So I just read you the the full statement
from Boulder police for just generally what,
what's your what's your first take on it?
Well, they're their statement.
In a way, if you just condense it,
it's like what they put out before.
We're doing everything we can.
We're trying really hard.
Thank you very much and.
I didn't hear any positive action
steps being taken other than a
cold case review in the year 2023.
I do disagree on what I know and read about
the amount of DNA available to be sampled.
There's a recent article that I
saw today about a old case that
was solved by outside people that,
you know, really experts in this stuff.
With what they described as a Nats
amount of DNA evidence, there was very,
very little and it was an old, old case.
That's what needs to be done here.
You know, we, the FBI told us
months ago that they don't have,
the government does not have the latest
technology to do this kind of work.
It's available in a few private labs that
are cutting edge labs in the whole DNA world.
Someday the government will have it,
but they don't have it today, so.
That's where this has to go are these
few really expert cutting edge DNA labs.
And turn them loose.
And they're willing to do it,
and they're eager to do it.
But until that happens,
this probably is not going to go anywhere.
I just want to be clear you would like?
The DNA, whatever is left of it,
but you would like whatever is left of
the DNA evidence to be tested. Right now
we know based on what we have
heard and and are aware of.
There's 456 items taken from the
crime scene initially that were
never tested for DNA sampling.
They were sent to the DNA
lab body labs back in 1997.
And returned. They were not tested.
They tested a few of the samples,
but not all of them.
Why they didn't test them all, I don't know.
Was it a money issue?
I don't know. But they didn't.
They sent those five or six samples back,
which at the time they suspected
would have some DNA information
on them because they were taking,
you know, right from the crime scene.
Why aren't those being tested they
should be right now there's waiting
for the next generation of DNA
technology is is silly you know
we're going to wait another 25 years.
No it's out there it's being done
successfully and say the Colorado Denver
police I believe it's all the recent
cold case using this technology where
you you not only get you know a valid
DNA sample using very minute amounts of.
Available sample.
Then you go to the family genealogy database,
the public DNA database which
has millions of sample in it.
I put mine in just to see what my
what MyHeritage was my wife did.
And you basically and what were the
successes come from that is they then?
Find a similar person out there in the world.
And do a basically reverse family tree.
And get back to hey,
they had three relatives in Boulder in 1996.
Let's look at those three people.
And they solved.
The Golden State killer in California was
the first to solve that using that technique,
the FBI CODIS database. Is only.
It's a limited amount of information.
People in the database.
It's felons. It's a ******.
Some states don't submit.
DNA samples to the code of database at all.
Some states one state,
and I don't remember which one it was,
only submits the DNA of a felon after
they're released from prison. That's silly.
You know we take fingerprints.
When somebody's arrested for felony,
we ought to take DNA samples
and put them in the database.
But that's not,
that doesn't happen universally in our
country. The public database is huge.
It's a lot of work, I have no doubt.
But that's what needs to be done.
What what about the argument that
if they tested that, what about
the argument that they don't want
to destroy what remains of the DNA
evidence by testing it right now? Well,
yeah, I understand that argument,
and I don't know enough about it to
know if that's a valid argument.
I should I just trust that it is?
But if there's 456 sample
items have never been tested,
those ought to be looked at first.
Is there is there valid DNA
information that could be extracted
from those samples from those items?
Why we don't do that is beyond me and less.
And I worry that about this,
that they've either lost
or misplaced those items.
Don't know. But why in the world
you wouldn't test them now,
given that the technology has advanced
dramatically in 25 years is is.
I don't understand that.
What? When's the last conversation
you had with somebody, boulder police
or the DA's office, about this issue?
I don't know that I've ever had a boulder.
Police have never contacted me,
nor has the DA's office.
The last meeting and conversation
I had with the builder police was
probably three or four years ago.
I asked for a meeting with their new,
at that time Chief of police,
and I want to sit down.
And have a meeting. And he graciously
agreed to a meeting and I said,
look, you know, we've had a lot of.
Bad blood over the last.
1520 years, let's start a new chapter.
We've got to solve this crime.
If you solve it, you'll hear nothing
but praise coming out of my mouth.
I'm not going to criticize you for the past.
And that's the last conversation I've
ever had with the Boulder police.
That, and that was my I initiated it
so they do not communicate with me.
Would you want to talk to
the new chief, Chief Harold?
Sure.
But.
You know, it can't hurt, but I don't
know that I would expect any progress.
