Police were also pursuing other major suspects. Burke Ramsey certainly fell into that category. On Wednesday morning, January 8, JonBenet's nine-year-old brother traveled to the Child Advocacy Center in Niwot, where child psychologist Dr. Suzanne Bernhard questioned him. Patsy Ramsey sat sobbing inthe next room. Boulder police detectives Linda Arndt, Jane Harmer, and Ron Gosage observed this interview from the next room, behind a one-way window. The two hour conversation that the police observed proved very inconclusive. During breaks, the police suggested avenues to Dr. Bernhard that she should pursue. Burke did not ant to talk about the tragedy, an understandable mind-set. He seemed dazed, even indifferent. The child psychologist gingerly raised the subjects of sexual molestation and other forms of child abuse in the family, and Burke reacted as though there had never been any instances of this. He seemed to be telling the truth, according to both Dr. Bernhard and the detectives. Dr. Bernhard attempted to delve into any secrets that Burke might know, but the boy replied that a fact was no longer a secret if it was told to someone. Police later studied the videotaped interview, carefully arranged with the Ramseys' attorneys, and found no new information in any of it.

Burke Ramsey again became the focus of intense police interest the following spring. After Patsy Ramsey had made her original 911 call before dawn the day before Christmas, she had not completely hung up her phone. For a few tantalizing seconds, police heard background sounds that they could not understand. Detectives sent this tape out to the best electronic experts in the region and, still, save for Patsy Ramsey's sobbing and prayers, nothing more could be made out of the background noise. Then the police discovered a new and expert electronics company, Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, that they provided with a copy of the tape. What came back was worth all of this trouble. When these sounds were brought up many times over, police heard Burke and John Ramsey in an exchange. The child said, "Please, what do I do?" To this John Ramsey replied, "We are not speaking to you." Finally, Burke is heard to ask, "What did you find?" This discovery was extremely critical. Burke, as Patsy Ramsey had said, was supposed to have slept through the discovery of the ransom note and through the discovery of JonBenet's being missing from her bedroom. Mrs. Ramsey had evidently lied about this, and the boy had also not contradicted that fabrication of the facts. But, why? Did this mean that Burke Ramsey had killed his little sister and his terrified parents had created the ransom note to divert attention away from him? There is one very important footnote to this evidentiary breakthrough. The police got their report back from the West Coast experts in May of 1997. Yet the prosecutor's office was not informed about this bombshell evidence for an entire year.