JONBENÉT Ramsey’s dad has promised to make life hell for law enforcement if it turns out his daughter’s killer went on to harm other children while investigators spent years trying to pin the murder on him and his wife in what he calls a meritless witch-hunt.

John Ramsey met with Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold twice this year to discuss his daughter’s infamous murder that remains unsolved after almost 27 years.

JonBenét was just six years old when she was found dead in the basement of her family’s sprawling four-floor mansion on December 26, 1996.

John and his wife Patsy awoke in the early hours of the morning to find a bizarre, three-page ransom note that was addressed to John and demanded $118,000 in exchange for the girl’s safe return.

But the purported kidnappers would never make contact again, and JonBenét would tragically be found dead by her father later the same day in a seldom-used room the family referred to as the “wine cellar.”

The tragic beauty queen had been strangled and beaten to death. There were signs of possible sexual assault and strange marks on her neck indicated that she may have been subdued with a stun gun.

John and Patsy immediately became the prime suspects in the case and remained so for more than a decade. They were eventually cleared of all wrongdoing in 2008 via DNA.

Boulder PD has been incredibly tight-lipped about the investigation in the years since. No arrests have been made and no charges filed.

During a meeting with Herold a few months ago, John said the police chief pledged to finally solve his daughter’s case once and for all.

The 79-year-old said he was “encouraged” by their discussions during the hour-long tet-a-tet and offered the department to let bygones be bygones and to work together moving forward with a clean slate.

More than anything, John said he wants to finally clear the cloud that’s been hanging over his family’s head for decades and finally get the “monster” who harmed his daughter.

But he added, that if it turns out the culprit harmed any more children while police wasted years pursuing him and Patsy, any peace treaty verbally signed between him and Boulder PD will be unceremoniously torn apart.

“There’s this grey cloud that hangs over my family and that needs to be cleared,” John told The U.S. Sun.

“Also, we don’t know if this person [the killer] is in prison, dead, or still walking around out there somewhere, and obviously they’re a very dangerous psychopath that preys on children.

“So, not only do I want to solve this to remove this cloud from my family’s name, but more than anything I want to get this creature off the streets.

“And I’ve said if we find that since JonBenet’s death, this creature has killed other children, I’m going to be Boulder police’s worst enemy,” he continued.

“I will name names of the people who failed at their job and resulted in the death of other children.

“We don’t know if that’s the case, but it certainly seems possible.

“And if it is true, I will name names and say, ‘The blood of these children are on your hands. You failed at your job, miserably.'”

ENCOURAGING SIGNS

Until such a time, John has promised to give Boulder PD the time, space, and his full support to finally solve his daughter’s case.

It was John who requested to meet with Chief Herold earlier this year and the department accepted.

He and his eldest son, John Andrew Ramsey, first met with Boulder PD in January. They met Herold and her deputy chief for a second time in June with the addition of Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty.

In meetings of years gone by, John and his son had never felt as though the department was aggressively pursuing anyone else other than John Sr. or Patsy.

But this year’s meetings felt different, John said, with law enforcement less “cold” and hostile than they have been previously.

“It was encouraging,” said the elder Ramsey. “They didn’t really tell us much in the way of the investigation, but they said they were fully committed to solving the case and that they’ve had several meetings with a number of different people, though didn’t tell us who they were.

“The key for me is that they finally brought in new leadership from outside the department, and that’s significant because in the past we’ve been through about three different police chiefs in 25 years and they’ve all been promoted from within the department.

“You can’t promote someone in a dysfunctional organization to lead it and hope it can be changed. That just doesn’t work.

“But we met the chief and assistant chief and I was impressed with them both.”

I’ve said if we find that since JonBenet’s death, this creature has killed other children, I’m going to be Boulder police’s worst enemy.

John Ramsey

John added: “My hope is that they are doing what they say they’re going to do and that they will take seriously the requests we’ve made as to what we think needs to be done – and I’m going to give them time to do that.

“It’s a clean slate […] and if they do what we’ve discussed, I really believe we could finally get some answers.

