'I’m Sorry I Didn’t Protect You': JonBenét Ramsey Dad's Tears on What Would Be Her 33rd Birthday

JonBenét Ramsey's dad, John, got emotional thinking about his daughter on Sunday, August 6 — the day she would have turned 33 years old. The child beauty queen was just 6 years old when she was found strangled and beaten in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colo., on December 26, 1996.

John reflected on what he and his wife, Patsy, who died in June 2006 from ovarian cancer, would have said to their little girl if she were found.

"I'd tell her, 'I'm sorry I didn't protect you.' That's a dad's job," he told The Sun in an interview last year. "She knew she was loved, I used to tell her every day, but a father has to protect their children. That needs to be a high priority but we were just complacent. We thought we lived in La La Land with no need to worry [...] but we were wrong."

John also admitted he wouldn't have let his daughter enter the pageant world in the first place.

"I didn't like the costumes and stuff," he said. "But I didn't say anything because Patsy [JonBenét's mom] and JonBenét were having such a good time together. I thought these pageants were just attended by moms and dads and grandparents, and so I didn't really worry about that exposure. But we later learned there were people attending these pageants that had no business being there: pedophiles. So that was not a good idea at all, but we were so naïve."

John and Patsy had five children, and while all of them were "smart," he pointed out how his late daughter was different. "We knew she would be something special in life we just weren't sure what," he shared. "I was worried she was going to run off to Hollywood one day, and that wouldn't be good from my perspective. But she was so much more mature than the typical 6-year-old in terms of how she thought and the kinds of questions she'd ask and she became very spiritual from an early age."

"She was very much an old soul, and, who knows? The world may have lost the person who may have contributed to the cure of cancer, or maybe she would've just been a really wonderful mother who raised wonderful children," he continued. "But that opportunity has gone. It's gone for her, it's gone for us, and it's gone for the world."

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As OK! previously reported, John and Patsy were named suspects in their daughter's murder, but they were cleared in 2008 after DNA evidence eliminated them. Since then, John has been hoping to find JonBenét’s killer, especially now that new DNA technology is available.

"We've fought for years to get more DNA testing done, and technology has advanced dramatically in the last 25 years," John explained last year.