New DNA Evidence Could Solve JonBenét Ramsey’s Murder

In Chilly Case: JonBenét Ramsey (on Netflix Nov. 25), the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated documentarian Joe Berlinger, 63, appears to be like into the 1996 homicide of JonBenét Ramsey. (There’s additionally a forthcoming Paramount+ dramatic miniseries, JonBenét Ramsey, with Melissa McCarthy, 54, and Clive Owen, 60, as JonBenét’s mother and father John and Patsy Ramsey).

JonBenét, 6, was a magnificence pageant winner discovered strangled in her household’s Boulder, Colorado basement Dec. 26, 1996. The case was a tabloid sensation, and Boulder police suspected her mom killed her and her father lined it up. However detective Lou Smit accused the police of ignoring proof that an intruder did it, and declared the Ramseys harmless. In 2008, new DNA evaluation exculpated them, and Boulder D.A. Mary Lacy apologized to the household.

Boulder police will not touch upon the investigation, however Chief Steve Redfearn mentioned, “We’re dedicated to following up on each lead and we’re persevering with to work with DNA consultants and our regulation enforcement companions across the nation till this tragic case is solved.”

Berlinger informed AARP what he’s realized concerning the case — and why he thinks the case might now be solved.​

You’ve made hit documentaries about Hitler, Ghislaine Maxwell, Bernie Madoff and Ted Bundy, however this one is about individuals you suppose are falsely accused, proper? 

I specialise in wrongful conviction circumstances. My movies helped get six individuals out of jail: Evaristo Salas, Curtis Flowers, Marty Tankleff and the West Memphis Three, the topic of Paradise Misplaced. I am unable to consider one other household that has been so brutalized by police ineptitude and poor media dealing with because the Ramseys.

What impressed you to make the present many years after her dying? 

I got here into contact with the work of Lou Smit, an unimaginable investigator.