JonBenét Ramsey’s father said Colorado police overlooked a potential suspect who broke into a home and raped a child nine months after his daughter’s 1996 murder.
John Ramsey, 80, told People that a masked intruder broke into a Boulder home and raped a 12-year-old girl but fled when the girl’s mother scared him off. Ramsey alleged that police dismissed him as a potential suspect even though the incident occurred two miles from where his daughter was murdered months earlier.
“To me, it could easily have been the same person,” he told People ahead of Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, a three-part docuseries that airs on Netflix on Monday.
JonBenét Ramsey was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her Boulder home hours after she was reported missing and a ransom note was discovered at her residence. Her father told People that he believes the person who killed his daughter and the suspect who raped the 12-year-old girl carried out their crimes in a similar manner.
He said, “I believe the killer was in the house when we came home, waited til we went to sleep.”
Over the years, Ramsey has pressed Boulder police to retest evidence with updated genetic technology to obtain new leads in their daughter’s unsolved murder. He also urged the FBI to make child murder a federal crime — allowing the agency to immediately intervene in cases involving children younger than 12.
No arrests have been made in the 1996 slaying. JonBenét Ramsey’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, died of ovarian cancer in 2006.
Anyone with information regarding JonBenét Ramsey’s murder should call or email the Boulder Police Department at 303-441-1974, BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov.
[Feature Photo: Handout]
