Chilling potential murder weapon that JonBenét Ramsey’s family want DNA tested as they push for probe into death
THE half-brother of JonBenét Ramsey frequently shares articles of cold cases solved by forensic genealogy in the city where the six-year-old beauty queen was killed.
It's part of the Ramsey family's latest push to solve one of America's most notorious unsolved murders.
JonBenét was a beauty pageant queen who was found dead in the basement of her family's Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996.
John Andrew Ramsey, JonBenét's half brother, has been relentlessly tweeting directly at the Boulder police, prosecutors and state officials.
The social media posts are often attached with links to news stories about how small traces of DNA solved a decades-old cold case.
On July 12, Mr Ramsey tweeted a San Francisco Chronicle story about how traces of DNA on a rope led to an arrest in a 30-year-old murder.
"They pulled his #DNA from the rope. Test the goddamn garrote @boulderpolice @DADoughertyCO #jonbenet," he tweeted.
STORIES ABOUT JONBENET RAMSEY
'BEST OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE THIS CASE'
Mr Ramsey told The Sun in previous interviews that Boulder police and prosecutors haven't had no interactions with him, his dad or anyone in his family.
The police have declined The Sun's multiple interview requests and have said nothing outside of statements on the anniversary of JonBenet's murder.
In May, police issued a statement after JonBenet's dad started an online petition that called on the governor to take the case out of Boulder police's hands.
"This is the best opportunity to solve this case is right now, today," Mr Ramsey told The Sun in a previous interview. "But the window is closing fast. The clock is working against us.
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"My dad pursued to get outside homicide investigating for years back in the '90s. The petition is taking a private effort public. Everyone sees cold cases getting solved everyday with new DNA technology and that's what we want.
"This case garners a lot of emotion, and there's value to having an unbiased, outside investigator with fresh eyes and fresh perspective and no baggage come in and look at this case.
"The lead investigator is someone who was at the house in 1996. That's not a positive for this case."
'TECH EXISTS TO END COLD CASE BACKLOG'
Othram, a Texas-based lab, is the only private criminal genealogy lab in the country and a leader in the rapidly advancing DNA technology.
Kristen Mittelman, Othram's Chief Business Development Officer, told The Sun in a March interview that they have "the most advanced lab in the country."
"We have the technology to solve more cold cases but not the funding," she said.
It costs about $5,000 to solve a case, according to Mittelman, and more time is spent on writing the briefs and raising the funds using DNAsolves.com.
"The science isn’t the limiting the part anymore," Mittelman said. "That’s what’s exciting. We have the technology to clear cold case backlogs across the country.
"It's not a science fiction movie. It's a reality. People won’t have to wait decades to get answers."
'SOLVED IN A MATTER OF HOURS'
CeCe Moore, Parabon's chief forensic genealogist and one of the most respected voices in the field, told The Sun during a December 2021 interview that she thinks the JonBenet case can be solved in "as little as hours."
"I think it’s absolutely a solvable case if [Boulder police] has any DNA samples remaining," Moore said.
"If the killer is of European ancestry, it might be identified in as little as hours."
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis didn't respond to request for comment about if he will use his executive powers to hand the investigation over to an outside law enforcement agency.
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The last statement his office made on this topic was May after the online petition picked up steam.
The office will "look into how the state can assist in using new technology to further investigate this cold case and to identify JonBenet Ramsey's killer and bring him or her to justice."
