It's been over two decades, but many are still haunted by what has been one of the nation's greatest unsolved mysteries, the murder of child beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey.
The young girl was only six years old when her father found her dead body in the basement of their Boulder, Colorado home on Christmas Day, 1996.
Some of the details surrounding the senseless tragedy have been fuzzy and inconsistent, especially when it comes to the topic of the ransom note JonBenet's parents found before discovering her body. Many people believe that the parents are responsible for their daughter's death, and that the note was fabricated to cover up their crime.
JonBenet's parents were later cleared, but investigators struggled to find more suspects. In 2003, the cold case saw a breakthrough when trace DNA belonging to an unknown male was found on the victim's clothes. It would take another six years for the Boulder Police Department to reopen the investigation, and once again drawing everyone's attention towards the Ramsey family.
In 2016, CBS released a two-part TV documentary called the Case of: JonBenet Ramsey, and it was revealed that experts found a flashlight in the family's home and it could be the murder weapon. They theorized that JonBenet's younger brother, Burke, killed the former Little Miss Colorado by hitting her with a flashlight and then strangled her.
As you can imagine, the accusation did not sit well with Burke, who was only nine at the time of his sister's mysterious death. He filed a lawsuit against CBS that year, and now, we finally have more details about it.
Brooke claims that the CBS documentary has ruined his reputation by falsely accusing him of a crime he did not commit. He has since decided to proceed with a defamation lawsuit against the network.
In addition to CBS, Burke is suing the production company and anyone who has contributed to the project. In the documents filed in December 2016, Burke is seeking a minimum of $250 million in compensatory damages and $500 million in punitive damages.
One of Burke's lawyers explained that the lawsuit is necessary because despite the fact that law enforcement "repeatedly, publicly and unequivocally" cleared Burke of any involvement in the case, "CBS perpetrated a fraud upon the public" by insinuating that his client had anything to do with his sister's death without providing actual facts.
The network filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed, but this week, a judge denied it and the case will proceed.
Neither Burke, his father (his mother died in 2006), nor his attorney have commented on the new development, but more details are expected in the upcoming weeks.
