JonBenét Ramsey death: District Attorney, police chief speak 30 years later

Three decades after the death of JonBenét Ramsey, the Boulder police chief and district attorney took questions from reporters about the case.

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JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colorado, home on Dec. 26, 1996. She was bludgeoned and strangled, KCNC reported.

No one has been held responsible for her death in the 30 years since.

Two years after, former Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy cleared the 6-year-old’s parents John and Patsy Ramsey, in her death, along with her brother, Burke, the “Today” show reported.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty and Chief Steve Redfearn spoke this week about the case.

Dougherty, who took office in 2018, said he would not have cleared anyone, with some media outlets including her parents.

“I’ve never ruled out people in a case that’s unsolved,” he said. “I think I owe it to the integrity of the investigation and the integrity of the prosecution.”

John Ramsey responded to Dougherty’s stance, telling Fox News, “After 30 years, if they still think I am guilty, then please file charges, and we will settle this in court based on facts and evidence.”

They can’t selectively apply the unknown male DNA both ways," Ramsey said. “They have cleared a number of interesting suspects based on their DNA not matching unidentified male No. 1 DNA recovered from JonBenét’s person.”

Redfearn said he would have investigated the case differently than his predecessors, the “Today” show reported.

“There are things that I read and heard about that was like, ‘Wow, that is not how that was supposed to happen,’” he said this week.

The attorney said it was a “long and tortured case,” with Redfearn saying that “DNA is our biggest hope,” The Colorado Sun reported.

DNA from an unknown male was found inside JonBenét’s underwear mixed with her blood, Dougherty explained. They hope to use a cutting-edge DNA test called forensic investigative genetic genealogy, also known as FIGG.

It combines DNA analysis with genealogy research.

But there are challenges, as the Sun noted. It’s been 30 years; it is mixed with her blood, and it is “not unlimited,” so they may use all of the sample.

“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.”

Redfearn told ABC News that his department is talking to labs that may be able to do the new type of testing. He did explain, however, that they’re hesitant to send any until they have full confidence that it can get results to move the case forward.

They are also reinterviewing suspects and testing new evidence.

“I would love nothing more than 30 years since this little girl was murdered in her own home, someone finally decides to get something off their chest,” Redfearn told ABC News.

Previous DNA testing of the sample yielded no matches to anyone in JonBenét’s family, any person of interest, or the 1.6 million profiles in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.

Dogherty said that it may not even be the killer’s DNA, the Sun reported.

There is also other DNA that has still not been matched, including under her fingernail. Touch DNA was also found on the waistband of her long johns in 2008, which allegedly matched the sample in her underwear and is also mixed with her profile. The touch DNA was what led Lacy to clear JonBenét’s parents.