FIRST ON FOX — John Ramsey, father of JonBenét Ramsey, murder victim in 1996 Praises to the city of Boulder, Colorado for officially appointing a new police chief on Sept. 6.
Chief Stephen Redfearn, who served as interim Chief of the Boulder Police Department The BPD’s fifth police chief, who began in January, is investigating the JonBenét Ramsey case, which took place nearly 30 years ago when the 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant was mysteriously killed in her home on Dec. 26, 1996.
“He’s nice. I like him,” Ramsey, 80, said of Redfearn to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, calling his new appointment “good news.”
Ramsey said one of his first goals with the new police chief is to request a personal meeting. He said the Ramsey family is entitled to an annual face-to-face meeting with the police department, which hasn’t happened yet this year.
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JonBenét Ramsey’s father is praising the appointment of the Boulder Police Department’s new chief. (Fox News Digital/Handouts/Investigation Discovery)
He described Redfearn as “a capable individual” who was hired “from outside the system” rather than “promoted from within,” which is a positive thing, he said, because Ramsey feels the BPD has historically been unfair to him and his family.
In 1999, a grand jury indicted both John and his wife, Patsy Ramsey. JonBenet died due to child abuseBut the district attorney at the time, Alex Hunter, refused to sign an indictment, citing a lack of evidence to bring criminal charges against the parents.
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John and Patsy Ramsey, parents of JonBenét Ramsey, meet with a small group of local Colorado media after four months of silence on May 1, 1997 in Boulder, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
Ramsey wants the BPD to turn over evidence in his daughter’s nearly 30-year-old murder. The murder case was handed over to the FBI“at a minimum” so that federal authorities could test and retest the evidence for possible foreign DNA, including foreign male DNA that federal authorities had uncovered in 1997.
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Evidence that has never been found before tested for traces of DNA According to public records initially obtained by journalist Paula Woodward, this includes the garrote found around JonBenét’s neck, a ransom note found in the Ramsey home the morning of the murder, a suitcase found in the basement that authorities believe the killer used to escape through a window, an unidentified flashlight found on the Ramsey family’s kitchen counter the morning of the murder, and an unidentified rope found in her brother Burke Ramsey’s room that day, Fox News Digital reports.
JonBenét Ramsey (right) was murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996. She is seen with her brother Burke in this undated photo provided by the family. (Ramsey family handout)
“We have an unknown male DNA result from a test done in 1997, which was primitive by today’s standards,” Ramsey explained. “But we have an unknown male DNA sample, which was reported to the police in January 1997. They kept it secret because it conflicted with their conclusion that we were guilty. How can we explain this away? Which they did their best to do.”
He said his family wants new tests because “these state-of-the-art (genetic genealogy) labs need new samples to do their work.”
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JonBenét Ramsey was mysteriously murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado in December 1996. (Ramsey Family Collection/Discovery+)
The city of Boulder issued a press release saying that Redfearn joined BPD as deputy chief in 2021 after 25 years of police service, beginning when he was a cadet and 911 dispatcher during the Columbine High School mass shooting. He then spent 20 years with the Aurora Police Department, where he served in a variety of positions from patrol officer to division chief.
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“I am honored to be able to lead the talented officers and staff of the Boulder Police Department as we work collaboratively and proactively with our community to make policing equitable and effective in its core mission,” Redfern said in a statement Sept. 6. “We often think of our role as being to ‘protect and serve,’ but we also have an opportunity and obligation to prevent harm.”
“We will do this through reevaluating our policies, best practices training, a focus on staff well-being, and, of course, a renewed commitment to engaging with the community. This is what policing is all about.”
JonBenét’s father challenges Colorado governor to meeting: ‘Time for answers is running out’
JonBenét Ramsey will be 34 years old on August 6, 2024. (Ramsey Family)
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The Boulder Police Department said, “Chief Redfern continues to communicate with the Ramsey family, and there are no plans to make any changes.”
Ramsey said Redfearn is “the fifth police chief we’ve had in the last 30 years, which is crazy.”
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“But the good news is that the last two cases have come from outside the system, which is very significant,” he said.
