3-part series to be published until June 30
On his death bed in August of 2010, famed Colorado Springs Det. Lou Smit could have spoken about the 200 murder cases he’d solved during a storied career going back three decades. Instead, he chose to talk about the one he hadn’t solved: the case of JonBenét Patricia Ramsey, the 6-year-old beauty queen from Boulder found bludgeoned and garroted in the basement of her own home on Dec. 26, 1996.
Zuma Press- JonBenét Ramsey
The case had become one of the most perplexing murder mysteries in the U.S. of the 20th century.
Though his work hadn’t put a killer in prison, as far as Smit was concerned it kept the innocent parents of the victim, John and Patsy Ramsey, out of prison. And he said he believed that was one of the greatest achievements of his life.
His work also gave detectives a blueprint he hoped would guide them to JonBenét’s real killer or killers after his death on Aug. 11, 2010. But Smit’s opinion is just one of a plethora of theories about what happened to the tiny beauty queen.
Despite a public declaration by former Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy and DNA found on the girl’s underwear and body that does not match anyone in her family, the parents of the young girl should not be excluded as suspects, according to some respected experts.
AP- JonBenét Ramsey
Former Denver homicide lieutenant Jon Priest, a consultant who gives seminars around the world about evidence collection and crime investigation, said the DNA may not have belonged to the killer at all.
“Who knows how it got on her clothes,” Priest said in a recent interview.