JonBenét Ramsey’s brother says ‘best opportunity to solve case is TODAY’ after call for independent DNA test
THE "best chance" to get justice for JonBenét Ramsey is to take the infamous murder case out of the local police's hands "before time runs out," her family said.
The six-year-old beauty pageant queen was found dead in the basement of her family's Boulder, Colorado, home on December 26, 1996.
Boulder police has been the lead investigative agency since the beginning; minus a brief period of time when the town's district attorney headed the case.
An that started over the weekend called on Gov. Jared Polis to hand JonBenét's murder case over to an outside law enforcement agency and use the latest DNA technology.
"Given the lack of progress by the Boulder Police, we the undersigned petitioners ask you to move DNA decisions in this case away from the BPD to an independent agency so that JonBenét has a last chance at the justice she deserves," the petition said.
"The best opportunity to solve this case is right now, today," her half-brother John Andrew Ramsey told The Sun.
John Andrew said his dad has been trying to get outside investigators involved since the 1990s, and this petition "is making his private effort public."
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"Everyone sees cold cases getting solved everyday with new DNA technology, and that's what we want," he said.
"I believe the killer is still alive, but the window to get justice for JonBenét is closing fast. This was 25 years ago. The clock is working against us."
The petition has garnered well over 2,500 signatures - and counting - less than 48 hours after it started and caught the attention of the governor.
"The State will review the petition and look into how the state can assist in using new technology to further investigate this cold case and to identify JonBenét Ramsey's killer and bring him or her to justice," the Polis' office said in an emailed statement.
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John Andrew said the governor's quick response to the petition "was a good sign."
"This is the request of a father seeking justice for his murdered daughter, and the intent can't be ignored," John Andrew said.
"My dad has been pursuing justice for 25 years. It'll be worth it once we find the killer."
'ENCOURAGING' PART OF BOULDER PD'S RESPONSE
Boulder police said in a statement on Sunday that they met with federal, state and local agencies and consulted "with DNA experts from around the country" as recently as March.
John Andrew said that's an "encouraging" shift from December 2021, when The Sun reported Boulder police didn't contact top crime genealogists or Othram, a cutting-edge genealogy lab built to solve cold cases.
"The Boulder Police Department is aware of the recent request involving the homicide investigation of JonBenet Ramsey and wants the community to know that it has never wavered in its pursuit to bring justice to everyone affected by the murder of this little girl," the department said in the statement.
Since December 1996, the town police department said detectives followed up on more than 21,016 tips, letters and emails and travelled to 19 states to interview or speak with more than 1,000 people.
"Multiple suspects have been run through the system to check for matches due the huge advances in DNA technology," Boulder police said.
"As of this past December, CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigation) has updated over 750 reference samples with the latest DNA technology."
Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to contact Boulder police tip line at 303-441-1974, BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or .
THE CASE OF DEAD ENDS
John Andrew told The Sun in an exclusive interview in December that his half sister was killed to fulfill a "fantasy."
The unsolved murder has hung over the entire country like a bad odor ever since the young girl's death was ruled a homicide.
Nearly everyone in her family was immediately thought of as suspects by police.
A grand jury voted in 1999 to charge John and Patsy Ramsey with child abuse resulting in the first-degree murder of their daughter – but the district attorney refused to sign the indictment.
Then came the false confessions and dead ends.
In 2000, a magazine cutout of JonBenét was found in the backpack of local Gary Oliva as he was apprehended on drug charges.
Oliva was a known sex offender in the area at the time of JonBenét's death, but he was was released.
In 2016, he was arrested again on child abuse charges and is currently serving a ten-year sentence.
On January 10, 2019, it was reported that he had claimed he killed JonBenét in a series of letters to a former high school classmate.
Oliva wrote in his letter, seen by from a Colorado prison: “I never loved anyone like I did JonBenét and yet I let her slip and her head bashed in half and I watched her die. It was an accident.”
Cops have cleared Oliva using DNA, however.
Another potential suspect killed himself just two days after a 1997 press conference said that cops were narrowing in on a new name.
Electrician Michael Helgoth had reportedly been in a property dispute with the Ramseys, but was also cleared by DNA.
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Another suspect - John Mark Karr, a former school teacher - also falsely confessed to killing JonBenét in 2006.
He was written off as a pedophile searching for fame after officials failed to verify he was ever in Boulder.
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