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- The prime suspect in the murder of baby
beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey is her then-9-year-old brother, Burke, a supermarket
tabloid claims.
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- Star magazine says JonBenet's parents,
John and Patsy, are in secret plea-bargain negotiations with prosecutors
in Boulder, Colo., to end one of the most sensational murder cases in history.
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- Star claims District Attorney Alex Hunter
and John Ramsey's high-powered lawyer, Hal Haddon, have been talking privately
about the plea bargain in recent days.
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- Star says Hunter wants to cut a deal
in order to avoid a long and costly trial.
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- And the magazine claims he also wants
Patsy punished for her alleged role in faking a ransom note and trying
to cover up the murder.
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- Star said Hunter wants to force some
kind of counseling or treatment for Burke.
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- "A trial of Patsy and/or John might
take a year just to begin, and then it could go on for months more,"
says a Star source. "And in the end, the Ramseys would probably walk."
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- Hunter's spokesman, Bill Wise, refused
to talk about the report.
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- "We can only say the claim that
DA Hunter and Mr. Haddon have talked at all, and that they have talked
about serving up Burke Ramsey as the fall guy in this case - that's false,"
Wise said.
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- Haddon did not return phone calls.
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- "The story of how JonBenet was killed,
and why, is at bottom an incredibly sad one, more than a criminal one,"
Star quotes an "authoritative" source as saying. "It's time
to put this tragic case behind us."
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- It's unlikely that Burke, now 12, could
face any criminal charges for the 1996 Christmas night slaying because
of his age at the time.
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- The magazine said Burke was resentful
of his little sister's celebrity.
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- Investigators have generally believed
that JonBenet's murder was some kind of "inside job" - or a domestic
squabble that went tragically wrong.
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- Star takes those beliefs further. It
says authorities believe the "flash point" for the festive night
horror was when 6-year-old JonBenet wet her bed and - as she often did
- went down the hall to Burke's room and climbed into bed with her brother.
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- "They believe that Burke let loose
his pent-up rage at his sister that night and lashed out at her physically,
say sources," according to Star.
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- "The cops' first inkling of suspicion
came the morning after JonBenet's body was found in the basement room when
Burke was taken to a friend's house without asking a single question about
why all the police were in his house - or where his sister was.
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- "Two weeks later, Burke shocked
a police psychologist by shouting: 'I know what happened. She was killed.
Someone took her quietly and took her down in the basement ... took a knife
out ... hit her on the head."
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- At that point, only the police knew that
Burke's Swiss Army knife had been found next to JonBenet's body.
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- The weekly says that on a previous occasion,
Burke slugged JonBenet in the face with a golf club, cutting her cheek.
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- Star says JonBenet died from a combination
of being viciously struck in the head with a heavy object - probably a
flashlight - and of being strangled by a garrote-like rope.
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- The case has captured the public imagination
as few others have done.
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- JonBenet's family were rich and powerful
in the close-knit Rocky Mountains community.
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- The way they brought up JonBenet to be
a flirty beauty queen was repulsive to many - at least, after the tragedy
of her murder.
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- John and Patsy Ramsey didn't help the
public perception. They were defiant, insisting they hadn't killed their
daughter and blaming a mysterious intruder.
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- A suspicious "ransom note"
was found in the Ramsey mansion - there were no signs in the snow around
the house indicating that anyone had entered the premises.
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