JohnBenet Ramsey Father, John Ramsey, Regrets Allowing His Daughter In Pageants, Says Killer Is Still Out There

The father of the murdered 6-year-old beauty contestant, JonBenet Ramsey, who was killed in 1996, said he regretted allowing his daughter to compete in beauty pageants in his new book detailing his life after her death.

In John Ramsey's The Other Side of Suffering he discusses how his faith helped him move on with his life, reported ABC.

In an interview on Good Morning America, he pictured his daughter out of her pageant gown and without makeup, wearing the normal clothes of a 6-year-old girl.

I see her, you know, in shorts and t-shirt and hair kind of scruffy and just kind of a kid, he said, according to ABC.

But looking book, he said he is a very different view of child pageants. While he has only seen some scenes from the TLC's child pageant show Toddlers and Tiaras, he says it is unusual. He said his daughter and late wife never acted the way they do on the show.

It's very bizarre, he said. Patsy and JonBenet didn't approach it that way. We -- they just did it for fun.

In the interview, John remembered his girl in taking part in a Christmas parade, just a few days before her death.

Patsy had her sitting atop a friend's convertible in the Christmas parade waving at the people lining the streets, he said on Good Morning America. Patsy's mother later told me that a strange man approached the car during the parade and it made her uncomfortable. I think about these things now and it makes me cringe. We were so naïve. I now believe with all my heart that it's not a good idea to put your child on public display.

John said that after hearing how her Patsy was a beauty, JonBenet was eager to take part in pageants. However, he regrets entering her in the contests.

Only because that possibly might have drawn attention to us, he said. I don't know. But I think for advice to a parent -- is just recognize that regardless of where you live, there -- there could be evil around you. And -- and don't be naive about it. And keep your kids protected.

JonBenet Ramsey was 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant. In December, 1996, John and Patsy allegedly found a ransom note, threatening to kill their daughter, if the family did not pay $118,000.

Police were called to investigate the scene. However, John discovered JonBenet's lifeless body in the basement of his home in Boulder, Colo. No one was ever charged with her murder.

When I found her, it was a rush of relief, he said. And then, of course, within moments, I realized that she probably was dead. But she was back in my arms.

Police treated John and Patsy as suspects, which subsequently sparked national media attention.

I had 24-hour-a-day cameras outside of our house for, gosh, a year, probably, said John. Tabloid newspapers covered the family for years as clues were uncovered. John said he believes the killer is ether alive, dead or in prison, and one of those three.

In 2008, the Boulder district attorney cleared the Ramseys of any wrongdoing, issuing an apology.

John said he was bitter after all that transpired in his life, but in The Other Side of Suffering, he discusses his journey from grief and turmoil, as he loses his daughter and his wife to ovarian cancer in 2009.

But you can't stay there, he said. It's damaging to you as a person.