All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S01E10_English

The thing that I remember about
her was that if I would frown,

she would look at me and say,
"Dad, I don't like that face."

And I'd smile and she'd say,
"That's better."

That's just the way she was.

She loved her daddy.
She loved her daddy.

She was daddy's girl.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to
"How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

The day after Christmas 1996,

JonBenét Ramsey
became a household name.

The story of the 6-year-old
beauty queen

sparked a media frenzy that had
journalists, attorneys,

police and the public
poring over every detail

of one of the most bizarre
crimes in recent history.

Nearly two years later,
the investigation

was at a standstill.

Many thought the only way
to get answers

was through a grand jury.

But like everything else
about this story,

even that was complicated.

Take a look.

♪♪

It is a shocking story
that spanned the globe,

the murder of a 6-year-old
beauty queen

found dead in the basement
of her Boulder home

the day after Christmas, 1996.

It was certainly a bizarre case
from the beginning with a child

suddenly turning up dead
inside the house

and no explanation
for how it happened.

It's a story that's drawn
everyone from the tabloids

to "The New York Times"
to this mountainside town.

It's a story that intrigues,
fascinates, even nauseates.

The murder of JonBenét
started as a kidnapping,

and it started
on the morning of Christmas.

The Ramseys woke up early
that day

because they were supposed
to go on a family trip.

John: We were to leave early
that morning, fly to Michigan.

King:
Morning after Christmas?

Morning after.

The first thing I remember
is waking up,

getting dressed hurriedly,

putting a few things
together to take on the plane.

This about what time?

It's early morning,
before daylight.

You're up?
Mm-hmm.

Then what happens?

Then I go down
the spiral staircase,

and there on one
of the runs of the stair

is the 3-page ransom note.

It said, "Mr. Ramsey,
we have your daughter."

And I immediately
ran back upstairs

and pushed open her door

and she was not in her bed,
and I screamed for John.

The note said
their 6-year-old daughter

had been kidnapped
from her bedroom overnight

but would be returned
in exchange for $118,000.

We thought we were dealing
with a kidnapping.

King: Fearing the worst.
Patsy: The police arrived.

Absolute-- you don't know
whether you're going to see

your daughter in an hour,

in a day, in a year,
in 10 years or never.

It's a horrible feeling.

And what are you doing,
Patsy?

Are you waiting for a phone call
from the kidnapper?

Is that what you --
Right, yes.

Costello: Hours go by
and the kidnapper doesn't call,

but there's still a lot
going on inside that house.

We had victims'
advocates there.

We had uniformed police.

We had detectives.

People were in the kitchen
making sandwiches.

I mean, it was --
there was -- it was chaos.

There were people
fingerprinting.

There was fingerprint dust
everywhere.

Evidence crews there.
It was zoo-like.

A nightmare.
It was a little zoo-like.

So around lunchtime, there was
one detective left.

Her name was Linda Arndt,

and she notices that
John Ramsey is restless.

It's my understanding
that Linda Arndt

had pulled one of John's
friends aside and said,

"John is pacing and he needs
something to occupy his time.

I'm going to suggest
that you search the house.

Would you go with him?"

John:
We started in the basement,

and we were just looking,

and, uh, we have one room
in the basement

that there are no windows
in the -- that room.

When I opened the door
and turned the light on...

♪♪

...she was down there.
It was her.

Hill: John picked up
his daughter's body

and carried her up the stairs,

and that's when
the real questions began.

What transpired there
when they found the body

changed the whole perspective
of what we were looking at.

We were no longer looking
at a straight kidnapping.

We were looking at now
a homicide.

She was tortured.

A garrote was put around
her neck twice

and pulled tight enough

that it left deep marks
in her neck.

She was hit in the head
with something.

They never were sure
what it was,

but it was 8 1/2 inches long.

The injury she sustained,
the skull injury,

was more like her being thrown
against some larger object,

like the edge of a bathtub,

the rounded edge
of a pedestal sink,

something like that.

This child had a cracked skull.

This child had
sexual penetration,

choked, bruised.

This was sick.

