JonBenét Ramsey’s father says he’s optimistic after pivotal meeting with Colorado murder investigators

Patsy Ramsey and her husband, John Ramsey, produce a picture of their daughter during a news conference in Atlanta where they released the results of an independent lie detector test on May 24, 2000. (Reuters via CNN Newsource)

For the first time in nearly three decades, the father of JonBenét Ramsey says he feels confident in the leadership investigating his daughter’s 1996 murder.

John Ramsey, the father of the 6-year-old beauty queen who was killed at her Boulder, Colorado, home, met with local law enforcement Monday afternoon to advocate for a thorough review and new testing of crime scene evidence in his daughter’s case.

Ramsey told CNN he would ask Boulder police to do more DNA testing to help solve the 28-year-old murder case using genetic genealogy, a newer technology that’s been used to solve high-profile cold cases such as the Golden State Killer.

After his meeting, Ramsey told CNN, “I’m very satisfied and impressed with the leadership now in place (at the Boulder Police Department) and believe they are committed to do all that can be done using the latest technology and available resources to identify the killer. That is all we can ask for.”

Ramsey says he believes Boulder officials are “continuing to move the investigation forward using all available tools and certainly DNA is a significant tool which I also believe has a high probability of identifying the killer.”

“We can confirm that Chief Redfearn and members of our Operations Division met with the family this week, as the department has previously, to share updates on the case,” a Bolder Police spokesperson told CNN. “Beyond that, we cannot answer specific questions because this is an active and ongoing homicide investigation.”

In an interview with CNN’s Jean Casarez set to air Tuesday evening, Ramsey described his dogged pursuit to solve the case and why he favors the use of genetic genealogy.

“I think it is the key. I think it’s the only way this case will be solved. Because the technology is there, and we’re going to insist and beg the police to use it. It’d be absurd not to.”

Such technology was not available in December 1996, when JonBenét’s body was found in the basement the day after Christmas. Genetic genealogy is an emerging field that combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy to find biological connections between people.

Ramsey said he has never seen any crime scene evidence. “For years, of course, we were the suspects. We were the prime suspects in the police mind. They made up their mind day one.”

Prosecutors convened a grand jury in 1999 – which returned an indictment on charges of child abuse resulting in death and being accessories to a crime – but ultimately said there was insufficient evidence to charge John and his wife, Patsy, in the killing.

It was not until 2008 that a new prosecutor in the district attorney’s office publicly cleared the parents and JonBenét’s older brother of any suspicion in the death, citing new DNA evidence.

The district attorney at that time apologized to the family and said they’d be treated as victims rather than suspects going forward.

Nearly three decades later, no one has ever been charged with the murder.

For years, Ramsey claims, several potentially key pieces of evidence had never been tested.

“Now, whether that killer is alive, dead, in prison – who knows, he may be out – this is a sadistic psychopath, and if he’s preyed on other children, and we find that out, the blood’s on the hand of the Boulder police as far as I’m concerned because they’ve ignored that possibility,” Ramsey told CNN.

Ramsey has been critical of the local police force for what he believes to be lack of experience and resistance to outside help, especially in the early years of the investigation. But there’s been turnover in the office and now Ramsey says he’s hopeful that police will work harder to solve his daughter’s killing under new Chief Stephen Redfearn.

“He didn’t create this mess, but he can fix it,” Ramsey said.

Redfearn released a statement in November saying his department is actively working with federal, state and local law enforcement partners on the cold case.

“Boulder Police have sought out and worked regularly with multiple stakeholders across the country, to include the FBI, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, Colorado’s Department of Public Safety, Colorado’s Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and several outside forensic labs.”

“The assertion that there is viable evidence and leads we are not pursuing – to include DNA testing – is completely false,” Redfearn said in the November statement.

No charges in case after nearly 3 decades

On the night of December 25, 1996, JonBenét, her brother, Burke, and their parents returned home from Christmas dinner at a family friend’s house. Patsy Ramsey tucked her daughter into bed.

The next morning, Patsy Ramsey discovered a lengthy, rambling ransom note on her spiral staircase as she made her way to the kitchen to make coffee. Patsy Ramsey called 911, begging officers for help.

The note appeared to be written on paper taken from her notepad and demanded a specific amount of money – $118,000 – the same amount of John Ramsey’s bonus he’d received as president of Access Graphics.

For several hours, no one could find JonBenét. Family friends came and went freely from the home that day leading critics to question contamination of the crime scene.

JonBenét’s body eventually was found in the basement with a ligature around her neck. There was evidence she had been sexually assaulted, according to court documents.

The coroner who performed JonBenét’s autopsy said the child died from suffocation in conjunction with forcible trauma to her skull. JonBenét had an 8.5-inch skull fracture.

More than 28 years later, it’s still not clear why someone wrote a ransom note describing a kidnapping when the killer left JonBenét’s body in the house.

The kindergartner was following the footsteps of her beauty queen mother, Patsy, a former Miss West Virginia, frequently participating in child pageants.

JonBenét performed in a Boulder Christmas parade with a float displaying her name just days before her death. Her father later told CNN that may have been a mistake.

Moving ahead with the investigation

Now 81, Ramsey said he hopes to find answers for his family with whatever time he has left. Patsy Ramsey died in 2006.

“I have five grandchildren that are wonderful, and this cloud needs to be removed. It’s not going to change my life at this point,” Ramsey said. “But it will change the life of my kids. That’s why I want to get it solved. We need to close this chapter.”

Ramsey said he hopes the continued media attention on his daughter’s murder could prompt someone to come forward with new information – and he says he won’t be angry even if it took them nearly 30 years to report it.

“Please help us. I’m not vindictive. I just want an answer. And if you can help us with that, please call. Call the police department and we’ll be grateful. If somebody knows something that’s key – there’s no doubt about it and we just ask that person to come forward. I won’t be angry if they’re your best friend or your husband or your ex-husband, but just help us. And let’s get this chapter closed for the sake of humanity and the country.”