Police Reviewing Recommendations in JonBenet Ramsey Murder Case

Forensic Magazine ^ | January 03, 2024 | Michelle Taylor

[nickcarraway]

The Colorado Cold Case Review Team has spent the last year reviewing the JonBenet Ramsey homicide investigation to generate investigative recommendations, which the Boulder Police Department and the Boulder District Attorney are getting ready to act on, according to a case update published almost 27 years to the day of Ramsey’s murder, and more than a year since the last statement from the Boulder Police Department (BPD).

However, the case update—published by BPD on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023—does not elaborate on what the specific recommendations are.

“To preserve the integrity of the investigation, the specific recommendations will not be made public at this time,” reads the statement.

What the update does make public is what the Colorado Cold Case Review Team has been working on in the past 12 months. The Review Team comprises professional, investigative, analytical and forensic experts from across Colorado, including the FBI, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, and numerous other entities —including public and private forensic laboratories—with expertise in cold case homicide investigations.

In 2023, the team digitized all evidence to create a comprehensive and searchable database containing thousands of information files, bringing together more than 21,000 tips, over 1,000 interviews, and samples from more than 200 different individuals, including handwriting, DNA, fingerprints, and shoeprints. The case file consists of nearly 2,500 pieces of evidence and roughly 40,000 reports, with more than 1 million pages documenting the investigation.

Essentially, a fresh inventory of all collected evidence was made available for review, which then led the team to make additional investigative recommendations, as well as determine if updated technologies and/or forensic testing might produce new intelligence or leads to solve the case.

Now, BPD and the Boulder District Attorney are in the process of reviewing and prioritizing the team’s recommendations. No timeline has been provided as to when the review process will end, nor when the next steps will be activated.

In the most recent statement, BPD says DNA testing continues to be an investigative focal point.

“The Boulder Police Department is working with leading DNA experts from across the county to ensure the latest forensic techniques are used to analyze remaining DNA samples,” reads the statement. “The evidence has been preserved and will continue to be ready for testing when there is proven and validated technology that can accurately test forensic samples consistent with the evidence available in this case. Detectives are actively taking steps to prepare the evidence for testing when possible.”

In 2022, JonBenet’s father John Ramsey publicly criticized the BPD’s handling of his daughter’s murder, specifically DNA analysis. During a Q&A session at CrimeCon 2022, John was asked “what is something you have done to help find JonBenet’s killer?” He responded that he has offered to pay for the testing of DNA evidence, but has been turned down.

Shortly thereafter, John threw his support behind a petition that asks the governor of Colorado to take the case out of the hands of BPD. 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 BPD has maintained throughout that they are working with the evidentiary DNA regularly to the hopes of generating a new lead.

“As the [Colorado 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,” the City of Boulder said in a statement issued on Dec. 26, 2021, the 25th anniversary of JonBenet’s murder.

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.

[Rockingham]

This case is a longstanding heart breaker, with justice elusive for both the murdered child and family members under suspicion — unfairly, in my view. Perhaps new DNA technologies and methods will generate a solution.

[pepsionice]

I don’t think anyone really wants the DNA angle to be pursued...it just leads to some member of the family being the suspect.

[Rockingham]

The trace DNA found on JonBenet’s clothes was from an unknown male, with the family excluded. The identity of that unknown male might be determined now with a more complete DNA profile that is used for a genealogical DNA search.

[TallahasseeConservative]

So you honestly believe that some random person broke into a million dollar mansion in a swanky neighborhood, traveled around the house undetected, found this kid in her bedroom, removed her from it and traveled down to the basement undetected, sexually assaulted and strangled her and then slipped out of the house without anyone waking up or hearing anything?

Then this person took the time to write a “ransom note” for the exact amount that John Ramsey got in bonus money that year?

All of this while the family was home??

John Ramsey knows who murdered his daughter..it was either his son or his wife..

[pepsionice]

I am reminded of a German police hunt for a ‘phantom-killer’ who’d killed one police female and was connected to around 20 different murders around Germany (around 20 years ago). The one physical description put out...the killer was a teenage female. All of the 20-odd dead were connected by the same DNA situation at the scene.

Eventually, a new team was brought in (thousands of hours already spent in pursuing this killer). New detective looks at everything...then pulls out a blank (new) DNA kit and sends it to the lab. Comes back...’phantom-killer’. Lab got excited.

