By John Wenzel
The Denver Post
DENVER — One month before the 28th anniversary of JonBenét Ramsey’s murder, Netflix will premiere a three-part “Cold Case” documentary about the Boulder crime, which captivated the world and remains unsolved.
“Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?” debuts on Netflix on Monday, four weeks before the Dec. 25 anniversary of Ramsey’s 1996 murder. The case received immediate attention for its brutality, and the fact that Ramsey was a child beauty queen whose persona contrasted starkly with the nature of the killing.
Ramsey suffered a fractured skull, was asphyxiated with a garotte, and was sexually assaulted, the Boulder County Coroner determined, after her body was discovered in the basement of her home on Dec. 26, 1996.
“When you dress your child up, you might innocently attract a predator,” says an unnamed woman in a voiceover in the doc’s trailer, which raises questions of motivation for the crime. It started as a kidnapping with a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her return, and ended when Ramsey’s body was discovered a few hours later in the basement, according to family members and police.
“Was there an intruder, or was the family involved?” an unseen voice speculates in the trailer.
The Netflix documentary contains reports from The Rocky Mountain News and Boulder Daily Camera (as seen in the trailer) and other Colorado news media, although it was the national tabloids that pushed the most scandalous conspiracies and lied about the Ramsey family’s past, according to interview subjects. Charlie Brennan, a former reporter and now part-time editor at the Daily Camera, will also be featured in the documentary, according to the Camera.
“Cold Case” contains dozens of new interviews as well as TV footage, home movies, police calls, and other media that approached the story from various angles, with suspects (including the Ramsey family members) and theories being developed, dismissed and reconsidered as police and residents look for answers. Boulder Police and the news media are criticized heavily for mishandling and tainting evidence, and the investigation at large, as well as pushing false information.
“If this case is ever going to be solved, we might be looking at the best chance right now,” says a male voice in the trailer. “We’ve been ruling people out for the wrong reasons. Everybody needs to be back on the table. We have to go deeper.”
Boulder police in 2023 said the Colorado Cold Case Review Team had finished digitalizing evidence and completed review of all related items in the case, the Camera reported. DNA testing continues to be a focal point, officials said.
The new documentary is not the only JonBenet media arriving on streaming services, and it’s just the latest in a long line of such projects. The 2016 show “Getting Away with Murder” and Netflix’s 2017 experiment “Casting JonBenét” were the latest notable ones, at least until September when Paramount+ said it’s producing a new streaming TV series based on the unsolved murder to mark the 30th anniversary of her killing, will star Melissa McCarthy as JonBenét’s mother, Patsy, and Clive Owen as her father, John.
On Oct. 2, the “Cold Case Live” show (no relation to Netflix) also visited the Boulder Theater for a stage show about the murder and serial killer crimes.
Agencies must address the growing problem of unresolved criminal cases
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