A new DNA technology could help find JonBenet Ramsey’s killer. Boulder investigators say it isn’t ready.

Though it would feel like poetic justice to solve the JonBenét Ramsey case in its 30th year, odds are that a male DNA profile found on her clothing, which has been a mystery since it was first tested in the late 1990s, will remain unidentified in 2026.

And maybe even through 2027. 

For the first time in recent history, the Boulder police chief and district attorney took questions for an hour Tuesday with reporters in a conference room at Boulder police headquarters.  

They backed off answering specific questions about evidence, but did express rare optimism about the possibility of solving what 20th Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty referred to as a “long and tortured case.” 

Said Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn, “DNA is our biggest hope.” 

The last time Redfearn and Dougherty met with the Ramsey family was Feb. 27. John Andrew Ramsey, JonBenét’s half-brother, said hope can only get him so far. “I’m happy they’re hopeful, but I’d like for them to prove it out,” he said. 

JonBenét was found dead in the family home on University Hill in Boulder the day after Christmas in 1996. Photos and videos of the 6-year-old performing in beauty pageants led to a public fixation on her death, the investigation of which included her parents initially refusing to be formally interviewed by police and, later, at their pointing fingers at potential suspects, including a University of Colorado professor who performed as Santa at the family’s Christmas party three nights before.

Thirty years later, the case remains unsolved.

The promise of genetic genealogy

The search for her killer now hinges on a cutting-edge DNA technique called forensic investigative genetic genealogy, or FIGG, which combines a novel DNA analysis with genealogy research to identify possible contributors.

Dougherty said where DNA is found is important, and the Ramsey case specimen was discovered on the inside of the girl’s underwear mixed with her blood. 

Redfearn noted obstacles with this aging sample, though, which are slowing down efforts to test it. The stain is three decades old, it is a mixed sample and “not unlimited,” which could mean that once it’s tested, it will be used up. 

“If you get one shot, you have to do it right,” Dougherty said. “If it were as simple as dropping it (the sample) off tomorrow at the place down the street, we would have done that right from the very beginning. The evidence is complex … so we’re not going to do this recklessly.”

It’s a mindset that is shared by three genetic genealogy labs contacted by The Colorado Sun. Each said that though the science is feverishly close, it is not far enough advanced to overcome the fact that the sample is a 50-50 mixture between JonBenét’s DNA and an unknown male and there’s not much of it.

Just how limited this unidentified male DNA is, remains a secret. 

The problem with sample size 

All three labs interviewed by The Sun said a 50-50 mixed sample must contain at least 1 to 1.5 nanograms of material to test in order to guarantee a result with 100% certainty.

But the fact that the Ramsey case sample is a 50-50 mixed stain creates a different problem, according to forensic scientists.

Danny Hellwig, formerly of Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City, the first FIGG lab in the world to be accredited, said determining a 50-50 mixture is possible but risky. 

“Mixtures present some very difficult challenges, especially when we’re working with extremely limited DNA. We’re making remarkable progress, but we still can’t reliably separate every mixture into the individual genetic profiles needed for investigative genetic genealogy,” said Hellwig, who is now the CEO of Resolve Forensics. “The Boulder police appear to be treating that evidence like gold, and they absolutely should be.”

Different methods, same goal

Though they’re both used to identify a person, FIGG is different from traditional short tandem repeat, or STR, analysis.

STR testing examines a relatively small number of locations in the DNA — typically around 20 to 30 — to generate a profile for direct comparisons. It determines a person’s DNA profile by investigating repeating, specific patterns to come up with a unique DNA “fingerprint.” 

By comparison, FIGG examines hundreds of thousands of genetic markers called SNPs, short for single nucleotide polymorphisms.

Some of these tests target as many as millions of SNPs allowing scientists to look for distant biological relatives and use family-tree research to develop investigative leads.

FIGG was the key to finding Golden State killer Joseph James DeAngelo, one of the first criminals identified using FIGG techniques. But the DNA in that case belonged to DeAngelo alone, which is much easier to identify than if a sample includes other profiles. 

For example, mixtures of DNA profiles are common with sexual assault cases, which include the victim and the perpetrator. 

Although FIGG still is limited in its ability to address this type of mixture, the Y chromosome is unique to the male. Because of that, it can be analyzed separately. 

Most investigators and scientists agree that identifying the unknown male DNA left at the Ramsey crime scene is the first step toward solving the murder. 

The unidentified Y chromosome, which in October 2003 was found to contain 10 markers for traditional DNA testing, does not match anyone in JonBenét’s family but it also is not a match with any of the dozens of persons of interest who have been investigated. Nor do they match any of the 1.6 million profiles in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.

Dougherty stressed Tuesday that the underwear sample may not turn out to be the DNA of the killer. 

A dime-size blood stain

The blood stain in JonBenét’s underwear was first noted during then-Boulder County Coroner John Meyer’s autopsy. It was the size of a dime. He was curious that there was blood in her underwear, but no blood on her body. A Jan. 30, 1997, search warrant explained why — a Boulder detective who was present at the autopsy wrote that Meyer stated “the evidence observed was consistent with the child’s pubic area having been wiped down with a cloth.”