Nothing makes sense. Couple of detectives go to the company making the DNA swabs and says they get them from a factory in Austria. Detectives go there...hot day...folks busy in the small factory. ‘Boss’ doesn’t know nothing about the DNA swabs....he just makes x-type swabs and sells them in a box of 10,000. Detectives note several big thick-armed Austrian women...sweaty from the heat carrying around the bundles of the plain swabs. Obviously, swabs were contaminated.

Whole ‘phantom-killer’ search shut down. Never was a ‘phantom-killer’. Each a separate murder by itself and the DNA was contaminated.

I look at this Ramsey case...lot of poor police work done in the first hours (maybe accidental), and think the DNA path is a joke.

[Jonty30]

The father and mother didn’t help their case when they got rid of the rug she died on because they were renovating the house.

To me, that was very strange. If it had been my daughter, I could have waited to renovate until the police were finished collecting evidence.

[Rockingham]

Especially in the early years, DNA testing was sometimes botched. In high profile cases though, the best detectives and labs tend to be deployed. Given the nature of the crime and the passage of time in the Ramsey case, my guess is that the perp will already be known to the criminal justice system and will be found through DNA and then definitively nailed through an accumulation of other evidence. Who knows, but the perp may also already be dead.

[nuconvert]

“So you honestly believe that some random person broke into a million dollar mansion in a swanky neighborhood, traveled around the house undetected, found this kid in her bedroom, removed her from it and traveled down to the basement undetected, sexually assaulted and strangled her and then slipped out of the house without anyone waking up or hearing anything?

Then this person took the time to write a “ransom note” for the exact amount that John Ramsey got in bonus money that year?”

I’m familiar with the neighborhood and the home is on an ordinary street.

I think it was someone familiar with the house & the note could have been written before the killer got there. The paper came from the house, but it could have been taken days earlier. There had been a number of workman in the house in the weeks prior. As for the amount in the note, it would have been pretty stupid for the parents to have used that amount and John Ramsey is not a stupid man. Again, someone working in the house could have seen a stub or reference to his bonus check while taking the paper for the note or heard about it from someone who worked at John’s office.

The Boulder police screwed up the investigation from the start. Everyone agrees on that much.

(for the record, early on, I suspected the son and that Patsy wrote the note. But it started making less sense that she wrote it)

[jacknhoo]

Considering it is Colorado, they’ll just fabricate that is was Donald Trump.

[Maris Crane]

I knew Colorado was totally corrupt when the Jon Benet case was handled in the way that was not the RIGHT way.

COLORADO IS THE NEW CALIFONIA...ON STEROIDS.

[metmom]

Always for the rich and famous.

[ronniesgal]

probably sweat/snot from the guy who sewed them in the sweatshop they were made. just a guess!

[ronniesgal]

i always believed Burke did it ( accident with the stun gun) and Patsy wrote the note to protect him. but these folks let people in their homes alot and gave keys out so who knows? and that weird pervy Santa across the street? Hmmmm

[nuconvert]

“I knew Colorado was totally corrupt when the Jon Benet case was handled in the way that was not the RIGHT way.”

It was the ONLY murder in Boulder that year. The police were very inexperienced at handling the investigation and collection of evidence.

[AppyPappy]

Half of all murders go unsolved. Even if they know who did it, no one will testify because snitches get stitches. Police are so used to doing the bare minimum that they get sloppy.

[nuconvert]

“and that weird pervy Santa across the street?

McReynolds, yeah he was on my short list. Though I guess he & his wife were no longer suspects after DNA samples

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

We happened to be staying near Boulder that Christmas at my brother’s that year. I remember reading about the murder in local newspaper then well before it caught national attention. I’ve read mentions of it ever since.

[EnquiringMind]

WHO WROTE THAT NOTE????? She’s long gone.

[woodbutcher1963]

I thought that handwriting analysis showed that Patsy wrote the note? Plus, that the paper from the note came from their own house. Plus, Patsy would have known the amount of her husbands bonus.

All of the above facts point to Patsy covering up the murder for someone. Why would she do that unless it was someone else in the family? Obviously, she is now unavailable for comment.

There are podcasts on Rumble that allege that the Ramseys were involved in a Satanic cult. That some very wealthy people in the Bolder area were involved in the cult. That the Ramsey’s had a Christmas party at their home the night prior. That one of their guests was the person that killed JonBenet. That the Ramsey’s wrote the note because of this. They knew who killed their daughter.

Again this was all alleged on a podcast on the internet I watched with the Mrs. Take all the above as a theory of conjecture. I saw it on the internet, it has to be true.