Police are investigating the murder of a child beauty pageant star with a new squad of experts enlisted in the hopes of cracking the 1996 cold case.
The Boulder Police Department said it was partnering up with the Colorado Cold Case Review Team to continue digging for answers, ahead of the 26th anniversary of the 6-year-old's mysterious death.
Little JonBenét Ramsey was just six when she was strangled and bludgeoned to death on Christmas Night in 1996.
The brutal killing of the tiny beauty queen has gripped the world ever since her small body was found in the basement of her family home after she had been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted.
Her mother found a bizarre ransom note demanding $118,000 (£100,000) in exchange for the girl.
More than 20 years have passed but no one has ever been charged with little JonBenét murder.
A statement released by the police department on Wednesday said: “Since JonBenét’s murder, detectives have investigated leads stemming from more than 21,000 tips, letters, and emails.
"We have travelled to 19 states to interview or speak with more than 1,000 individuals."
The only people known to be in the home at the time of JonBenét’s death had been John, Patsy and her brother Burke, who at the time was 9.
The note had appeared to have been written by JonBenét’s mother Patsy.
Both parents fell under intense allegations that they killed their own daughter before staging the scene, or helped cover up a murder committed by her brother.
They were cleared of any involvement in 2008 with the help of DNA technology.
Sadly, her mum, Patsy, had died two years before the family were cleared. She was just 49.
No one has ever been charged with the crime, despite DNA being found at the scene which didn't belong to anyone in the family.
With all of JonBenet’s family cleared of her murder, another possible explanation was that an intruder forced entry into their house and carried out the killing without anyone hearing the horrific crime take place.
JonBenet's dad, John, said he had broken a window into the basement at some point before the murder as he was locked out of the house.
Boulder Police Department initially ruled out anyone gaining entry through this window.
But on the other side of that broken window was a suitcase, where police found a footprint.
It's thought that an intruder could have possibly stepped on the suitcase to get back out of the window, leaving the footprint behind.
In addition to working with the cold case team, the Boulder Police Department would partner with private DNA labs in reviewing the case, the New York Post reports.
The cold case team, made up of professional investigative analytical and forensic experts, has been dubbed by police as "another tool to help further cold case homicide investigations.
“This crime has left a hole in the hearts of many, and we will never stop investigating until we find JonBenét’s killer,” Police Chief Maris Herold said on Wednesday.
“That includes following up on every lead and working with our policing partners and DNA experts around the country to solve this tragic case. This investigation has always been and will continue to be a priority for the Boulder Police Department.”
On Wednesday, JonBenét’s half-brother, John Andrew Ramsey, who was 23 and not in Colorado at the time of her death, called the police update "interesting", adding that it was "forward progress".
"More work has to be done to catch a killer but it can be done," he said.
