DNA Clears Family In JonBenet Slaying

Colo. Prosecutor Says New Tests Point To "Unexplained Third Party" In Girl's 1996 Killing

(CBS/ AP)  Prosecutors cleared JonBenet Ramsey's parents and brother Wednesday in the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen and told the family they were "deeply sorry" for putting the Ramseys under a cloud of suspicion for more than a decade. The district attorney said new DNA tests point to a mysterious outsider.

"To the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote in a letter to the little girl's father, John Ramsey. "No innocent person should have to endure such an extensive trial in the court of public opinion."

Lacy said new "touch DNA" tests on skin cells that were left behind on JonBenet's long underwear point to an "unexplained third party" and not a member of the family.

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Read Boulder DA's letter to the Ramsey family.

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John Ramsey, a software entrepreneur who now lives in Michigan, said Wednesday he is hopeful the killer will be found based on the DNA evidence.

"I think the people that are in charge of the investigation are focused on that, and that gives me a lot of comfort," he told KUSA-TV in Denver. He added: "Certainly we are grateful that they acknowledged that we, based on that, certainly could not have been involved."

For years after the slaying, tabloids and crime shows went after the couple, and Lacy's predecessor as district attorney, Alex Hunter, said in 1997 that the parents were under an "umbrella of suspicion." News reports also cast suspicion on JonBenet's older brother, Burke, who was 9 when his sister was killed.

"The only evidence that suggested that they might have had something to do with this crime was the mere fact that they happened to be in the home the night their daughter was bruatally murdered four floors below their bedroom," said L. Lin Wood, an attorney for the Ramsey family, on the CBS News Early Show.

The suspicions outlived JonBenet's mother, Patsy, who died in June 2006 of ovarian cancer at age 49 in Atlanta, where the family moved after JonBenet's death.

"My first thought was obviously I wish Patsy Ramsey was here with us to be able to at least share vindication of her family," said Wood. "There are many people in this country, if not around the world, that also owe John and Patsy Ramsey and Burke Ramsey an apology."

"This is a long time coming," Patsy Ramsey's sister, Paulette Paugh, told CBS affiliate WGCL-TV in Atlanta. "We always knew no one in the family had anything to do with it. It's nice to hear the Boulder County District Attorney's office is finally coming forward with this information... I hope the person who did this is still alive so we can meet him face to face."

"Patsy was a very resilient person, very faithful to her god and she knew in her heart what the truth was," Paugh told CBS News Early Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "She went to her maker knowing she had a clear conscience and a full heart."

Early in the investigation, police found male DNA in a drop of blood on JonBenet's underwear and determined it was not from anyone in her family. But Lacy said investigators were unable to say who it came from and whether that person was the killer.

Then, late last year, prosecutors turned over long underwear JonBenet was wearing to the Bode Technology Group near Washington, which looked for "touch DNA," or cells left behind where someone has touched something.

The laboratory found previously undiscovered genetic material on the sides of the girl's long underwear, where an attacker would have grasped the clothing to pull it down, authorities said. The DNA matched the genetic material found earlier.

Lacy said the presence of the same male DNA in three places on the girl's clothing convinced investigators it belonged to JonBenet's killer and had not been left accidentally by an innocent party.

"It is therefore the position of the Boulder District Attorney's Office that this profile belongs to the perpetrator of the homicide," she said in a statement. In her letter to the Ramseys, she said the DNA evidence "has vindicated your family."

She said investigators hope someday to find a DNA match in the ever-expanding national DNA databank.

"This case is going to be solved one day by a random hit on the DNA in the database," family attorney L. Lin Wood told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. "As you know, many cases that have been going on cold cases for years, in fact, are solved years later by a random DNA hit."

Through a spokeswoman, Lacy declined to comment any further.

John Ramsey found his daughter's strangled and bludgeoned body in the basement of the family's home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996.

The fact that John and Patsy Ramsey were in the house at the time of the killing fueled speculation that one of them wrote the bizarre three-page note found at the scene. It was written on a pad that came from the house and demanded a ransom that was close to the bonus John Ramsey had received that year: $118,000.

