Twenty-six years on, the unsolved killing of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey has heated up.
JonBenet’s brother John Andrew Ramsey took to Twitter on Monday (25 July) to call upon Colorado Governor Jared Polis to allow an independent agency to conduct DNA testing in the unsolved murder of his sister.
In 1996, Ramsey's body was found in her family’s basement in Boulder, Colorado, and the killer has never been found, however a genetic genealogist has said new technology could identify JonBenet’s killer in ‘hours’.
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Watch genetic genealogist CeCe Moore talk about potentially cracking the case below:
Taking to Twitter at the beginning of the week, John wrote: “Hi - @GovofCO. #Parabon and @CeCeLMoore is the premier shop in the world to successfully hunt #childkillers. Let's get to work! #jonbenet #boulderco."
John was referencing Parabon NanoLabs in his tweets. The Virginia-based firm has a solid track record of using innovative genetic genealogy to crack cold murder cases.
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Speaking during a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday (24 July), CeCe Moore, who is Parabon’s chief genetic genealogist, said it could only take a few hours to identify DNA collected at the 1996 crime scene.
“It might only be a matter of hours before that DNA contributor is identified. There are a lot of caveats and conditions as to how that could happen,” she explained.
Moore added: “There are people all over the world that want her killer brought to justice, who want to know what happened and who want the answers.
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"I would love to be invited to work this case with Boulder."
Last year, police confirmed that DNA hasn’t been ruled out to help solve the case.
In a statement released in December, Boulder police said they’d been working with state investigators on ‘future DNA advancements’.
The statement, released on the anniversary of JonBenet’s death, explained: “As the department continues to use new technology to enhance the investigation, it is actively reviewing genetic DNA testing processes to see if those can be applied to this case moving forward.”
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UNILAD has approached the Boulder City of Police for comment.
JonBenet Ramsey was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family home on 26 December 1996, just hours after her mum reported her missing via a 911 call.
JonBenet’s mum said a ransom note had been left and her death was eventually ruled a homicide, despite no one ever having been charged.
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Aisha Nozari