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JonBenét Ramsey’s father ‘cautiously optimistic’ about finding his daughter's killer: filmmaker

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JonBenét Ramsey’s father ‘cautiously optimistic’ about finding his daughter's killer: filmmaker

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JonBenét Ramsey’s father is hopeful that in his lifetime, he’ll find out who murdered his daughter – but time is ticking for the heartbroken patriarch.

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

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“But John, a staunch advocate for finding the killer, is 80,” Berlinger shared. “I hope the guy has another decade left, but I’d like this case to be solved before he goes so that the family can have a measure of peace.”

JONBENET RAMSEY’S FATHER JOHN CLAIMS COLORADO POLICE OFFICER SAID THEY ARE ‘JUST WAITING’ FOR HIM TO DIE

JonBenét Ramsey, a child pageant contestant who was killed in 1996, is seen here with her father, John Ramsey. Her case is the subject of an upcoming Netflix docuseries by Joe Berlinger. (Netflix)

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 by Berlinger, “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?” streaming Nov. 25.

The film aims to shine a light on what John feels are missteps made by authorities who investigated the murder, as well as how advanced DNA technology could be key to cracking the cold case. It features a new interview with Ramsey, who has been speaking out in hopes of putting pressure on police to continue searching for his daughter’s killer.

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John and Patsy Ramsey are seen here meeting with a small selected group of the local Colorado media four months after their daughter was killed on Christmas. (Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)

“It just felt like a good time to tell this story now because there are still so many lingering misconceptions,” said Berlinger. “There have been great advances in DNA technology.”

JonBenét Ramsey is seen here on Christmas Day a few years before she was killed. (Netflix)

“The Boulder authorities are very mum about whether they’ve retested or going to test,” Berlinger claimed. “It’s time to hold some feet to the fire and get new DNA testing and finally try to put a resolution to this case.”

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

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

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John Ramsey is speaking out in the new Netflix docuseries. (Netflix)

“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 BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov or by calling the Boulder Police tipline at 303-441-1974.

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

JonBenét Ramsey is seen here with her mother, Patsy Ramsey. The matriarch died in 2006 from cancer. She was 49. (Netflix)

She was discovered several hours after her mother, Patsy Ramsey, called 911 to say that her daughter was missing, and a ransom note had been left behind. The child’s death was ruled a homicide, but nobody was ever prosecuted.

“I’ve gotten six wrongfully convicted people out of prison, including two on death row with my film and television work,” Berlinger explained. “I’ve shined a light on a lot of other cases and have helped move the needle. And I realized that this case has a lot of things in common with what happens in wrongful-conviction cases.

John Ramsey and his family were heavily scrutinized over the years. (Netflix)

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“Now, obviously, the Ramseys were not wrongfully convicted, but they were wrongfully convicted in the court of public opinion, and that has hindered the case for decades,” Berlinger added.

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John Ramsey’s son, John Andrew Ramsey, also came forward for a sit-down. (Netflix)

The police department was criticized for its initial handling of the investigation. The details of the crime and video footage of Ramsey from the pageants propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States, unleashing a series of true-crime books and TV specials.

While the district attorney at the time of Ramsey’s death said her parents were under “an umbrella of suspicion” early on, tests in 2008 on newly discovered DNA on her clothing pointed to the involvement of an “unexplained third party” in her slaying, and not her parents, or their son, Burke. 

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John and Patsy Ramsey found a handwritten ransom letter, presumably left behind by the killer, inside their Colorado home. (Netflix)

That led former district attorney Mary Lacy to clear the Ramseys of any involvement, two years after Patsy died of cancer in 2006, calling the couple “victims of this crime.”

John Ramsey wants evidence to be tested using modern DNA technology. (Netflix)

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

“There’s just no evidence, no prior history of family abuse,” said Berlinger. “She had petechial hemorrhaging in her eyes and her heart, which means that the garrote was used to choke her when she was alive. . . . This is the aggressive, violent act of a pedophile.”

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Former district attorney Mary Lacy cleared the Ramseys, calling the couple “victims of this crime.” (Netflix)

“It’s uncontestable that she died with a garrote around her neck and her fingers trying to pry it loose,” said Berlinger. “She died from strangulation by an intruder, in my opinion.”

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John Ramsey is 80. He is hopeful that in his lifetime, he’ll find out the identity of his daughter’s murderer. (Netflix)

Berlinger noted that the family is “still pounding the table for DNA testing.” There are new items that have never been tested before, as well as old items that were examined using outdated methods, he insisted.

