JonBenét Ramsey’s father wants child murder to be a federal offense, asks for further DNA testing in daughter’s case
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LAS VEGAS, Nevada — JonBenet Ramsey’s father wants the murder of a child to be a federal crime so more resources and law enforcement agencies can be utilized in cases.
John Ramsey spoke with EastIdahoNews.com at CrimeCon in Las Vegas over the weekend. His six-year-old daughter JonBenét was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of the family’s Boulder, Colorado home in December 1996. Her death was ruled a homicide and in the 25 years since her death, JonBenét’s killer has not been found.
“It’s still a real event and it’s hard to imagine that much time has gone by. It’s still part of our lives, it’s still real and we miss her terribly,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey is calling for further DNA testing to be done in the case and believes the murder will be solved if investigators test items found at the crime scene that have never been tested.
Significant advances in technology have been made since 1996 and Ramsey supports an online petition asking Colorado’s governor to intervene in the investigation by putting an outside agency, rather than the Boulder Police Department, in charge of DNA testing.
“One of the problems we have in this country is we have 18,000 police jurisdictions. Each one is an independent agency and in most cases, if a crime happens in that jurisdiction, it’s their responsibility and they have the full authority over that case. People cannot come in and help unless they’re invited,” Ramsey explains. “That’s the problem we have in Boulder. They refused help from people that offered it, knew what they were doing and had lots of experience. We’ve got to fix that.”
Ramsey believes his daughter’s murder will one day be solved and is hopeful it’s during his lifetime. He also wants to see laws changed so cases of homicides involving children are handled at the federal level.
“I’d love to see the murder of a child in this country be a federal offense so that we can bring the full might of our resources to bear on that kind of a tragedy,” he says.
Watch the video above for our entire interview Ramsey, including what he thinks happened the night JonBenét was murdered.
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