ng no such restraint toward the glamorous child’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. Some in the media began to point the finger directly at her father, while others implied it was her mother. Some speculated the crime had to have been committed by both parents. JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, tried to dispel the rumors that he was involved when he said, "Let me address this very directly: I didn't kill my daughter JonBenet." In addition, initial press reports dwelt on JonBenet's career on the beauty-pageant circuit. As a contestant, the Boulder, Colorado, child dressed as an adult (wearing lipstick and high heels) and performed suggestive dances. JonBenet's 40-year-old mother, Patricia (Patsy) Ramsey, a former Miss America contestant, considered her young daughter her confidante and bestfriend. Patsy had undergone chemotherapy, and various press accounts accuse her of fulfilling her own beauty-pageant fantasies through JonBenet. The Ramseys hired criminal-defense lawyers to represent them four days after the murder, even though they had not been named as suspects. These lawyers advised them not to submit to formal, videotaped police interviews until the police agreed to show the Ramseys copies of the statement they had made to police the day of the murder. The police agreed to the terms, and the couple was interviewed on May 1, 1997. There was an hour-long break between John's and Patsy's interviews, which caused the press to believe that may have given them time to coordinate their stories. Critics claimed the district attorney's office has bungled the case because it has little experience with homicides: JonBenet was the college town's only murder victim in 1996. They said that the police mishandled the crime scene, by allowing John Ramsey to search the house, and point out that the police allowed the couple to leave town for several weeks prior to questioning them. This absence, some speculated, gave the Ramseys time to work out ...