"We should have just stood right up there in the beginning and said, 'Okay, charge me.You think i’m guilty? Charge me, or clear me,'" Ramsey told 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty in 2006.

Lacy had previously expressed doubts that the parents were involved. In 2003, a federal judge handling a defamation lawsuit in Atlanta involving the Ramseys said evidence in the case was more consistent with the theory that an intruder killed JonBenet, and Lacy said she agreed.

Less than two months after Patsy Ramsey died, the case appeared to blow wide open with the arrest in Thailand of John Mark Karr, a sometime teacher obsessed with the little girl's slaying. Karr made bizarre, detailed confessions to the killing, but authorities said DNA evidence showed he did not commit the crime.

[jennmarikp]

That poor little girl, I feel such sadness for this family, especially the father. He lost his daughter and then his wife all while fighting for his innocence. God Bless Him!!

[xmanborg]

JonBenet the fabulous little drag queen. It makes me mad that hey still have not found out who killed her. I love her!, I SERIOUSLY LOVED JonBenet Ramsey!

[wiccantexan]

It''s a shame Patsy did not live to see this day.

[mericarocks]

Plain and simple, this is a case of the District Attorney letting the Boulder PD off the hook!!!

I cant believe John Ramsey got away with murder.
Posted by DaVicar2

Did your parents sue the hospital that dropped you on your skull at birth???

MericaRocks, I am turning your post into CBS to have it removed. You are by far the worst creep posting on the Internet to date.....

jennmarikp, I ditto your remoarks......12 years and now they finally cleared the family. I am glad though they are still investigating and didn''t give up.

DaVicar2, RTFS......the story shows that he was cleared of any wrong doing.

[navyjimfl]

it''s a real shame this happened after Patsy Ramsey died.....there were lot''s of people who believed the "headlines" of the family being investigated or other typical media ***.....the scandal rags had them responsible for this murder at various times....this case will go down in history for classic bungling......

[cyberus-2009]

This was another case of picking a suspect and pursuing that suspect while turning a blind eye to everything else.

[mythoughtsr]

The people in the media and tabloid world who repeatedly vilified that woman should all be held responsible for what they did. That woman went to her grave knowing she did nothing to her baby but yet everyone thought she did. Sick, sick people the media.

[bobgee_1999]

The family is still responsible for turning a child into a de facto prostitute and not protecting her from harm.

[nirak2-2009]

Too bad the Mom is not able to hear those words
She lived the last few years of her life being condemned by those who declared her guilty without a trial.

[whiskyrocker]

Is this ever going to end? 12years and were still hearing about this.

[megamanx1-2009]

John Ramsey. Freakin murderer......

murdered his child....and probably tried to blame it on a black man...

[megamanx1-2009]

Nobody cares.......

[wattermelann]

I think money and budgets tend to influence the focus to immediate family members as well as researched findings on familial involvement in crime. I hope that technology will continue to provide crime labs more access to evaluating evidence. In addition, because there has been overwhelming attention to sexaul predators, and pedophiles I believe that those hardworking criminalists will provide Jon Benet and her family closure and peace. This particular case has been a heart wrecking issue for many. My thoughts and prayers go to Jon Benet and her family and the dedicated criminalist who solves this great mystery.

[shanev137]

This story is code for the CIA.

[six-6-seis]

so it only took Boulder PD 12 years to figure it out,
great Job.....Incompetence

DaVicar2, if you mean CSI, no I don''t. I don''t watch TV unless there''s a good movie or sporting event on. I do read a lot of fact based novels. I never thought for a minute they were involved in her murder. They didn''t fall in the same profile as lets say the woman who drowned her children in a lake and blamed it on a car-jacker. The Ramsey''s were and have always stayed in the fore front of the investigation, spending countless hours trying to help with the investigation. A guilty person might for a while, but usually backs off because they can''t look anyone in the eye and lie like that for too long. Could be you watch too much CIS or CSI what ever you meant and came to your conclusion too quickly.