Zesbaugh:
It was like a game of "Clue."

Everybody involved could have

had something to do
about this murder.

They were either involved
in killing her

or in covering it up.

This investigation really
got down to one thing --

was someone inside
the house responsible

for the death
of this little girl or did --

did someone break in?

Camerota:
A lot of the detectives
who were working this case

felt that the evidence
pointed to an inside job.

Man: Although at first,
the murder looked like

a botched kidnapping,
the Ramseys were suspected.

There was, for example,
no clear sign of forced entry,

no footprints in the snow.

I don't buy into
the stranger theory

because of what I saw
in that house.

I don't think anybody
left the house.

Camerota: The most obvious point
of entry

was this window in the basement,

and it was open,
and police looked at it

and they thought that that would
be the obvious point of entry.

However, there were cobwebs
on this window,

and police concluded
that these cobwebs

would have been disturbed,
but, in fact, they were intact.

So somebody crawling down
in there

could not have
gotten down in there

without disturbing the cobwebs.

The police were obviously

looking at the Ramseys
at this point

and then so was
the rest of the world

because the media got ahold
of these videotapes of JonBenét

in all of these beauty contests,

and that was a point
of fascination.

They don't seem shook-up enough.
They don't seem broke-up enough.

Just the whole situation
seems really odd

because of, um,
the way that her childhood was,

and I don't think
it was normal at all.

I feel they should have
questioned

the parents right away.

Why they didn't, I don't know.

Woman #2: Most of the American
public knows your daughter

through glamour shots
from pageants.

John: Yeah.

In hindsight, do you wish

that she had not
participated in that?

Those were
beautiful pictures.

I'm so happy that we have
those pictures.

That's all that we have.
Those were memories.

Yeah, that was --
that was just one very small

part of JonBenét's life.
Yeah.

That was a few
Sunday afternoons.

But you know the criticism
I'm talking about.

I know, I know.
People are accusing you

of dressing her up
like a little adult.

Was there any inappropriate
behavior going on at home?

Absolutely not.
No.

Velez-Mitchell: The Ramseys were
getting a lot of flak

for these beauty pageants

they had put their child into,
but their friends were saying,

"Could they have killed
their child?

Absolutely no way."

Griffin:
I didn't find any criticism

with anything that they did.

They just really are warm,
wonderful,

loving people who have gone
through way more

than anybody should have ever
had to face in their life.

This case was so polarizing

and so many people
were really demanding

that there be a grand jury.

So when the district attorney
finally said,

"Yes, we're going to convene
a grand jury,"

phew,
there was a lot of relief.

♪♪

For the next 13 months,
the grand jury would hear

testimony highlighting
every detail.

But the question -- what was
fact, and what was fantasy?

The grand jury investigating
the murder of JonBenét Ramsey

was chosen in May of last year,

but the panel didn't meet
for the first time

until September 15, 1998.

The grand jury has been deciding

if there is probable
cause to believe

someone has committed a crime.

The grand jury hearings in
this JonBenét Ramsey case were,

of course, behind closed doors,
but we have a pretty good idea

of the evidence
that they heard in there.

Walker: I guess the thing that
really jumps out at me

is the ransom note
and how incongruous,

how just extraordinarily odd
that thing is in the context

of what a real kidnapping
should look like.

"Speaking to anyone about
your situation, such as police,

FBI, et cetera, will result in
your daughter being beheaded."

There were multiple references
in there saying that, "Look.

If you call anybody, we're going
to kill your daughter."

Camerota: "If we catch you
talking to a stray dog,

she dies.

If you alert bank authorities,
she dies."

Warning after warning
that if he contacts anyone,

the daughter is going
to be killed.

Yet Patsy Ramsey calls 911,

but she doesn't tell the police
that the note says,

"They're going to kill JonBenét
if I call the police."

I read it very fast.

I was out of my mind.

It said don't call the police,
and I told Patsy,

"Call the police immediately."

I can't believe that a family

whose child
has just been kidnapped

would not take pains
to carefully read that note,

to make sure that they do
nothing that results in harm

befalling their daughter.

