JonBenét Ramsey Murder Case Renewed as Authorities Retest Dozens of Items

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is retesting dozens of items in the JonBenét Ramsey case as efforts from the Boulder Police Department have been reignited in a bid to find the killer of the young pageant queen.

Reasons for testing vary with some being looked at again due to breakthroughs in DNA technology while others are clues from the crime scene in the basement that had never undergone any forensic testing, according to JonBenét’s older half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, per the Denver Gazette.

Among the items being tested is the garrote that was used to strangle JonBenét.

“I have pressed hard for DNA analysis of the knots in this garrote, which our DNA experts say could be promising, because someone had to tie those, and they’re fairly sophisticated,” Hal Haddon, the Ramsey family’s former federal defense attorney said at the Denver CrimeCon on September 6, per the outlet.

JonBenét was murdered at just 6 years old on Christmas night in 1996. Her body was discovered the next morning and she had suffered a blow to the skull that resulted in an 8.5 inch fracture and she had been strangled with a garrote made from nylon cord and one of her mother’s paintbrushes.

The gruesome murder became national news and the bizarre circumstances initially raised red flags for both the police and the public alike. Many suspected that JonBenét’s parents, Patsy and John Ramsey, may have played a role in the little girl’s death. There was no sign of a forced entry and the ransom note left behind was unusually long and written on paper from inside the house.

Since then, all members of the Ramsey family have been cleared, but almost three decades later, her murder remains unsolved.