COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — More than 28 years have passed since the murder of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey in Boulder, and there’s still no person of interest, but the daughter of one of the investigators is determined to keep working the case.
Cindy Marra's father was former Colorado Springs investigator Lou Smit, who passed away of cancer in 2010. Marra is a paralegal at a Colorado Springs law firm and is working off the spreadsheet Smit developed when he was brought out of retirement to help work the JonBenét Ramsey murder case. Smit believed an intruder broke into the Ramsey home in Boulder in December of 1996, and murdered the young girl.
“We have been able to eliminate from our list probably 25 people based on DNA,” Marra said.
That is 25 names from a list of hundreds. It’s a task Marra calls tedious.
“We decided the best thing we could do is work off the spreadsheet he developed that had listed over 600 names and pieces of evidence that he thought were important to this case,” she said. “... He just implored on everybody who would come to see him: 'Please don’t let this die.'"
Marra made it her mission to fulfill her dad’s dying wish.
“I don’t think I would have done this for anybody else,” she said.
Retired Colorado Springs homicide detective and former El Paso County Sheriff John Anderson, who worked with Smit for many years, is part of a team of about a half dozen people helping Marra. Their work is separate from the Boulder Police Department's.
Since a popular Netflix docuseries detailing JonBenét’s murder came out in November of 2024, Anderson said they have received several new leads.
“We were able to contact several people, get DNA through several means, and eliminated a couple more people. Not all of those people were on Lou’s list,” Anderson said.
Marra’s team compares collected DNA to the DNA that was found under JonBenét’s fingernails and on her underwear when she was murdered. That DNA belonged to an unidentified male that didn’t match any of JonBenét’s family members.
Marra said her team has shared information with Boulder police over the years. However, Anderson said police have always been somewhat resistant to them.
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“They told us right from the very beginning, this is going to be a one-way street, and it has been,” he explained.
But he's hopeful that will change, especially afterJonBenét’s father John Ramsey met with Boulder's new Police Chief Stephen Redfearn in January, pushing for DNA to be tested and re-tested using genetic genealogy.
In January 2025, John Ramsey, told Denver7 he's feeling encouraged after meeting Boulder's new police chief for the first time. Watch our report below.
Marra said she had not tried reaching out to Redfearn.
“We would be interested in doing that," she said. "I think we are just kind of waiting to see what happens with John Ramsey’s meeting with the chief and what may become of that. If they would do what they can do, what we hope that they will do, then it’s definitely going to be a lot faster than our method.”
Marra believes a break in the case could come at any moment and she remains as determined as ever to find JonBenét’s killer.
The independent work comes with a hefty price tag and her team created a GoFundMe asking for support.
