JonBenét Ramsey’s father John, 80, gives bombshell update in decades-long cold case

JonBenét Ramsey’s father has said he believes his daughter’s murder case can be solved if police accept outside help.

Speaking Today Earlier this morning, John Bennett Ramsey, 80, said he appeared on the show to put pressure on police to catch his daughter’s killer.

JonBenét was reported missing after her family found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for the child’s return to their Boulder home on December 26, 1996.

The child’s body was later found by her father in the basement of the family’s luxury home, brutally beaten and strangled.

On Thursday morning he said: ‘There have been some terrible failures in that area over the last 25 years.

“Hopefully there’s someone out there who knows something that might come forward, so we want to keep the matter alive and bring it to people’s attention.”

‘I believe it can be solved if the police accept help from outside their system, that has been the problem for 25 years.

‘For 25 years the police were under control, with very poor leadership. That’s tragic, they had no experience.

“The man who investigated our case for 25 years was a car theft investigator before he took over the case. It was a roadblock.”

JonBenét Ramsey, six, was a child beauty queen and murder victim. Her killer has not yet been identified, but the investigation remains open

The details of the crime and JonBenét’s video footage of her beauty pageants turned the case into one of the most high-profile mysteries in the US. Her parents are seen here in 1997

Ramsey continued, “They didn’t want to accept outside help. We now have high hopes with the new police chief that he will exercise good leadership and accept help.

“As far as I know, they haven’t worked with federal agencies, and so much has been offered.

“I will not give up pressuring the authorities to do their job until I see them doing their job. And that has been the frustration for 25 years.’

Ramsey had appeared on the show ahead of a three-part Netflix documentary due out next week.

Director Joe Berlinger appeared alongside Ramsey on Today and said, “This case can be solved. DNA technology was very different then, the DNA was flawed.

‘Old items that have been tested need to be retested. The only good DNA sample we have is a mixture of Jonbenet’s DNA and the DNA of a foreign man.

‘There is now technology that allows these samples to be separated. I do not understand this institutional intransigence in solving a case, [the police] need help.’

Placing his hand on John, he added, “This is the most brutal man in American history, imagine losing your child the way that child was lost.

“Because we were largely accused by the media because the police had fed false stories to the press, there was a wildfire of unwarranted accusations.”

Director Joe Berlinger is seen here alongside Ramsey, who also spoke to Today on Thursday morning

The Ramsey family is pictured in a December 1993 holiday photo. (L-R) JonBenét, John, Patsy and Burke Ramsey

The crime scene at Ramsey’s luxury home in Colorado, following the murder of their six-year-old child

Ramsey added: “This cloud over our family’s name must be lifted. We have been vilified and our family reputation has been tarnished.

‘I’m going to do my best to solve that, for the sake of my children. Finding the killer won’t change my life.

“I lost JonBenét, it won’t bring JonBenét back. I would like to close this chapter so that we can have more peace and quiet.

‘You can’t get over it. In the future you will be different. What we realized early on was that now we had to be stronger than ever for other children who are still alive.

Detectives believe she was sexually assaulted and killed the night before, on Christmas Day, by a blow to the head or strangulation with a garotte.

Her death was ruled a murder, but no one was ever prosecuted.

The details of the crime and JonBenét’s video footage of her beauty pageants turned the case into one of the most high-profile mysteries in the US.

She was crowned Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl and National Tiny Miss Beauty.

The prosecutor said at the time of JonBenét’s death that her parents were under “an umbrella of suspicion” from early on.

Theorists also wonder whether their son Burke, who was nine years old at the time of JonBenet’s death, accidentally killed his sister in a moment of anger, and whether his parents covered it up.

But 2008 tests on newly discovered DNA on her clothing indicated the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her murder, and not her parents or Burke.

She was crowned Little Miss Colorado, Little Miss Charlevoix, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl and National Tiny Miss Beauty

– In this January 3, 1997 file photo, a police officer sits in her cruiser outside the home where 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered on December 26, 1999 in Boulder, Colorado.

Convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, long-time murder suspect, pictured at Limon Correctional Facility in Colorado.

John Mark Karr was extradited from Thailand and arrested for Ramsey’s murder after he confessed, but that confession was largely discredited

That prompted former prosecutor Mary Lacy to clear the Ramseys of any involvement two years after mother Patsy died of ovarian cancer in 2006, calling the couple “victims of this crime.”

Investigators had identified other suspects and developed a theory about an intruder, or multiple intruders, entering the house and killing the pageant princess.

Among the suspects was convicted pedophile Gary Oliva, who allegedly confessed to the murder.

Others included Ramsey’s housekeeper, as well as the man who portrayed Santa Claus at a holiday party the youngster attended.

Officials announced in 2006 that another suspect, John Mark Karr, had been arrested in Bangkok, Thailand.

He allegedly told an American investigator that he drugged JonBenét and sexually assaulted her before accidentally killing her.

But prosecutors dropped that investigation after DNA tests failed to link him to the crime scene.

Police and officials in Boulder said in December 2021 that they had processed 1,500 pieces of evidence and analyzed nearly 1,000 DNA samples in their hunt for the killer.

Detectives have digitized all samples of handwriting, fingerprints and shoe prints collected over the years and regularly check for DNA matches in hopes of solving the case.

But dad John wonders if they are doing their job properly. In May 2022, he called on an outside agency to take responsibility for DNA testing in the case.

The new series combines archive footage of JonBenét happily walking through the family home and the panicked recording of mother Patsy’s 911 call declaring that her “daughter is gone.”

The three-part docuseries attempts to expose one of the most tragic cold cases in American criminal history

The show focuses on police mistakes, including the failure to secure the house and the possible disposal of evidence.

It includes an interview with Burke, who describes the Ramseys as “just an ordinary family” before the fateful Christmas.

The trailer shows John recalling how the ‘incredible’ tragedy unfolded. It also includes a soundbite from a person involved in the case saying: “We excluded people for the wrong reasons.”

‘Everyone needs to get back to the table. You have to go deeper,” the person says.

The show also explores whether Patsy, a former beauty queen herself, made JonBenet a target for predators by encouraging her to dress up for her beauty pageants.

She was buried in Marietta, Georgia, next to her mother and her half-sister Elizabeth Ramsey, who died in a car accident in 1992.

Berlinger says the series focuses on those who “played armchair detectives for three decades, often callously pointing the finger at the very people who suffered such unthinkable loss.”