A week after the premiere of a Netflix docuseries on the unsolved death of JonBenét Ramsey, police maintained their dedication to finding the little girl’s killer but refused to say whether they have any promising leads at this time.
“It’s obvious that the Boulder Police Department wants to solve this case and the only reason is to bring justice to the victim,” a spokeswoman for the Boulder, Colorado, police department said in an email Monday.
Six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s stately Boulder home nearly three decades ago. “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey,” a three-part Netflix documentary, has renewed interest in the death of the young beauty pageant queen whose 1996 killing mesmerized the public, prompting relentless cable news coverage and making headlines around the world.
The Boulder police spokeswoman declined to answer questions from NBC News about tips authorities were investigating in the case and instead referred to a video statement from last week from Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn in which he said he and everyone else who has worked on JonBenét’s case “would love nothing more than to bring justice to her memory.”
His statement came a day after the release of the Netflix series, which takes viewers back to the morning after Christmas 28 years ago, when JonBenét’s mother called 911 to report finding a rambling ransom note and her daughter missing. It was JonBenét’s father who discovered the girl’s body that afternoon and who then carried her upstairs himself, destroying the integrity of the crime scene and leading to widespread criticism of the Boulder police department’s handling of the case from the start.
“There are a number of things that people have pointed to throughout the years that could have been done better, and we acknowledge that is true,” Redfearn said in the video released by the Boulder police department on X last Tuesday. “However, it is important to emphasize that while we cannot go back to that horrible day in 1996, our goal is to find JonBenét Ramsey’s killer. Our commitment to that has never wavered.”
Finding JonBenét’s killer has been elusive thus far. While her family lived under a cloud of suspicion for years, in 2008 prosecutors apologized to her parents and brother in a letter that said they were not considered suspects.
The Netflix docuseries does not point the finger at any single suspect but does highlight her father’s hope that new DNA testing might solve the case. (JonBenét’s mother, Patsy, died of cancer at age 49 in 2006.)
“I believe it can be solved if the police accept help from outside their system,” John Ramsey told the “TODAY” show last month before the docuseries premiered. “That’s been the flaw for 25 years.”
The Boulder police department said it has followed up on all tips and has not worked in a silo.
“The assertion that there is viable evidence and leads we are not pursuing — to include DNA testing — is completely false,” it said on X last week.
“Additionally, it was the Boulder Police Department — not the Colorado Bureau of Investigation — who convened the Cold Case Review Panel in December 2023 as part of its investigation efforts,” the statement said.
The department said that it typically releases an annual update on the case in December but chose to release one earlier than usual this year “due to the increased attention on this investigation."
In his video message, Redfearn said he welcomed news coverage that will “allow us to finally bring the killer or killers to justice.”
“JonBenét would have been 34 years old this year,” he said. “Of course, those who loved and knew JonBenét continued to grieve. This crime also haunts the Boulder community, especially every officer and detective who’s ever been a part of this investigation. Every single one of them thinks about her and would love nothing more than to bring justice to her memory.”
