Is this why JonBenet's murder wasn't solved 20 years ago?

Amy Stevenson

Updated 20 September 2016 at 6:56 pm

It was a dramatic conclusion to the two-part series The Case of JonBenet Ramsey, with the experts in the doco claiming they've worked out who was responsible for the six-year-old's murder 20 years ago.

The forensic experts, including former FBI agents and psychologists, alleged that the most likely suspect was JonBenet's then nine-year-old brother Burke, and that his parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, tried to cover the crime up in order to protect him.

But one of the most damning allegations to come from the series was from a former officer who was involved in the case, who reckoned the murder could have been solved first time around had the investigation not been “hamstrung by politics.”

"The district attorney’s office and some of the administration did not want to hear that an affluent member of the community was guilty of a crime like this," Gretchen Smith told the documentary-makers.

“I don’t think they wanted to solve this crime and if they had to go down a different path that might not be the truth, I think they were willing to do that.”

John and Patsy were wealthy and well-respected members of the Bolder, Colorado, community. However, according to the doco, behind closed doors, their picture perfect family life was not all it seemed to be.

John and Patsy Ramsey in 1996. Source: Getty

A former friend of the Ramsey's alleges that their eldest son Burke resented the bond JonBenet shared with their mother and had previously hit her in the golf club, leaving a scar just below her left eye.

What's more, a former housekeeper revealed he had left a ball of faeces “the size of a grapefruit” in her bed.

Following her death, crime scene technicians apparently found faeces smeared on a box of candy she had received for Christmas.

So what did happen on that fateful night?

The experts claim that following Christmas dinner, JonBenet was carried to bed by her father, while her brother enjoyed a snack of pineapple in the kitchen.

They theorised that Burke was jealous and angry about his sister's Christmas presents, and when she came downstairs and tried to steal some of his food, he hit her over the head with a nearby torch, before prodding her with a piece of train track to see if she was alive, leaving two marks in her back.

The experts then claim her parents placed her body in the basement to make it look like an intruder had broke into their home, before Patsy made a frantic 911 call on Boxing Day 1996. JonBenet's body was then found eight hours later by her father.

The documentary stressed that according to their theory, the Ramseys did not appear to have deliberately killed their child, but that the fact remains that justice was never found.

“Everyone forgot about JonBenet, it became about politics and agendas and creating a smokescreen. Why?" concludes New Scotland Yard detective Laura Richards.

“This is a young girl who’s become a footnote in her own murder.”

Want more celebrity, entertainment and lifestyle news? Follow Be on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram