Shocking new DNA evidence in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case ‘casts doubt on parents’ innocence’
DNA evidence in the killing of JonBenét Ramsey does not support a former prosecutor’s decision to clear the girl’s relatives in her death, according to an explosive new report into the 1996 case.
A joint report by the Boulder Daily Camera and 9NEWS analysed exclusively obtained lab test results and reports in the homicide that remains Colorado’s most closely followed unsolved murder two decades after the six-year-old beauty queen was found dead in the basement of her family’s home.
Forensic experts who examined those DNA tests disputed former District Attorney Mary Lacy’s conclusion that a DNA profile found in one location on the girl’s underpants and two spots on her long johns necessarily belonged to the killer, which Lacy asserted when clearing the girl’s family of suspicion in 2008.
But the evidence, experts told the Boulder Daily Camera and 9NEWS, revealed that the DNA samples recovered from the long johns came from at least two people in addition to JonBenét.
That’s something Lacy’s office was told, according to documents obtained by the news organizations, but a fact that Lacy did not mention when clearing the Ramseys.
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The existence of a third person’s genetic markers has never previously been publicly revealed, according to the report, which also raised the possibility that the original DNA sample recovered from JonBenét’s underwear could be a composite and not from a single individual.
“It’s a rather obvious point, but I mean, if you’re looking for someone that doesn’t exist, because actually it’s several people, it’s a problem,” Troy Eid, a former US attorney for Colorado, told reporters Charlie Brennan of the Daily Camera and Kevin Vaughan of 9NEWS.
Furthermore, two of the three samples that prompted Lacy to declare that no one in the Ramsey family could be JonBenét’s killer actually appear to include genetic material from at least three people: JonBenét, the person whose DNA profile originally was located in her underwear during testing beginning in the late 1990s, and at least one additional “as-yet-unidentified person or persons,” the report found.
“Consequently, its meaning is far from clear,” according to the report.
The experts contacted by the news organizations also found that the DNA profile referred to as Unknown Male 1, which was identified during testing on JonBenét’s panties, may not be the DNA of a single person, but instead a composite of genetic materials from several people, thus making it potentially “worthless” as evidence.
And the presence of that DNA on JonBenét’s undergarments, whether from one or multiple people, may be entirely innocent, the experts concluded, saying they could have been the result of inconsequential contact with other people or transferred from another piece of clothing.
“If true, it would contradict the assertions that DNA will be key to finding JonBenét’s killer,” according to the report.
William Thompson, a professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California, said it’s “certainly possible” that an intruder killed JonBenét, but he doesn’t think DNA evidence proves it.
The findings, according to the report, do not implicate or exonerate the Ramseys. An attorney for the family, Lin Wood, said he had “absolute and total” confidence in Lacy’s integrity. Lin did not review the documents or the analysis by the experts consulted by the Camera and 9NEWS.
“I have absolute and total confidence in the integrity of former District Attorney Mary Lacy, and I am also aware of internet comments by former Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner where he, within the last several months, affirmed that the Ramsey case was a DNA case.
“So I know what Chief Beckner has said publicly in recent months, I know what … former District Attorney Mary Lacy has said, and until someone impugns her integrity, or contradicts former Chief Beckner’s statement, I continue to believe, as I have said before, that this is a DNA case and that the best chance for solving the case will be a hit and match on the DNA in the future. I hope that day comes.”
The conclusions reached by the experts in the exclusive report could “dramatically impact” the direction of investigators trying to solve the case, it claims.
Boulder County District Attorney Stanley Garnett, who succeeded Lacy, said he was puzzled when Lacy decided to publicly exonerate the Ramseys.
“Our job is not to issue random exonerations of people in cases, and it’s very confusing when that happens,” Garnett said.
The investigation into JonBenét’s death remains a Boulder Police Department case, as Garnett passed it back to detectives in the department when he became district attorney in 2009.
Boulder Police Chief Greg Testa declined to comment on the DNA evidence, according to the report, but announced in September that more than 200 DNA samples had been submitted for analysis in the case.
Eid, the former US attorney for Colorado, said he hopes the report’s findings will spur new action in the case, which has not seen new DNA testing since 2008.
“And there ought to be a process to re-evaluate this in light of what you have brought forward. That’s my view,” Eid said. “And you shouldn’t feel locked in because some person who is no longer an elected official made a decision and said something. How many people have said things about this case that turned out to not be very relevant, or very accurate?”
Meanwhile, John Ramsey, the girl’s father, declined a request for an interview, writing in an email that “we have said all that can be said” about the case. JonBenét’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, died at 49 from ovarian cancer in 2006.
JonBenét’s older brother, Burke Ramsey, now 29, filed a defamation lawsuit earlier this month against a forensic pathologist who said that he killed JonBenét when he was 9 years old.
He’s seeking at least $150 million in damages, according to the Associated Press.
Lacy, the former district attorney, did not respond to repeated requests for comment, including messages sent by email, US mail and some left at her home.
Former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens said Lacy’s exoneration of the Ramseys made little sense to him eight years ago and is even more concerning now.
“She knew, based on your investigation, that this DNA wasn’t necessarily from one person and that it, in fact, was potentially accumulated DNA,” Owens told the Daily Camera and 9NEWS.
“She knew it at the time, and why she used this evidence to clear the Ramsey family … is something I can’t explain. And she should explain.”
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