JonBenet Ramsey Case: Unsealed Court Papers Show Grand Jury Sought to Indict Parents

Previously sealed court documents show that a Colorado grand jury sought to indict John and Patsy Ramsey on child abuse resulting in death and being an accessory to a crime in connection to the murder of their 6-year-old daughter JonBenet in 1996.

The indictments did not indicate who killed the young beauty queen who was found dead on Christmas day, nor did the charges directly accuse the Ramseys of killing their daughter. However, they state that Ramseys permitted JonBenet to be placed in a dangerous situation that led to her death and accuse them of aiding the killer, who has never been brought to justice, reports Fox News.

A Colorado court ordered the release of the previously sealed court documents, which were sealed in 1999 after the grand jury in the case dispersed without charges. As a result, the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey, who won child beauty pageants and whose murder shocked the nation, has remained unsolved for 17 years.

The district attorney decided that year, however, not to file charges against John and Patricia Ramsey, citing insufficient evidence. In 2008, a new district attorney said new DNA evidence cleared the parents and their son in the death.

The grand jury had alleged that Patricia Paugh Ramsey, who later died from cancer in 2006, and husband John Bennett Ramsey "did ... permit a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation which posed a threat of injury to the child's life or health which resulted in the death of JonBenet Ramsey," CNN reports.

The grand jury also had alleged that each parent "did ... render assistance to a person, with intent to hinder, delay and prevent the discovery, detention, apprehension, prosecution, conviction and punishment of such person for the commission of a crime, 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 documents provide no further details of who that person was. The grand jury had accused the couple of committing the offenses "on or between December 25 and December 26, 1996."

JonBenet's body was found in the basement of the family's Boulder home, however, John Ramsey and his late wife have always maintained they were not involved.