[donevis-2009]

I have to point out USA''''s investigation has been not perfect , not sophisticated.
I was involved in that kind case, without FBI once.
It was really small case, my boyfriend called 911 to take me away from his house, he told lie to police, I scratched him and attacked and kicked him, through phone on the wall. The police wrote report like this, but he did not ask me either listen to me at all at seen. The fact was I travelled from Japan , only three day from the travel and I was sleeping on his bed. We engaged our marriage but he got upset from my question early morning "When will we go to city to get marry?" We were on process of marriage and at that moment, he wanted to destroy all our relationship, I believe so. He could that but he could not tell lies to police, I could go back to japan with my return ticket he could tell me good -bye ever.
Posted by vivaviva80 at 04:25 PM : Jul 09, 200

Anyone really understand this post? Ever?

[donevis-2009]

Okay, All you All that said and thought all that stuff about the parents can now say "Never Mind"

whiskyrocker, until there is an end to the story, yes we''ll continue to read about it. JFK assination was 45 years ago, and they still talk and write about it.

Before people start to be too critical towards vivaviva80, I believe she is using a tranlator program to post on here. vivaviva80, I agree with you, but usually it is a man who gets the wrong end of the deal. All it takes is a woman or child to say, "He hit me" or something like that. Regardless of if the man did it or not, his life is usually ruined.

[a8151947]

She is not and was not JFK. I really don''t think you are any body else will be reading about Jon Benet and her family in 45 years. Unless you are just looking for this kink of no good police work

DaVicar2, and I respect your thoughts as well. But you need to realize, this kind of behavior is not a onetime thing. Didn%u2019t they have other children? If he did do what you might think he did, he would have also done this to someone else. Yes, I do agree with the magnitude of crimes people commit, but in this case, I truly believe it was committed by someone who has done it before and has probably done it again.

A8151947, that will make me 92 years old, I''ll be lucky to be reading anything then. There are several stories still popping up about unsolved crimes. Just the other day, I was reading about the Black Delilah murder, and the son of a man thinks his father was the actual murderer, but was never charged for it. He also believes he murdered several other women in LA back in the fifties....

[sistatee-2009]

If the kid would have been fat and ugly, the whole thing would have blown over 12 years ago.

[ssm9451]

whiskyrocker, until there is an end to the story, yes we''''ll continue to read about it. JFK assination was 45 years ago, and they still talk and write about it.

Posted by mitchoncbs at 04:29 PM : Jul 09, 2008
You are so right! Even A. Lincoln''s assination is still discussed. We will never know who killed Jon Benet. Maybe it was her brother???

[susieq_13]

They caused a lot of grief for the Ramsey family. I just hope they find the real culprit soon so at least the father can have some piece of mind before he too passes away. I felt so bad for the mother b/c she passed away before knowing the real killer.

[minnick8-2009]

I am a author in Japan, I already wrote this in my blog past three years, and I believe I goes to publish this book someday. people can learn how wrong in USA with police system , racism etc....

Posted by vivaviva80

If you are an author in Japan, I hope your book is being published in Japanese and then translated to English by translators and editors. I couldn''t write a book in Japanese, and you shouldn''t try to write a book in English.

[ariel133]

New evidence with new standards and finally found DNA that doesn''t match after how many years? Credibiliy? Zilch. Oh, well, sad as it , the mother passed and so lets leave the father alone and close this chapter.

minnick8, and everyone else critisizing vivaviva80 about her writing. I believe she is using a tranlation program, that''s why it is out of wack. Has anyone ever used a program to translate from one language to American English? It look just like that. Our language is the worst compared to other countries. Every country I have been in has had a problem understanding the way we speak. Reason is, too many other dialects make up our language. We speak backwards compared to other languages, so try to to be too critical, she has a point.

Criticize my writing for sure...jeeez....I need to proof read before I click publish....

[barbaraf4]

It is sad that Patsy Ramsey went to her grave with this hanging over her.

[mericarocks]

Our language is the worst compared to other countries. Every country I have been in has had a problem understanding the way we speak. Reason is, too many other dialects make up our language. We speak backwards compared to other languages.
Posted by mitchoncbs

WHAT??? You clearly know NOTHING about the structure of other languages!!!!!

