JonBenét Ramsey's father reveals huge breakthrough in hunt for man who tortured and killed the six-year-old

Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.

JonBenét Ramsey's father has revealed a breakthrough in the hunt for the person who killed his six-year-old daughter almost 30 years ago.

JonBenét was found dead in her family home in Colorado on Boxing Day, 1996, having been strangled and sexually assaulted.

To this day, the identity of her killer is still unknown, but the case received new attention in the wake of Netflix's true crime docuseries Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey.

At the time of her death, JonBenét's parents and even her nine-year-old brother were treated as the main suspects behind the crime, but in 2008, they were publicly cleared by the police due to new DNA evidence - two years after JonBenét's mother, Patsy Ramsey, passed away.

Now, JonBenét's father, John Ramsey, has spoken about two breakthroughs in the hunt for the person who committed the horrendous crime.

Not only has the FBI now become involved in the case, but one of the original detectives - who John described as a 'roadblock' - has now retired.

"Then they brought in a new chief of police [from outside the Boulder police department], that was huge. We’ve got a good relationship with him and we’re communicating," he told the Daily Mail.

"We’re asking him, begging him really, to use the latest technology to do more testing on the unidentified male DNA and get it in a format that can be used in the public genealogy database."

The Ramsey family were treated as suspects but later cleared by police (Netflix)

John continued: "... [The FBI have] a profile of the killer and I think it’s a good one. They said this is probably someone who was in his 20s or 30s, infatuated with movies.

"... They also said this was not about JonBenét, but somebody who wanted to hurt me. They were either angry or jealous of me.

"I told the agents that I can’t imagine I made anybody that angry, and the FBI said I might not even have known him.

"The other pieces of their profile was that the ransom note was obviously written by a psychopath, without any emotions like a normal human being, and he would have exhibited sadistic behaviour in the past. That just didn’t pop up all of a sudden in his character."

John Ramsey has spoken about new developments (Netflix)

Meanwhile, John recently received a letter from a woman claiming that her ex-husband murdered his daughter, but his attempts to contact her for further information have been difficult.

He explained: "Based on all this publicity, recently I got a letter from a lady saying, 'My ex-husband’s the killer, and I’ve kept this inside for as long as I can - please, please call me'.

"We reached out to her, but she didn’t answer the phone, so I don’t know. We’ve shared at this point with a private investigator."

The investigation has encountered previous false confessions, including from someone who claimed that he would turn himself in but needed money to afford the plane tickets for his family.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence regarding the welfare of a child, contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000, 10am-8pm Monday to Friday. If you are a child seeking advice and support, call Childline for free on 0800 1111, 24/7.