Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
The father of JonBenét Ramsey, the six-year-old girl who was brutally murdered at her home in 1996, has claimed he's received a letter allegedly naming his daughter's killer.
It was December 26, 1996 when JonBenét was found in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado, in a case that has mystified authorities for almost three decades.
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Her mom, Patsy Ramsey, had called police that morning after finding a ransom note in the home and her daughter missing from her room, and seemingly nowhere to be found in the home.
However, hours later, her father John discovered his daughter's lifeless body in the basement, where she had been left after being beaten and sexually assaulted.
After an investigation and years of speculation and questions, Boulder District Attorney officially cleared JonBenét's parents of being involved in the crime in 2008.
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The young girl's murderer has never been caught, but last month the case received new interest when a Netflix documentary, titled Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey, arrived on the platform.
The documentary sheds light on errors made during the investigation into JonBenét’s murder, and was made with the involvement of John Ramsey.
In the wake of its release, the father has now said he's received a letter from a woman who claims to have information on his daughter's death.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, John said: "‘Based on all this publicity, recently I got a letter from a lady saying, 'My ex-husband’s the killer, and I’ve kept this inside for as long as I can – please, please call me'."
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John claimed he immediately followed up on the tip, but he's not yet heard anything further from the woman who sent the letter.
"We reached out to her, but she didn’t answer the phone, so I don’t know. We’ve shared at this point with a private investigator."
Now 81 years old, John said that solving the case would not 'change his life', but it would change those of his children and grandchildren's.
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"They need to have this cloud removed, clarified, and an answer. That’s why we’re pushing so hard to get an answer," he said.
Though John is still hopeful his daughter's case will be solved, he noted there have been false confessions which have prompted false hope in the past.
In the first initial days after the murder, one man claimed he’d been hired to kill JonBenet and seemed to have information that had not been in the news, as far as John was aware.
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The man claimed he wanted to turn himself in, but then told John: “Well, I want to bring my family with me, and it’s going to cost me $3,000 for airline tickets, and I don’t have any money. Can you send me the money?"
Reflecting on the call, John told the Mail: "And I was going to do it, because I figured, Well, who knows, it’s worth a shot," Ramsey said. And I mentioned it before I did; I told our attorneys what was going on. They said, ‘Oh no, wait, hold on – do not send him money. This doesn’t smell right'.
"And so I didn’t, and our investigators came back [and said], ‘Well, he’s a truck driver out of Louisiana, and he’s just trying to scam you out of some money. Forget it'.”
The search for JonBenét's killer is still ongoing, with the 28th anniversary of her death coming up next week.
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If you’ve been affected by any of these issues or want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, the Childhelp USA National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and receives calls from throughout the United States, Canada, US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Emily Brown