowl of pineapple and milk found in the kitchen, the theory goes that JonBenét may have snatched some pineapple from Burke and he struck her and accidentally killed her. From there, they apparently covered it up. At one point, the so-called “pineapple theory” was seriously considered. (The Ramseys were ruled innocent through DNA testing in 2008).
The parents denied these allegations vehemently, and their working theory was that someone broke into the house and violently assaulted their daughter. However, the relationship between Burke and his younger sister was often scrutinized. In a 2016 documentary show about the murder called The Case of JonBenét Ramsey, it’s noted that before the murder happened, Burke had smeared feces in the family bathroom as well as his sister’s bedroom.
Also, a family friend named Judith Miller recalled that Patsy told her Burke hit his sister with a golf club about a year and a half before the murder ever happened. Burke was interviewed by authorities a few times over the years, with one particular interrogation lasting more than six hours.
It didn’t help that Burke started appearing on the cover of tabloid magazines, which reported that he was the center of a grand jury investigation into the crime. What made the whole thing messier was that a grand jury recommended the Ramsey parents be indicted on child abuse charges. Eventually, Boulder County District Attorney’s Office had to come out and say that Burke was not, nor had ever been, a suspect in the crime. Even though the family was eventually cleared, still to this day there’s speculation they had something to do with it.
What happened to Burke Ramsey?
The scrutiny affected Burke deeply and later in life he retreated from the spotlight. The family eventually moved away from the house that brought them so much pain and heartache and relocated to their summer house in Charlevoix, Michigan, after Burke finished middle school. His parents wanted him to go to high school far away from Colorado so he could have a life that was “as normal as possible.”
On the Dr. Phil show in 2016, the Ramseys said that Burke is “a very quiet, private person. We tried very hard to keep Burke’s life normal.” So what did he do after he tried to move on from the tragedy? Burke got a degree from Purdue University in 2010 and started working as a software engineer.
By 2012, he was working in STEM and in a serious relationship. “He’s certainly matured. He’s got a 401(k) plan and an IRA, and he did it all on his own,” his father said. Even Dr. Phil sang the young man’s praises, saying “he has a great career and has a good relationship with his father.” Burke and his father had become the core of the Ramsey family after Patsy passed away from ovarian cancer in 2006.
One thing that put the spotlight on Burke was his smirk while he talked about the murder. Dr. Phil said that was simply social anxiety. “People have commented on his smile, which is purely from anxiety. He’s kind of a loner. He’s socially uncomfortable,” Dr. Phil said.