[xmanborg]

I thought that DNA tests were done a LONG TIME AGO & the Family had already been cleared.

MericaRocks, I know a little, but not everything. I am speaking from experience, not from learning how to write in other languages, but having to communicate in speaking.

[ann3332]

Im so happy to hear this now john and his family can breathed a little easier. and Im also glad that they appologized to them. And yes im praying that the one who was responsible for the killing will be caught and face justice.

DaVicar2, it was very well thought out, or did you say tough....anyway, most people aren''t pilots...try speaking another language when you''re drunk....like most pilots are.

[marbru-2009]

Why weren''t DNA tests done an reported in the very beginning???

DaVicar2, my pleasure....it is proven that American English is the hardest to learn. I speak Tagalog because I had to learn it while overseas in the Navy. In doing so, my instructor, who was French (lol)...told me this about the American English...

[mericarocks]

Why weren''''t DNA tests done an reported in the very beginning???
Posted by marbru

Maybe actually reading the article would help you answer your own questions...

"The new type of DNA testing, not available in previous years, was conducted on DNA recovered from JonBenet''s leggings, reports CBS-4 TV in Denver. Previous tests were conducted on DNA collected from her underwear. Those earlier tests also did not match any of the Ramsey family members."

[annia1233]

There will always bee those that will say they did it. It is terrible how we, in this country , where people should be innicent until proven guilty, cast terrible things over others and destroy their lives just in gossiping. I am sure that if they had been prosecuted they would have been found guilty on circumstancial evidence ONLY. that circumstantial evidence is so shaky and dangerous...

MericaRocks, Vocj i um completo empurrco .... demasiado cobarde para uma chamada de alguim um nome na nossa lmngua?

[mericarocks]

....it is proven that American English is the hardest to learn.
Posted by mitchoncbs

Proven where?? Here are some FACTS...go ON, look ''em up...

There are over 2650 languages in the world plus over 7000 dialects. All that aside, the British Foreign Office conducted a language study recently and concluded that the most difficult language to learn is Basque, spoken in parts of Spain and France, followed closely by Hungarian, which has 35 cases or noun forms. On the other hand, German and Russian languages use a punctuation system said to be among the most difficult ones in the world.

[impeach__w]

The only subject I ever almost failed was Typing. It was a school in Japan and both typing instutors struck me as the fabulous/flaming type. My mom was a part-time sub at the school and sometimes taught that very class and before that, she was a full time typing instructor in the states!
The point is you can get nearly straight A''s, get a Phd, be a perfect communicator, speller, have good grammar, bi-lingual, spell-checker, etc. If you can''t type, or have a program that does any of the work for you, technology at times will help to make you still look like an idiot.

[mericarocks]

And it''s not the dialects that make English hard to learn, English is actually difficult to learn because of pronunciation issues and irregular verbs; in English, many words are spelled the same but sound different depending on the meaning.

MericaRocks, if you''re talking about Wikipedia
...then you are nuts if you think gathering information from an editable site is worth my time. I won''t argue with you on this, I was referring to actual people coming from foreign countries and trying to learn our language.

[pastdue1]

Can anything ever have been more wrong than what happened in Boulder, CO. The law in Boulder County bears a heavy burdon. However, it shows you that when you allow the media to basically take a snippet of news and make of it what they will ~ everyone else falls into the web. The media''s emphasis on "so-called experts" , people who are at best ill-informed and affected by their own importance, seem to contribute heavily to the Media''s culpability.

[marbru-2009]

Why weren''t DNA tests done and reported in the very beginning???
Posted by marbru

Maybe actually reading the article would help you answer your own questions...

"The new type of DNA testing, not available in previous years, was conducted on DNA recovered from JonBenet''''s leggings, reports CBS-4 TV in Denver. Previous tests were conducted on DNA collected from her underwear. Those earlier tests also did not match any of the Ramsey family members."

Posted by MericaRocks at 05:32 PM : Jul 09, 2008

Boy are you right - I really blew that one :-)