Paramount Plus Developing Limited Series on JonBenét Ramsey

The show still doesn't have a title or release date, but Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen are set to star as John and Patsy.

By Thomas Mitchell

September 10, 2024

Lib Waters, a family friend of the Ramseys', visits the grave of JonBenét Ramsey in the early 2000s. Barry Williams/Getty Images

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A limited series about the unsolved murder of Boulder six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is coming to Paramount Plus with some big names attached.

The show, first announced in March, still doesn't have a title or release date, but Melissa McCarthy and Clive Owen are already set to star as JonBenét's parents, Patsy and John Ramsey, with McCarthy serving as an executive producer of the project.

Shea Whigham has been reportedly cast as former Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter, while Will Patton will play Lou Smit, a longtime detective who came out of retirement to investigate JonBenét's murder.

That murder, on Christmas night in 1996, quickly gained national attention, and the cold case continues to hold public interest. The pageant queen was found bludgeoned and strangled to death in the basement of the Ramsey home in Boulder. Her family provided a ransom note that was reportedly found on their staircase, but it was never linked to an author.

John and Patsy as well as Burke Ramsey, JonBenét's brother, who was nine at the time of the murder, were investigated but never charged, and law enforcement authorities looked at numerous other people, some of whom took credit for JonBenét's murder. But none of those claims were deemed credible.

The Paramount series will center on Patsy (McCarthy) and John (Owen) as they discover JonBenét's murder and wade through the tragedy and investigation into their daughter's death.

Although Boulder is where it all went down, the show won't be made in Colorado, according to Deadline. Instead, the majority of filming will take place in Calgary, Canada.

As a mini-series, the show can't cover every detail seen in documentaries or on sites devoted to the case, but writers will have plenty of recent events to consider. In late 2023, the Colorado Cold Case Review Team completed a year-long study into the JonBenét Ramsey case, issuing recommendations to the Boulder Police Department and the Boulder County District Attorney's Office.

County officials had been meeting with JohnBenét's father since 2023 to provide updates on the cold case review, according to police officials and Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

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Thomas Mitchell has been the news editor of Westword since February 2024. He's been with the publication since 2017 and was formerly its cannabis editor. He’s earned numerous awards and accolades for his work, including placing second for the Marijuana Enterprise Reporting Award from the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists in 2018; being named a Top Cannabis Journalist by Leafbuyer in 2020; and placing first for the College Sports Writing Award from the Arizona Press Club in 2014. His prior work experience includes Arizona Republic, Inman News and Fox Sports.

Contact: Thomas Mitchell

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