, John, admitted that he has regrets about allowing his late wife to immerse his daughter deeper into the . He if he had spoken up about his gripes. "I have five children, and she was always a little different in terms of her level of maturity for her age and she was very smart," remembered John, 79, who spoke with the US Sun.
"All my kids are smart, but she was smart. We knew she would be something special in life we just weren't sure what." JonBenét, at the young age of six, was found brutally strangled and beaten in the basement of her family's home in on December 26, 1996 after her parents discovered a ransom note.
Today would have been the beauty queen's 33rd birthday. John often finds himself obsessing over the actions he could've taken to protect his daughter. The image of his daughter's lifeless body lying on the basement floor has never left John who said time has "pretty much" stopped since that day.
Additionally, the majority of onlookers remember JonBenét as a six-year-old, coiffed-haired pageant queen whose makeup always hit the mark. That wasn't the real JonBenét, John said. His daughter was somewhat of a tomboy who enjoyed a good hike and going out to the backyard to play with her older brother Burke.
In the 27 years since his daughter's death, John has tortured himself by obsessing over the "what ifs." Maybe JonBenét would still be alive to celebrate her 33rd birthday if he'd never allowed her to compete in the pageants. Moreover, maybe he could've bet.