Did JonBenét Ramsey’s parents take a lie detector test? How Boulder Police Investigated the Child Pageant Queen’s Death — and Why a Netflix Documentary Claims They Didn’t Do Enough

A new Netflix docuseries reexamines the decades-old cold case — and what’s keeping investigators from solving it

When 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996, police did not have enough evidence to definitively identify and arrest her killer. Nearly thirty years later, this is still the case.

The one from Netflix Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey? analyzes the alleged missteps made by Boulder police, such as failing to properly seal off the crime scene and contributing to a media frenzy that focused heavily on her parents, John Bennett Ramsey and Patsy Ramsey, as suspects. He maintains his innocence, and Patsy did the same until her death in 2006 from ovarian cancer.

The Netflix docuseries, which begins streaming on November 25, highlights the multiple suspects police have investigated – including one who confessed to the murder – but DNA evidence has not yet linked anyone to JonBenét’s murder.

“Many people think they know the JonBenét Ramsey story and have been playing armchair detective for thirty years, often callously pointing the finger at the very people who suffered such unthinkable loss,” said director Joe Berlinger. Term in October 2024. “We reveal the deep flaws in the way the case was originally handled, resulting in a sea of ​​conspiracy theories that nearly destroyed the Ramsey family for a second time.”

John was interviewed in the docuseries and talked about how his distrust of the police affected their involvement in the investigation – especially when it came to taking a polygraph test.

Here’s everything you need to know about the investigation and why JonBenét Ramsey’s murder remains unsolved.

JonBenét was reported missing on December 26, 1996

In the early morning hours of December 26, 1996, JonBenét was reported missing from her home in Boulder, Colorado. Patsy told police she found a ransom note on the stairs near their kitchen demanding $118,000 for their daughter’s safe return. It also stated that the note’s author would call John that morning to set up the exchange.

Despite the note’s instructions not to do so, Patsy and John called the police at 5:52 am. John then made arrangements to pay the ransom and was prepared by the police for what to say if the kidnapper called.

The only people known to be in the house at the time of JonBenét’s disappearance were her parents and her 9-year-old brother, Burke Ramsey.

Where the note came from, its two-page length, and the specific amount of money requested (which police later learned was almost the same amount as John’s previous Christmas bonus) led some investigators to believe it was staged. John never received a call from the alleged kidnapper.

The police were accused of not properly securing the crime scene

Two Boulder Police Department detectives arrived at Ramsey’s home a few minutes after the initial 911 call, along with some family friends Patsy had called. While searching the house, officers reportedly sealed off only JonBenét’s bedroom as a crime scene and allowed the family and their friends to roam freely in the house for hours, potentially contaminating crucial evidence.

When John started to get nervous after no ransom was received, an officer on the scene told him to search the house again and see if he could find anything “unusual.” He and his friend went to the basement and discovered JonBenét’s body in a room where the children kept a train car. She had been sexually assaulted, hit on the head and strangled with a handmade garrote, a type of portable ligature.

The Ramseys thought it was an intruder

John has maintained throughout the decades-long investigation into JonBenét’s murder that he and his late wife believed an intruder was responsible for their daughter’s death, which autopsy reports confirm was caused by a near-simultaneous strangulation and a blow to the skull.

DNA evidence was also found on JonBenét’s clothing, which belonged to an unknown man. In an exclusive interview in November 2024, John claimed to PEOPLE that some of the evidence — including the garrote — was never tested.

“We are pleading with the police to intervene,” he said. “There are cutting-edge DNA labs that want to help and they think they can move the case forward.”

Police said the Ramseys were under “an umbrella of suspicion.”

Fears that police were focusing on them as prime suspects in JonBenét’s murder led John and Patsy to hire a lawyer just days after their daughter’s death.

“We assumed that the police would show some level of discernment and wisdom and say, ‘Yes, this is crazy to think [we] killed our child,” he told PEOPLE. “Well, they never did. They made that decision on day one and desperately tried to prove it,” John claimed.

The Ramseys were never charged in the case, despite a grand jury ruling in 1999 that John and Patsy had “unlawfully, knowingly, recklessly and criminally permitted[ted] a child who is unreasonably placed in a situation that poses a threat of harm to the child’s life or health.” Boulder police also confirmed to the media that John and Patsy are under an “umbrella of suspicion” stood, but the prosecutor decided there was not enough evidence to pursue a case against JonBenét’s parents.

Despite the prosecutor’s refusal to investigate the case further, a former detective, Steve Thomas, wrote a book in 2000: JonBenét: Inside the Ramsey murder investigationin which she claims that Patsy accidentally killed her daughter in a fit of rage over a bed-wetting incident.

John and Patsy were formally cleared of any involvement in JonBenét’s murder in 2008.

The Ramseys passed a private polygraph test in 2000

CBS reported in May 2000 that John and Patsy passed a privately administered polygraph test, during which they were asked whether they had killed JonBenét. Polygraph examiner Ed Gelb told reporters at the time, “Neither John nor Patsy attempted deception when they gave the answers.”

These results came after a conversation with Boulder police, who wanted the tests to be conducted by the FBI instead of the expert the Ramseys hired.

John and Patsy’s lawyer told them The Washington Post in April 2000 that the parents did not want the FBI involved in the test, claiming the organization’s polygraph exam was designed to “intimidate and interrogate” rather than determine the truth.

The polygraph test may have changed public opinion about the Ramseys, but did not change their legal status, as polygraph results are not admissible in court.

John Mark Karr confessed to the murder in 2006

The Netflix docuseries also outlines the multiple suspects police interviewed during the investigation – including one who confessed.

In 2006, a man named John Mark Karr was arrested in Bangkok after claiming to have murdered the Colorado toddler. He confessed during a four-year email correspondence with documentary producer Michael Tracey, but the confession did not stick. Karr’s DNA did not match what was found on JonBenét’s body, and his family claimed he was with them at the time of the murder.

Another suspect, Gary Howard Oliva, who served eight years in prison on child pornography charges, was first named as a person of interest in a 2002 episode of the CBS show 48 hours investigation. He never confessed to the crime, but he was in the Boulder area when it happened and had a photo of JonBenét with him when he was arrested in 2000. However, police said his DNA did not match evidence found on JonBenét.

According to the city of Boulder, detectives have spoken to more than 1,000 people in connection with the crime.

JonBenét’s murder remains unsolved

As of November 2024, no one has been charged in the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Her father told PEOPLE that Boulder police allegedly refused to send certain pieces of evidence, such as the garotte, for more modern forms of DNA testing.

“We’re not asking them to do anything crazy,” John said. ‘Just do your job. Test the DNA.”

In December 2023, the city of Boulder issued an update on the murder investigation, announcing that police had asked the Colorado Cold Case Review Team for recommendations on whether new forensic testing technologies “could provide new information or clues to help solve the case unload’.

Because the investigation into JonBenét’s 1996 murder is ongoing, the specific recommendations will not be made public.