BOULDER—
The investigation into the slaying of
JonBenet Ramsey has been placed back in the hands of Boulder
police, who say they will apply new technology and expertise in
hopes of solving the 12-year-old case.The move, announced Monday, came six years after police turned the probe over to the district attorney amid public criticism of how officers had handled it.
"Some cases never get solved, but some do," Police Chief Mark Beckner told the Camera newspaper in Boulder on Monday. "And you can't give up."
JonBenet, a 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant, was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her parents' Boulder home in December 1996.
Her father, John Ramsey, didn't immediately return a message left with his attorney, L. Lin Wood of Atlanta.
Wood told The Associated Press that Beckner informed John Ramsey of the move in a letter received Monday.
Wood called the move "a positive sign in terms of my hope that the Boulder Police Department will take not only a new review in terms of a cold case review, but that it will go in this time with an objective review."
Wood and Ramsey have been critical of previous police efforts, saying they unfairly focused on the family and ignored other evidence.
Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's mother and John Ramsey's wife, died in 2004 after a long battle with cancer.
Beckner said he and newly elected District Attorney Stan Garnett agreed that police should lead the investigation again.
Beckner said he has invited a team of veteran investigators from state and federal agencies to join an advisory task force to "explore all possible theories about what happened the night JonBenet was killed."
The group will meet in the next few weeks to review the evidence in the case and identify additional testing that might be done.
Beckner said he wants to go into the first meeting with no preconceived notions.
"We are open to all possibilities," he said.
Garnett's predecessor, Mary Lacy, last year cleared Jonbenet's family in the slaying, saying male DNA found on the girl's clothing almost certainly came from her killer, and that it didn't match anyone in the family.
Wood said Beckner's letter gave no hint that police would back away from that finding.
"Nor could any objective investigation back away," he said. (The DNA evidence) is compelling if not conclusive."
Police declined to comment to the AP ahead of a news conference planned later in the day.
Lacy did not run for re-election because of term limits. She told the AP that returning the investigation to police was "a great idea."
"I think that time has resolved any issues that might have lingered, but also I think that Mark Beckner has done a very good job," she said.
Lacy said the reason her office took over the case in 2002 was that the Ramsey family had no confidence in the police. "It wasn't that they were incompetent," she said of the officers.
Lacy said she is "absolutely" hopeful the case will one day be resolved.
"I believe the DNA (that cleared the Ramsey family) is the most significant piece of evidence, and hopefully, as with some cold cases, there will eventually be a hit on it," she said.
