Nearly 28 years after JonBenét Ramsey’s grisly murder, the young beauty queen’s father is speaking out — and said that the murder could be solved if the Boulder Police Department works with other agencies to crack the case.
“There have been horrible failures,” John Ramsey, 80, told “Today” on Thursday. “But I believe it can be solved if police accept help from outside their system. That’s been their flaw.”
“For years, in my judgment, the police department had very poor leadership; they wanted us to stay out of their way,” he added.
“The fellow who investigated our case was an auto theft investigator before our case. I never criticized them for not having experience — I criticized them for refusing help from people who did. And it was offered.”
Little JonBenét’s murder has confounded authorities since the early morning hours of Dec. 26, 1996, when the 6-year-old beauty queen was reported missing from her sprawling Boulder, Colo., home.
Hours later, John Ramsey found the little girl’s body in the basement of the home. She had a garrote around her neck, and her skull was broken from an apparent blow to the back of her head.
Police initially focused on JonBenét’s family: father John; mother Patsy; and brother Burke. But 15 days after the murder, a DNA report seemingly excluded them as suspects. They were formally exonerated in 2008 by the then-district attorney.
In the 28 years that have passed, no one has ever been held accountable for killing JonBenét.
Last December, the city of Boulder issued a press release that claimed that the homicide is being investigated by a multi-agency task force — and that they hoped that new technologies will lead to a resolution.
“Recently, the Boulder Police Department (BPD) convened a panel of outside experts (Colorado Cold Case Review Team) to review the JonBenét Ramsey homicide investigation,” the statement read.
“The purpose of the review was to generate additional investigative recommendations and determine if updated technologies and/or forensic testing might produce new intelligence or leads to solve the case.”
The team was comprised of the FBI, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Boulder Police Department, the Boulder District Attorney’s Office, the Colorado Department of Public Safety and Colorado’s Bureau of Investigation.
But after the promising press release, the case remains frustratingly unsolved — and the Ramsey family says that Boulder cops need to do more.
“They need to accept the help that’s offered to them,” John Ramsey lamented. “There’s a new police chief brought in from the outside. I hope he accepts help, so this can be solved.”
