New persons of interest found in JonBenet Ramsey cold case murder, says report

Boulder Police Department has been using DNA testing to expand its investigation into the girl’s death

Police investigating the cold case murder of child pageant star JonBenét Ramsey have reportedly found new “persons of interest” in the case – but warned that there are no arrests forthcoming.

“There are several people on the radar,” an unnamed police officer from Boulder, Colorado, told The Messenger.

“New persons of interest. And we are seeing if any of them are the key to solving this case. Time will tell if we get the answers we need. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”

The little girl’s half-brother John Andrew Ramsey shared the report on X, formerly known as Twitter, and appeared to suggest that the family was not aware of any such development.

“I don’t like whispers. 26+years. Put your cards on the table and let’s go,” he wrote.

The JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation captured the nation’s collective attention when the six-year-old was first reported missing on the morning of 26 December 1996.

Her father John Ramsey found her body in the basement of the family home in Boulder seven hours later.

A garrote was found around her neck, and her skull had been fractured following a blow to the back of the head.

Her official cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation.

The initial investigation focused on the girl’s father John and mother Patsy but DNA testing later cleared them of suspicion.

Boulder police have been searching for the culprit ever since.

The department hoped that DNA analysis – a boon to cold case investigators across the country – would help them get to the bottom of the girl's murder.

They analysed nearly 1,000 DNA samples in 2021 and sent investigators to 19 states to interview more than 1,000 people who could be potentially connected to the case.

The grave of JonBenét Ramsey is shown August 16, 2006 in Marietta, Georgia (Getty Images)

DNA testing continued into this year, when police used breakthrough technology to test five pieces of evidence that had previously been unexamined.

Boulder Police Department released a statement last year confirming that it was working “in consultation with DNA experts from around the country” to solve the girl’s murder.

“The Boulder Police Department... wants the community to know that it has never wavered in its pursuit to bring justice to everyone affected by the murder of this little girl,” the department said in a statement at the time.

It is not immediately clear if this new DNA testing is connected to the apparent discovery of “persons of interest” in the case.