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JonBenét Ramsey Detective Dies Suddenly

Tom Haney Jr. assisted in trying to solve the 1996 murder of the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Former Denver Police homicide investigator Tom Haney Jr., who aided in the 1996 murder case of 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenét Ramsey, died suddenly during a golf outing with friends. He was 77. Haney began his career with the Denver Police Department in 1968, where he rose to the position of Denver Police Division Chief before retiring in 1997. But he continued to serve as a chief investigator for the Denver District Attorney’s Office. In 1998, he was tapped to help with the Ramsey murder case. Two years prior, in December 1996, JonBenét was found murdered in her family’s Boulder, Colorado home. For almost three days, Haney interviewed the 6-year-old’s mother, Patsy Ramsey. “You want to solve it for this baby,” Haney said in an interview. Former prosecutor Mike Kane, who worked alongside him, said Haney “spent a lot of time preparing” for that interview. The case remains unsolved, and the DNA evidence found on JonBenét didn’t match her parents or any other family member. A funeral for Haney, who died August 19, is scheduled at St. Dominic Catholic Church in Denver on Thursday.