JonBenét Ramsey DNA Bombshell: Former Analyst Pleads Guilty

Nearly three decades after 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found murdered in her family’s Boulder, Colorado, home, the case has been pulled back into the spotlight by a stunning DNA scandal involving a former state forensic scientist.

Yvonne “Missy” Woods, a longtime DNA analyst for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, has pleaded guilty to multiple charges tied to mishandled evidence, raising new questions about thousands of criminal cases she worked on during her nearly 30-year career.

For JonBenét’s father, John Ramsey, the news is another painful reminder of what he has long described as a deeply flawed investigation into his daughter’s murder.

Woods, who resigned from the CBI in 2023, pleaded guilty to committing a cybercrime, perjury, attempting to influence a public servant and forgery. As part of the plea deal, 100 other counts were dismissed.

Authorities have accused Woods of altering DNA data to cover up tampering and deleting information from cases she handled. She is believed to have worked on more than 10,000 cases during her time with the CBI, and investigators have alleged information was deleted in roughly 10 percent of those cases.

The investigation into Woods began in 2023 after an intern at the CBI discovered missing information in a case Woods had handled back in 2018. She is scheduled to be sentenced in September and could face up to 16 years in prison.

While officials say Woods’ poor handling of DNA evidence dates back to 2008, she was also a member of the CBI forensic team during the 1996 investigation into JonBenét’s murder. At this time, there is no evidence that Woods tampered with DNA evidence in the Ramsey case.

Still, the connection has rattled those who have followed the case for years.

JonBenét was found dead in the basement of her parents’ home on Dec. 26, 1996, the day after Christmas. Five days after the killing, evidence from the crime scene was sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for testing.

According to a source cited by RadarOnline.com, the CBI tested several items connected to the case, including JonBenét’s underwear and long johns, blood samples, fingernail clippings, hair, duct tape that had been placed over her mouth and other pieces of evidence.

“The DNA evidence collected after the murder went directly to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation because the Boulder police did not want to share it with the FBI — not until they had to later,” the insider claimed.

After Woods’ plea, John Ramsey spoke with NewsNation and said the family had long known that not every item from the crime scene was tested.

“We did know that a number of items from the crime scene were sent in for testing, and a number were not tested,” John said.

He added, “We always kind of wondered why. I mean, items that should have been sampled, but they weren’t. I don’t know whether it was a cost issue or they already found unidentified male DNA, so why go any further?”

For years, John has accused the Boulder Police Department of mishandling the investigation. He has also pushed for investigators to use newer DNA technology, including forensic genetic genealogy, in the hope of finally identifying the person responsible for his daughter’s death.

John has even said he would help raise money to cover the cost of sending DNA evidence to an outside lab that specializes in the advanced technique.

“We’ve advocated for a year almost that we use forensic genetic genealogy, FGG, which is kind of the latest tool that’s out there,” he said. “You have to go to an outside lab, but it’s got to be one that knows how to do it.”

The Woods scandal has also surfaced in another Boulder murder case.

In 2025, attorney Adam Frank, who represented Michael Clark in the 1994 killing of Marty Grisham in Boulder, argued there were serious mistakes in both Clark’s case and the JonBenét investigation. Frank claimed investigators at the time were “woefully incompetent” and had “committed colossal” mistakes.

Although Frank’s request to review police files was denied, Clark’s conviction in Grisham’s murder was vacated by a judge in April after he spent 12 years behind bars. Woods’ involvement in Clark’s 2012 trial was one of the factors connected to the case’s unraveling.

The latest development is another heartbreaking turn in a murder mystery that has haunted America since the 1990s.

JonBenét’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, died of ovarian cancer in 2006 without ever knowing who killed her daughter. Earlier this year, Dr. Henry Lee, the forensic pathologist who searched for DNA evidence during the early stages of the Ramsey investigation, died at age 87.

Now, with Woods facing prison and thousands of cases under fresh scrutiny, John Ramsey is once again demanding answers in the case that shattered his family and continues to grip the nation nearly 30 years later.