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“It’s quite clear that the crime scene was not properly secured because originally, [investigators] thought it was a kidnapping,” Berlinger explained.

Anyone who may have information about the case is encouraged to contact detectives at BouldersMostWanted@bouldercolorado.gov or by calling the Boulder Police tipline at 303-441-1974. (Netflix)

“The police department refused outside help, had no real experience in homicide, and therefore, the DNA sampling at the time was compromised,” Berlinger claimed. 

John Ramsey said there is genetic material on the handmade garrote used to strangle his six-year-old daughter. (Netflix)

“Why has it taken so long to retest? We still don’t know if the Colorado authorities have retested. They say they’re going to . . . but they’re awfully silent about it. Hopefully, the film will get people to be outraged enough to insist that we have some accountability in Colorado.”

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In 2022, the Boulder Police Department said it had been working with state law enforcement agencies and the FBI on the investigation. They also shared that DNA from the case is regularly checked for any new matches.

John Ramsey was married to Patsy Ramsey from 1980 until her death in 2006. (Netflix)

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

Patsy Ramsey died wondering who killed her child. (Netflix)

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In the film, Ramsey doesn’t blame anyone specifically for his daughter’s murder. He is, however, adamant that the family wasn’t involved.

“I definitively, without hesitation or doubt, believe the Ramseys are innocent,” said Berlinger. “… I think everyone needs to be looked at again in terms of new DNA testing. And this is not a trial by television. We are not going to put forth who we think is guilty. . . . Everyone’s on the table. DNA needs to be tested, and a proper reinvestigation needs to happen.”

Ramsey told People magazine ahead of the documentary’s premiere that of the items that were sent to labs in the beginning, “six or seven of them were returned untested.”

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

“We don’t know why they were not tested, but they were not tested,” Ramsey said. “The garrote used to strangle JonBenét and several items were just sent back.”

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The Ramseys and their son Burke, who was nine at the time, were never charged in connection with the murder. Berlinger said Ramsey has faith that someday he’ll get the answers he’s been searching for.

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

“He and Patsy are both extremely religious,” Berlinger reflected. “I don’t share their point of view on this, because of my afterlife beliefs, which is I don’t believe in an afterlife. But they strongly believe that.”

JONBENET RAMSEY’S FAMILY ‘DIDN’T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS’ FOR YEARS AFTER MURDER 27 YEARS AGO, FATHER SAYS

John Ramsey, his wife Patricia Ramsey and their son Burke were never charged in connection with JonBenét Ramsey’s murder. (Netflix)

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“Patsy, before her death, strongly believed she would be reunited with JonBenét and know the truth,” he shared. “I think John Ramsey feels the same way, and I hope for their sake that they are right about that.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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Montana

Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for July 4, 2026

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The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.

Here’s a look at July 4, 2026, results for each game:

Winning Powerball numbers from July 4 drawing

17-38-46-50-69, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

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Winning Lotto America numbers from July 4 drawing

09-17-22-35-37, Star Ball: 05, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 4 drawing

04-13-19-26, Bonus: 07

Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.

Winning Montana Cash numbers from July 4 drawing

09-13-17-27-33

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Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?

  • Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
  • Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
  • Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
  • Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
  • Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
  • Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.

Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.



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Nevada

11 Nevada Towns With A Slower Pace Of Life

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11 Nevada Towns With A Slower Pace Of Life


Genoa was a Mormon trading post in 1851, a decade before Nevada was a state, and it has never been in a hurry since. Up and down the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and out across the Great Basin, the towns that grew up around silver strikes, railroad water stops, and dam construction camps mostly emptied out when the work ran dry, and what stayed behind is a string of places where the clock loosened its grip. Opera houses still host the occasional show. Saloons still pour for whoever walks in. The eleven towns below trade Nevada’s neon for porch time, dark skies, and roads with almost nothing on them.

Genoa

Mormon Station State Historic Park in Genoa, Nevada. Image credit Ritu Manoj Jethani via Shutterstock

The Genoa Bar and Saloon has been pouring drinks since 1853, which makes it the oldest bar in the state, and most of its counter and fixtures date to the 1860s. That is the pace of the place in one building. Genoa itself is Nevada’s oldest permanent settlement, and Mormon Station State Historic Park preserves a reconstructed log trading post on the site of the original 1851 station, with a small museum and grounds that fill up for community events through the summer. Genoa Town Park carries the warm-month concert schedule. When the afternoon calls for it, David Walley’s Resort sits a short walk off, with mineral hot springs that have drawn soakers to this corner of the Carson Valley for well over a century.

