Unless he has another brush with the law and a DNA sample is taken from him, JonBenet Ramsey's killer might never be caught.
Even worse, his DNA might already be in a police filing cabinet somewhere, still waiting, along with hundreds of thousands of genetic samples from felons across the United States, to be processed by a laboratory and entered into the national DNA databank.
The nation's DNA tracking system is beset with a huge backlog that could take years to clear.
"It's very, very frustrating because this tool is so powerful," said Norm Gahn, a Milwaukee prosecutor who helped pioneer the practice of filing charges against unidentified sex offenders based solely on their DNA profile.
Investigators in the JonBenet case said this week that tests on a few invisible skin cells have convinced them they have the DNA profile of the man who killed the 6-year-old beauty queen in her Boulder home in 1996. But so far they haven't found a match.
L. Lin Wood, an attorney for JonBenet's father, John, said he is confident someone will be arrested someday: "DNA will get the killer of JonBenet."
How long it might take depends on whether the killer has a brush with the law that would make him subject to a mandatory DNA test. It might also depend on how quickly state or local police - or an outside laboratory - can analyze the sample, extract the DNA profile and get it entered into the national databank.
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