Henry Lee, Famed Forensic Pathologist Who Was Involved in JonBenet Ramsey Case, Dead at 87

The tireless probe into the unsolved 1996 murder of child pageant princess JonBenét Ramsey took another hit with the death of famed forensic pathologist Henry Lee, who was part of a special task force established by investigators hunting for DNA evidence during the early stages of the criminal case, reports say.

Lee, 87, who determined the DNA found on the 6-year-old’s underwear may belong to random people who handled the garment at a manufacturing plant or elsewhere, died peacefully at his Nevada home on March 27, Associated Press reported, citing a family statement.

He joins a growing list of witnesses, investigators and persons of interest who have died since JonBenét was killed at her family’s home in Boulder, Colo.

“These people are dying and justice is just fading away,” a JonBenét investigator tells the National Enquirer. “They are going to have a tough time prosecuting this case if and when they make an arrest.”

Among the dead are JonBenét’s mom, Patsy Ramsey, who succumbed to ovarian cancer in 2006, retired detective Lou Smit, who was hired by dad John Ramsey to investigate the case and died in 2010, and Bill McReynolds, a family friend and person of interest who passed away in 2002.

Last year, Tom Haney Jr., the Denver Police Department detective bought in to interrogate innocent Patsy, died suddenly at 77, and in 2024, a neighbor who allegedly heard JonBenét’s final scream died at 77.

“Everybody is a suspect until we clear all the facts,” Lee said in the late ’90s when he was brought in by the Boulder District Attorney. “That’s the reason I am here, is to look at the scientific facts.”

Lee became a household name after his testimony regarding blood evidence in the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial, in which the football star was acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He also testified in the 2004 trial of Scott Peterson, who was convicted of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, and unborn son, and at the 2007 trial of record producer Phil Spector, who was found guilty of murdering Lana Clarkson.

In the JonBenét case, Lee determined the pandemonium that erupted inside the Ramsey home following her disappearance marred the investigation. Per the University of New Haven, he noted, “By the time they realized it wasn’t a kidnapping, that it could be a homicide, the scene was already totally contaminated.”