John Ramsey is feeling “encouraged and hopeful” after his meeting with authorities.
Earlier this week, Ramsey, whose daughter JonBenét was killed inside their Boulder, Colo., home on Dec. 26, 1996, met with Boulder authorities, including Police Chief Stephen Redfearn, for 90 minutes to discuss the unsolved murder of his daughter.
“The important thing is that I think they are just certainly committed to getting the case solved,” Ramsey tells PEOPLE. “And I think they’re very interested in using the latest technology that’s out there, this genealogy research, which I think is the key that needs to be employed.”
“I am encouraged and I am hopeful,” he says. “I believe that this case will be solved using the latest DNA technology.”
Ramsey, who has been vocal about using cutting-edge labs that use genetic genealogy and other advanced DNA technology to crack the cold case, went to the Monday, Jan. 27, meeting at the Boulder Police Department with a DNA expert.
“I wanted to make sure the police understood the latest technologies that are available today for good DNA testing and research,” he says. “I guess the takeaway for me was that the police finally have competent leadership in place, and they haven’t had that in my judgment for 10, eight or 28 years. A big improvement in leadership. And that’s encouraging, and that’s really a step one, because nothing was gonna happen until that changed. I think they’re committed.”
The Ramsey family.
Courtesy of Netflix
If genetic genealogy is employed, Ramsey believes “there’s a 60, maybe 70% chance we’ll get an identity of the killer.”
Without it, he surmises, “the probability of success drops away down.”
Ramsey, who drove from his home in Moab, Utah, to meet with authorities, says that all available evidence in his daughter’s case should be retested.
Going back to Boulder, he says, was “really hard.”
“I wouldn’t go back there other than to do whatever I can to advance the case,” he says. “And we left immediately.”
He did not drive by the home he once lived in with his family either. “It’s difficult,” he says.
Over the years, police have looked at multiple suspects: John and his late wife Patsy, and their son Burke, were considered suspects early on, and authorities have since apologized for casting suspicion on them.
The investigation over the years has been “extremely frustrating and disappointing,” says Ramsey.
W”We called the police that morning to help us and they did not help at all,” he says. “It was extremely frustrating and aggravating and, and maddening.”
The Ramsey home.
Doug Pensinger/Getty
Ramsey previously told PEOPLE that he suspects a masked intruder who snuck inside the home of a 12-year-old girl in Boulder, Colo., nine months after JonBenét’s murder, could be his daughter’s killer. The suspect ran away when the child’s mother scared him off.
Ramsey says his daughter’s killer “certainly theoretically could be, should be” alive. “The FBI profile basically was, he was at the time, probably in his 20s, maybe 30, so it’s been 30 years. So in theory, he’d be 60 years old, according to the profile.”
“This is a very evil, pure evil person who did this,” he says. “He’s a psychopath. I’ve also been told that there’s some fairly high likelihood that he’s murdered other people, other children before JonBenét or after JonBenét. There’s a reasonable chance this person’s done this again.”
JonBenét was found dead in the basement of the family home. Earlier that morning, Patsy called police after noticing their daughter was missing. On the call, Patsy told police she’d discovered a chilling ransom note handwritten on a pad with a black Sharpie that belonged to the family.
The note demanded $118,000 — the exact amount of a workplace bonus recently received by John — for the safe return of JonBenét.
Says Ramsey, “My real motivation is to get this chapter concluded for the sake of my kids and my grandchildren.”
“This cloud,” he adds. “And their reputation needs to be cleared for their sake. That’s really why that continued to be so aggressive getting a resolution.”
