A book set to be published on Feb. 28 claims to show that DNA evidence clears the Ramsey family of any connection to the 1996 murder of their daughter, JonBenét.
JonBenét Ramsey was 6-years-old when her parents reported her missing from their Colorado home on Dec. 26, 1996. She was found beaten and strangled to death in the family’s basement a few hours later. A ransom note demanding $118,000 for her safe return was left at the property. No one has ever been charged, though one popular theory alleges that JonBenét was murdered by her own family.
In a forthcoming book about Lou Smit, the lead investigator on the case, author John Wesley Anderson claims that DNA evidence completely eliminates members of Ramsey’s family from the list of suspects, according to Fox News Digital.
REPORT: Coroner Says He Cried, Couldn’t Eat For A Week In Most Heinous Crime He’s Ever Seen https://t.co/fW0coOo8sO
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 28, 2022
Anderson, a former El Paso County sheriff, argues in the book that “for the past quarter-century, the Boulder police have ignored the DNA evidence that exonerated the Ramseys and could be used to identify her killer.” A grand jury voted to indict the Ramseys on charges of child abuse resulting in death in 1999, two years after the DNA evidence was taken, but the local district attorney refused to sign the indictment, citing insufficient evidence.
The family has spent the almost 30 years since Ramsey’s murder defending themselves from accusations. In 2016, Ramsey’s brother, Burkey, threatened to sue CBS after the network aired a documentary in which experts claimed he was the killer.
Smit, throughout his investigation, insisted that the family was not involved in her murder. “At this point in the investigation, ‘the case’ tells me that John and Patsy Ramsey did not kill their daughter, that a very dangerous killer is still out there and no one is actively looking for him,” he wrote in his resignation letter to the local District Attorney, 19 months after leaving his former retirement to investigate the case. (RELATED: Decomposing Body Reportedly Found With Biohazard Material, Possible Weapons Of Mass Destruction Plan)
Fox News noted that at least one forensic pathologist said the DNA documentation is not a “smoking gun,” as it assumes that the DNA testing was done correctly. The same pathologist argued that there were still too many unknowns to make any major claims.
“Lou and JonBenet: A Legendary Lawman’s Quest to Solve a Child Beauty Queen’s Murder,” is set to be released on Feb. 28.