John Ramsey, the father of murdered child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, says a recent court ruling in New York allowing advanced DNA analysis in the Gilgo Beach serial killings has renewed his hope that his daughter's decades-old case can finally be solved.
Speaking on NewsNation's Banfield Wednesday, Ramsey said he is scheduled to meet with Boulder police again within days to push for genome sequencing technology. "It's a huge advance, and I believe it's the way our case will be solved," he said. There's “a really good chance (it) could be solved if it's implemented." He added that "you can get this data from hair samples. We have several hair samples from JonBenét's crime scene that weren't identified."
JonBenét, 6, was found strangled in the basement of her family's Boulder, Colo., home on Dec. 26, 1996, hours after her mother Patsy Ramsey reported her missing and called police about a ransom note demanding $118,000. The case, one of America's most infamous unsolved murders, has never led to charges. In 2008, prosecutors officially exonerated the Ramsey family as suspects after DNA testing revealed evidence from an unidentified male on JonBenét's body and later on her clothing.
Ramsey told Banfield he already met with Boulder police in January and has another session planned. "That's my message: We've got to use this technique. I firmly believe that it'll solve the case," he said.
The renewed push coincides with heightened public attention on the case following the Netflix docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, which premiered in November. The three-part series sought to debunk theories implicating John or Patsy Ramsey, pointing to expert testimony and investigative gaps that fueled suspicion in the late 1990s.
"We were being prosecuted in the court of public opinion. By that time, we were pretty much convicted," John Ramsey said in the series. "Gallup, the poll people, did a poll at some point in that period. 70 percent of those polled felt that the family killed their daughter."
The docuseries revisited details ranging from the ransom note to reports of footprints in the snow, with several experts challenging the reliability of the evidence used against the Ramseys. Bob Whitson, who served with the Boulder Police Department, said, "At least four experts - and two of them from the Secret Service - looked at the handwriting and said, 'Patsy Ramsey did not write the note.'"
Former lead detective Steve Thomas, who once testified that Patsy struck JonBenét in a "fit of rage" after bedwetting, was contradicted by investigators and medical experts who said the injuries indicated JonBenét was tortured before death. Dr. Francesco Beuf, JonBenét's pediatrician, told investigators at the time, "I told them absolutely, categorically, no. There was absolutely no evidence either physical or historical" of abuse.
Patsy Ramsey, who died of ovarian cancer in 2006, consistently denied any role in the murder.
