John Ramsey is sharing never-before-seen photos of his daughter JonBenet in the new A&E special Hunting JonBenet's Killer: The Untold Story, airing Thursday night.

Among the images is one of JonBenet smiling as she looks up at the camera, taken at her Colorado home on Christmas Eve of 1996.

That is the last known photo of JonBenet, who just a few hours later was murdered inside her own home while her parents and brother slept in their rooms just a few feet away from the 6-year-old child beauty queen.

John Ramsey opens up about the night his daughter was murdered and much more in his first sit-down in almost five years, while age-progression imagery allows viewers to see what JonBenet would look like today.

She would be 28, but her father says that her personally cannot imagine JonBenet growing old.

'In my mind she's still my 6-year-old little girl, that's how I remember her,' says John.

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Last shot: John Ramsey is sharing a number of never-before-seen photos of the child beauty queen, including the last ever photo taken of JonBenet on Christmas Eve 1996 (above)

Today: Age-progression imagery is used in the special to reveal how JonBenet would look if she were still alive today at the age of 28 (Credit: Age Progression by www.PhoJoe.com)

The way they were: 'My kids are healthy and grandkids are healthy so you have to look at what's good in your life and be thankful for it,' says John of his life these days (John and Patsy with JonBenet and Burke in 1993)

John, who lost his oldest daughter to a car accident just four years before JonBenet's death, reveals that he still feels blessed in spite of those tragedies.

'It's going well,' he replies when asked how his life is going these days.

'My kids are healthy and grandkids are healthy so you have to look at what's good in your life and be thankful for it.'

He does confess however that on occasion he allows himself to wonder how things would be if JonBenet had not been taken away from him at such a young age.

John also speaks about the moment he and wife Patsy were cleared by investigators 12 years after JonBenet's death, and two years after Patsy passed away from cancer.

'I figure Patsy knew that from whatever vantage point she had in heaven,' says John about his wife not being there for the news.

'And my mind frame was, OK, let's get on with finding the killer.'

John also says on the special that he never once thought his son Burke was responsible for he death of his sister.

Burke sued CBS after the network aired The Case Of: JonBenet Ramsey, which concluded with investigators revealing that after extensive research into the events that happened on the night of the murder they believed Burke Ramsey was responsible for killing his sister.

He recently settled that case after demanding damages of $750million from the network.

Never-before-seen photo: 'In my mind she's still my 6-year-old little girl, that's how I remember her,' says John, whose oldest daughter died just four years before JonBenet's death (JonBenet in 1996 above)

Snow day: John also says on the special that he never once thought his son Burke was responsible for he death of his sister (JonBenet in 1996 above)

Beauty queen: This is John's first interview since his son Burke settled a $750million lawsuit against CBS for accusing him of the murder in a special about the case (JonBenet the day before her murder above)

The body of JonBenet was found bludgeoned and strangled in her basement hours after she was reported missing on Christmas morning.

She was covered by a white blanket with a nylon cord around her neck, her wrists bound above her head and her mouth covered by duct tape.

John and Patsy had called police to report her kidnapping and said they found a note demanding a ransom of $118,000 for her safe return, which instructed them not to contact the authorities.

Despite this, police arrived to their home shortly after in clearly marked vehicles.

John and Patsy would remain the primary suspects in their daughter's death for more than a decade, and it was not until 2008 that police finally cleared them of any wrongdoing.

Patsy was suspected by members of the public of being the murderer after reports emerged that handwriting on the ransom note was similar to her own, but after she willingly provided a sample to police it was determined she did not write the note.

Many also suspected someone in the family, as they claimed there were no footprints in the snow around the house.

John - who was briefly linked to Natalee Holloway's mother Beth in 2007 and remarried in 2011 to Jan Rousseaux - has discussed in the past how he lost his millions after the death of JonBenet when he decided to move the family out of Boulder and back to Atlanta, not realizing the stigma that would be placed on him by the public and how difficult that would make it for him to obtain a job.