There were some details
in that note

and about the note that
raised further suspicions.

"You will withdraw $118,000
from your account."

$118,000?

Which later we find out
is the exact bonus

that John Ramsey got that year
from his company,

Access Graphics,

so only a few people
would have that information.

It wasn't just the amount
of ransom

that was kind of suspicious.

It was the fact that this note
was written on a page torn

from Patsy Ramsey's
own notepad.

When you tear something, no two
things are going to tear alike.

Even if you take two sheets
of paper and tear them together,

they're going to have separate
and distinct

tear patterns
associated with them.

You put them back together
and the puzzle fits.

Man: An alleged ransom note
was written on a pad of paper

from inside the house,
and some investigators

thought that the handwriting
looked like Patsy's.

King: Would you agree

that whoever
authored the ransom note

probably killed the child?
John: I would agree.

I totally agree
that whoever --

whoever wrote this ransom note
killed our daughter.

Yes,
I concur wholeheartedly.

From what we understand that
the handwriting people

were able to eliminate John

as being the writer
of that note

and were not totally able
to eliminate Patsy.

They weren't -- they didn't say
that she did wrote it.

Let me make it very clear.

But they said that they couldn't
say that she didn't write it.

Camerota:
Patsy's natural writing

did not look
like the ransom note,

and we learned
that experts said

that it is very hard
to disguise your handwriting.

It's possible, but it's
really hard to do.

But there was -- there was
another piece of evidence

that the grand jury heard that
related right back to Patsy.

Man #2: The rope used to choke
JonBenét was tightened

with a paintbrush
from her mother's hobby kit.

If you believe Patsy Ramsey did
this to her daughter, JonBenét,

you have to believe
that Patsy took a cord,

put it around her neck,

then broke a paintbrush
into three pieces,

took one of those pieces
and secured it to the cord,

making what's commonly
known as a garrote,

and then pulled that cord
very hard and strangled her.

I'm absolutely convinced that
it was a sadistic psychopath

that did this,
not Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey.

Camerota: The grand jury heard

all of the really
horrible details of the autopsy,

and one detail in there
really stood out.

Woman #3: JonBenét had pineapple
that had been recently ingested

or eaten before she died.

The interesting thing
about the pineapple,

there wasn't any pineapple
served at the Christmas party

where they had been
the night before,

and then the Ramseys claimed

JonBenét was asleep
when she got home.

And they put her right to bed,
and she never woke up,

and yet it's
my understanding

there was pineapple
on the kitchen table in a bowl,

so that piece of evidence,
for instance,

may be important if you think
somebody lied to the police

about what was given to them
or what happened with JonBenét.

Police found another
potential inconsistency

in the Ramsey story
related to that 911 call.

Dispatcher:
What's going on there, ma'am?

Patsy:
We have a kidnapping.

Velez-Mitchell: The Ramseys had
always claimed

that their son, Burke,

had been asleep
at the time of the 911 call,

but then police
discovered a clue

that showed that the son, Burke,
might have been awake.

Take a deep breath, please.
Hurry, hurry, hurry.

Patsy, Patsy, Patsy,
Patsy, Patsy?

There were a few seconds
at the end of the 911 call

where Patsy thought
she had hung up...

...but the police
had it in hand,

and they thought they heard
the sound of another voice.

We do know, based on
an evaluation of the 911 tape,

that Burke's voice is on there
saying, "What did you say?"

Or "What did he say?"
Or something to that nature.

This is after, of course,

Ramseys denied
that Burke was even awake.

He was asleep.

Police also say
digital enhancement

indicates
that Burke was awake

and asking questions
when you called 911.

Well, some police claim
they think they hear that.

We would challenge the police
to release that tape.

Make it all public.
Let's make it public.

We'd like to hear that tape.
We've never heard it.

That is not
our recollection

of what happened
that morning.

If that was Burke's voice
on the 911 call,

meaning he was awake,

why wouldn't the Ramseys
just admit that?

And that led to speculation
about Burke's involvement.

Remember, he was only
9 years old at the time.

