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FILE – JonBenét Ramsey was murdered at the age of 6 in Boulder. (Photo by Axel Koester/Sygma via Getty Images)

JonBenét Ramsey’s father hopes that in his lifetime he will find out who murdered his daughter – but time is running out for the heartbroken patriarch.

“He’s cautiously optimistic,” Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger told Fox News Digital of John Ramsey. “This is a guy who was brutalized by the police, brutalized by the court of public opinion, brutalized by the media. And for his sake, I hope the family finds out the truth.”

“But John, a strong advocate for finding the killer, is 80 years old,” Berlinger said. “I hope he has another decade left, but I would like to see this matter resolved before he leaves so the family can have some peace.”

The pageant star was 6 years old when she was killed 28 years ago. The case is now the subject of a new Netflix docuseries from Berlinger“Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? » broadcast on November 25.

The film aims to shed light on what John believes were missteps made by authorities who investigated the murder, as well as how advanced DNA technology could be the key to solving this cold case. It features a new interview with Ramsey, who spoke out in hopes of putting pressure on police to continue the search for his daughter’s killer.

FILE – John and Patsy Ramsey, the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, meet with a small select group of local Colorado media after four months of silence in Boulder, Colo., May 1, 1997. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post )

“It was the right time to tell this story now, because there are still so many misconceptions that persist,” Berlinger said. “Great advances have been made in DNA technology.”

“Boulder officials are very tight-lipped about whether they have retested or are going to do it,” Berlinger said. “It’s time to put our feet to the fire, do some more DNA testing and finally try to find a solution to this case.”

In response to Berlinger’s statement, Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told Fox News Digital in a statement: “The murder of JonBenét was an unspeakable crime and this tragedy has never left our hearts.

“We are committed to following up on every lead and continue to work with DNA experts and our law enforcement partners across the country until this tragic case is solved.”

“This investigation will always be a priority for the Boulder Police Department,” the statement added.

Anyone who may have information is encouraged to contact detectives at [email protected] or by calling the Boulder police tip line at 303-441-1974.

The six-year-old girl was found dead in the basement of the family’s Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996, bludgeoned and strangled.

She was discovered several hours after her mother, Patsy Ramsey, called 911 to say her daughter was missing and a ransom note had been left behind. THE the child’s death was ruled a homicidebut no one has ever been prosecuted.

“I got six wrongly convicted people out of prison, including two on death row, through my work in film and television,” Berlinger said. “I’ve brought a lot of other cases to light and helped move things forward. And I realized that this case has a lot in common with what happens in wrongful conviction cases.

The residence at 749 15th Street, where JonBenét Ramsey was murdered in December 1996. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

“Now, obviously the Ramseys were not wrongly convicted, but they were wrongly convicted in the court of public opinion, and that hampered the trial for decades,” Berlinger added.

Police were criticized for their initial handling of the investigation. Details of the crime and video footage of Ramsey during the contests propelled the case into one of the most high-profile mysteries in the United States, sparking a series of true crime books and television specials.

While the district attorney at the time of Ramsey’s death said his parents were under “an umbrella of suspicion” from the start, tests in 2008 of DNA recently discovered on his clothing indicated the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in his murder, and not his parents, nor their son, Burke.

This led former prosecutor Mary Lacy to clear the Ramseys of any involvement two years later Patsy died of cancer in 2006calling the couple “victims of this crime.”

The docuseries takes a close look at it to the autopsy report and forensic evidence. Berlinger said that after looking at both, it is “absurd” to think the family was involved.

“There’s just no evidence, no history of domestic violence,” Berlinger said. “She had petechial hemorrhages in her eyes and heart, so the tourniquet was used to suffocate her while she was alive. . . . It is the aggressive and violent act of a pedophile.”

“There is no doubt that she died with a tourniquet around her neck and her fingers trying to untie it,” Berlinger said. “She was strangled to death by an intruder, in my opinion.”

The case remains unsolved, 28 years later. (Chris Rank/Sygma via Getty Images)

Berlinger noted that the family “continues to pound the table on DNA testing.” There are new items that have never been tested before, as well as old items that have been examined using outdated methods, he insisted.

“It’s clear that the crime scene was not properly secured because initially (investigators) thought it was a kidnapping,” Berlinger said.

“The police department refused outside help, had no real experience with homicides, and as a result, DNA sampling at the time was compromised,” Berlinger claimed.

“Why did it take so long to retest? We still don’t know if the Colorado authorities retested. They say they will… but they are awfully silent about it “Hopefully the film will cause people to be outraged enough to insist that we have some responsibility in Colorado.”

In 2022, the Boulder Police Department said he worked with state law enforcement and the FBI on the investigation. They also said the DNA in the case is regularly checked for any new matches.

At the time, the department added that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation had updated more than 750 DNA samples from the investigation with the latest DNA technology.

In the film, Ramsey doesn’t blame anyone specifically for his daughter’s murder. However, he assures that the family is not involved.

“I definitely believe, without hesitation or doubt, that the Ramseys are innocent,” Berlinger said. “…I think everyone needs to be re-examined in terms of new DNA testing. And it’s not a televised trial. We’re not going to present who we think is guilty. . . . Everyone is on The table needs DNA to be tested, and an appropriate reinvestigation must take place.

Ramsey said Popular magazine Before the documentary’s premiere, of the items sent to labs early on, “six or seven of them were sent back without being tested.”

“We don’t know why they haven’t been tested, but they haven’t been tested,” Ramsey said. “The tourniquet was strangling JonBenét and several objects have just been returned.”

The Ramseys and their son Burke, then nine years old, were never charged with the murder. Berlinger said Ramsey was confident that one day he would get the answers he sought.

“He and Patsy are both extremely religious,” Berlinger said. “I don’t share their views on this subject, because of my beliefs about life after death, that is, I don’t believe in life after death. But they firmly believe in it. “

“Patsy, before her death, firmly believed that she would find JonBenét and know the truth,” he shared. “I think John Ramsey feels the same way, and I hope for their sake they’re right about that.”

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