Were you are you curious about sort of
the timing of this press release that's
well I think the anniversary or it's
just sort of seemed to come out of the
blue and they didn't really say no.
I think you know I had written a letter
to Governor Polis and outlined the
things that hadn't been done and and for
which I do criticize the police for and
asked him to intervene to have these
samples tested at these cutting edge
labs and then go to the the the general.
Public genealogy database.
And start a search that way.
And I asked him to do whatever
he can to make that happen.
And this, this press release seemed
to address all the issues that I said
needed to be done so they could say, well,
we told you we're doing them, you know.
Thank you very much.
Did you ever hear back
from the governor's office?
I have not yet, no.
And that was maybe a month ago.
I sent the letter and I realized he was
dealing with the election and all that.
So, but I you know it,
it all I'm asking him to do is ensure
that the authorities the government.
Are are doing all that can be
done and doing the right thing?
Period. Do what can be done
and do what's right to do it.
Don't just. Hope someday somebody's
going to call and say, oh,
I know who killed John Benet, and OK,
well, come on and we'll talk to you.
That's not going to happen.
Hadn't happened in 26 years.
Let's do what?
We know.
Based on previous success stories and there's
been a couple dozen them that I know of.
Of using this approach and
been wildly successful.
They've solved old old cold cases.
And they really the interesting
thing is that the the.
The killer that they eventually
identified and arrested and
convicted was not on anybody's radar.
The goal of say killer was a former cop.
He wouldn't ever considered a suspect.
And here that was like a 40 year old case
that they solved using this approach.
And did you?
So I just want to be clear,
you weren't asking the governor's
office or to take over the
investigation just to ensure that
the OR where you tell me could you,
could you share that letter with
me by any chance? I will.
Yeah, I'd be happy to.
I don't remember exactly how I phrased it,
but basically make it happen.
This needs to happen.
The Boulder police have been
they've refused help from
outside from the beginning.
Lots of help was offered,
lots of qualified experiences.
Help was offered.
They refused it and continued
to do so to this day. So my.
Frustration and expectation is that they
would continue to to refuse outside help.
That's the only way this
case is going to be solved.
Got you. Basically the letter.
Was asking the governor to make
sure that that that the evidence
was being tested to make it happen,
make it happen, yeah.
This minute it'll be 26 years
now and if you in a few weeks,
it's this time of year
still difficult for you. Not
anymore than any other time, no. The.
You know, Christmas Day for several years,
as we didn't have Christmas anymore,
it was just too difficult to deal with.
But we've, you know,
we do that now for the sake of our
kids and our grandchildren and.
But it's it's. It's tempered for sure.
And and how would you just in general,
how would you just describe your
feelings about this entire ordeal?
Well, you know, life's not fair,
and you sort of have to accept that.
And it certainly wasn't fair in this
case that the big disappointment for me.
Was the failure of the government,
the Police Department, to do their job?
And to continue to not do the job
and it's just really disappointing in
the overall structure of our system.
You know, how could that be?
And you want accountability,
but it's difficult if not impossible.
You know, I've said in the past
that the killer took away my
desire to live for a while.
The pain was just intense.
The the police and the media
took away my ability to live.
And to some degree that that's.
Lost forever. I lost my job,
you know, we our life savings
depleted and so forth. So.
And that was not a function of the killer.
It was a function of the police action
and information they put out that was
misleading and false and the media
picked it up and ran with it and.
Basically convicted us of the
Court of public opinion so
that that had lasting impact.
Do you think this case will ever be solved?
At the hands of the Boulder police.
No, I don't. I really don't.
And that's what Luke Smith told me.
Lou, was, you know this.
Highly respected detective that was
in Colorado brought out of retirement
to work on the case by the attorney.
And I'm I saw Lou just before he
died and even on his deathbed he was
saying we need to look at this guy
this suspect here this you know don't
forget that name and but he said.
You know, if this case stays there,
has the Boulder police there
probably will never be solved.
And that's first time I ever heard him
say probably not going to solve it.
He used to always say Tubby's John,
I'm going to get this guy,
I'm going to get him.
And he probably would have been
if he had lived, because he was.
When did he die? It was great.
1010 years ago, roughly 11 years
ago. Yeah, really. He was a wonderful man.
Just to just to he was a real detective.
I know. I'm very familiar with him.
Yeah, very modest fellow. And yeah, but I
remember. John Douglas, who started
the FBI Chrome private, said
he met Lou and talked to him. He said,
you know, if I've done something
wrong, I wouldn't want this guy on my tail.