"We are encouraged by this new leadership in our case and are now finally hopeful for progress," John Ramsey says.
Boulder County officials have been meeting with the Ramseys since January; their last meeting was in June, according to BPD Chief Maris Herold and Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty.
A multi-agency team comprising representatives from the police department, FBI, DA's Office, Colorado Department of Public Safety and Colorado's Bureau of Investigation has been collaborating and working "extremely hard" on the renewed efforts — teaming up with "private labs that specialize in different types of DNA analysis," Dougherty says.
"We always want to ensure that every possible avenue to solving a murder case has been pursued," he tells Westword. "The Boulder Police Department has spoken with the victim’s family about these efforts, which is what should happen in a case of this nature.”
On September 24, online news outlet The Messenger reported that there were "several people on the radar" of Boulder police, citing tips from a law enforcement source.
According to the BPD, the Ramseys have been coming in to meet with Chief Herold, Deputy Chief Stephen Redfearn and Dougherty as part of a "mutual communication" between the involved parties.
"To support their efforts to catalogue and digitize all the evidence/information, we have given them all of our attorney’s investigation files in case there is information in those files that would help," John Ramsey says.
According to Herold, authorities have been staying in close contact with the Ramsey family over the past year — keeping members "updated on new developments," she says.
“These meetings are to keep clear communication on this investigation," Boulder's top cop explains. "That includes all the evidence being electronically catalogued, which is the first step for the Colorado Cold Case Review Team to review it."
Back in 2021, BPD investigators analyzed DNA evidence found on the waistband of JonBenét's long johns on the night she was murdered, and compared it to nearly 1,000 DNA samples to see if any matches came up. None did.
In November 2022, it was announced that the 26-year-old investigation was slated to go to the Colorado Cold Case Review Team in the coming months. "We always want to ensure that every possible avenue to solving a murder case has been pursued," Dougherty says. "I am looking forward to the presentation."
Gary Oliva, a longtime person of interest in the JonBenét case, was called out earlier this year by one of his former high school classmates — as part of an investigative series by the U.S. Sun — for allegedly sending him creepy audiotapes, packages with people's hair, news clippings of missing girls, and letters with poems and sketches of the slain pageant star.
The former classmate, Michael Vail, said that he's confident Oliva was responsible for JonBenét's murder, citing numerous red flags in the convicted pedophile's life, such as a phone call he supposedly made to Vail on the day that JonBenét's body was found, in which he reportedly told him, "I just hurt a little girl," while sobbing.
Oliva was allegedly obsessed with knots and art supplies; a broken paintbrush and knotted rope were used as a garrote to strangle JonBenét.
But John Andrew Ramsey, her half-brother, dismissed the possibility of Oliva being his sister's killer in a statement to Westword: "I am a numbers guy. Always looking for a way to improve the odds of catching JonBenét's killer. An easy way to improve the odds is to identify and investigate any child sex offenders living in Boulder in 1996. To further narrow the field, we are looking for a very rare breed of pedophile. A sadistic pedophile. A creature so craven they gain pleasure by torturing and quite often killing young children. These guys sit at the very top of [a] large pile of shit birds. Based on Gary’s past actions, it does not seem he rises to that level."
But John Andrew Ramsey, her half-brother, dismissed the possibility of Oliva being his sister's killer in a statement to Westword: "I am a numbers guy. Always looking for a way to improve the odds of catching JonBenét's killer. An easy way to improve the odds is to identify and investigate any child sex offenders living in Boulder in 1996. To further narrow the field, we are looking for a very rare breed of pedophile. A sadistic pedophile. A creature so craven they gain pleasure by torturing and quite often killing young children. These guys sit at the very top of [a] large pile of shit birds. Based on Gary’s past actions, it does not seem he rises to that level."
Describing a timeline of when the Cold Case Review Team might finally probe the Ramsey investigation, Herold says, "We’re pushing to have that happen by the end of the year."
The police department is working with "multiple agencies, private DNA labs and forensic experts" to try and wrap everything up, she adds.
Herold joined the BPD in 2020 and has helped spearhead a renewed interest in the JonBenét investigation, according to the Ramseys. The department's handling of the 1996 murder case had been criticized heavily by the Ramsey family, with both John and John Andrew saying they felt that detectives wasted time treating them as suspects and ignoring them for years.
@boulderpolice are incompetent and biased investigators and have zero business running a complex cold case homicide investigation. Who is going to hold the police accountable @AaronBrockett12 @DADoughertyCO? #jonbenet #happyeasteryall pic.twitter.com/YZT2wG2X3R
— John Andrew Ramsey (@JRamsey_Truth) April 18, 2022
"Boulder police have never contacted me, nor has the DA's office," John Ramsey complained to 9News in November 2022. Asked if he thought the case would ever be solved, John replied, "Not if it stays in the hands of the Boulder police, no, I don't. I really don't."
Fast-forward to September 2023, and things seem to have shifted — with time and new leadership being major factors, according to John Andrew.
"Conventional thinking is a 26-year-old case is 'cold,' therefore no real rush," he says. "For JonBenét's investigation, it's quite the opposite. We have lots of open avenues to pursue and a narrowing window of opportunity: High-risk criminals keep doing high-risk things and die; witnesses pass; and we are all getting older. We are at this point because of new DNA tech, new leadership and a renewed commitment to finding JonBenét's killer. It is a unique opportunity that should not be wasted."
While remaining family members don't want to get their hopes up, they're "cautiously optimistic," John Andrew says.
