Police find JonBenet evidence nearly two years after slaying

BOULDER, Colo. -- A newly released court document shows a DNA sample was discovered nearly two years after JonBenet Ramsey's slaying.

The document, released this week, is a 192-page transcript of Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner's deposition in a civil case involving the 6-year-old girl's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey.

The sample was discovered sometime after September 1998, when a Boulder County grand jury convened to investigate the December 1996 slaying.

It is unclear where the DNA was discovered, but Beckner said it did not come from JonBenet's body or clothing, where previously disclosed DNA was found.

When asked Friday whether the DNA had been matched to anyone, Beckner declined to comment, citing his department's policy of not speaking publicly about the case.

The deposition was taken in Boulder in November 2001 by Atlanta attorney L. Lin Wood. Wood represents the Ramseys in a multimillion-dollar libel suit brought by Robert Christian Wolf, a former Boulder journalist whom the Ramseys identified as a suspect their book, "The Death of Innocence."

Former prosecutor Michael Kane, who ran the 13-month grand jury investigation that ended without an indictment, declined to discuss the case.

JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her parents' home on Dec. 26, 1996.

Unmatched DNA found beneath JonBenet's fingernails and inside her underwear has long stumped detectives. That genetic material does not match of that family members including her parents, who police have said are under suspicion in their daughter's death.

The Ramseys, who have maintained their innocence, have never been charged.