Documentary claims JonBenet Ramsey was accidentally killed by her brother

A team of investigators featured in a US television documentary have concluded that JonBenet Ramsey was accidentally killed by her older brother.

JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in her family home on Boxing Day, 1996. Source: Getty Images

A two-part CBS special, The Case of JonBenet Ramsey, has revisited the evidence surrounding the death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in 1996.

Former FBI special agent Jim Clemente, along with a panel of forensics and crime experts, concluded that the Ramsey family "did not want law enforcement to solve this case, and that's why it remains unsolved".

The documentary, which has been screened in Australia, claimed that after returning from a Christmas dinner, John Ramsey had carried his daughter JonBenet upstairs to bed, while his wife Patsy was making dessert for their nine-year-old son Burke in the kitchen downstairs.

The theory explained in the series was that JonBenet had come back downstairs, and after trying to steal some of her brother's food, Burke grabbed a nearby torch and fatally struck her on the head.

John and Patsy Ramsey are shown meeting reporters on Thursday, May 1, 1997, in Boulder, Colorado (AAP) Source: AAP

The panel of experts stressed it was most likely out of anger, and the death was unintentional.

The girl’s parents then staged a crime scene to make it appear that an intruder was the culprit, the group of law enforcement, forensic pathologists and other experts concluded.

In 1999, a grand jury voted to indict the parents, but the district attorney at the time, Alex Hunter, declined to prosecute them, citing a lack of evidence.

In 2008, authorities disclosed that male DNA found in the girl's underwear did not match that of anyone in the Ramsey family.

No match has been found in DNA databases, so the donor is still unidentified.

Burke Ramsey interviewed

The documentary came shortly after Burke Ramsey appeared in a three-part interview with popular physician Dr. Phil McGraw , where he said he had nothing to do with his sister's death.

Mr Ramsey, now 29 and working in the computer industry,  said it "blows my mind" that some still suspect a family member in her death.

"Did you do anything to harm your sister JonBenet?"  Dr Phil McGraw asked him, "no," Mr Ramsey responded.

"Did you murder your sister JonBenet?" Dr McGraw asked, in which Mr Ramsey swiftly answered "no".

File image made from an undated family video shows JonBenet Ramsey performing during a beauty pageant. (AAP) Source: AAP

He was then asked who he thought killed his little sister, in which he answered: "Probably some pedophile in the pageant audience."

JonBenet's death made worldwide headlines when videos surfaced of her performing in child beauty pageants, singing and dancing in full makeup and dressed in various costumes.

Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006, and John Ramsey moved away from Colorado and has since remarried.

Burke Ramsey said he continued "to keep the hope alive" the killer would be found.

Ramsey family threatens to sue

The lawyer for the Ramsey family denounced the CBS documentary as a "false and unprofessional television attack", and has threatened to sue the network for libel.

L. Lin Wood, an Atlanta attorney who said he had successfully sued other media outlets over similar accusations against Burke Ramsey, branded the program as a broadcast riddled with "lies, misrepresentations, distortions and omissions".

"I will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of Burke Ramsey," Wood told Reuters.

"CBS' false and unprofessional attacks on this young man are disgusting and revolting."

The network responded to Wood with a terse statement: "CBS stands by the broadcast and will do so in court."

With Reuters