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- BOULDER - JonBenet Ramsey's brother was cleared Thursday as a suspect
in the child beauty queen's murder.
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- "Burke is not a suspect," said
Suzanne Laurion, a spokeswoman for Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter.
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- Laurion made the statement in response
to reports that Jim Jenkins, an Atlanta attorney representing JonBenet's
12-year-old brother, visited Colorado this week for undisclosed reasons.
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- Jenkins' visit came in the wake of a
story in the supermarket weekly Star, which stated Burke Ramsey is a suspect,
and that plea bargain negotiations involving the child are underway.
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- That story was blasted by Hunter's office
last week as "completely false," but the prosecutor's statements
at that time did not go as far as to specifically clear Burke Ramsey.
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- Hunter, through Laurion, did so Thursday.
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- "To this day, he is not a suspect,"
Laurion said.
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- Some theorized that perhaps Jenkins had
come to Colorado seeking an official, definitive statement that would remove
any cloud of suspicion from Burke. He was 9 at the time his 6-year-old
sister was found beaten and strangled in the family's basement in Boulder,
and is the only person, other than JonBenet's parents, known to be in the
house when she died on Christmas night in 1996.
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- "Our office has not received a request
to clear Burke Ramsey as a suspect," Laurion said.
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- But, speaking for Hunter, Laurion did
so anyway: "We were not looking at him as a possible suspect. Burke
Ramsey is not a suspect."
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- Jenkins on Thursday did not discuss what
business he conducted in Colorado.
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- Burke's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey,
remain suspects of a grand jury investigation that was launched by Hunter's
office Sept. 15. Early in the investigation, police cleared John Andrew
and Melinda Ramsey -- John Ramsey's adult children by a prior marriage
-- of any suspected involvement in JonBenet's death.
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