Woman #4: I have heard some
votes for the younger child,

the little boy who was
in the house, too,

as possible --
an accident.

But I just don't --

I mean, if we're going to
throw out who is in the house --

I remember that becoming
talk-show fodder,

that maybe this little boy
had either accidentally

or on purpose hit JonBenét
over the head

and then this was a cleanup job,
essentially,

by the family
so that their little boy

wouldn't be in trouble
with the law.

We know that one of the last
people to testify

before the grand jury
was JonBenét's older brother,

Burke Ramsey.

As anybody been cleared,
cleared?

Well, Burke has been.
Burke has been.

There's no doubt Burke
did not do it, right?

That's definitive.
Absolutely.

So way back at the beginning
of this case,

when tabloids said otherwise,
they got sued,

and I believe they settled,
paying large amounts of money.

Burke Ramsey has nothing
to do with this case.

People wanted to know
if the Ramseys were lying

or they were covering
something up

or were they the victims
of some psychopathic killer,

and the truth
was nobody knew.

None of it makes sense.

It just simply doesn't.

This case have too many
questions, but few answers.

It was up to the grand jury
to decide.

Certainly no easy task.

And then finally, finally,
we got our answer.

There has apparently been
a major development

in the grand jury investigation

in the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey.

How is it exactly that you think
that I killed my daughter?

-What's the motive?
-I just cannot understand that.

I want to hear it
from start to finish.

There has apparently been
a major development

in the grand jury investigation

of the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey.

Woman #5: D.A. Alex Hunter we
see now walking down,

surrounded by cameras
and microphones

on his way to the podium
to hold a news conference.

When Alex Hunter announced

what he was going to do
about the grand jury's decision,

it was a beautiful,
spectacular Colorado day.

Blue skies and hordes
and hordes of media,

and he got up to the podium
and he thanked the grand jury.

The grand jurors have done
their work extraordinarily well.

But at this time, he was not
going to indict either John

or Patsy Ramsey.

I and my prosecution task force

believe we do not have
sufficient evidence

to warrant the filing
of charges against anyone

who has been investigated
at this time.

Grant:
This is not a happy day.

Yesterday
was not a happy day.

There is no satisfaction
here in Boulder.

There was no smoking gun
in this case.

You know, we didn't have a gun
with Patsy's fingerprints on it,

or we didn't have a knife
with John's fingerprints on it.

We didn't have
anything like that.

Zesbaugh: I think there was a
collective feeling of, "Oh, no.

This thing is never
going to be solved.

If the D.A. doesn't think
there's enough evidence there

to go after someone

and get a conviction
in this case, this case is lost.

We're never going to know
who murdered this little girl."

You know, it's been a mess
from the day one,

so it looks like
it's going to stay a mess.

It's probably just --
just going to wither away.

This leaves a very bad taste

in everybody's mouth
in this town right now.

Within 6 months, the Ramseys
came out with a book

telling their story.

It's a great pleasure
to welcome the Ramseys

to this edition
of "Larry King Live."

It is a live appearance.

Their book is "The Death
of Innocence," just published.

They are the co-authors.

Camerota: And this other guy,
Steve Thomas,

who had been
a detective on the case,

came out with his book,

and his book was all about
how the Ramseys were guilty.

Steve Thomas resigned from
the Boulder police department,

claiming, "we have failed
a little girl named JonBenét."

Now Thomas has written a book
on the case,

"JonBenét: Inside the Ramsey
Murder Investigation."

Then a couple of months later,
in May of 2000,

the Ramseys go head-to-head

with this Steve Thomas
on "Larry King."

Patsy, you could have been
arrested in this case.

I wish I had been and then
we would have

had a free and fair trial

and you would have met
your Waterloo, Mr. Thomas.

Are you saying that you --
you would have --

Let her
answer the question, John.

Let me ask you
this question, Steve.

You have assaulted
my wife.

Why won't you let your wife
answer the question?

Because you have
assaulted her.

You've called her
a murderer.

How is it exactly that you think
that I killed my daughter?

What's the motive?
I just cannot understand that.

