ATLANTA — It was a story that gripped the country and one that has yet to be solved. In the early hours of Dec. 26, 1996, JonBenét Ramsey’s mother, Patsy, found a ransom note on the stairs of their Boulder, Colorado home saying JonBenét had been kidnapped.
The note demanded $118,000 – father John Ramsey’s exact bonus that year - if they wanted to see their daughter again. Patsy called 911.
Seven hours later, John Ramsey found his daughter’s lifeless body in a small room in the basement of their house.
It’s been 28 years since the case captivated the county.
Following JonBenét’s death, the Ramseys moved to the Atlanta area in 1997 to get away from media attention and the intense scrutiny the family underwent following the murder.
The case has been brought back to life in a new Netflix docuseries called “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?” and John Ramsey has been working with the series’ director, Joe Berlinger, to try and solve his daughter’s killing.
JonBenét’s autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted and strangled, and her skull was fractured. Unknown DNA was found under her fingernails and in her underwear, clearing her parents as suspects in 2008.
“We think the crime can be solved,” Berlinger said. “We want to pressure the Boulder police to test DNA.”
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The docuseries revisits the early stages of the investigation. From the beginning, there were questions about the police’s handling of the investigation.
“Early on, they looked into this crazy idea that the parents were responsible,” Berlinger said. “They get tunnel vision, so they’re not looking to investigate all possibilities.”
The crime scene is also under scrutiny, as it was potentially contaminated, which created additional challenges, according to Berlinger.
John Ramsey is confident that advancements in DNA technology can help identify his daughter’s killer.
“There’s been a number of old, old cold cases solved using this genealogy research,” John Ramsey told ABC News. “Let’s do a reverse family tree and see if he (the killer) had a relative living in Boulder in 1996. That’s what we’re asking the police to do.”
Channel 2 Action News has highlighted some of that technology in recent months. Last November, Channel 2’s Karyn Greer visited Othram Labs in Woodlands, Texas, where they analyze familial DNA.
Traditional forensic testing looks at 20 markers in DNA to make a match and is then uploaded to a federal database to see if there is a match to a suspect.
Instead of 20 markers like the current technology, Othram is able to get hundreds of thousands of markers to build a DNA profile.
“Most of our cases are solving between fourth and sixth cousin, and some even beyond. And so that is what you need in order to be able to figure out where someone belongs,” said Kristen Mittelman, chief development officer for Othram. “Hundreds of cases every day come to us that have been stagnant, a dead end for decades and no hope. And now there’s hope that all those cases can be looked at.”
Familial DNA has been able to help solve several cases here in Georgia, most notably connecting who left “Baby India” too die in the woods in 2019. Luckily the child was found, but it took years for the suspect to be found.
Through familial DNA and a genealogical database, Othram Labs found Baby India’s biological father.
Police don’t believe the father knew about the pregnancy-- but that lead helped them identify Baby India’s biological mother, Karima Jiwani, 40, who is in the Forsyth County Jail charged with murder, cruelty to children, aggravated assault, and reckless abandonment.
As for the Ramseys, much has changed about their lives since JonBenét’s death.
JonBenét was laid to rest in Marietta. Buried beside her, is her mother Patsy, who died from ovarian cancer in 2006.
John Ramsey remarried in 2011 and now lives between Michigan and Las Vegas with his new wife.
John Andrew Ramsey, JonBenét’s older half-brother, said that while the family is focused on healing, they have not lost the will to find the killer.
“I think it’s really important for people to understand that this case can be solved. There’s a narrative out there that this is an unsolved homicide and that we just have to accept that as fact, and that is not the truth,” said John Andrew Ramsey. “If we leverage the evidence [and] we follow the facts, we will find this killer.”
ABC News, The Associated Press and People Magazine contributed to this article.
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