Nearly 30 years after the murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey gripped the nation, investigators are pursuing new leads based on a detailed spreadsheet compiled by the late homicide detective Lou Smit, in conjunction with advancing DNA analysis. The development is raising hopes for a long-awaited breakthrough in one of America's most haunting unsolved murder cases.
According to Cindy Marra, Smit's daughter and current head of the private investigative team, roughly two dozen individuals have been eliminated from the suspect list using new DNA methods. "We decided the best thing we could do is work off the spreadsheet he developed," Marra told Denver 7 News. "We have been able to eliminate from our list probably 25 people based on DNA."
Smit, a veteran Colorado Springs detective, was pulled out of retirement by JonBenét's father, John Ramsey, to help prove that the young pageant star was not killed by her family but by an unknown intruder. Before his death in 2010, Smit compiled a spreadsheet containing approximately 600 line items-suspect names, forensic notes, and investigative leads-many of which were derived from police files.
Sources familiar with the document assert that the person of interest had been named within the first week of the 1996 investigation. "They had the name of the person of interest during the first week of the investigation," a source said. "That alone says the suspect is on Lou Smit's list because he had access to the police files."
One of the "priority one" suspects reportedly identified in the spreadsheet is a man using the alias David Cooper, who began contacting John Ramsey two decades ago. Cooper claimed to be a contract killer hired by a disgruntled former employee of Ramsey's, and he shared specific details about the Ramsey residence that had never been made public.
"The police had no interest in looking at him," Ramsey said in an earlier interview.
The Boulder Police Department has remained tight-lipped on the ongoing investigation. "Because this is an open and ongoing investigation, the Boulder Police Department is unable to give any interviews or comment on specific aspects of this crime," Public Information Officer Dionne Waugh stated via email.
JonBenét was found strangled and beaten in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996. Her parents, John and the late Patsy Ramsey, were initially considered suspects but were later cleared after DNA found on JonBenét's underwear and fingernails did not match any family members.
The Boulder Police Department has received over 21,000 tips and conducted more than 1,000 interviews across 19 states since the initial investigation. Though no arrests have been made, Marra and her team continue to track down leads based on her father's investigative framework.
