Nashville, Tennessee – John Ramsey, the father of murdered 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, continues to press police nearly 28 years later, despite strong urgings from police to stop questioning him.
JonBenet was found bludgeoned to death and strangled with a noose around her neck in the basement of her parents’ home in Boulder, Colorado, the day after Christmas, 1996. Boulder authorities initially had probable cause to point to John Ramsey and his late wife, Patsy Ramsey, as suspects, but they were ultimately ruled out.
“I heard from a reliable source that one of the members of the police department — I don’t know who — told the journalist, ‘We’re just waiting for John Ramsey to die,'” Ramsey, 80, told Fox News Digital in an interview May 31 at CrimeCon, a true-crime documentary convention held in Nashville over the weekend. “So, that means when that happens, the pressure will be off and all of this will be gone.”
“It’s just unpleasant, but it’s not at all abnormal,” he added.
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John Ramsey said he heard from sources that Boulder Police Department officials were saying, “We’re just waiting for John Ramsey to die.” (CrimeCon)
Paula Woodward, an investigative journalist and author who has covered the JonBenet murder case since the 1990s, also confirmed that she heard the comment from a Boston Police Department officer during a panel with Ramsey at CrimeCon 2024.
“Not only have we told the Ramsey family that we are committed to solving this horrific crime and bringing justice to JonBenet, but we have also been in regular contact with Jon to provide updates and progress reports and answer his questions, but this matter has never come up,” Boulder Police Interim Chief Stephen Redfern said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Ramsay says he’s not going anywhere anyway.
“I’m not going to die. Well, I’m going to be around for a while,” Ramsey told Fox News Digital, adding that his son, John Andrew Ramsey, would “take over” after he passes away. “He’s very committed to solving this problem and I’m grateful for that,” Ramsey said.
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Investigative journalist and author Paula Woodward interviewed John Ramsey during a panel at CrimeCon, a true crime convention in Nashville on June 1. (CrimeCon)
Twenty-eight years after JonBenet’s murder, John continues to lobby the Boulder Police Department to allow an independent forensic genetic genealogy company to test DNA on items found in his daughter’s case, including JonBenet’s underwear, which tested positive for traces of an unidentified man’s DNA in 1997, and to ask that the Boulder Police Department turn the case over to the FBI.
An autopsy performed in 1996 revealed that JonBenet had died from strangulation and a blunt injury to the head. The Boulder City coroner reported that she had an 8.5-inch fracture in her skull.
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An autopsy performed in 1996 determined that JonBenet died from strangulation and a blow to the head. (CrimeCon)
Woodward said at CrimeCon that after filing a public records request to determine which evidence had been DNA tested, he learned that several key items were not analyzed, including the noose found around JonBenet’s neck, the ransom note found in the Ramsey home the morning of the murder, a suitcase found in the basement that authorities believe the killer used to escape through a window, an unidentified flashlight found on the Ramsey home’s kitchen counter the morning of the murder, and an unidentified rope found in his brother, Burke Ramsey’s room that day.
Ramsey is concerned that the BPD may have lost items over the years that were meant to be subject to DNA testing.
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Ramsey is concerned that the BPD may have lost items over the years that were meant to be subject to DNA testing. (CrimeCon)
“To our knowledge, these items have never been tested,” Ramsey said. “They were removed from the crime scene as evidence. We would like to have them tested and have an outside lab take DNA samples. To my knowledge, that has never been done.”
“Now my concern is that they may have lost that evidence.”
Ramsey said the decision to hire an independent testing firm is up to the police chief. The Boston Police Department has had five chiefs since JonBenet was killed.
He also is lobbying states to enact a federal Murder Victims’ Families Rights Act, which would allow families of murder victims to sue police if a murder case goes unsolved, because murder cases are prosecuted at the state level.
Boulder police initially named John Ramsey and his late wife, Patsy Ramsey, as suspects in JonBenet’s murder. (CrimeCon)
In 1997, the Boulder County District Attorney asked Colorado detective Lou Smit, who had solved over 200 murder cases, to help investigate the JonBenet case. Smit passed away in 2010, but before that he had compiled a case file on JonBenet and a list of hundreds of suspects.
“On his deathbed [Lou Smit] “John, don’t forget this name,” he said.
“On his deathbed [Smit] “He said, ‘John, don’t forget this name,’ and I visited him in the hospital a few days before he passed away. He said, ‘Don’t forget this name,’ so there was someone he was very interested in,” Ramsey said.
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Smit also said “the case will be solved by DNA testing and that’s it,” Ramsey said.
JonBenet Ramsey’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, meet with a select few local Colorado media after four months of silence in Boulder, Colorado, on May 1, 1997. Patsy holds up a sign offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of her daughter’s killer. Their 6-year-old daughter was found dead on Christmas night in 1996. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Two years ago, Ramsey sent a letter and a petition with more than 30,000 signatures to Colorado Governor Jared Polis’ office, urging him to hire an independent firm to conduct forensic genetic genealogy testing on evidence in her daughter’s case. After the letter was made public, the governor told local media he “remained optimistic” the case could be solved.
“The one thing I can say is that JonBenet Ramsey’s killer should not be getting complacent, because I am optimistic that he or she will be caught with the technology that exists today and in five years, maybe 10 years,” the governor said. CBS Denver 2022.
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JonBenet Ramsey would have turned 33 on Saturday, August 6, 2023. (Ramsay family)
BPD announced in 2022 that it would consult with the Colorado Cold Case Review Team to help solve the Ramsey case.
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Also after the petition was made public, the BPD released a statement saying the agency has “digitized all evidence” and created a searchable database that contains thousands of information files, including more than 21,000 tip lines, 1,000 interviews conducted in 17 states and two foreign countries, and 200 identification samples. Police said the files also contain about 2,500 pieces of evidence and about 40,000 reports.
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“DNA testing remains a focus of the investigation and while DNA testing has already been completed, the science behind DNA testing continues to evolve rapidly. [BPD] We work with leading DNA experts from around the country. [sic] “This is to ensure that the latest in forensic technology is used to analyze any remaining DNA samples,” BPD said in a December 2023 press release. “Evidence has been preserved and remains ready for testing if proven and validated technology is available that can accurately test forensic samples that match the evidence available in this case.”
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the JonBenet investigation to contact them at 303-441-1974. BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov or contact Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
