A new true crime series exploring the unsolved murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey has been greenlit at Paramount+, with Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen cast to play the victim’s parents.
Tentatively titled JonBenét Ramsey, the new limited series will follow the Ramsey family before and after the tragic death threw their family into the headlines one fateful night in 1996, according to Deadline.
McCarthy will play Ramsey’s mother Patsy Ramsey and Owen will play John Bennett Ramsey.
The outlet reports, “At the heart of the series, it is the story of Patsy and John Ramsey – exploring the unbreakable partnership of these two complex people – as husband and wife, as mother and father – who had committed themselves and their children to building the narrative of a perfect, privileged life only to have it destroyed one Christmas night.”
JonBenét was found strangled in the basement of her family home Dec. 26, 1996, just hours after her father allegedly found a ransom note demanding $118,000, the exact amount John Bennett received as a bonus at work. The six-year-old beauty pageant winner had been sexually assaulted and beaten.
The parents were later identified as prime suspects. They did not sit down with investigators until April 1997, according to a timeline from The Independent. JonBenét’s brother, Burke, who was nine years old at the time, was later interviewed by investigators in 1998 but ruled out as a suspect in 1999.
JonBenét’s parents were criticized for sitting down for televised interviews before cooperating with the police. They later published a bestselling novel in 2000 titled The Death of Innocence.
The Ramsey family was ultimately cleared in 2008 through touch DNA.
Per Deadline, unsealed documents from the 1998 grand jury revealed they recommended filing charges against her parents. But it was dismissed in 1999 when the district attorney determined there was not “sufficient evidence.”
The case remains cold to this day. But the case received renewed attention in 2022 when Boulder, Colorado, police announced they would be working with the Colorado Cold Case Review Team to further investigate JonBenét’s murder.
The series will be produced by MTV Entertainment Studios & 101 Studios, the studios behind Yellowstone. Richard LaGravenese will showrun and executive produce.
Anne Sewitsky, who directed three episodes of hit crime series Presumed Innocent, will direct four of the series’ eight episodes and will also serve as EP.
Production on JonBenét Ramsey is expected to begin shortly in Calgary, Canada.