“If it doesn’t produce a result, and they’ve done everything they possibly can, then that’s all we can ask.”

JOHN’S DEMANDS

During his latest meeting with Boulder PD, John said he made two strict demands that he believes will be key to finally unmasking his daughter’s killer.

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The first request, he says, was to test a number of items of evidence for DNA that were never tested in the immediate aftermath of her murder in December 1996, including the garrote that was found embedded in the tragic beauty queen’s neck.

While Boulder PD (BPD) has voiced reluctance to conduct new DNA tests through fear of destroying the small sample they have left, John noted that DNA technology has developed significantly over the last two-and-a-half decades.

Now, it only takes an incredibly small sample to develop a profile when placed in the right hands.

After also re-testing the other items of evidence they have previously screened, John’s second request to BPD is to turn all DNA yielded over to a state-of-the-art genealogy lab.

“We’ve seen wild success stories with these genealogy labs involving some very old cases, so those are the two things we want them to do,” explained John.

“These labs can use the DNA to basically do a reverse family tree and narrow that down to someone who was in Boulder in 1996 that fits the profile.

“The key is they have to go to one of the two or three cutting-edge DNA labs in the country – not the government labs.

“We were told by the FBI the government does not have the latest technology yet, so you’ve got to go to an outside lab […] and that’s what we hope they do.”

A ‘CRIMINAL’ FAILURE

John Ramsey believes DNA will ultimately be the key to solving his daughter’s case, though the culprit may likely come from “left field” – someone who may have never been on the radar of detectives before.

His biggest criticism of BPD over the years, he says, has been their reluctance to accept outside help from the likes of the FBI and the state police.

Had they done so after JonBenét was killed, John believes her killer would’ve been caught almost immediately.

“That’s been my criticism of Boulder PD all along, that they refused help from people that could’ve helped them – and that’s really the second tragedy in this case,” he said.

“I was told by experienced homicide detectives that this case wouldn’t have been difficult to solve had they had the right resources in the very beginning.

“There’s been lots of help that’s been offered over the years from people that have the experience to solve this and they’ve always refused that help.

“And that’s foolish at a minimum, and criminal at worst.”

But John has promised Chief Herold that he will judge her and her department on their own merits, not on the disappointment he’s had with those who have come before her.

“We’re going to give them time and see what happens,” he added.

“And at some point, if we realize they’re not doing it, and it’s the same old story, we will start beating them up again.”

FRESH EYES GRANTED

The Boulder Police Department has been contacted for comment.

The department routinely declines to comment on the case, stating only: “This is an open and ongoing investigation, we’re unable to give any interviews or comment on specific aspects of this crime.”

But earlier this month, The Boulder Daily Camera reported that a long-awaited review of JonBenét’s murder will be carried out by the Colorado Cold Case Review Team, with the cooperation of BPD, before the end of the year.

The planned collaboration, which will bring fresh eyes to the case for the first time, was first announced in November 2022.

Curiously, the announcement coincided with the reassignment of a veteran BPD investigator, Thomas Trujillo, who for years had been in charge of the JonBenét probe.

In previous interviews with The U.S. Sun, John called Trujillo a roadblock in his daughter’s case who allegedly refused to hear any evidence that didn’t concern him or Patsy being responsible.

Last year it was announced that Trujillo had been reassigned to night patrol after an internal investigation found that he and a handful of other officers had failed to properly investigate numerous cases.

In addition to the Cold Case Review Team, BPD has pledged to work with the FBI, the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office, the Colorado Department of Public Safety, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, and several private DNA labs across the country.

John Ramsey called the repurposing of Trujillo “encouraging” in an interview on Monday morning, and indicative of the shift in attitude that appears to be occurring within the BPD ranks.

“[Speaking with them] I guess I sensed that they were not too cold towards us anymore and they genuinely seem committed to solving this,” he recounted.

“And then the fact that the so-called detective [Thomas Trujillo] that was responsible for our case for the last 25 years was recommended for termination of the citizen review board.

“Then they instead put him on night patrol, but at least he’s not responsible for our case anymore, which can only be a good thing because he was worthless.”