When does "Intruder Theory" become intruder fact in the JonBenet Ramsey case?

According to Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy, that time has come, based on a recent DNA examination of "long johns" or leggings that the murdered 6-year-old was wearing at the time her body was found.

Using a relatively new DNA "touch" technology, which seeks to develop the genetic profile of an individual from an object merely handled, a laboratory in Virginia matched skin cells scraped off both sides of the waistband of the garment to previously analyzed but still unidentified male DNA found mixed with a spot of the child's blood on her panties.

This is a finding of extreme significance, as it suggests, when considered with other forensic evidence, that an unknown male removed the leggings, sexually assaulted JonBenet, and then pulled them back into place.

The DNA evidence has long been the subject of controversy. The DNA analyzed from her underwear in 1999 could not be matched to previously analyzed but badly degraded DNA found under JonBenet's fingernails two years earlier.

Those who continue to profess a belief in John or Patsy Ramsey's culpability in the homicide have consistently minimized the importance of the DNA evidence for that reason, and have advanced a number of arguments to explain away myriad other evidence pointing to the murder having been committed by an outside intruder.

That evidence includes the apparent use of a stun gun on the child; unidentified shoe and palm prints inside the home; a broken basement window and a disturbed window well, with material from that window well found in the room where her body was discovered; unidentified hair and fiber on the child, her clothing and the blanket covering her; duct tape used to silence JonBenet, a source for which was not found in the home; and a missing portion of a paintbrush handle, which investigators believe was used to strangle her.

Viewed objectively, there can be little question but that JonBenet was killed by an intruder, not yet identified, whose DNA profile has not yet made it into the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, the national electronic DNA database.

While every passing day makes it less likely the case will be solved, the genetic profile of JonBenet's killer in the CODIS database at least leaves open the possibility that justice will someday be done.

In the meantime, the Boulder County district attorney has now decided to formally clear the entire Ramsey family from involvement in the crime, a decision fully justified by the evidence.

It is now clear that John and Patsy Ramsey were not only the victims of a horrible, unimaginable crime which took their daughter from them but were then victimized again, being subjected to the monstrous accusation that one or both of them was involved in the murder.

Adding insult to injury indeed.

Doubtless those who have been firmly committed to the Ramseys' guilt in the past, among them talk- show hosts, a former Boulder police detective, and certain politicians, will still cling to their arguments - still somehow finding no reason to let the facts get in the way of a perfectly good theory.

Scott Robinson is a Denver trial lawyer specializing in personal injury and criminal defense.