DA considers reopening JonBenet case

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BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The new district attorney of Boulder County, Colo., says he plans to take a fresh look at the investigation into the 1996 slaying of JonBenet Ramsey.

District Attorney Stan Garnett said he wants to decide during his first 30 days in office whether the case should be returned to Boulder police for further investigation, CNN reported Monday.

"I'm trying to determine whether it's efficient to have the ongoing investigation handled by my office or somebody else," said Garnett, who took office Tuesday.

CNN reported that authorities receive tips and information regularly about the 6-year-old's death.

On December 26, 1996, John Ramsey discovered the body of JonBenet in the basement of the family's Boulder home. She had been strangled and beaten.

Boulder police said early in the case that JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were under "an umbrella of suspicion" in her death. The couple was never formally named as suspects, and a grand jury refused to indict them.

In July, then-District Attorney Mary Lacy issued a public apology for the suspicion surrounding the Ramsey family after a DNA test performed using new technology showed that DNA found on JonBenet's underwear and under her fingernails belonged to an unidentified man.