Ely

Main Street in Ely, Nevada.
Main Street in Ely, Nevada.

At the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, the locomotives are not models behind glass; the collection is one of the most complete original short-line operations left in the country, and the steam excursions run on the same track the copper trains used. That is Ely’s main event, and it sets the tempo. The Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, just outside town, preserves six beehive-shaped stone kilns that fed the smelters during the mining boom, close enough to reach for an afternoon. The White Pine Public Museum fills in the rest, with mining, ranching, and Native history. Back on Aultman Street, the Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall has anchored downtown since it opened in 1929, when it was briefly the tallest building in the state, and it still pours a cold one for anyone coming in off Highway 50.

Tonopah

The Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada.
The Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada. Image credit Travelview via Shutterstock

On a clear, moonless night at the Clair Blackburn Memorial Stargazing Park, you can pick out more than 7,000 stars with your eyes alone. Most cities show you 25 or 50. The park, off Highway 95 with concrete pads laid out for telescopes, is reason enough to time a visit around the new moon. By day, the Tonopah Historic Mining Park spreads across 100 acres of the original silver works, with tunnels and headframes from the boom that built the town. The Mizpah Hotel, restored and operating since its 1907 opening, holds the Pittman Café for breakfast and the Jack Dempsey Room for a sit-down dinner, named for the heavyweight champion who once worked the hotel as a bouncer.

Virginia City

Aerial scenic view of the historic Main Street in downtown Virginia City, Nevada.
The historic Main Street in downtown Virginia City, Nevada.

The Comstock Lode silver strike of 1859 turned Virginia City into one of the richest mining centers in the West almost overnight, and the wooden boardwalks and stacked 19th-century storefronts climbing the hillside are what the money left behind. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad runs short excursions along the old mining route, and the Chollar Mine tour takes you underground into the works themselves. The Bucket of Blood Saloon has been serving since 1876, built on the footprint of an earlier saloon right after the Great Fire of 1875 cleared the block. It is an easy place to lose a slow afternoon over a beer.

Boulder City

Downtown streets of Boulder City, Nevada.
Downtown streets of Boulder City, Nevada. Image credit gg-foto via Shutterstock

Gambling is illegal here by city ordinance, one of only two Nevada towns where that is true, a rule that traces straight back to why the town exists. The federal government built Boulder City in the early 1930s to house the workers raising Hoover Dam, laying out organized streets and civic buildings, and the planned layout still shapes a walkable downtown. The dam itself draws most visitors, best taken in without rushing. The Boulder City-Hoover Dam Museum, inside the historic Boulder Dam Hotel, tells the Depression-era construction story, and the Coffee Cup Café is the institution where locals linger over breakfast. At Hemenway Park, desert bighorn sheep come down to graze against the backdrop of Lake Mead country.

Caliente

Downtown street in Caliente, Nevada.
Downtown street in Caliente, Nevada.

The Caliente Railroad Depot, a restored Mission Revival building from the Union Pacific era, now does double duty as the town’s visitor center and the anchor of its main street. The name comes from the hot springs that first drew settlers, and cottonwoods shade a town that sits well off the southern Nevada rush. Two miles south, Kershaw-Ryan State Park tucks shaded picnic areas, spring-fed wading pools, and trails beneath steep canyon walls. The Barnes Canyon trail network gives mountain bikers and hikers desert terrain to work through at their own speed, and Meadow Valley Wash supports cottonwood stands and wildlife unusual for country this dry.

Eureka

Aerial view of the tiny town of Eureka, Nevada on Highway 50.
Overlooking Eureka, Nevada, on Highway 50.

Sixteen smelters once belched enough smoke over Eureka to earn it the nickname “Pittsburgh of the West,” back when 9,000 people and a hundred-odd saloons crowded the canyon. About 600 people live here now, and the boom-era buildings have the streets mostly to themselves. The Eureka Opera House, built in 1880 on a block cleared by the previous year’s fire, still stages performances under its restored interior. The Eureka Sentinel Museum occupies the original 1879 newspaper building, presses and type cases left where they sat. The Jackson House Hotel has put up guests since the 19th century, and the Owl Club Bar and Steakhouse feeds travelers and locals along Highway 50, the stretch a magazine once branded the Loneliest Road in America.