I want to hear it
from start to finish.

Patsy, I wasn't there.
Tell me exactly...

You were home that night,
and apparently you say you --

Tell me what happened,
Mr. Thomas.

You can't -- you can't say
for certainty.

You were
in the house, right?

Yes, I most certainly was.
Am I --
am I assuming right?

Answer my question, please.

King: Certainly
he wasn't there.

He has a theory.
He has to have a theory.

He has accused us
of murder.

What is your theory?

Thomas:
And you've heard the theory.

I've -- I've offered
a hypothesis.

I have not heard the theory.
Please answer my question.

I think there was
a toileting issue

that night that has been
dismissed and underplayed.

King: Okay, a toileting --
explain.

A -- a bed-wetting
or a toileting issue.

That caused Patsy get mad
at her daughter?

Absolutely.

-Steve Thomas, you are so --
-So in other words,

she killed her daughter
in a rage

over the bed-wetting
and then garroted her?

It was, like, great television,
I guess, but --

but there's a dead kid
here in this story.

I mean, it's a terrible tragedy,
and we got this circus going on.

Man #3: The address of what was
the Ramsey home in Boulder

has been changed.

The family has moved to Atlanta.

But one thing has not changed
in 5 years.

JonBenét's killer remains
at large.

For many years in the 2000s,

the case just wasn't
going anywhere.

There were just dead ends.

Then in 2006,

the case suddenly became
headline news all over again.

King: The latest tragic turn

in the most sensational child
murder mystery of our time --

JonBenét Ramsey's mother,
Patsy Ramsey,

laid to rest yesterday
after losing her

13-year battle with cancer.

Woodward:
She started with ovarian cancer.

She became free of that.

It resurfaced as abdominal
cancer and spread to her brain,

and she ultimately
died of brain cancer.

Zesbaugh: I think if you're one
of those people

that believe that Patsy Ramsey
was somehow involved

with either the murder
or the cover-up of her daughter,

that when she died,
that secret died with her.

Woodward:
I do remember when she died,

that one of
the district attorneys

who was with a group
of police officers said,

"Well, we're kind of feeling
that it goes full circle.

She got what she deserved."

I said, "You know, that's
a really horrible thing to say.

You don't know if she
killed her daughter."

And then within weeks
of Patsy's death,

there was a huge break
in the case.

Breaking news tonight.

After a decade-long
investigation,

an arrest in the
JonBenét Ramsey murder case.

Welcome back to
"How It Really Happened."

It's no secret that most
police investigators believed

Patsy Ramsey was involved
in her daughter's death.

So when she died
in August of 2006,

they likely assumed
the case would die with her.

But just 7 weeks
after Patsy's death,

a new suspect emerged
seemingly out of the blue,

and the focus
of the police investigation

shifted back
to the intruder theory.

Breaking news tonight.

After a decade-long
investigation,

an arrest in the
JonBenét Ramsey murder case.

Lacy:
John Mark Karr, 41 years old,

was arrested for the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey

yesterday morning
at approximately 6:00 a.m.

in Bangkok, Thailand.

John: It's a day we have been
waiting for for 10 years,

and I hope this is
a first major step

in really drawing this
to a conclusion.

Woman #6: A stunning confession

from the man arrested
in Thailand

for the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey.

I was with JonBenét
when she died.

Her death was an accident.

So here was this guy.
He was a teacher.

He was in Thailand,
and he surfaces out of the blue

and confesses to the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey.

When we saw that picture,
that first picture

of John Mark Karr,
my initial reaction was,

"Well, that's not
what I expected."

He was a slight man,
a petite man,

sort of delicate features,

not what you would think about
when you're thinking --

worried about the boogeyman
breaking into your house

and this intruder theory.

He wasn't the intruder
that I had in my mind.

Mainly what we know about this
guy is that we don't know much.

His name didn't come up
in the beginning

of all these investigations.

He's a bit of a blank page
to everybody out there,

even those of us who have
covered this case

very, very closely.

