Before the murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey in 1996, her eldest brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said the Ramseys were a “normal family.”

“It’s really important to remember that before Christmas 1996 we were just a normal family,” he said in Netflix’s new three-part docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?. “We weren’t perfect, we were just a normal family with a regular life.”

JonBenét was the youngest of five siblings. Her eldest brother John Andrew and her two sisters Melinda and Elizabeth (who died in a car accident in 1992) were born to John Ramsey and his first wife Lucinda Pasch. After their separation, John married his second wife Patsy, with whom he had a son, Burke, and JonBenét.

JonBenét’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were originally considered prime suspects in the investigation, but neither of them were ever charged with a crime. Burke, who was nine years old at the time of JonBenét’s murder, was later accused of being involved in her death, a claim he and his family have vehemently denied. John Andrew was abroad with his sister Melinda when the murder occurred.

While JonBenét’s only surviving sister, Melinda, remained out of the public eye, her brothers have spoken openly about her unsolved murder over the years. Both John Andrew and JonBenét’s father John appeared in the Netflix docuseries about the cold case, while Burke declined to participate. The series examines how the local police handle the case and what the Ramseys believe are missteps by the authorities.

Here’s everything you need to know about JonBénet Ramsey’s older brothers, John Andrew and Burke Ramsey, and what they’ve said about her unsolved murder in the decades since.

John Andrew Ramsey

John Andrew Ramsey was born in the 1970s to John Ramsey and his first wife, Lucinda Pasch. Accordingly Vanity FairJohn Andrew and his older sisters Elizabeth and Melinda grew up in Atlanta. He was around 13 years old when his younger sister JonBenét was born.

In 1996, John Andrew was in Atlanta with his sister Melinda to spend Christmas with their mother. When he found out JonBenét was missing, he was on a flight to spend the holidays with John, Patsy and his half-siblings in Michigan at the Ramseys’ vacation home.

“I think I was paged or handed a note by one of the flight attendants saying I needed to call home,” John Andrew told ABC News. 20/20 in 2021, adding that he and Melinda immediately changed their travel plans. “I was screaming and screaming and kicking to get on the plane to Denver… I remember just thinking about it and processing it all.”

When John Andrew and Melinda arrived at the Ramsey family home in Boulder, JonBenét’s body had been found and the property marked as a crime scene.

“JonBenét was the kid who kept the conversation going at the dinner table,” he said 20/20 his younger half-sister. “You know, she went around and asked everyone how their day was and what they were doing, and she was just an energetic and fun kid.”

John Andrew, whose eldest sister Elizabeth died in a car accident in 1992, said the loss of another sibling was heartbreaking.

“After losing my oldest sister Beth, a lot of emotions returned. You kind of think you’re immune from something like that happening again,” he said. “If it happens a second time, it will be an unimaginable tragedy.”

John Andrew has been vocal about his desire to solve his younger sister’s murder and vindicate his family, who he said have suffered greatly from the publicity surrounding the case. He also insisted that investigators use DNA evidence – which the statement said had previously cleared his father and Patsy of wrongdoing The New York Times – to find JonBenét’s murderer. He appeared in 2024 Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?.

Burke Ramsey

Burke Ramsey was born in Atlanta to John and his second wife Patsy. He was 9 years old when JonBenét was killed and has remained largely private since then. He graduated from Purdue University in 2010 with a degree in computer and information technology.

In the two-part CBS docuseries The case of: JonBenét Ramseyreleased in September 2016, investigators suspected that Burke accidentally killed his sister and that her parents covered it up. The series cited, among other things, Burke’s seemingly emotionless demeanor during police questioning, which legal analyst Scott Robinson and Boulder police told PEOPLE was not evidence of his guilt.

“They’re not going to find any evidence because that didn’t happen,” Burke said during a three-part series on the cover-up allegations Dr. Phil Interview that aired later this month. He later added: “It blows my mind. What other evidence do you need that we didn’t do it?”

Burke’s Dr. Phil’s interview was the first time he spoke publicly since the murder. He also said in the interview that he didn’t leave his bedroom as his family frantically searched for JonBenét, explaining, “I guess I kind of want to avoid conflict, or, I don’t know, I think I have.” “I just felt safer there.” He added that he wasn’t normally “the worried type… I guess part of me (didn’t) want to know what was going on.”

He also revealed how he first found out about his sister’s death.

“My dad told me JonBenét was in heaven now, and he started crying, then I started crying,” he recalled. “I don’t think I said anything. I didn’t believe it at first.”

Burke told Dr. Phil also said that he knows that many people believe that he or his parents murdered his sister, but that he vehemently denies the allegations and maintains that an intruder – specifically a sexual predator who may have seen JonBenét at a beauty pageant – was the murderer be .

After The case of Broadcast, Burke and his family filed a $150 million defamation lawsuit against Dr. Werner Spitz, a forensic pathologist quoted in the docuseries, and a $750 million lawsuit against CBS for defamation. CBS said in a statement to PEOPLE that they would stand by their programming, and in January 2019 both parties agreed to an undisclosed settlement, according to Reuters.

While Burke declined to take part in the 2024 Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed John Benét Ramsey?his older brother John Andrew defended him on the series. “It’s just not fair to him (Burke). When you look back at pictures of 9-year-old Burke … it’s just absolutely absurd to think, ‘Oh yeah, he could have killed his sister and used so much violence,'” John Andrew said.