Justice for tragic child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is “fading away” after the legendary homicide investigator who pursued her killer since her shocking 1996 death case died last month — making him the latest in a line of people involved in the still-unsolved mystery to perish.
Tom Haney Jr., the hard-boiled Denver Police Department detective brought in to interrogate and unsuccessfully elicit a confession from grieving mom Patsy Ramsey, suddenly died Aug. 19 at 77 while playing golf with pals, according to CBS News Colorado.
Haney joins a growing list of witnesses, investigators and persons of interest who have succumbed since the 6-year-old pageant princess was snatched from her Boulder, Colo., bed, sexually abused, then bludgeoned and garroted on Christmas Day 1996 in a crime that shook the country.
“These people are dying and justice is just fading away,” an expert JonBenét investigator tells Globe. “With all these witnesses dying they are going to have a tough time prosecuting this case if and when they make an arrest.”
Among the dead are JonBenét’s mom, Patsy, who died of ovarian cancer in 2006; retired detective Lou Smit, who was hired by the tragic child’s dad, John Ramsey, to investigate the case and died in 2010; and Bill McReynolds, a close family friend and person of interest, who died in 2002…