With the success of Making a Murderer and the public’s fascination with unsolved mysteries, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that, 20 years later, the case of the murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is getting another look. A&E got the jump on its competitors by airing the documentary, The Killing of JonBenét: The Truth Uncovered, on Monday night.

The documentary featured a recently unearthed, never-before-seen police interview with JonBenét’s older brother Burke, which took part 2 years after the murder. The then 9-year-old boy talked about the moment he realized his sister was dead, during a visit to a family friends’ house. He told police at the time, “I thought JonBenét was gonna be there, I thought they found her. I came in excited…almost relieved…then my dad told me that JonBenét was in heaven.” Burke’s three part interview with Dr. Phil begins airing on Monday, September 12.

For a time, Burke, as well as his parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were suspects in the killing. Sadly, Patsy lost her battle with ovarian cancer and passed away in 2006. In the documentary, John tells A&E that to consider his young son capable of such an act was hogwash, saying, “The accusation that Burke somehow was this violent 9-year-old, 60-pound child and he bashed in JonBenét’s head and that Patsy and I staged the whole thing to protect him is laughable.”

The A&E documentary also addressed the misreporting of details on the case by the media, which led to the witch hunt against the Ramsey family. And, much like the Steven Avery case detailed in Making a Murderer, the police have come under fire for mismanaging the case. The case is still unsolved, with an estimated 50-60 suspects still on investigators’ radar. There is hope that DNA evidence can finally identify the guilty party, but that has yet to be seen.

The recent attention to this case has spawned quite a few projects. In addition to the A&E special, Dateline NBC is devoting a 2-hour special to the case on Friday night. Dateline NBC: Who Killed JonBenét? includes interviews with former investigators, including Bob Whitson, a retired detective sergeant at the Boulder Police Department, who believes that an intruder broke into the house and murdered the 6-year-old. Having been at the scene of the crime, Whitson said the evidence couldn’t possibly indicate a family member committed the crime, stating, “It matches up with a sexually sadistic person and a psychopath.” Investigation Discovery has also jumped on the bandwagon with a three-night docu-series JonBenét: An American Murder Mystery, which will premiere on Monday, September 12 at 10 p.m.

As we reported earlier, CBS is airing a six-hour series, Case Closed: JonBenét Ramsey, which premieres on September 18. There’s even news that Lifetime is planning a TV movie about the case, because of course they are. As a true crime aficionado, I’m glad the case is getting some attention, but is it all a little too much? I’m all for justice, but this is starting to smack of exploitation.

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