Prendergast: Karr was a guy
who had been obsessed

with the JonBenét case
for many years,

so much so that I think
some of his relatives

thought he was writing
a book about it.

I loved JonBenét,
and she died accidentally.

So the Boulder district attorney

has this guy arrested
in Thailand,

John Mark Karr,
flies him back to the U.S.

for questioning.

Woman #7: With immigration and
customs enforcement agents

at his side, murder suspect
John Mark Karr

made the 15-hour journey
from Bangkok

to Los Angeles Sunday
aboard a Thai Airways jet.

He's going to be fingerprinted
and photographed.

We will make his
mug shot available.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

So the district attorney
is very optimistic

that they have finally
found JonBenét's killer,

but there were others
connected to the case

who were more skeptical.

There was still a huge faction
of the American public

that believed the family
was somehow involved.

This felt like it tied it up

with a bow a little bit
too neatly for people, I think.

Bob Grant, what do you make
of all of this?

Larry, it's another bizarre
turn in a bizarre case.

I'm withholding judgment

until I see the results
of the DNA test.

I think
that tells the story.

I always knew that whatever
this guy had to say

wasn't going to hold water

unless he was the source
of that DNA in the panties.

There was a tiny amount
of unidentified DNA

on the waistband of
JonBenét Ramsey's long johns.

Physical evidence is what's
going to rule the day.

Physical evidence is what's
going to close this case.

Hill: If the DNA
on JonBenét's waistband

was a match
with John Mark Karr,

well, then, police
have their killer.

The D.A. tests this
little teeny bit of DNA

that was found
on JonBenét's waistband

against John Mark Karr's DNA,

waiting for the big connection

and found
that they didn't match.

So after all of the drama
and all the effort

that went into
arresting this guy,

they then concluded
he didn't do it.

Woman #8: Court documents show
investigators were unable

to place Karr in Boulder
at the time of the murder,

his family claiming he was
with them in Georgia

and most importantly, Karr's DNA

just tested
at Denver's crime lab

was not a match to the DNA
found on JonBenét.

PRENDERGAST: I think
he may have welcomed

a lot of the attention.

I don't know why someone
would confess to a crime

they didn't commit

unless they just basically
wanted to be famous or infamous.

I can't speak to his motives,

but he was still confessing
after the D.A.'s office

had pretty much satisfied itself
that he wasn't the guy.

He wanted his, as Andy Warhol
said, 15 minutes of fame.

This is a terrible way
to go about getting it.

Grant:
Turned out he was just a nutcase

who needed a ride
back from Thailand

and got one at the expense
of the state.

Man #4: With that, Karr becomes
simply a man

obsessed with the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey

who fabricated a story and tried
to transplant himself into it.

As for the case,
it remains unsolved.

John Mark Karr walks free.

What was the Colorado
district attorney thinking?

Prendergast: She said he was
a credible suspect,

and I don't think
he was ever a credible suspect.

You know, there should have been
some effort to determine

whether he was even in Colorado
when this happened.

Mr. Karr.

It was a tremendous
embarrassment

for the Boulder D.A.'s office.

Tremendous,
and the person at the time

who was in charge
was Mary Lacy.

It was a huge, huge gaffe
on her part.

Now, to her credit,
I will say this.

She held, I think, the mother
of all news conferences

and stayed and answered,
you know, every question once,

you know,
she realized she was wrong.

I want to make it
absolutely clear up front.

The decisions were mine.

The responsibility is mine,

and I should be held accountable
for all decisions in this case.

Last night as I was
preparing to leave,

I received a telephone call
from a gentleman in Longmont.

He said, "You should be tarred
and feathered

and run out of town."

And it's not just one.

There were a lot of calls
like that.

After the John Mark Karr fiasco,

the story went quiet
for a few years.

In 2008, the case was back
in the news

when new technology was used
to retest the clothes

that JonBenét Ramsey was wearing
the night she was murdered.

Grace: Tonight newly discovered
DNA evidence emerges

by use of a new and highly
sensitive DNA procedure

called touch DNA.

Will it finally crack
the murder case

of 6-year-old Colorado
beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey?

