Random Facts About JonBenét Ramsey's Family Most People Don't Know (13 items)

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  (#1) John Ramsey Dated Natalee Holloway's Mother

  Natalee Holloway made headlines for months in 2005 when the 18 year old disappeared during a trip to Aruba. She was never found; her alleged abductors were never confirmed nor convicted. A few years after Holloway's disappearance — and shortly after Patsy Ramsey's death — Natalee's mother Beth Holloway Twitty met John Ramsey through mutual friends.

   Throughout the following year, Twitty and Ramsey were seen multiple times together, and according to a 2007 report in People magazine, "The two have been seen holding hands and kissing in her hometown, as well as attending art shows and eating in restaurants together." The relationship was short-lived but made for a surreal connection in the true-crime tabloids.
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  (#2) John Ramsey Had Another Daughter Who Died

  Four years before JonBenét's murder, her father lost another young daughter. Elizabeth Pasch Ramsey was one of John's children from his first marriage to Lucinda Pasch. Elizabeth worked as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines before she died at the age of 22.

  Elizabeth's official cause of death was cited as the multiple injuries she incurred in a car crash in January of 1992. By all accounts, it was a freak accident; Elizabeth's boyfriend lost control of his car in a rainstorm and was hit by a truck.

  However, after JonBenét's death, investigators pulled Elizabeth's autopsy report on the off chance there was any link to her death and the murder of JonBenét. No connection between the two deaths was ever found.
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  (#3) Patsy Ramsey Was A Beauty Queen Herself

  Nearly 20 years before JonBenét's murder, Patsy Ramsey was crowned Miss West Virginia in a 1977 beauty pageant. Patsy grew up in the pageant circuit, and what was a way of life for her, soon became fodder for criticism during the murder investigation of her daughter.

  Critics and investigators alike implied that JonBenét Ramsey never really wanted to do pageants, and that Patsy was just trying to live vicariously through her daughter, pressuring JonBenét and fostering a negatively competitive environment.
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  (#4) Burke Ramsey Left His Feces Throughout His Family's Home

  One of the red flags casting suspicion over Burke Ramsey's involvement in his sister's murder was his childhood scatological obsession. Crime scene evidence found feces smeared on a box of candy he gave JonBenét for Christmas.

  The family housekeeper recalled Burke covering a bathroom wall with his excrement, and during the murder investigation, she also recounted finding "fecal matter the size of a grapefuit" in JonBenét's bed, which the housekeeper believed was left there by Burke.

  The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey looked into the issue of Burke's feces at the crime scene, and one of the experts noted, "The behavior is [indicative] of somebody who's got a problem. When I think of putting feces in the sister's bed... he was doing that."
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  (#5) JonBenét's Older Half-Brother Was Briefly Under Suspicion For Her Murder

  John Andrew Ramsey was an older son from John Ramsey's first marriage, and he played an unexpected role in the murder investigation. Police found John Andrew's suitcase near the crime scene, which was strange since that's not where the Ramseys typically kept their luggage.

  Inside the suitcase was a blanket with John Andrew's semen on it. JonBenét's body showed signs of sexual assault, thus John Andrew was briefly considered a suspect, but ultimately cleared of having any involvement with the murder.

  Investigators later theorized that the killer tried to put JonBenét's body in the suitcase, but for whatever reason decided to leave her behind.
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  (#6) John And Patsy Disagreed About The Pageants

  John Ramsey stated multiple times the beauty pageants in which JonBenét participated were just a way for her and Patsy to bond, but in retrospect, he admitted he wished they'd never put their baby girl on display. The Independent speculated as much as well, analyzing how involved the Ramseys were in their daughter's career and whether girls should be sexualized to the extent which they typically are for pageants. 

  ...The killing has reinforced a widely held view that there is something grotesque about girls as young as four being taught to sing and strut their stuff on stage, to offer prettily turned answers to the judges. The suspicion lingers that dressing JonBenét as someone three times her age made her a target, whether of jealousy or perverted sexuality, or someone trying to settle a score with her doting family. 

  Allegedly, Patsy Ramsey saw the pageants as the center of JonBenét's young life. Although the media ran mostly pageant photos of JonBenét during the murder investigation and after, she only participated in nine pageants altogether.

