JonBenet Ramsey. Fair use photo.
After criticizing the Boulder (Colorado) Police Department (BPD) of “pride” and “ego,” John Ramsey, father of JonBenet Ramsey, threw his support behind a petition that asks the governor of Colorado to take the case out of the hands of BPD. He also shared his thoughts that child killings in the U.S. should be investigated as federal offenses.
“Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, you are the only person with enough power and independence in the state to put Ramsey DNA testing decisions in the hands of a new agency that’s free from Boulder’s significant history with the case,” reads the change.org petition, which has 5,578 signatures as of noon EST Wednesday.
John reignited the conversation about his daughter’s murder over the weekend when he was a speaker at CrimeCon 2022, an annual event that connects true crime fans, creators and professionals. During a Q&A session on stage, John was asked “what is something you have done to help find JonBenet’s killer?” He answered that he has offered to pay for the testing of DNA evidence, but has been turned down.
It’s this DNA evidence—that he says has never been tested before—that he wants transferred away from the Boulder police to an independent agency.
“Somehow we’ve got to force the police, or take it away from them, the ability to go ahead and test some of the crime scene evidence that was never tested for DNA,” he said. “Why that’s never been done and will never be done by the police baffles me.”
The petition specifically asks why the DNA has not been tested using new technology—which has advanced significantly since the 1996 murder—including forensic genetic genealogy.
The Boulder Police Department themselves acknowledged forensic genetic genealogy as a possible investigation avenue only a few months ago, on the 25th anniversary of JonBenet’s murder.
“The [Boulder Police] Department continues to use new technology to enhance the investigation, it is actively reviewing genetic DNA testing processes to see if those can be applied to this case moving forward,” reads the City of Boulder statement issued on Dec. 26, 2021.
That is the last update that has been made public. The petition argues that forensic genetic genealogy should already have taken place. It even specifically references Othram, a leading private DNA analysis and genetic genealogy company based in Texas. Othram has shown success in cases similar to JonBenet’s, including the abduction and murder of 5-year-old Siobhan McGuinness in 1974 and the 1984 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Christine Jessop. In both cases, Othram was able to successfully process a scant amount of highly degraded DNA and perform genealogy research to successfully home in on the suspects.
Meanwhile, the Boulder Police have responded to the renewed scrutiny, saying “our investigation with federal, state and local partners has never stopped. That includes new ways to use DNA technology. We’ve always used state of the art technology as it has been at the forefront of this investigation. Every time the DNA technology changed, we worked to make sure the evidence could be tested.”
That collaboration includes a partnership with Colorado’s Bureau of Investigation (CBI). According to BPD, as of December 2021, CBI has updated over 750 reference samples with the latest DNA technology. Boulder Police have worked with CBI to ensure the DNA in the system can be compared correctly to new DNA samples that have been uploaded to ensure accuracy. That DNA is checked regularly for any new matches.
BPD says they have followed up on every lead that has come into the department since Dec. 26, 1996, totaling more than 21,016 tips, including speaking to or interviewing upward of 1,000 individuals in connection to the murder.
“As recently as March 2022, the Boulder Police Department hosted another meeting with federal, state, and local agencies working on this case and in consultation with DNA experts from around the country. That collaboration will continue,” said the BPD in their statement.
At CrimeCon, John also shared his thoughts on what he perceives as a larger problem, one beyond just the murder of his daughter. He believes that child murders should be deemed federal offenses, and therefore taken over by federal prosecutors and law enforcement, rather than local authorities.
“We can’t let the murder of a child be left up to local police. We have 1,800 police jurisdictions in this country. Each one’s a little kingdom. They have full authority of the crimes committed in their territory, other than bank robberies and a few other things,” John told Fox News Digital during CrimeCon. “But why we don’t make, as a society, the murder of a child be a criminal offense at the highest level and bring all of our resources to bear on that is beyond me. We have one of the highest child murder rates of any industrial country in the world. We should be ashamed of that.”
JonBenet was 6 years old when she was reported missing on Dec. 26, 1996 after her family found a ransom note inside their home. That same day, her body was found in a basement room of the house, and an autopsy the next day revealed the cause of death to be strangulation. The case became a media sensation overnight due to a number of factors, including JonBenet’s participation in youth beauty pageants, her family’s wealth and suspicion, and the fact that her body was found inside the home. In subsequent years, the police cleared the child’s parents and brother of wrongdoing through DNA testing.