In Case closed: JonBenét Ramsey (on Netflix November 25), Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentarian Joe Berlinger, 63, looks at the 1996 murder of JonBenét Ramsey. (There’s also an upcoming Paramount+ drama miniseries , JonBenét Ramsey, starring Melissa McCarthy, 54, and Clive Owen, 60, as JonBenét’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey).

JonBenét, 6, was a beauty pageant winner found strangled in her family’s basement in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996. The case became a tabloid sensation, and the Boulder police suspected her mother of having killed her and her father of covering it up. But Detective Lou Smit accused police of ignoring evidence that an intruder had done it and declared the Ramseys innocent. In 2008, a new DNA analysis exonerated them, and Boulder DA Mary Lacy apologized to the family.

Boulder police will not comment on the investigation, but Chief Steve Redfearn said, “We are committed to following every lead and continue to work with DNA experts and our law enforcement partners at across the country until this tragic case is resolved. “

Berlinger told AARP what he learned about the case and why he thinks the case could now be solved.

You’ve made successful documentaries about Hitler, Ghislaine Maxwell, Bernie Madoff and Ted Bundy, but this one is about people you think are falsely accused, right?

I specialize in wrongful conviction cases. My films helped get six people out of prison: Evaristo Salas, Curtis Flowers, Marty Tankleff and the West Memphis Three, subjects of Paradise Lost. I can’t think of another family that has been as brutalized by police ineptitude and media mismanagement as the Ramseys.

What inspired you to make the series decades after his death?

I discovered the work of Lou Smit, an incredible investigator.