  In fact, many who knew JonBenét, including her parents, referred to her as "a tomboy at heart."
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  (#7) Patsy Ramsey Had Cancer

  Patsy Ramsey was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1993, a few years before the murder of JonBenét. After chemotherapy, Ramsey's cancer went into remission, and she lived a healthy life for nearly a decade until it came back in the early 2000s. 

  In a 2012 interview, Ramsey told CBS he felt Patsy wasn't an overbearing mother, and that the media's poor portrayal of her had been an unfair angle. He said, "Patsy had just come out of cancer treatments, I think deep down she didn't know how long she had to live and how much time she had to spend with her child, so she tried to pack a lot into a day."

  Patsy died in 2006, when the cancer returned for good.
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  (#8) Burke Ramsey Still Talks To JonBenét

  In a 2016 interview commemorating the 20th anniversary of JonBenét's murder, Burke Ramsey admitted he continued to talk to his sister for years after her death. Not only that, he believed Patsy and JonBenét were reunited in Heaven, and that both were watching over him.

  Burke noted that when he was in school, he even asked JonBenét for help on tests, and often wished the two of them could be together.
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  (#9) Patsy Ramsey Was A Respected Community Member Who Helped Others

  While Patsy Ramsey never could escape the suspicion that followed her after her daughter's murder, she did her best to start fresh in the subsequent years. After moving to Georgia, Patsy became involved with the local community, and regularly corresponded with cancer patients even while her own cancer was in remission. When her cancer returned, Patsy still reportedly tried to lift the spirits of fellow patients.

  John and Patsy eventually moved to Charlevoix, Michigan, where they vacationed before and after JonBenét's murder. Patsy became an active member of the community. The president of the Charlevoix Chamber of Commerce noted, "She saw a need for something and would go for it, when most people would just sit back and complain." 
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  (#10) Burke Ramsey Sued CBS

  In December of 2016, Burke Ramsey filed a lawsuit for $750 million against CBS over statements made in the documentary The Case Of: JonBenét Ramsey, which he claimed led viewers to believe Burke accidentally killed his sister in 1996. CBS made the case that cold case shows often point the finger at different people, and they maintained it is not the same as formally accusing someone of murder. 

  Burke also filed a $150 million lawsuit against one of the pathologists on the documentary, who adamantly believed that Burke was JonBenét's killer.
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  (#11) JonBenét's Aunt Thinks She Knew The Killer

  Pamela Paugh, the younger sister of Patsy Ramsey and a fellow beauty queen, had her own theory about her niece's murder. As the investigation continued over the course of several years, Paugh felt certain the murderer was someone JonBenét knew and trusted since there was no sign of struggle in her room. Paugh theorized that jealousy involving the Ramsey wealth led the murderer to kill the young girl. Although the person was likely known to JonBenét, Paugh theorized, the murderer must have been a family friend — certainly no one from the family.

  Paugh's theory was plausible, since JonBenét's autopsy found undigested pineapple in her stomach. This finding played into an investigative hypothesis that JonBenét's brother Burke may have killed her. According to a report in Vanity Fair,

  The night of the murder, the experts believe, Burke made himself a snack of pineapple with milk, and tea. His fingerprints were found on a bowl, and the teacup next to it. JonBenét, the experts believed, snatched a piece of the fruit (reportedly one of her favorite desserts) directly from the bowl with her fingers, leaving no prints. This, the experts believe, catalyzed the grisly events that followed.
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  (#12) Burke Ramsey Lives A Very Private Life

  Unlike his parents, Burke Ramsey managed to stay out of the public eye during much of the murder investigation and its aftermath. In 2016, Burke made public appearances, where he admitted he purposely tried to stay out of the spotlight. As of 2018, Burke is a software engineer who reportedly works from home.

  Burke's incredibly private life may account for his odd behavior in rare interviews. After a 2016 interview with Dr. Phil, the doctor had to assure the media that Burke was extremely nervous on camera, causing him to smile when talking about his sister's murder.
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  (#13) John Ramsey Remarried

  While his relationship with Beth Holloway Twitty came to an end, John Ramsey tied the knot for a third time in 2011. He married Jan Rousseaux, a designer from Las Vegas, in a private ceremony in Charlevoix, Michigan.

  Charlevoix was the same town where John and Patsy lived in the years preceding Patsy's death. When People magazine asked John what JonBenét would think of this new marriage, he simply replied, "I have no doubt she will be smiling."

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