JonBenet Ramsey's father threatens to sue Colorado if state doesn't allow new DNA testing
John Ramsey, the father of murdered 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, is seeking an independent investigation and additional DNA testing in his daughter's 1996 horrific murder, which has not been officially classified as a cold case. The father has already addressed his petition to Colorado Governor Jared Polis. And, now he is threatening legal action against the state of Colorado, if it gets in the way of the investigation or ignore his petition.
Ramsey revealed that he is set to submit a petition with more than 16,000 signatures since he initially unveiled it in April at the 2022 CrimeCon convention. But if government officials do not respond to the petition soon, Ramsey says he will surely take legal action against the government.
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During a conversation with Fox News on Wednesday, Ramsey said "There was a case in Florida that I read about a couple of years ago, and the family did exactly that and were successful. The judge said, ‘Okay, you guys aren't calling this a cold case, and it's a cold case. Let's turn over the evidence and move on,' And that's our next step if we don't see any progress."
John revealed that the Ramsey family believes the Boulder Police Department has been holding on to the evidence in his daughter’s 25-year-old murder for too long now and that’s the reason why her murderer is still living free. He hopes that new developments in investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) research can help them test more than 250 pieces of evidence for DNA to potentially build a profile of the suspect in their daughter's murder.
"It's had remarkable success," Ramsey said of IGG research. "That's what they should be doing." Further, Ramsey added he is sure that independent investigation can lead to solving the unsolved case of his daughter’s murder. But to carry on the independent investigation he needs permission from the police first. Not just the permission from the police, limited amount of DNA is also a big hurdle in independent DNA testing.
JonBenet Ramsey was reported missing by her mother on Decemeber 26, 1996, after discovering a lengthy ransom note demanding $118,000 in exchange for her daughter. John found her dead body in his basement later the same day.
An autopsy revealed that the reason behind the death of the six-year-old beauty queen was strangulation and a blow to the head. The Boulder City Medical Examiner reported an 8 1/2-inch fracture on her skull. The case was filed by the Boulder police but nobody was ever charged for her murder and that’s the reason why the BPD has not yet officially labeled JonBenet's murder a cold case.
Boulder police recently said they are working closely with state investigators on “future DNA advancements." “As the department continues to use new technology to enhance the investigation, it is actively reviewing genetic DNA testing processes to see if those can be applied to this case moving forward,” police said.