Advances in DNA technology and growing public interest are rekindling hope for a breakthrough in the long-unsolved murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, a case that has remained an eerie mystery for nearly 28 years.

As new techniques emerge and new attention is brought to the evidence, many are eager for answers that could finally put an end to this tragic story.

JonBenet, who was found dead in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home in 1996, remains frozen in time. Her father, John Ramsey, has endured nearly three decades without justice, answers or his daughter.

“JonBenet is still my 6-year-old blonde daughter, who I love very much,” Ramsey told ABC News. “I met one of her little friends on the street who is now, you know, 30 and grown up. And it was a bit of a shock. This little girl played with JonBenet at our house all the time.” . And that was a little jolt to think, wow, that could have been JonBenet.

Watch the full story in the “20/20” episode “Forever Young: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?” featuring a new interview with John Ramsey and never-before-seen footage from the iconic Barbara Walters interview with parents John and Patsy Ramsey.

Ramsey, now 81, has new hope that his daughter’s killer can finally be found. He is confident that advances in DNA technology, including genetic genealogy, which has helped solve several high-profile cold cases, are key to solving this mystery.

“Let’s do a reverse family tree and see if he had a relative living in Boulder in 1996. The interesting thing about these cold cases,” Ramsey said. “The final first arrest came out of nowhere. They weren’t on anyone’s radar. They committed this terrible crime and no one said this guy was a suspect. That’s what we ask the police to do.”

Over the years, Ramsey expressed frustration that police had not solved his daughter’s case. He was unhappy that he had been a prime suspect for 12 years and that the department had rejected offers of help in finding useful evidence. He recently appeared in the new Netflix documentary series “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?” The series delves into the lingering mysteries surrounding the tragic case, examining evidence, interviews and theories that have emerged over the years.

Ramsey worked with director Joe Berlinger, who wanted to shed light on what he described as one of the most victimized families in American history.

“Obviously he wasn’t legally convicted, but he was wrongfully convicted,” Berlinger said. “And his wife Patsy – the family was wrongfully convicted in the court of public opinion.”

The popular documentaries sparked a new wave of interest among viewers.

Ramsey is hopeful that recent changes in leadership at the Boulder Police Department and better communication with his family can lead to a solution to the case.

Boulder police are handling the latest investigation. Last month, the current police chief released a video statement.

“There have been a lot of changes in the way law enforcement works in the last 30 years,” said Stephen Redfearn. “There are a number of things that people have pointed out over the years that could have been done better and we recognize that as true. However, it is important to emphasize that while we cannot return to that terrible day in 1996, our goal is to find JonBenet Ramsey’s murderer.

That tragic day in 1996 began in the picturesque Boulder neighborhood where the Ramsey family lived. On December 26, John and Patsy Ramsey woke up to find JonBenét, a child beauty queen, missing.

A handwritten ransom note was discovered on the kitchen stairs demanding $118,000 – the exact amount of John’s bonus that year. Seven hours later, John found his daughter’s lifeless body in a small basement room.

An autopsy revealed that JonBenet had been sexually assaulted and strangled and her skull was fractured. Unknown DNA was found under her fingernails and in her underwear.

The Ramseys quickly became suspects, even though there was no evidence linking them to the crime.

The family has always denied any involvement in JonBenet’s murder. But it took the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office 12 years to fully exonerate the Ramseys and their son Burke, who was 9 when his sister died.

As weeks passed with no arrests made in the case, a media frenzy began to develop, fueled by relentless tabloid images of JonBenet’s participation in beauty pageants.

A number of clues emerged, including a man named John Mark Karr who confessed to the murder in 2006. However, his DNA did not match the evidence and he was not in Boulder at the time of the murder, eliminating him as a suspect. The case remained unsolved.

John Ramsey believes there is still a cloud hanging over his family as he believes there are people in the country who believe he and his late wife Patsy, who died in 2006, were responsible for JonBenet’s murder.

Investigator Lou Smit, who was originally brought into the case by Boulder County District Attorney Alex Hunter, became convinced early in his investigation that the Ramseys were innocent. He believed that the police should investigate the possibility of an intruder.

“I’m not saying parents don’t kill their children…parents kill their children,” Smit said in his tapes. “But (police) are trying to say Patsy did it. …Your actions before, during and after (JonBenet’s death) are all consistent with innocent people. … They didn’t do it.”

As the investigation progressed, Smit became increasingly concerned that authorities had completely ruled out the possibility that an intruder could be responsible for JonBenet’s death. Therefore, they did not look for evidence to support this possibility.

Smit further claimed that an unknown intruder was responsible for JonBenet’s murder. However, due to his colon cancer diagnosis in 2010, he ran out of time.

Before Smit died on August 11 of that year, he diligently compiled a detailed list of people of interest in the hope that his years of investigative work would eventually pay off. Smit passed his files on to his surviving children, including a spreadsheet with 887 names of potential suspects to investigate.

The list is extensive, but Smit’s family is determined to continue their search. According to Smit’s granddaughter Jessa Van Der Woerd, the team has removed several people from that list since his death. However, due to the time and cost of locating each person, obtaining their DNA and testing it, the process is slow.

“We let the killer go for more than 28 years,” John Ramsey said. “I think it is imperative that we investigate every credible suspect that is made available.”