John Ramsey Challenges Boulder DA After Remarks on Family's Clearance

John Ramsey, the father of the late JonBenet Ramsey, delivered a forceful response to a report indicating that the Colorado prosecutor currently managing the cold case would not have excluded the family as suspects had he been in charge during the 2008 review. This reaction comes after the family shared that investigators provided them with an optimistic update on the status of the investigation earlier this year.

Ramsey spoke to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, stating that if authorities still believe he is guilty after three decades, they should file formal charges so the matter can be settled in court based on facts and evidence. His comments follow remarks made by Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty to local reporters, who stated he would not have publicly ruled out the family as his predecessor, Mary Lacy, did in 2008.

"They can’t selectively apply the unknown male DNA both ways," Ramsey argued. He noted that a number of other suspects had been cleared because their DNA did not match the unidentified male DNA recovered from JonBenet’s body.

Dougherty declined an interview request from Fox News Digital on Wednesday. However, his office indicated that he planned to post a video of his recent local interview online. This move is intended to address concerns that his remarks were taken out of context, particularly under a headline that read, "Boulder County DA says Ramseys shouldn’t have been cleared in JonBenét's murder."

In the original interview, Dougherty told local reporters that he has never ruled out individuals in an unsolved case. He emphasized that doing right by the victim requires him to remain open-minded and committed to following the evidence wherever it leads. Retired FBI agent Jason Pack, who has followed the case for decades, described this as a routine investigatory position. Pack explained that if new evidence challenges old assumptions, investigators must be willing to let the evidence change the direction of the case, which does not necessarily mean re-accusing someone.

JonBenet Ramsey, who was six years old at the time, died of strangulation and head trauma according to the Boulder City medical examiner. Her family reported her missing on the day after Christmas in 1996, only to discover her body in their basement. Since then, investigators have reviewed more than 20,000 tips and hundreds of pieces of evidence. They have also compared previously recovered DNA against more than 750 reference samples.

Ramsey expressed frustration with what he perceives as the selective use of evidence to fit opinions rather than solve the crime. He pointed out that early DNA testing showed no matches for the immediate family, yet police continued to view his parents as potential suspects for years. As recently as last year, police still held untested DNA from the 1996 crime scene. Ramsey has urged authorities to utilize modern investigative genetic genealogy methods to generate new leads.

JonBenet's half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, confirmed that the family received hopeful updates from Boulder police in February 2026. He stated that the family learned evidence had been sent to a lab for testing late last year. Although authorities have not publicly confirmed the testing or its results, he indicated a belief that it involved DNA analysis. The family interpreted the meeting as a sign that the authorities were close to sending material for SNP testing.

Despite the optimism, John Andrew Ramsey remains uncertain about whether major updates will arrive before the case reaches its 30-year mark in December. He suggested that if investigators were very close to a breakthrough, they might not be speaking to the press. He estimated a timeline of six to 12 months if things are going well, or potentially two to five years.

Experts have long debated whether the family could have been ruled out in the early weeks of the investigation based on DNA. Late Colorado Springs Detective Lou Smit, who worked on the case in the late 1990s, argued that an intruder was the likeliest suspect. He left the case in 1998 due to tensions with the Boulder Police Department, which had focused on the family. John Anderson, a former sheriff and friend of Smit, strongly disagreed with the notion that the Ramseys should not have been cleared. Despite the emergence of several potential suspects over the nearly three decades since the murder, the case remains unsolved.