Will the murder of JonBenet Ramsey finally be solved?

After nearly 28 years, the murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey is back in the spotlight. Since the Netflix documentary ‘Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey’ the case is even under a magnifying glass worldwide. Viewers are critical of the enormous tunnel vision of the local police and demand new, more extensive investigations. And it seems that call is finally being heard now.

Annual update

Since the murder, the Boulder police, where the Ramseys lived, has given an annual briefing on the case. Due to the new wave of attention since the Netflix documentary, the update has been released a month earlier. In a statement, Police Chief Stephen Redfearn acknowledges that several mistakes were made in the initial investigation. But he also emphasizes that their goal remains to find the perpetrator and that their commitment to that has never weakened. The claim that evidence is (still) being deliberately ignored is, according to him, completely untrue.

New investigation

Redfearn also mentioned that since 2022, a team of investigators from the Colorado Cold Case Review Team, the FBI, and local and federal police have been working together to review all evidence using new scientific and cold case techniques. They came up with a list of recommendations with thousands of tips, interviews, DNA samples, fingerprints, and reports that are still being reviewed to this day. The detectives also spoke again with the Ramsey family in mid-2024 and are now in close contact. The work of detective Lou Smit, who dedicated many years to the case, is now being continued by his family. Smit had a list of 887 potential suspects that must be checked off one by one. According to Redfearn, he receives regular updates on progress in all investigations.

Hope for the family

John Ramsey, now 81, is convinced that with better DNA investigations and cold casetechniques, the case must be solved. He hopes that the new attention will ensure that the investigation is now taken seriously. “We have let the murderer run free for more than 28 years. I think it is necessary that we investigate every credible suspect that has been suggested.” The police continues to urge anyone who knows anything to come forward. All for one clear reason: “to bring justice to JonBenét Ramsey.”