JonBenet Ramsey was found dead, having been beaten and sexually assaulted on December 26, 1996, in the basement of her family’s Boulder home.
The case quickly hooked the US, with JonBenet’s beauty pageant photos being widely shared and the face of the tragedy.
Her mother, Patsy Ramsey, called 911 early that morning to report a ransom note and her daughter missing. Hours later, JonBenet’s body was discovered by her father during a search.
Suspicion initially centered on the Ramsey family, resulting in a fraught relationship with the Boulder Police Department.
Although the Boulder District Attorney cleared the family in 2008, public skepticism lingered. Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 at the age of 49, having battled cancer.
John Ramsey, now 81, continues to push for answers, advocating for the use of advanced DNA techniques and genealogical databases.
“Solving the case is not going to change my life at this point … but it’ll change my children’s lives, my grandchildren’s lives,” he told the Daily Mail. “They need to have this cloud removed, clarified, and an answer.”
A fresh lead has emerged, thanks to the heightened attention sparked by Netflix’s recent documentary, Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey.
JonBenet’s father revealed he has received a letter from a woman claiming her ex-husband is the killer.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Ramsey shared details of the letter, which he described as urgent and emotional.
“Based on all this publicity, recently I got a letter from a lady saying, ‘My ex-husband’s the killer, and I’ve kept this inside for as long as I can – please, please call me,’” Ramsey said.
He noted that attempts to contact the sender have so far been unsuccessful. “We reached out to her, but she didn’t answer the phone. So, I don’t know. We’ve shared [the information] at this point with a private investigator.”
While the new letter offers a glimmer of hope, Ramsey remains cautious.
Over the years, numerous false confessions and misleading leads have surfaced. One high-profile suspect, John Mark Karr, was extradited from Thailand in 2006 after confessing to the murder, but DNA evidence cleared him.
Ramsey also recounted a bizarre episode involving a man calling himself “David Cooper,” who claimed to be JonBenet’s killer.
Initially, the man seemed credible, describing details of the Ramsey home that were not publicly known.
The Ramsey house. Credit: Axel Koester/Getty
However, the confession unraveled when the man requested $3,000 for airline tickets to surrender himself. Investigators later identified him as a truck driver attempting a scam.
“This kind of stuff happens,” Ramsey said. “But you’ve got to take everything seriously. You never know.”
The Netflix documentary, which has remained in the platform’s Top 10 since its release, has reignited interest in the case and turned up public pressure on the Boulder Police Department.
“Bureaucrats, politicians, are impacted by public pressure big time, and we sense that that’s happening,” Ramsey said.
Despite decades of heartbreak and public scrutiny, he continues to advocate for progress in the case.
“We’re not going away,” he said. “You’ve got to get your act together and do what you can do… or we’re going to keep pounding on you.”
