CBS4 Exclusive With Gov. Jared Polis On JonBenet Ramsey Murder: 'The Killer Of JonBenet Ramsey Should Not Rest Easy'
(CBS4) - More than a quarter century after the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Colorado, her dad is asking Gov. Jared Polis to help solve the crime. The 6-year-old was killed in her family's Boulder home on Christmas 1996.
"I just think of her as 6 year old daddy's little girl," John Ramsey told CBS4's Shaun Boyd.
Ramsey sent a petition signed by more than 2,600 people to the governor, asking him to compare DNA found at the crime scene to the millions of samples now in public genealogy databases, something he says Boulder police should have already done,
"Always the parents and that was their conclusion and then they tried to fit the evidence to be able to prosecute that conclusion but there were some difficulties - number one was unidentified male DNA."
John Ramsey speaks with CBS4 at length about the petition in the video below:
Ramsey says the governor should take the case away from Boulder police. The governor suggested it's not about who's in charge.
"It's more a matter of what's being done with the evidence and can we demonstrate that we're using the latest technology."
Boulder police says it is using the latest technology and has run multiple suspects through the system.
Former Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey -- a DNA expert who helped with the Ramsey investigation-- says the sample found at the scene may not be suitable for the type of testing Ramsey wants. He's worried there may not be any of the DNA left to test when technology becomes even more advanced.
"It's a very limited amount of DNA that was left at this crime scene and in this case you cannot afford to waste it," he said.
Morrissey says while Boulder police made mistakes early in the investigation, he says it is committed to finding the killer and is doing what needs to be done.
"To have this petition out there trying to put pressure on the governor to take this away from the lead law enforcement agency I think is ridiculous," Morrissey said.
The governor says if new DNA technology is appropriate in the case, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation will run the sample as part of its ongoing review of all cold cases.
"I can say one thing. The killer of JonBenet Ramsey should not rest easy because I am still optimistic that he or she will be apprehended with technology that exists today, in five years or in 10 years."
Ramsey says former retired Colorado Springs Police Detective Lou Smit compiled a list of 700 people of interest in the case and, after his death, other retired detectives have voluntarily followed-up on the list, collecting and testing DNA. Ramsey believes the killer is a stranger who murdered his daughter to hurt him.
While she is remembered as a child beauty queen for the pageants she participated in, Ramsey says he just remembers her as a little girl.
"I miss my daughter terribly. She was a wonderful, bright, cheerful, happy child. I'm grateful that I had her in my life for 6 years. I'm terribly pained I don't still have her but would I have missed those 6 years and avoided the pain? No."
He says he appreciates that so many people from around the country care about solving his daughter's murder so many years later and, while he says he hasn't spoken to the governor, his message would be simple:
"All I'm asking is that we do the best that we can and to get resources applied from the best in the country," John Ramsey said.
Boulder police says it met as recently as last month with DNA experts from around the country and it works with federal state and local agencies on the case. It says it has followed up on more than 20,000 tips and investigated more than 1,000 people.