Indictment: JonBenet's Parents Aided Killer

1999 documents released
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2013 10:44 AM CDT
Indictment Accused Parents of Aiding JonBenet's Killer
This May 24, 2000, file photo shows the late Patsy Ramsey and her husband, John, parents of JonBenet Ramsey.   (AP Photo/Ric Feld, File)

In response to a lawsuit to have the 1999 indictment against JonBenet Ramsey's parents released, four pages of grand jury documents were revealed today; they show that John and Patsy Ramsey would have been indicted with two counts each of child abuse resulting in death, in connection with their daughter's high-profile murder. More specifically, the documents allege the parents helped their daughter's killer by permitting JonBenet to be placed in a dangerous situation, the Denver Post reports—though it notes the documents were compiled before DNA evidence exonerated the Ramseys in 2008. They were never officially indicted, since the DA wouldn't sign the indictment.

The documents accuse the Ramseys of having "unreasonably placed [JonBenet] in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health, which resulted in the death of JonBenet Ramsey" and of assisting an individual "knowing the person being assisted has committed and was suspected of the crime of murder in the first degree and child abuse resulting in death," the indictment reads, per the Daily Camera. The Ramseys' lawyer, however, has called its release "a terrible miscarriage of justice," noting it shows only "a sliver of the evidence that the grand jury looked at and reviewed. It's just based on incomplete evidence." (More JonBenet Ramsey stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X