JONBENÉT Ramsey’s father has voiced fresh hope of finally finding the “monster” who callously murdered his six-year-old daughter in the basement of his family’s home almost 27 years ago.

John Ramsey’s newfound optimism comes after a recent meeting with Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold and her deputy, Stephen Redfearn, during which they pledged their full commitment to finally solving the infamous cold case once and for all, John told The U.S. Sun.

“We asked Boulder PD for a meeting and they granted it,” said John, 79, adding the meeting took place in June and lasted for approximately an hour.

“It was encouraging. 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.”

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.”

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.

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

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.

John Ramsey

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.”

BEAUTY QUEEN’S COLD CASE

JonBenét was just six years old when she was found dead in the basement of her family’s sprawling Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996.

She was reported missing hours earlier by her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who awoke sometime after 5am to find the pageant queen missing from her bed and a strange three-page ransom note laid out on a staircase toward the rear of the home.

The odd note, addressed to John and signed “Victory! S.B.T.C,” demanded $118,000 in exchange for JonBenét’s safe return, and failure to comply with the kidnapper’s explicit instructions would result in her immediate “execution.”

Hours passed and the purported kidnappers never called as promised.

A restless John was instructed by an investigator with the Boulder Police Department (BPD) to search the home for anything that seemed out of place to give him something to do while they waited for the phone to ring.

A short while later, a gut-wrenching cry was heard emanating from the basement: John had found a cold and motionless JonBenét swaddled in a white blanket in a seldom-used storage room that the family referred to as the wine cellar.

Her wrists were tied, black duct tape covered her mouth, and a makeshift garrote – fashioned from one of Patsy’s paintbrushes and a white rope – was wound around her neck.

JonBenét had also suffered a large fracture to the back of her skull and there were signs of sexual assault. Her cause of death was ruled asphyxiation with blunt force trauma to the head.

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BPD immediately launched a murder investigation and from the offset John and Patsy Ramsey were placed under an “umbrella of suspicion,” later becoming the prime suspects in the case.

In the aftermath of JonBenét’s murder, BPD received in excess of 3,000 tips from the public but 95 percent of the leads wouldn’t be followed up on.

Refusing to entertain the possibility that an intruder had somehow slipped inside the house and committed the murder, police instead leaked information to the media – sometimes fabricated information – to turn up the heat on John and Patsy and force one of them into a confession.

All the while, cops withheld the existence of bombshell DNA evidence – found on JonBenét’s clothing and under her fingernails – belonging to a still-unidentified male that would later be used to exonerate them.

John and Patsy Ramsey were officially cleared of any wrongdoing in 2008. The exoneration came too late for Patsy who passed away from cancer two years earlier.

The direction of the investigation in the years since remains unclear, with Boulder PD reluctant to share any information about the probe with the public, citing active proceedings.

A handful of persons of interest have come forward over the last two decades claiming responsibility for JonBenét’s death.

Among them is John Mark Karr and Gary Oliva, both of whom have issued numerous confessions but no charges have ever been filed.

‘CRIMINAL ARROGANCE’

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 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.”

While speaking with Chief Herold, John said he offered them a clean slate to work from and to let bygones be bygones.

He said he admitted to being very critical of the department in the past but told Herold it wouldn’t be fair to continue in the same vein towards her, because she “didn’t cause this mess but she’s now in charge of it.”

“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, then we will start beating them up again.”

A CLEAN SLATE

The Boulder Police Department has been contacted for comment.

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 taking place 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.”