John Ramsey is addressing the rampant speculation that his beloved daughter, JonBenét, was somehow connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious sex offender. The father of the six-year-old, whose lifeless body was found in her Colorado home in 1996, reacted to claims on TikTok that a photo from the federal government's Epstein files shows his daughter posing with the late perpetrator. "There is absolutely no truth to it," John told TMZ in a statement on January 27th. "I haven't seen it, but with AI, anything is possible." The 82-year-old added, "I figured one of these days I would be accused of being an Epstein pal. It hasn't happened yet. Internet people can be very cruel."
The viral claims center around a photo from Epstein's home, obtained by E! News from the Department of Justice, which shows a young girl, whose face is redacted, perched on his shoulders. Users imply that it could be JonBenét. Some social media users also allege that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's associate who was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for five sex trafficking-related counts, including one count of sex trafficking a minor, was present at JonBenét's 6th birthday party. John denies both claims with a vehemence.
E! News has reached out to John Ramsey for comment and has not yet heard back. Since the discovery of JonBenét's body in 1996, prosecutors have yet to bring charges against any suspects, though John and his wife Patsy Ramsey, who died of ovarian cancer in 2006, were painted as the killers in the court of public opinion. "We could have the killer arrested, convicted, and in prison," John said in the 2024 Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, "and there'd still be 5 to 10 percent of the population that thinks we're guilty."
However, the case continues to progress, with the Boulder Police Department announcing in December that they had recently conducted "several new interviews." "We have also collected new evidence," police chief Stephen Redfearn told NewsNation earlier this month, "and tested and re-tested other pieces of evidence to generate new leads."