Someone had cleaned JonBenét’s body, perhaps to get rid of evidence, but left behind a clue in the 6-year-old’s underwear that could unlock the case.   

Besides the lack of blood on her body, the autopsy also found no presence of semen.

DNA scientists believe that the part of the underwear stain that comes from the unidentified male is likely saliva. 

There are other sources of unknown DNA mixed with JonBenét’s own and likely still untested for FIGG. One source of unknown male DNA was found under the fingernails of her right hand, and a different unknown male under the fingernails of her left hand. 

In 2008, touch DNA from an unknown male was discovered on the waistband of her long johns, which former Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy and scientists at the lab that did the work said is a match to the underwear DNA, but that sample is also mixed with JonBenet’s profile.  

Like Lacy, Steve Ainsworth believes “there is much stronger evidence that an intruder killed JonBenet than there was that any of her family was involved in her death.” He now works for Othram, a FIGG lab in Texas, as a law enforcement liaison. His role there is significant because he was a Boulder County sheriff’s detective assigned to work on the Ramsey case three months after JonBenét’s death and had access to the complete Ramsey files.

Like Resolve, Othram can identify a mixed 50-50 DNA stain with at least 1 nanogram of the unknown male sample, according to Ainsworth. 

Hellwig said that though DNA scientists interviewed by The Sun are “dabbing around the edge” of certainty, it could be up to five years before the technique will be foolproof. “It’s only a matter of time,” he said.

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Mellissa Helligso was responsible for getting the accreditation for The Human DNA Identification Laboratory at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2023 — another FIGG lab on the nation’s frontlines of investigative genetic genealogy. 

Helligso said if Boulder police approached her lab to work on the Ramsey case today, she would suggest that they wait a year and then reassess the science. “If the case is cold and has been sitting there for a long time, you don’t want a case to go unsolved but you don’t want to waste a sample.” 

Colleen Fitzpatrick, the pioneering forensic genealogist who coined the term “forensic genealogy,” agreed that the mixture ratio of 50-50 in the Ramsey mixture is a problem. “The bad guy has to be the clear major contributor,” Fitzpatrick said in a phone interview from this year’s International Symposium on Human Identification in Rhode Island. “If the mixture is close to 50-50, forget it. FIGG cannot be used.” 

Fitzpatrick worked on the Phoenix Canal Murders, which remained cold for 22 years until they were solved using FIGG in 2015. Since then, she’s seen the technology explode. 

“There is a lot of work being done by the community on separating mixtures, so it’s hopeful that FIGG will be able to help with the JonBenét Ramsey case in the near future,” she said. 

What happened Christmas night, 1996

The unsolved killing of JonBenét Ramsey has been cold for so long, it has captivated a new generation of true crime followers, some who were not born when it happened.  

The Boulder kindergartner was viciously killed and left in the basement of her home sometime between late on Dec. 25 and early Dec. 26, 1996. During the night, someone hit her on the right side of her head, strangled her with a garrote made from a nylon cord and a broken piece of her mother’s paintbrush, which likely came from a tray of paint supplies sitting outside of the room where she was found. She was also sexually assaulted with a second piece of the broken paintbrush, according to the autopsy report.

The autopsy, which was performed Dec. 27, 1996, determined that the child died from “asphyxia by strangulation associated with craniocerebral trauma.” 

In a span of three decades, the unsolved case was led by a host of law enforcement including five police chiefs and four district attorneys.

The case, considered Colorado’s most notorious unsolved murder, was riddled with problems early on — a botched crime scene, leaks to the media from investigators and family members, and insurmountable discord between prosecutors and investigators.

Only one of the detectives initially assigned to the case remains in the Boulder Police Department. Alex Hunter, the first district attorney to take the case, died after complications of a heart attack in November 2025. JonBenét’s mother, Patsy, died of ovarian cancer in 2006. Lou Smit, a detective who left the case in frustration but never wavered in his belief that John and Patsy Ramsey were innocent, also died of cancer, in 2010. DNA expert Henry Lee, who was brought in to analyze the crime scene, died in March. Last May saw the death of Linda Hoffman-Pugh, the family’s housekeeper. Several grand jurors have also died. 

On Oct. 13, 1999, when the case was nearly three years old, a grand jury panel of 23 people voted to indict John and Patsy Ramsey for child abuse resulting in death and for accessory to a crime. Hunter decided against filing charges in part because he felt the DNA would be a problem at trial.  

Still, many former investigators, family, witnesses and friends who were touched by one of the country’s most notorious unsolved cases are still haunted by it and are in a long line of people waiting for a resolution to the case.

Dougherty and Redfearn are sure that if they got the case today, they could solve it. 

Instead, they are retesting items that were tested three decades ago and have a running dialogue with other prosecutors’ offices, federal, state and local investigators and are in contact with public and private labs. Redfearn said they haven’t yet “invested” in a specific lab. 

“We want to be certain that No. 1 their technology is what they say it is,” Redfearn said. “And No. 2 that they’re testing it for the right reasons and not because they want PR.”