Police are launching a new effort to finally solve the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, nearly 30 years after her death shocked the world and sparked a string of far-fetched conspiracy theories.
The case—which remains a favorite target of lurid obsession—is being revisited by the Colorado Cold Case Review Team, and Boulder police say they will stop at nothing to solve it. “Since JonBenet’s murder, detectives have investigated leads stemming from more than 21,000 tips, letters, and emails. We have traveled to 19 states to interview or speak with more than 1,000 individuals,” the Boulder police said in a statement released Wednesday.
The 6-year-old's murder sparked a whodunnit frenzy when it happened 26 years ago, with some expressing suspicions of her former beauty pageant queen mother Patsy, who they speculated may have grown jealous of her daughter’s youth. Others scrutinized JonBenet’s over-achieving businessman father John, while many others pointed accusations to the socially awkward 9-year-old brother Burke. The list of potential suspects also included an American school teacher who confessed to the crime in Thailand, calling it an accident, as well as 160 others who were investigated, including several who confessed in grotesque detail to how they sexually assaulted and then strangled the little girl with a garrote made from nylon cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush, wrapped her in her favorite white blanket, and left her on the stone floor of the family wine cellar.
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Police later said DNA did not match any of those people and cleared the family.
Ramsey was reported missing on the morning of Dec. 26, when John Ramsey found a handwritten three-page note demanding $118,000 in $100 and $20 notes. “Listen carefully! We are a group of individuals that represent a small foreign faction. We do respect your bussiness [sic] but not the country that it serves,” the note, signed S.B.T.C., stated. “Any deviation of my instructions will result in the immediate execution of your daughter. You will also be denied her remains for proper burial. The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you so I advise you not to provoke them.”
The letter went on to threaten to decapitate the young girl if the Ramseys contacted authorities, which they did. “Don't try to grow a brain John. You are not the only fat cat around so don't think that killing will be difficult,” the letter ends. “Don't underestimate us John. Use that good southern common sense of yours. It is up to you now John! Victory!”
John Ramsey found his daughter’s body in the house some seven hours after she was reported missing. Police were not present when he searched the home. The Ramsey parents gave countless interviews to media, but did not sit for a police interview until nearly four weeks after the murder, after their lawyers negotiated the terms of the meeting.
The principals in the Ramsey family were all considered suspects early on in the case, but DNA found on the little girl’s underwear eventually cleared them. Now police say they will test the tiny bit of DNA evidence using new technology in hopes of creating the profile to match the killer. “The amount of DNA evidence available for analysis is extremely small and complex. The sample could, in whole or in part, be consumed by DNA testing,” Boulder police said in the statement. “In collaboration with the CBI and the FBI, there have been several discussions with private DNA labs about the viability of continued testing of DNA recovered from the crime scene and genetic genealogy analysis.”
Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in 2006. John Ramsey told The Daily Beast in 2019 that even though he has been cleared, the accusations against him linger. “The fact I'm no longer under suspicion will never bring back my life,” he said at the time. “Once your reputation is tarnished, it stays tarnished.” Burke Ramsey told Dr. Phil in 2021 that he was robbed of a normal childhood. “I know people think I did it; that my parents did it. I know that we were suspects,” he said when the TV personality asked him, “Has it ever occurred to you that your parents actually thought you did this and didn't ask you because they didn't want to know?”
Ramsey’s murder dominated the media for years, fed by the reams of photos from her life as a tiny beauty pageant contestant, books, movies and documentaries. If new DNA analysis turns up the real killer, it will be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of shocking American cold cases.
