JonBenét's brother sues pathologist after CBS special

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Credit: Jennifer Brett

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Explore JonBenét's brother: "I know people think I did it"

Werner Spitz and other investigators appeared on a CBS special, "The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey," which aired last month and said, "It's the boy who did it, whether he was jealous, or mentally unfit or something...I don't know the why, I'm not a psychiatrist, but what I am sure about is what I know about him, that is what happened here."

Credit: Jennifer Brett

MORE: JonBenét miniseries revisited 20-year-old case

JonBenét was 6 when her lifeless body was discovered in her family’s Boulder, Colo. and the sensational case dominated headlines for months on end.

The child beauty queen was buried in Marietta, where her mother, Patsy Ramsey, was buried in 2006 after dying of cancer. The 20th anniversary of JonBenét's death has sparked renewed interest in the case, and may explain why a supermarket tabloid recently ran this headline in huge, bold letters.

Courthouse News Service, to which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a paid subscription, reports that the lawsuit says "Defendant Spitz harbored personal ill will and spite against the Ramsey family, including Burke Ramsey, because he believes the Ramsey family shut him out of the investigation — thereby frustrating his pursuit of self-promotion."

The complaint also says Spitz accused Burke Ramsey "without ever examining JonBenet's body, without viewing the crime scene, and without consulting the pathologist who performed the autopsy of JonBenet...This complaint seeks to hold defendant Spitz fully accountable for his vicious, unsupported attacks on this young man, which have needlessly and selfishly added to the already heavy burdens he endures while trying to lead as normal a life as possible under the circumstances."

Ramsey seeks $50 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages from Spitz.