Netflix’s JonBenét Doc: Berlinger’s Bold Claim to Crack America’s Darkest Cold Case

BOULDER, Colo. – October 15, 2025 – The specter of a child’s sequined smile haunts America’s conscience, and now, 29 years after JonBenét Ramsey’s murder, a cinematic titan is vowing to pierce the veil. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger, the mastermind behind Netflix’s Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey?, premiering November 25, is “firmly convinced” the killer can be caught. In a three-part docuseries, Berlinger – renowned for Paradise Lost and Conversations with a Killer – dissects the 1996 slaying of the six-year-old pageant star with surgical precision, wielding unseen evidence and advanced DNA tech to challenge a probe he calls “tragically incompetent.” Speaking to Variety, he declared, “This case isn’t a mystery – it’s a failure. The truth is within reach.”

On December 26, 1996, in Boulder’s affluent Chautauqua neighborhood, the Ramsey family’s Tudor mansion became a crime scene that would grip the globe. JonBenét, a glitter-dusted darling of child pageants, was reported missing after her mother, Patsy, 42, found a 2½-page ransom note on their spiral staircase. Scrawled in Patsy’s Sharpie on a family notepad, it demanded $118,000 – a sum mirroring John Ramsey’s Access Graphics bonus – and threatened death if instructions weren’t followed. A frantic 911 call at 5:52 a.m. summoned Boulder PD, but chaos reigned: friends flooded the home, police failed to seal the scene, and eight hours later, John, then 53, discovered JonBenét’s body in the basement wine cellar. Strangled with a garrote made from Patsy’s paintbrush, her skull fractured by a blow, wrists bound, and duct tape over her mouth, she bore signs of sexual assault. Unidentified male DNA on her long johns and underwear screamed intruder, yet police fixated on the family, a misstep Berlinger’s series brands “catastrophic.”

Cold Case, spanning 150 minutes, is a deep dive into America’s most infamous unsolved murder. Episode 1, “The Night That Shattered,” reconstructs the horror: JonBenét, fresh from a Christmas Eve party, likely ate pineapple from a kitchen bowl – a detail unexplained by the family. Berlinger, granted exclusive access to John Ramsey, 82, and half-brother John Andrew, 49, interweaves home videos of JonBenét twirling in rhinestone gowns with chilling crime-scene stills. “The police saw wealth, pageants, and assumed deception,” Berlinger told The Hollywood Reporter. “They ignored hard evidence – a broken basement window, a hi-tec boot print, a suitcase staged for escape.” The director is unequivocal: “I’m firmly convinced the family’s innocent. The intruder theory isn’t a hunch – it’s fact.”

Episode 2, “A Probe in Peril,” exposes Boulder PD’s blunders. With no homicide unit, officers mishandled evidence; a 2024 CBI audit revealed lost fibers and untested swabs. Detective Lou Smit, hired by DA Alex Hunter in 1997, emerges as the film’s hero, resigning in 2000 over a “biased” investigation that “railroaded” the Ramseys. His findings – a palm print on the cellar door, unmatched rope fibers – bolster Berlinger’s case for an outsider. Yet, leaks fueled tabloid frenzy: Globe and National Enquirer branded Patsy a “stage mom killer,” citing handwriting similarities (never confirmed). A 1997 grand jury voted to indict John and Patsy for child endangerment, but Hunter declined, citing weak evidence. “The media convicted us,” John Ramsey tells Berlinger, his voice raw. “We lost JonBenét, then our dignity.”

Episode 3, “DNA’s Promise,” is Berlinger’s clarion call. He spotlights Othram Labs’ genetic genealogy, which could trace the mystery DNA to a suspect’s lineage, as it did in the 2018 Golden State Killer case. John Ramsey, gaunt but defiant, pleads on camera: “Boulder PD has the tools – use them. My daughter’s not a headline; she’s a life stolen.” The series reveals a 2023 CBI push to retest the garrote, duct tape, and basement debris, with early matches to a 1997 palm print hinting at a transient worker seen near the home. “This isn’t a cold case – it’s a hot one,” Berlinger insists, urging public pressure via a Colorado “Cold Case Family Rights Act” petition, now at 25,000 signatures.

The docuseries, projected to hit 70 million streaming hours per Netflix’s Dahmer precedent, is a cultural lightning rod. X buzzes with #JonBenetJustice, amassing 4 million posts; fans share glittery pageant clips, while r/JonBenetRamsey’s 65,000 users debate “family guilt” theories, citing the ransom note’s odd specificity. IndieWire praises Berlinger’s “unflinching lens,” but critics like Slate call it “intruder-biased,” noting unaddressed inconsistencies, like the pineapple’s timeline. Berlinger counters: “The DNA doesn’t lie – it’s male, it’s foreign, it’s the answer.”

For John Ramsey, widowed since Patsy’s 2006 death and remarried in 2011, the film is a last stand. “She’d be 35, maybe a dancer, a mom,” he muses, clutching a faded crown at a Denver screening. Burke, 38, a Michigan dad, skips the spotlight, scarred by a 2016 CBS smear settled for $750,000. As November 25 nears, Boulder DA Michael Dougherty vows “renewed vigor,” but Berlinger’s mission is clear: “This case can be solved. It must be – for JonBenét.” In a saga of sparkle and sorrow, one filmmaker’s conviction could light the path to justice.