The DNA profile that we obtained

is attributed
to an unknown male.

Man #9: Newly discovered DNA
evidence does not match

any Ramsey family member.

Velez-Mitchell:
That same district attorney

who arrested John Mark Karr

also gave a lot more weight
than her critics did

to new DNA testing,
and based on that,

she formally exonerated
the entire Ramsey family.

Man #9: The Boulder D.A. has
released a letter

officially clearing the Ramsey
family of any involvement

in the December 1996 death
of the 6-year-old.

The DNA from the male
did not match anyone

in law enforcement
DNA databases.

Velez-Mitchell: "This new
scientific evidence convinces us

that it is appropriate,

given the circumstances
of this case,

to state that we do not consider
your immediate family,

including you, your wife, Patsy,
and your son, Burke,

to be under any suspicion in
the commission of this crime."

I look at it as a congratulatory
letter to the Ramseys.

"Congratulations!
You're off the hook."

So good day for John Ramsey,
good day for Patsy,

that they have a prosecutor
now on record

as saying
that the prosecutor believes

that there is physical evidence
that someone else did it

and that the parents
weren't involved.

Hill:
What Mary Lacy did next was,

she actually apologized
to the Ramsey family

for them ever being
considered suspects.

"To the extent that we may
have contributed

in any way
to the public perception

that you might have been
involved in this crime,

I am deeply sorry.

No innocent person should have
to endure

such an extensive trial
in the court of public opinion."

There are a lot of people who
question whether this touch DNA

was enough to clear
these people,

much less apologize to them.

I was unimpressed with the
decision to write the letter,

and I was unimpressed
with the letter,

and from what I know
about touch DNA,

it simply is not reliable enough

to support the kind of decision

that was made
by District Attorney Lacy.

Woodward: Those who did not like
it that she had written

that letter said,

"Hey, if it is proven
to be the Ramseys,

you've written
a letter of apology.

How are we going to take this
to court?"

I think the case had many
more serious problems

than that letter.

Camerota: So that was it.

After a dozen years of being
under the microscope,

then the entire Ramsey family
was in the clear,

but that was about
to change in a big way.

Bombshell tonight
in the last hours.

We get proof.

A Colorado grand jury votes
to indict JonBenét's parents,

John and Patsy Ramsey.

Camerota:
After the Ramsey family
was officially cleared

by this district attorney,
then the case goes cold again.

And then in 2013,

this local
news reporter gets a tip,

and he finds out
that the grand jury decision

14 years earlier
was not what it seemed.

Zesbaugh: So a reporter on
the case, Charlie Brennan,

said,
"I want to see the records.

I want to see what the grand
jury did in secret,"

because he had been hearing
from grand jurors

who said they did decide
to indict in the case.

Costello: So that reporter,
Charlie Brennan,

he wanted to get ahold
of the grand jury's decision,

but to do that, he had
to sue the D.A.'s office.

Zesbaugh: And I don't think most
of us could believe it.

He won, and they unsealed those
grand jury records in 2013,

and we got to see
the indictment for ourselves.

It was quite illuminating.

This morning,
we have new details

in the case
of JonBenét Ramsey.

A local paper,
"The Boulder Daily Camera,"

reports that
a grand jury voted

to indict John
and Patsy Ramsey

for abuse that led
to JonBenét's death.

Woman #10: But the district
attorney declined to prosecute.

Costello: So what that means is
the grand jury

decides to indict the Ramseys,

but the D.A. discards
their decision

and decides not to proceed.

Man #5: The grand jury said
both of the girl's parents,

John and Patsy...

This was explosive because
it totally contradicted

what Alex Hunter,
the D.A. at the time,

had actually told people
back in 1999.

I and my prosecution task force

believe we do not have
sufficient evidence

to warrant the filing of charges
against anyone

who has been investigated
at this time.

Hill:
Alex Hunter essentially

decided to veto
the grand jury's decision.

Now, prosecutors do have
that option,

but the issue here
is a lot of people

felt he hadn't been
entirely up-front.

The public was misled.

