JonBenét Ramsey was murdered in her own basement 30 years ago – and her killer has never been caught.
Now the agency that handled that evidence just got caught.
And John Ramsey still has questions about that investigation that nobody in Boulder will answer.
CBI DNA Analyst Missy Woods Pleads Guilty to Rigging Results in 1000 Cases
Yvonne "Missy" Woods was a forensic scientist at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for nearly three decades.
She deleted data, omitted critical findings, retested samples until she got the results she wanted – in at least 1,045 criminal cases across the state.
On June 23, Woods stood before a Jefferson County judge and pleaded guilty to four felonies: cybercrime, perjury, attempting to influence a public servant, and forgery.
Under her plea agreement, prosecutors dropped 100 of the original charges against her.
She faces between 8 and 16 years in prison when she's sentenced September 8.
Colorado's First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King guaranteed Woods is going to prison.
"Despite Colorado law allowing for these offenses to be probation eligible, this disposition guarantees a prison sentence and eliminates any possibility of a community-based sentence," King said.
At least $11 million in taxpayer money will go toward cleaning up the wreckage Woods left behind.
Two murderers walked away with lighter sentences because prosecutors feared her tainted work would unravel their cases at trial.
Convictions across the state are being challenged in court right now.
John Ramsey Demands Answers in JonBenét Ramsey's Unsolved Murder
Woods started at the CBI in 1994.
JonBenét was murdered in December 1996.
That overlap is exactly what put John Ramsey in front of a NewsNation camera demanding answers.
The 82-year-old father told NewsNation's Jesse Weber Live that his family had looked into the Woods scandal roughly a year ago, when rumors first surfaced about problems inside the CBI lab.
Investigators told them the primary DNA evidence from the crime scene – the unidentified male DNA found on JonBenét's clothing – had been sent to an outside laboratory, not processed by CBI.
That news provided some relief.
But Ramsey wasn't finished.
He told Weber that questions remain about evidence the CBI chose not to test at all.
"We did know that a number of items from the crime scene were sent in for testing, and a number were not tested," Ramsey said. "We always kind of wondered why."
Either investigators stopped testing once they found the unidentified male DNA – or budget constraints made the decision for them.
The Ramsey family has never received an answer.
Forensic Genetic Genealogy Could Finally Solve the JonBenét Ramsey Cold Case
John Ramsey has been pushing Colorado officials to use forensic genetic genealogy – the same technology that identified the Golden State Killer.
The technique compares crime scene DNA against consumer genealogy databases to find relatives of the unknown contributor, then works backward to a suspect.
"We've advocated for a year almost that we use forensic genetic genealogy, FGG, which is kind of the latest tool that's out there," he told Weber. "You have to go to an outside lab, but it's got to be one that knows how to do it."
Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn told Ramsey last fall that additional items from the case would be sent for testing around December.
Ramsey says no one has told him what was tested or what came back.
"They won't tell us what the results, if any, were of the latest testing done by somebody," he said. "And it's not using the latest technology."
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says it has implemented reforms and is committed to "national best practices in forensic science."
That statement is worthless to families whose cases Missy Woods touched.
Her colleagues raised ethical concerns about her work in 2014 and again in 2018 – and the CBI did nothing.
An intern discovered the pattern of missing data in 2023.
Woods had been corrupting evidence for fifteen years before anyone stopped her.
This is not an agency that earned the benefit of the doubt.
John Ramsey has spent 30 years watching investigators stumble through the most famous unsolved child murder in American history.
He knows the unidentified male DNA on his daughter's clothing is the key – and the technology exists right now to identify that man.
Boulder police have the evidence, the science, and no more excuses.
Sources:
- "Former Colorado analyst pleads guilty in DNA testing scandal," The Washington Times, June 23, 2026.
- "Former CBI Lab Analyst Missy Woods Pleads Guilty," Colorado First Judicial District Attorney's Office, June 23, 2026.
- "JonBenét Ramsey's father questions DNA testing after ex-CBI analyst pleads guilty," NewsNation, June 25, 2026.
- "Disgraced former Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Missy Woods pleads guilty in DNA testing scandal," The Denver Post, June 23, 2026.