John Ramsey Reveals Why He Didn't Cry When He Found His Daughter JonBenét's Body (Exclusive)

John Ramsey is opening up about his raw emotions on Dec. 26, 1996, the day he found the body of his 6-year-old daughter, JonBenét Ramsey, in the basement of the family’s Boulder, Colo., home.

“When I found JonBenét, there were no tears,” Ramsey tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “Well, I lost my oldest daughter in a car accident a couple of years before, and when I had the call, I was angry. I was mad. I was shocked. I didn’t cry. I cried for years after that, but at that moment, you’re in shock. I was mad. I was mad at God.”

He adds, “At least for me. If I was on a business trip on the airlines, sitting by myself, I’d start to cry, every couple of years. It’s the weight of the loss, but at that moment, you’re in shock.”

Earlier that morning, John’s wife Patsy called police after noticing their daughter was missing. On the call, Patsy, who has since died, frantically revealed that she’d discovered a chilling ransom note asking for $118,000 for JonBenét’s safe return.

After John found JonBenét’s body, it was revealed that she’d been sexually assaulted and strangled in their home. The child beauty pageant queen had duct tape over her mouth and a garrote twisted around her neck. 

Her death was ruled a homicide and the parents quickly became suspects — something Ramsey believes occurred because of the parents’ initial reactions.

For more about John Ramsey’s fight to see JonBenéts murder solved in his lifetime, subscribe now to PEOPLE or pick up the new issue of People, on newsstands next week.

“We did not act right that morning, therefore they’re guilty,” Ramsey says of what investigators believed. “And it is just incompetence.”

No Ramsey family member has ever been charged in connection with JonBenét’s killing. Patsy died in 2006.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.      

Nearly 30 years later, the case remains unsolved. Today, Ramsey hopes to encourage someone to come forward with new information and to “put pressure” on police to use advances in DNA technology and genetic genealogy to finally catch JonBenet’s killer.

Ramsey is also speaking out in Netflix’s three-part docuseries, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, which begins streaming Monday, Nov. 25.

The series explores what Ramsey considers to be missteps made by authorities when investigating JonBenét’s murder amid an international media frenzy.