What you need to know about John Andrew and Burke Ramsey

Before the 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, her oldest brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said the Ramseys were an “ordinary family.”

“It’s really important to remember that before Christmas Day 1996, we were just a regular family,” he said in Netflix’s new three-part docu-series. Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?. “We weren’t perfect, we were just an ordinary family with an ordinary life.”

JonBenét was the youngest of five siblings. Her oldest brother John Andrew, as well as her two sisters, Melinda and Elizabeth (who died in a car accident in 1992), were born to John Ramsey and his first wife, Lucinda Pasch. After their split, John married his second wife Patsy, with whom he welcomed a son, Burke and JonBenét.

Initially, JonBenét’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were considered prime suspects in the investigation, but neither was ever charged with a crime. Burke, who was 9 years old at the time of JonBenét’s murder, was later accused of involvement in her death, a claim he and his family have vehemently denied. John Andrew was out of state with his sister Melinda when the killing occurred.

While JonBenét’s only surviving sister, Melinda, has stayed out of the public eye, her brothers have opened up about her unsolved murder over the years. Both John Andrew and JonBenét’s father, John, appeared in the Netflix docuseries about the cold case, while Burke declined to participate. The series examines the local police’s handling of the case and what the Ramsey family believe are the authorities’ missteps.

Here’s everything to know about JonBénet Ramsey’s older brothers, John Andrew and Burke Ramsey, and what they’ve said about her unsolved murder in the decades since.

John Andrew Ramsey

John Andrew Ramsey was born to John Ramsey and his first wife, Lucinda Pasch, in the 1970s. According to Vanity FairJohn Andrew and his older sisters, Elizabeth and Melinda, grew up in Atlanta. He was about 13 years old when his younger sister, JonBenét, was born.

In 1996, John Andrew was in Atlanta with his sister Melinda to spend Christmas with their mother. When he found out JonBenét was missing, he was on a plane to spend the holidays with John, Patsy and his half-siblings in Michigan at the Ramseys’ vacation home.

“I think I was searched or I got a note from one of the flight attendants saying to call home,” John Andrew told ABC News’ 20/20 in 2021, adding that he and Melinda immediately changed their travel plans. “I was yelling and screaming and kicking to get on the plane to Denver… I remember just thinking and processing it all.”

When John Andrew and Melinda arrived at the Ramsey family home in Boulder, JonBenét’s body had been found and the property was labeled a crime scene.

“JonBenét was the kid who kept the conversation going at the dinner table,” he said 20/20 of his younger half-sister. “You know she would go around asking everybody how their day was and what they were doing and (she) was just an energetic and fun kid.”

John Andrew, whose eldest sister Elizabeth died in a car crash in 1992, said it was heartbreaking to lose another sibling.

“It was a lot of emotion coming back from losing my oldest sister, Beth. You kind of think you’re immune to it happening again,” he said. “When it happens a second time, it’s an unimaginable tragedy.”

John Andrew has been vocal about trying to solve his younger sister’s murder, as well as vindicate his family, who he said suffered greatly from the publicity surrounding the case. He has also been adamant about wanting investigators to use DNA evidence – which has previously cleared his father and Patsy of wrongdoing, according to New York Times — to find JonBenét’s killer. In 2024 he appeared in Netflix’s Cold Case: Who killed JonBenét Ramsey?.

Burke Ramsey

Burke Ramsey was born to John and his second wife, Patsy, in Atlanta. He was 9 years old when JonBenét was killed and has remained largely private ever since, graduating from Purdue University in 2010 with a computer and information technology degree.

In the two-part CBS docuseries The case of: JonBenét Ramseyreleased in September 2016, investigators theorized that Burke accidentally killed his sister and that their parents covered it up. Among other things, the series cited Burke’s seemingly emotionless demeanor during police questioning, which legal analyst Scott Robinson and Boulder Police both told PEOPLE was no evidence whatsoever of his guilt.

“You’re not going to find any evidence because that’s not what happened,” Burke said of the cover-up allegations during a three-parter. Dr. Phil interview that aired later that month. He later added: “It blows my mind. What more proof do you need that we didn’t do it?”

Burke’s Dr. Phil interview marked the first time he spoke publicly since the murder. In the interview, he also said that he didn’t leave his bedroom when his family was frantically looking for JonBenét, explaining, “I like to avoid conflict, or I don’t know, I just felt safer there.” He added that he’s not typically “the worried type… I guess part of me (didn’t) want to know what’s going on.”

He also revealed how he first learned of his sister’s death.

“My dad told me that JonBenét is in heaven now and he started crying, then I started crying,” he recalled. “I don’t think I said anything. I didn’t believe it at first.”

Burke also told Dr. Phil that he knows many people believe that he or his parents murdered his sister, but that he vehemently denies the allegations, maintaining that an intruder – specifically a sexual predator who may have seen JonBenét for a party – is the killer.

After The case of broadcast, Burke and his family filed a $150 million defamation suit against Dr. Werner Spitz, a forensic pathologist quoted in the documentaries, and a $750 million lawsuit against CBS for defamation. CBS said in a statement to PEOPLE that it stood by its programming, and in January 2019, both parties reached an undisclosed settlement, per Reuters.

While Burke declined to participate in Netflix’s 2024 docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed John Benét Ramsey?his older brother John Andrew came to his defense in the series. “It’s just not fair to him (Burke). You look back at pictures of 9-year-old Burke … it’s just absolutely absurd to think, ‘Oh yeah, he could have killed his sister and displayed this level of violence ,’ said John Andrew.