BOULDER, Colorado — Investigators in Boulder are retesting decades-old evidence in the unsolved 1996 killing of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey with DNA technology that did not exist at the time of the crime, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters at a rare, hour-long briefing this week, as the case approaches its 30th anniversary.

Source: Fox News reporting by Michael Ruiz, via AmeriLedger

Redfearn said the department is going back, on the advice of a cold case review panel, and retesting things that were tested 30 years ago with newer technology. He and Dougherty said DNA remains their best hope of finally identifying who killed the child, who was found on December 26, 1996, in the basement of her family's Boulder home. The Boulder County medical examiner determined she died from strangulation and blunt-force head trauma, according to long-established case reporting cited this week.

What the officials actually said

"Chief Redfearn and I are more hopeful now than we have been in the past because of the advances in the investigation and the advances in technology," Dougherty told reporters. Redfearn said: "We're also going back, based on that cold case review, and retesting things that were tested 30 years ago with newer technology." Both men stressed that hope is not the same as a promise of a result.

Dougherty explained that DNA from an unknown male was found in the child's underwear mixed with her blood, and officials hope to use a technique known as forensic investigative genetic genealogy — searching for the unknown person through DNA relatives — if the surviving samples are strong enough to support it. He gave the example of a recent trial that heard four different DNA experts because testing had been done repeatedly as the technology improved.

Why the work is slow — and deliberately so

Redfearn said the age of the evidence is a major obstacle: many items have been tested and retested over three decades, and in some cases very little material remains. The department is consulting public and private laboratories, he said, but is hesitant to send samples anywhere until it is confident the testing can actually advance the case. "We're not gonna do it recklessly," Dougherty said, using the chief's own word for the risk of consuming the last of a sample on the wrong test.

Authorities have not disclosed which items are being retested, what any new testing has found, or when it might conclude. In its December 2025 annual update, the department said it had interviewed new leads, found new evidence and retested older evidence, without saying what had been found. Redfearn appeared to confirm this week a recent account from the child's half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, who said the family had learned this year that new testing had begun in the fall of 2025.

The family dispute running alongside the science

The briefing week also brought a public disagreement between the family and the prosecutor. John Ramsey, the child's father, sharply challenged Dougherty after the district attorney told local reporters he "would not have" publicly ruled out the family, as former district attorney Mary Lacy did in 2008. "If they still believe I'm guilty after 30 years, then file charges and let's settle this in court using facts and evidence," John Ramsey said, adding: "They can't use the unknown male DNA selectively." Dougherty has said he has never ruled out anyone in an unsolved case.

Source: Internewscast, November 11, 2026

What happens next

The 30th anniversary of the killing falls in late December 2026, and the Boulder Police Department has historically issued an annual update around that time. For now, the position is narrow and verifiable: retesting is under way with newer technology, laboratories are being consulted, no results have been announced, and no one has been charged. Any claim beyond that — from any side — remains unproven.