INVESTIGATORS IN THE JONBENET RAMSEY MURDER HOPE NEW EVIDENCE WILL LEAD TO A BREAK IN THE CASE ON "48 HOURS MYSTERY," SATURDAY, DEC. 18

New evidence that investigators hope will lead to a break in the almost eight-year-old unsolved murder case of JonBenet Ramsey is reported by correspondent Erin Moriarty for 48 HOURS MYSTERY: "JonBenet: Prime Suspects," to be broadcast Saturday, Dec. 18 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

Private investigators John San Augustin and Ollie Gray have been working on the Ramsey case since 1999. San Augustin says, "We've gained more information in the last year than probably the prior four or five years. It's now a whole new era of the JonBenet Ramsey case. We now have evidence that will tell you who the killer is." San Augustin adds, "What we found was that there were specific DNA samples that pointed to somebody other than the Ramseys." Ramsey's parents, Jon and Patsy, have always proclaimed their innocence.

Greg LaBerge of Denver's police crime lab for forensics says, "I was able to develop a genetic profile that came from a male that was not associated with the case." Investigators San Augustin and Gray say there is strong evidence the killer may have had an accomplice -- largely based on two different boot prints found in the Ramsey's basement -- and may have tried to kill again.

Private investigator Pete Peterson sees many parallels between the Ramsey case and that of another young girl who was attacked and sexually assaulted in the same area nine months later. Peterson, who's been working for the family of the girl, "Amy" (48 HOURS has agreed not to reveal her real name), says she attended the same dance school as Ramsey and that she, too, was attacked and sexually assaulted at night in her bedroom. Amy's mother awakened to scare the attacker away.

In silhouette for the broadcast, Amy's father says, "The first thing that occurred to us was that it was parallel to the Ramsey case because it was exactly the same situation." He continues, "When I told the police detectives about the information I had [following the attack], they were completely uninterested in it." In fact, the Boulder police dismissed any links to the Ramsey case and didn't bother to make a composite sketch of the intruder based on the mother's eyewitness description.

Peterson, who kept surveillance in the victims' community for weeks, noticed that groups of individuals, some with a history of burglary and theft, seemed to be casing the area. Peterson says he found that some of them had at one time worked at the Ramsey home.

The DNA collected from the crime scene, which appears to completely clear the Ramseys, is now being used to check out dozens of suspects who were ignored for years. 48 HOURS has learned that investigators are tracking down "people of interest" in the Ramsey case and demanding a DNA sample from their mouths.

48 HOURS MYSTERY: "JonBenet: Prime Suspects" is produced by Doug Longhini and Josh Gelman. The executive editor is Al Briganti and the executive producer is Susan Zirinsky.