Boulder spent 30 years treating JonBenét Ramsey's DNA-cleared father like a suspect.
This week, Boulder's DA made it worse.
And JonBenét Ramsey's father just delivered an ultimatum that left the DA nowhere to hide.
The JonBenét Ramsey Cold Case DNA Boulder Has Refused to Accept for 30 Years
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told local reporters he "would not have" publicly cleared the Ramsey family the way his predecessor did in 2008.
"After 30 years, if they still think I am guilty, then please file charges, and we will settle this in court based on facts and evidence," John Ramsey told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
That is not how guilty people talk.
Dougherty's office planned to post video of the interview, saying his remarks had been taken out of context under a headline that did not leave much room for interpretation.
"Boulder County DA says Ramseys shouldn't have been cleared in JonBenét's murder."
Ramsey went right at the argument.
"They can't selectively apply the unknown male DNA both ways," he said.
Over three decades, Boulder investigators used Unknown Male No. 1 – the unidentified male DNA recovered from JonBenét – to eliminate other suspects.
They ran that profile against more than 750 reference samples. Every one of them came back clean, so if that standard clears 750 suspects, it clears the Ramseys.
You don't get to use the DNA to eliminate everyone else and then refuse to apply it to the family.
Retired FBI agent Jason Pack, who spent years working cold cases, gave Dougherty the benefit of the doubt: "If new evidence challenges an assumption made years ago, they need to take another look."
There is no new evidence challenging the 2008 clearance. Dougherty chose, 30 years later, to publicly cast doubt on a family the DNA already cleared.
John Anderson – a former El Paso County Colorado sheriff who wrote a book on the case – rejected the DA's position.
"I strongly disagree with anyone saying the Ramseys should not have been cleared," he said.
Anderson was a close friend of Det. Lou Smit, the retired Colorado Springs investigator who answered the DA's call in 1997 to help work the case. Smit spent two years on it and argued the evidence pointed to an outside intruder – not anyone living in that house.
Smit's suspect list ran 700 names long.
He walked away in 1998 when Boulder Police made clear they were not moving their focus off the Ramseys.
Boulder Police had the wrong theory for years – and they pursued it inside one of the most left-wing cities in America, where officials spent three decades targeting a DNA-cleared family rather than follow the evidence to where it actually led.
The evidence pointed to an intruder from day one.
Boulder looked the other way.
The DNA Test That Could Identify JonBenét Ramsey's Killer in 2026
Late last year, investigators submitted evidence for lab testing.
JonBenét's half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, confirmed the family learned about it at a meeting with Boulder police in February 2026.
"We met with them in February 2026, and they had this new message of hope and optimism," he told Fox News Digital.
The family believes the lab is running SNP testing – single nucleotide polymorphism analysis – which extracts a usable DNA profile from a microscopic sample. Run that profile against genealogy databases and investigators can work backward through distant relatives to find the killer.
That is the same technology that cracked the Golden State Killer case in 2018. Since then, it has broken more than 500 cold cases across the country.
Boulder waited this long for a reason. The DNA sample from JonBenét's crime scene is so small that testing it risks consuming the entire sample in a single attempt. Chief Stephen Redfearn has said publicly that investigators may have only one chance to get it right.
"Six to 12 months, being super optimistic," John Andrew Ramsey told Fox News. "Two to five years, no problem."
The 30-year anniversary of JonBenét's murder is December 2026 – weeks away.
The worst moment to publicly cast suspicion back on a DNA-cleared family is when you are weeks from naming the real killer.
John Ramsey buried his six-year-old daughter in 1996.
He buried his wife Patsy in 2006, before she ever saw a day of justice – convicted by the court of public opinion for a murder the DNA says she had no part in.
Telling this man he might still be a suspect is not thoroughness.
Call it cruelty.
Ramsey's answer: file the charges and settle it in court.
When that SNP test comes back with a name – and it will – every camera in America replays what Dougherty said this week.
John Ramsey will be standing there, still waiting for an apology.
Sources:
- Michael Ruiz, "JonBenét Ramsey's Father Challenges DA After Report Says Family Shouldn't Have Been Cleared," Fox News, November 11, 2026.
- "JonBenét Ramsey Case Could Benefit from New DNA Technology," Fox29, December 27, 2025.