A Father's Guilt

JONBENÉT RAMSEY'S FATHER, JOHN, IS SPEAKING OUT ABOUT HIS DEEPEST REGRETS NEARLY THREE DECADES AFTER HIS DAUGHTER'S TRAGIC DEMISE.

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ONE of John Ramsey’s final memories of his daughter JonBenét is from a few days before her death on Dec. 26, 1996. The tech exec had arrived late to what turned out to be her last performance in a beauty pageant. The bubbly blond 6-year-old — who was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s Boulder, Colo, home the morning after Christmas — had won the award for most talented. “She came running through with the medal and said, ‘Daddy, look what I won for you,’” John recalled.

“She was so proud of that. Shortly after,” he added, “she was gone.”