We were told that the grand jury
met for all these months

and there was no indictment,
but, in fact, the grand jury

had wanted to file charges
in this case.

That was something that was
kept away from the public

for more than a decade.

Zesbaugh: Yeah. It'd be
fascinating to know

what they found out

because the grand jury
interviewed so many people.

The judge took a look at it

and decided only to release
4 pages of some 18 pages

because they were the ones
with the basic charges on them

and the ones that were signed
by the grand jury foreman.

So what was in those 14 pages
that wasn't released

when all this other information
was released

about the grand jury meeting?

I wonder if we'll ever see that.

It would be fascinating.

What else don't we know?

I mean, where's the rest
of these pages

that went with this,
where the grand jury explained,

you know, what the reasoning
was behind these charges,

what the specific acts
that were committed

that led to these charges?

And we don't have those,
to this day.

I'm not particularly happy
that the entire thing

was not disclosed.

We're not going to get a judge

to order the rest
of those pages released,

at least not before I retire.

Cabell: Again, it's a mystery
at this point.

Do you truly think
the perpetrator will be found?

Yes.

There was one other person
in the house that night

besides Patsy
and John and JonBenét,

and that is JonBenét's
older brother, Burke,

who was then 9 years old.

He was officially cleared
in 2008.

And he has never gone public,

which has led
to a lot of speculation

about what he saw
and what he knew that night.

Robinson: Even if Burke were to
have some miraculous memory

that could lead
to the arrest of a suspect,

that information
would be so dated

and so questionable that most
criminal defense attorneys

would have a heyday
with it at trial.

It's very problematic to be
using information

that would be so stale
from an individual

who did not remember it before.

The colder the case gets,
the colder the trail gets.

Burke finally broke his silence

just before the 20th anniversary
of his sister's death.

He decided that he would do
a sit-down on the --

Dr. Phil's TV show.

Did you hit your sister
over the head

with a baseball bat
or a flashlight?

Absolutely not.

If someone
in your house did,

do you think
you would have heard it?

Probably, yeah.

Prendergast: You know, everybody
has got a theory.

There's the Burke group,
the John group,

the Patsy group,
the intruder group,

and they all feel
very passionately

that they're right
and everybody else is wrong.

This isn't rocket science here.

So you think she was
disciplining the child.

It got out of hand?

My guess is, yeah, there was
some sort of explosive encounter

between mother and daughter that
resulted in this child dead.

To those of you
who may want to ask,

let me address very directly.

I did not kill my daughter,
JonBenét.

There have also been innuendos

that she has been
or was sexually molested.

They are totally false.

I am appalled that anyone
would think that John

or I would be involved

in such
a hideous, heinous crime,

but let me assure you
that I did not kill JonBenét.

♪♪

Prendergast: I think from the
very start, there was a sense,

"This case might just
become a cold case."

And it -- it has become,
you know,

the mother of all cold cases
at this point.

The prospect that we're ever
going to see a, you know,

a legal resolution
of this case

I think is very,
very dim at this point.

Zesbaugh:
Had you asked me then,

"Will this be a story
in 20 years?"

I would have laughed and said,
"Absolutely not.

There will be an arrest in
this case and probably quickly."

No one could have foreseen
what happened

over the next 20 years.

I wouldn't be surprised if we
never know

what actually happened
in that basement,

and it will always
stay a whodunit.

Woodward: This is a little girl

who should be
in her mid-20s right now,

and we're all dancing
around about JonBenét

and trying to figure
out what happened.

And what happened is she's dead,

and nobody knows who did it,
and nobody's solved the case.

HLN did reach out to
the Boulder county D.A.'s office

with a freedom
of information request

for the rest
of the grand jury findings,

but a representative
denied our request,

saying they'd would be
in contempt of court

if they released
the additional pages.

Today, the murder
of JonBenét Ramsey

is officially considered
a cold case.

The Boulder PD has
detectives assigned to it,

and they do follow leads
when they get them.

But so far, they have
only been dead ends.

Let's hope that some day,

there will be justice
for JonBenét Ramsey.

I'm Hill Harper.

Thanks for watching.