JonBenet Ramsey: Ears Are Burning in Atlanta

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Colorado governor Bill Owens is ticked off, and he wants John and Patsy Ramsey to know it. In a press conference on Wednesday, Owens announced there would be no special prosecutor to investigate the death of JonBenet Ramsey, the six-year-old beauty queen whose 1996 murder prompted an uproar in her hometown of Boulder. Owens also unleashed a stream of vitriol at JonBenet’s parents: "If I could speak to John and Patsy Ramsey, I would tell them to stop hiding behind their attorneys, come back to Colorado and work with the investigators in this case, no matter where that trail may lead." Police still consider the Ramseys, who now live in an Atlanta suburb, to be the primary suspects in the murder.

Owens said he was confident that investigators were now on the right track, and had uncovered "substantial new evidence." He referred several times to the "killers," saying, "You only think you got away with murder. There is strong evidence to suggest who you are." Owens' meaning was not exactly buried, says TIME Denver correspondent Richard Woodbury. "He all but named the Ramseys as the killers, and you could read this either as an attempt to ratchet up the heat on the family, or as a way to ferret out another, unnamed suspect."