[Keilar:] It is one of the greatest unsolved crimes in history, the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. And tonight at 9:00 eastern a CNN special report explores the theories, secrets and bombshells of the case. It has been nearly 20 years since the 6-year-old girl was found strangled to death in the basement of her home on December 26th, 1996. Who did it, remain as mystery. Jean Casarez sat down with those closest to the investigation, including JonBenet's father.
[Jean Casarez, Cnn Correspondent:] It was noon, six hours had passed since Patsy Ramsey had called 911. Their little girl JonBenet was still missing. Police combed the house trying to figure out how an intruder could have gotten in. One possibility, an open window in the basement, but that was dismissed quickly.
[Fred Patterson, Fmr Det., Boulder Police Dept:] The window well had cobwebs on it. You can't go through cobwebs without disturbing them.
[Casarez:] Officers examined the ransom note and tapped the phone.
[Unidentified Male:] The kidnapping note said, I'm going to call you between 8:00 and 10:00.
[Casarez:] As the deadline came and went, John Ramsey was pacing so police asked him to search the house for clues.
[John Ramsey, Father:] One of the detectives asked me and my friend who was there to go through every inch of the house, started in the basement. We have one room in the basement that there are no windows in that room. When I opened the door and when I turned the light on and I hoped that she was still OK, but I could tell that she probably wasn't.
[Casarez:] JonBenet's body was covered in a blanket. Did you take duct tape off her mouth?
[Ramsey:] I took the duct tape off immediately and then tried to untie her hands. But the knot was way too tight. I couldn't get it loose. I couldn't do anything but scream.
[Unidentified Male:] And John Ramsey carried his daughter rigid from rigor mortis up the stairs and set her body down on the floor.
[Keilar:] Jean Casarez joining me now. And I mean, this is just a riveting look back at this crime that I think still has so many people puzzled, and we know that people have grown up hearing this name. They maybe aren't familiar with basic facts of the story. What happened?
[Casarez:] Well, it is just as you saw. It was a little girl. She was in kindergarten. It was a family from Atlanta that moved to Boulder because of John Ramsey's business that had grossed $1 billion that year. It was in the local newspaper. It was big news. And they had a wonderful Christmas day, and Christmas evening. And John Ramsey does not like to talk about this. But we went to him. He lives in a very remote community, very private now. Agreed to sit down one on one, and he takes me through how that the last time he saw her was when he put her to bed Christmas night. And then the next morning a scream from Patsy and it was that ransom note. Now, as you know, it went on and all forces were looking at the parents. They became the prime suspects. Very controversial that they wouldn't sit down for a formal interview with police when their daughter was murdered until months afterwards, John Ramsey has another reason he believes that games were being played. And he was told, look, they want to convict you. They want to convict you. Get a defense attorney. The best you can find. And he and Patsy had to do that. And it goes on from there. So he relives it, he talks about finding her body. Things we had never heard before of what he found when he opened that cellar door, as he called it, in the basement.
[Keilar:] And Jean, this is a reminder. I want to tell people that this is a special that airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN. We'll learn a lot more. We'll learn about some of the outstanding facts in the case. And Jean will be taking you through that. It's a great report. Jean, thank you so much. And thank you for watching NEWSROOM. Wolf starts right now.
[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Aleppo, Syria