DNA found on the body of JonBenet Ramsey, the American child murder victim, did not match her family, it has been disclosed, despite police leaving her parents "under suspicion."
The mini beauty pageant star was aged just six when she was found dead, hours after a ransom note had been left at the family home in Boulder, Colorado, on Christmas Day in 1996. It became a cause célèbre, with many theories, books and documentaries being released into the public domain in the wake of the killing.
And more than 25 years on, no one has ever been convicted of her murder, despite DNA being found at the scene that did not belong to anyone in the family. Now, according to an article in The Mirror, a new book by former Texas sheriff and author John W. Anderson, has shone a light on the circumstances under which police appeared to have kept the girl's parents under suspicion.
During an interview with Colorado investigator Lou Smith, who worked on the case until his death in 2010, he says evidence found under the girl's fingernails and clothes did not match any family members or anyone close to the case.
In the book Mr Anderson writes: "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." However, despite police knowing this, the authorities continued to put Patsy Ramsey and John Bennett Ramsey under "an umbrella of suspicion", Mr Smith claims.
As a result, many people at the time believed them to have been involved in the girl's death and this led to abuse and even death threats aimed at them. JonBenet's death was officially ruled as a homicide, but the murderer has still not been found. Her father, John, recently pleaded with Colorado's governor to look into her death again.
He has also requested an outside agency to be put in charge of the DNA testing in the case. Now, more than 6,400 people have signed a petition calling on the state governor, Jared Polis, to put the investigation into "the hands of a new agency that's free from Boulder’s significant history with the case".
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John Anderson said: "This case garners a lot of emotion. And there's value to having an unbiased, outside investigator with fresh eyes and fresh perspective and no baggage to come in and look at this case. The lead investigator is someone who was at the house in 1996. That's not a positive for this case. The focus is making sure the same mistakes that were made in '96 won't be made today."
His book, Lou and JonBenet: A Legendary Lawman's Quest to Solve a Child Beauty Queen's Murder, is published by WildBlue Press on February 28.
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