The father of JonBenet Ramsey says he will take his battle to court to force new DNA testing to take place concerning the 1996 murder of his 6-year-old girl.
JonBenet was reported missing on Dec. 26, 1996. Her murdered body was found in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colorado; there was also a ransom note in the home demanding $118,000. The girl had suffered a massive blow to the head and died of strangulation, officials determined.
Suspicion has fallen on a number of people, but no one has been convicted in her death.
In April, John Ramsey began a petition drive to force Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to give an independent agency a crack at testing the DNA evidence that was collected from the case, as noted by KDVR.
JonBenet Ramsey’s father is asking the Governor of Colorado to force Boulder Police to release DNA evidence to a private lab.
Ramsey believes the lab could find answers within just hours if given the chance. pic.twitter.com/0PHgdlErW5— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) July 28, 2022
With 16,000 signatures on the petition, he said if nothing happens, he will file suit, according to Fox News.
“There was a case in Florida that I read about a couple years ago, and the family did exactly that and were successful. The judge said, ‘OK, you guys aren’t calling this a cold case, and it’s a cold case. Let’s turn over the evidence and move on,’” Ramsey said. “And that’s our next step if we don’t see any progress.”
“Let’s get this solved. It’s just … crazy. A young child was murdered. Nothing’s happened. We’ve got to do better in this country,” Ramsey said.
Do you think this case will ever be solved?
He said that in reading comments on the online petition, “I was really encouraged by the sentiments that I read in the comments. And quite frankly, quite re-energized. We’ve been fighting this battle from almost the beginning to try and get this case handled by competent people.”
Ramsey wants to try what’s known as investigative genetic genealogy in which DNA researchers use family genealogical evidence to narrow down the pool of possible killers and find suspects.
CeCe Moore of Parabon Nanolabs, who recently helped police crack a Pennsylvania cold case, said identification was possible.
“I would love to be invited to work this case with Boulder,” Moore said.
“If there is a DNA sample, no matter how small, we would certainly like to give that a try. But they need to be very, very careful where they send that DNA, and they should really make sure it’s someone with a really good track record,” she said.
The Boulder Police Department issued a statement in response to Ramey’s latest comments.
“We can say that the Boulder Police Department regularly meets with multiple entities regarding this investigation, to include private labs, the FBI, CBI, the District Attorney’s Office and others,” the statement said.
“In this ever- and quick-changing field of DNA analysis and testing, we are constantly speaking with these investigative stakeholders to evaluate how best to proceed given legal and scientific rules and limitations,” the statement said.
The statement noted that “due to the length of time since this crime first occurred, Boulder Police must be extremely cautious with the handling of evidence and analysis.”
“The Boulder Police Department has spoken with members of the Ramsey family in the past few years who have provide information to investigators. Detectives have never stopped investigating leads that continue to come in and having the DNA tested daily in CODIS.”
