Grand jury in 1999 had voted to indict parents of slain JonBenet Ramsey, documents show

DENVER – The unsolved death of JonBenet Ramsey grabbed the national headlines in 1996. The six-year-old beauty queen was beaten and strangled, her body was found in the basement of her parents’ home in Boulder, Colorado. Many suspected her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey were involved, but charges were never filed.

New documents in the case were unsealed Friday morning. They show a grand jury voted in 1999 to indict the couple with charges of child abuse resulting in death and being accessories to a crime. The grand jury also felt there was evidence the beauty queen was sexually assaulted. The district attorney at the time decided not to file charges because of what he said was ‘insufficient evidence.’ Then in 2008, prosecutors say new DNA evidence cleared John and Patsy Ramsey, and their son.

John Ramsey’s attorney says the public release of the allegations only serves to further defame him and his late wife.  Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 of ovarian cancer. John Ramsey has since remarried, and ran for public office twice in Michigan, losing both times.

JonBenet Ramsey would have been 23 years old this year.