ATLANTA (AP) — John and Patsy Ramsey submitted to a new round of questioning Monday by police investigating the 1996 death of their 6-year-old daughter, JonBenet.

A team of Boulder, Colo., investigators questioned Patsy Ramsey for about four hours before breaking for lunch at 1 p.m. They planned to continue questioning her after lunch, followed by a separate interview with her husband.

"I feel very comfortable with them, and I believe they're asking pertinent questions, so I'm happy to be there," Mrs. Ramsey said after the morning session.

It was the Ramseys' first meeting with Boulder police in more than two years. The couple, who now live in Atlanta, pledged their cooperation as they arrived earlier in the day.

"They may never clear our names till they find the killer," John Ramsey said. "We're not here to prove our innocence or clear our name. We're here to find the killer of our daughter."

Police first interviewed the Ramseys separately on April 30, 1997, after months of negotiations. They were questioned separately again in June 1998.

The seven-member investigative team from Boulder was being led by Police Chief Mark Beckner, who said the questioning would focus on evidence developed over the past two years and statements the Ramseys made in their book, "The Death of Innocence," which came out earlier this year.

Some of the new evidence has come from additional forensic testing. The testing has continued since a grand jury that investigated the case disbanded in October. No indictments were filed.

Beckner said the Ramseys are still under suspicion.

"Either they're involved or they're witnesses," he said. "They're critical to this investigation. Certainly, there are going to be some tough questions, but we're not going to be confrontational. The more time that passes, the more difficult this is to solve."

The Ramseys' attorney, L. Lin Wood, called the meeting "an interrogation, not an interview." He said he had advised the Ramseys not to meet with police because of "the potential for innocent people to be caught up in a web of an overzealous prosecutor and unobjective or less than objective police officials."

"I think it would be safe to say there's probably no lawyer who would recommend they participate in this kind of interrogation," Wood said.

There was no time limit on the interviews, which were to be videotaped and transcribed by a court reporter. Wood said the interviews could take about two days.

"John and Patsy agreed to each and every condition imposed by the police department, and we imposed no conditions ourselves," Wood said.

However, the Ramseys will end the interviews immediately if they are "attacked, abused or treated unfairly," Wood said.

Neither side anticipated that the interviews would result in a quick arrest or an immediate statement from police clearing the couple.

Wood said the Ramseys agreed to the interview in hopes of getting police to move past the theory that they could have played a role in their daughter's death.

JonBenet was found strangled and beaten in the basement of her family's Boulder home Dec. 26, 1996. No suspect has ever been named, and the Ramseys deny any involvement.

While the interview may not conclusively establish the Ramseys' innocence, the couple may help their image by signaling to the public that the investigation remains open, said University of Georgia criminal law professor Ron Carlson.

"The willingness of John and Patsy to sit for interrogation, which they are not required to do, does impress many people as conduct which is inconsistent with guilt," he said.

The Boulder police team that was meeting with the Ramseys on Monday is much different from the team that investigated JonBenet's slaying in 1996 and 1997. Beckner replaced Tom Koby as chief, and three of the top investigators have left the department. Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter is months from retirement.

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