Gardnerville

Overlooking Gardnerville, Nevada.
Overlooking Gardnerville, Nevada. Image credit G Chapel via Shutterstock

Basque sheepherders settled the Carson Valley, and their cooking is still the reason to plan dinner in Gardnerville, served family-style at long tables in the valley’s old boarding-house tradition. The town grew as a ranching center under the Sierra Nevada, and the Carson Valley Museum and Cultural Center, housed in a former high school, lays out that agricultural and pioneer history. Lampe Park gives the community its gathering ground, with a quiet stream and walking paths and a calendar of seasonal events. Jobs Peak rises over the whole valley, a granite wall that turns gold at the end of the day.

Wells

Looking out over the landscape in Wells, Nevada.
Landscape surrounding Wells, Nevada. Image credit Famartin – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

The Angel Lake Scenic Byway climbs out of the desert flats into the East Humboldt Range, ending at a glacial lake cupped high against the peaks, good for a morning of fishing or a slow walk along the alpine shore. Wells grew up as a railroad town, and the Front Street Historic District still shows the bones of that era, when this was a working junction on the transcontinental line. The Trail of the 49ers Interpretive Center on 6th Street covers the emigrant routes that funneled through here on the way west, the California Trail travelers who passed through long before the rails did.

Winnemucca

Downtown street in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Downtown street in Winnemucca, Nevada.

The Humboldt River made Winnemucca a crossing long before the railroad came through, and the Humboldt Museum tells that regional story through Native, ranching, and transportation exhibits. The town’s other inheritance is Basque: sheepherders settled here in numbers, and the dining room at the Martin Hotel still serves the lamb and the family-style spread that the town celebrates each summer at its Basque Festival. The Winnemucca Sand Dunes draw the off-road and open-desert crowd just outside town. For something quieter, Water Canyon climbs along a running stream into terrain more rugged than the valley floor lets on.

Lovelock

Downtown Lovelock, Nevada.
Downtown Lovelock, Nevada. Image credit Ken Lund via Flickr

The Pershing County Courthouse is round, one of the few circular courthouses still in use anywhere in the country, and it sits at the center of town with its early-20th-century architecture intact. Behind it, Lovers Lock Plaza invites visitors to clip a padlock to a chain as a token of commitment, a small local tradition that has become the town’s signature stop. The deeper history is just outside town at Lovelock Cave, where excavations turned up evidence of human use going back thousands of years. Rye Patch State Recreation Area, along the reservoir on the Humboldt River, handles the boating, fishing, and lakeside afternoons.

Wide Open Spaces And Unhurried Places

What these towns share is not scenery so much as arithmetic: the work that built them mostly left, and the people who stayed kept the opera houses, the saloons, and the depots running at a fraction of the old traffic. That is why a steam train in Ely or a 7,000-star sky over Tonopah feels unhurried in a way a manufactured attraction never quite manages. The pace was not designed. It is what is left when the boom moves on and the place decides to stay anyway.

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New Mexico

First July 4 display at Miles park for 250th honors America and New Mexican identity

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First July 4 display at Miles park for 250th honors America and New Mexican identity


The City Different’s Fourth of July celebration began a little differently this year.

Instead of gathering near Santa Fe Place mall as residents have for years, thousands spread across Franklin E. Miles Park for the city’s first Independence Day celebration at the new venue. They came to watch a drone show debut, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding by blending American symbols with ones signifying New Mexican identity, followed by the traditional fireworks.

The move to Franklin E. Miles Park followed months of debate after the former venue became unavailable due to construction tied to a new hotel. And for some nearby residents, the change exceeded expectations.

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Lewis and his son Aidan Herrera make their way in matching patriotic garb towards live music by Lumpy on Saturday, July 4, 2026, at Franklin E. Miles Park.



‘A learning curve’



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Nathan Montoya, 3, catches a ride with Carlos Montoya while skateboarding at Franklin E. Miles Park during the Fourth of July celebration on Saturday.


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‘Santa Fe should be proud’







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Pop-its fireworks entertain children as they are thrown against the ground during July 4 celebrations Saturday at Franklin E. Miles Park.



‘We’re the City Different’



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Lana Bolin of Lumpy serenades the crowd during Fourth of July celebrations Saturday at Franklin E. Miles Park.


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