ROSWELL, Ga., June 24 (UPI) -- Patsy Ramsey, mother of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, died early Saturday of ovarian cancer at her father's home in Georgia.
John Ramsey was at his wife's bedside in Roswell, lawyer Lin Wood told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Wood said that Mrs. Ramsey was first diagnosed with cancer in 1993 and that the disease returned in 2002.
The couple came under suspicion after their daughter's body, beaten and strangled, was found in their home in Boulder, Colo., in 1996. The crime became a national sensation and remains unsolved after an extensive investigation by local authorities and a grand jury.
The Ramseys said that JonBenet was killed by someone who broke into the house. But newspaper and magazine articles speculated that they had killed their daughter or were covering up for a relative or friend. The case was the subject of a number of books, including one by the Ramseys, and a television movie.
"I think people realize now that this family was very much victims of that murder and have suffered greatly because of it in terms of the false accusations made against them," Wood said Saturday in an interview with CNN.
