In the early hours of Dec. 26, 1996, after a festive family Christmas, Patsy Ramsey walked down the stairs in her Boulder, Colorado, home to discover a terrifying ransom note telling her that her 6-year-old daughter JonBenét Ramsey had been kidnapped.
She immediately called 911 and the Boulder Police Department responded to the scene in three minutes.
The taunting two-and-a-half-page ransom note was addressed to JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, and demanded $118,000 for the safe return of his daughter.
“You stand a 99% chance of killing your daughter if you try to out smart [sic] us,” the letter said. There was no sign of JonBenét or further communication from the would-be kidnappers.
A new “20/20” episode, “JonBenét Ramsey: Race Against Time, Who is ‘Unknown Male 1?’ — A New Diane Sawyer Investigation” airing Friday, Nov. 6 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, re-examines the case.
You can get more behind the scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
Hours later, a police officer asked John Ramsey and a friend to look through the house to see if anything seemed out of place. John Ramsey discovered his daughter’s lifeless body in the basement of their home.
An autopsy report determined that JonBenét had been sexually assaulted and killed by blunt force trauma to the head and strangulation, which was carried out with a makeshift corded torture device called a garrote.
With 19 new interviews, ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer and chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky take a fresh look at this cold case, talking with investigators, forensic scientists, genealogy experts, the Boulder Police chief and JonBenét’s brothers Burke Ramsey and John Andrew Ramsey, among others.
In the weeks and months after the murder, members of the Ramsey family came under intense scrutiny by both the Boulder police and the general public. Skeptics of the family pointed to several details of the case, including the ransom note, which some close to the investigation believed was staged by a family member to cover up JonBenét’s death.
The note was written on Patsy Ramsey’s notepad but after numerous handwriting comparisons, only one indicated that the samples showed any similarities to Patsy’s writing. The Ramsey family vehemently denied any claims they were involved in their daughter’s death.
In 2008, DNA was detected on the outside of JonBenét’s pajama bottoms using a new testing method called touch DNA analysis. It matched the DNA found inside JonBenét’s underwear and traced to the same unknown male, and not to any member of the Ramsey family.
With this development, then-Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote a letter to John Ramsey.
“This new scientific evidence convinces us that it is appropriate, given the circumstances of this case, to state that we do not consider your immediate family, including you, your wife, Patsy, and your son, Burke, to be under any suspicion in the commission of this crime,” Lacy wrote. “I wish we could have done so before Mrs. Ramsey died.”
Patsy Ramsey died from ovarian cancer in 2006, two years before Mary Lacy’s letter to the family.
Later, some Boulder officials said Lacy’s letter was inappropriate for a prosecutor, and she should not have cleared the Ramseys while the investigation was ongoing.
In recent years, a new technology called single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) has made it possible to solve cold murder cases nationwide. The advanced testing can retrieve DNA from miniscule samples. Combined with genetic genealogy, it allows officials to identify suspects by matching DNA to that of distant family members in law enforcement databases, using online genetic databases.
Even with this promising new development, challenges remain for investigators. Some DNA samples obtained from the body and crime scene are very small and complex, as multiple DNA strands are mixed together, making it difficult to verifiably match with a single individual.
The current Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn had never before done an interview about the Ramsey case. He sat down with ABC News’ Sawyer, telling her that his department is in talks with labs that might be able to test the DNA using forensic genetic genealogy.
He said they are hesitant to send any sample until they have full confidence that the technology is advanced enough to get results that help progress the case. In some cases, if the sample is very small, it can be consumed by the testing.
“We might get lucky because we may only, in some circumstances, with what we have, have one shot at getting it tested,” Redfearn said.
Redfearn said they are re-interviewing suspects, testing new evidence and pursuing every lead.
“I would love nothing more than 30 years since this little girl was murdered in her own home, someone finally decides to get something off their chest,” he said.
Burke Ramsey, who has largely stayed out of the public eye since his sister’s death, praised his parents for how strong they were in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“This awful thing happened to this family, and the world turns against you. And it’s cruel,” he said.
JonBenét’s older half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, said investigators must have courage and act aggressively to get the case solved as soon as possible.
“I know we’re going to find this person,” he said. “This is a case that can be solved. There’s a mountain of evidence out there. We’ve got the DNA testing that’s in our favor. It’s not a question of if, but when.”
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