{"id":248345,"date":"2026-05-29T23:53:43","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248345\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T23:53:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:53:43","slug":"jonbenet-ramseys-dad-john-defends-ex-housekeeper-in-child-beauty-queens-murder-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/248345\/","title":{"rendered":"JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey\u2019s dad John defends ex-housekeeper in child beauty queen\u2019s murder mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following her death in May, former housekeeper Linda Hoffman-Pugh was finally defended by the family that at one time allegedly questioned if she was involved in the murder of their beauty queen daughter.<\/p>\n

Linda was working for John Ramsey and his wife, Patsy Ramsey, when their 6-year-old daughter, JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey, was strangled and found in the basement of their Colorado home on December 26, 1996, triggering a high-profile investigation that the Boulder Police Department still hasn\u2019t solved.<\/p>\n

Now Wonderwall.com<\/a> can report that the still-grieving father does not blame the housekeeper, despite past speculation.<\/p>\n

Ex-housekeeper claimed she was victim of libel and slander\"JonBen\u00e9t<\/p>\n

JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey was killed by asphyxiation due to strangulation. By: MEGA<\/p>\n

Linda came under early suspicion because of her close access to the family and their home, but she was cleared by investigators.<\/p>\n

The family publicly discussed the case, including in a book released by John and Patsy titled The Death of Innocence: The Untold Story of JonBen\u00e9t\u2019s Murder and How Its Exploitation Compromised the Pursuit of Truth.<\/p>\n

After the book\u2019s publication, Linda filed a libel and slander lawsuit, alleging she had been portrayed as responsible for JonBen\u00e9t\u2019s death. Her attorneys claimed the Ramseys made \u201cdeliberate false statements \u2026 against our client \u2026 making her look as if she may have been involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the case was dismissed \u2014 a decision Linda appealed to no avail.<\/p>\n

John reveals what Patsy told him about Linda\"The<\/p>\n

The Ramsey family \u2014 including Patsy, John and son Burke \u2014 were cleared in the case. By: Netflix<\/p>\n

When John \u2014 who recently shut down viral social media rumors falsely linking his late daughter to predator Jeffrey Epstein \u2014 spoke to In Touch <\/a>in May, he shared something Patsy said about Linda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Linda was involved, she would never hurt JonBen\u00e9t,\u201d John recalled his wife telling him \u201cearly on\u201d the investigation<\/p>\n

Linda, however, believed Patsy \u2014 who died in 2006 after a battle with ovarian cancer \u2014 was the person responsible for first pointing a finger at her as a possible suspect in the case.<\/p>\n

During a 1999 interview with The Daily Camera<\/a>, Linda noted, \u201cWhy would she think I\u2019d do something like that and then invite me to the memorial service? Why would she hug me at the service?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey family members were once suspects, too\"Linda<\/p>\n

Linda Hoffman-Pugh claimed Patsy Ramsey was the first to blame her. By: HLN<\/p>\n

Police also questioned if John and Patsy were involved. (Their son, Burke \u2014 who was 9 at the time his sister was killed \u2014 was cleared as a suspect.) Patsy was suspected of writing the ransom note she discovered on a staircase inside their home. Investigators theorized that the note was a means to deflect blame from the family.<\/p>\n

A grand jury voted to indict the Ramseys for child abuse resulting in death and for being accessories to a crime, but the district attorney at the time declined the indictment. John later spoke out in frustration, claiming police falsely painted them as being involved.<\/p>\n

Authorities later said trace DNA from an unidentified male had been found. As a result, one of the district attorneys who previously oversaw the case sent the family a letter stating that DNA testing had cleared them. But in 2016, another DA said the decision carried no legal weight and argued that the previous prosecutor should never have sent the letter.<\/p>\n

In January 2026, the Boulder Police Department quietly named former Alabama deputy sheriff and patrol officer Kenny Beck as the case\u2019s new lead investigator. He was reportedly brought on to provide a fresh pair of eyes and is allegedly collaborating with private investigators.<\/p>\n

Saying goodbye\"Housekeeper<\/p>\n

Housekeeper Linda Hoffman-Pugh maintained her innocence until her death in May 2026. By: Hard Copy<\/p>\n

Linda died on May 2.<\/p>\n

According to her obituary<\/a>, which does not mention the Ramsey case, she is survived by five children and \u201cnumerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren who called her Mom Mom\u201d and brought her \u201csuch joy and happiness.\u201d She was still a Colorado resident at the time of her passing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer greatest joy was her family,\u201d her obituary read. \u201cShe also loved her kitty, Zoey, putting puzzles together, crosswords, reading romance novels, watching game shows, bowling and latch hook.\u201d It also noted that Linda had a paper route for many years and was \u201calways so kind,\u201d especially to \u201cher elderly clients.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following her death in May, former housekeeper Linda Hoffman-Pugh was finally defended by the family that at one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[97040,97043,97039,73256,97042,9,24,63,97038,122,124,123,97041],"class_list":["post-248345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-boulder-police-department","tag-housekeeper","tag-john-ramsey","tag-jonbenet-ramsey","tag-linda-hoffman-pugh","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-patsy-ramsey","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-ramsey-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}