Wikimedia Commons
Police are launching a new effort to finally solve the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, nearly 30 years after her death shocked the world and sparked a string of far-fetched conspiracy theories.
The case—which remains a favorite target of lurid obsession—is being revisited by the Colorado Cold Case Review Team, and Boulder police say they will stop at nothing to solve it. “Since JonBenet’s murder, detectives have investigated leads stemming from more than 21,000 tips, letters, and emails. We have traveled to 19 states to interview or speak with more than 1,000 individuals,” the Boulder police said in a statement released Wednesday.
The 6-year-old’s murder sparked a whodunnit frenzy when it happened 26 years ago, with some expressing suspicions of her former beauty pageant queen mother Patsy, who they speculated may have grown jealous of her daughter’s youth. Others scrutinized JonBenet’s over-achieving businessman father John, while many others pointed accusations to the socially awkward 9-year-old brother Burke. The list of potential suspects also included an American school teacher who confessed to the crime in Thailand, calling it an accident, as well as 160 others who were investigated, including several who confessed in grotesque detail to how they sexually assaulted and then strangled the little girl with a garrote made from nylon cord and the broken handle of a paintbrush, wrapped her in her favorite white blanket, and left her on the stone floor of the family wine cellar.