BOULDER – The Boulder County district attorney is forming a cold case unit that will investigate unsolved homicides and missing person cases, including the 1996 death of 6-year-old beauty pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty says Boulder County has more than 30 homicide and missing person cases that remain unsolved a year or more after they were first reported.

The Daily Camera reported Sunday that the unit will look into cases for which the applicable statute of limitations hasn’t expired.

First-degree murder cases have no limitations.

Dougherty says Chief Trial Deputy Fred Johnson and senior investigator Gary Thatcher will serve on the unit in addition to their current responsibilities.

No additional staff will be hired.

Doughtery, a former candidate for state attorney general, will be on June’s primary ballot for his seat, state officials announced earlier this month. He’ll face state Rep. Mike Foote, D-Louisville.

In February Dougherty was appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper to replace Stan Garnett, who stepped down after a decade in office to take a job at his old law firm. Doughtery and Foote were the two finalists for the job. Because of the timing of the vacancy, there will be a special election in November to fill the remainder of Garnett’s four-year term, and the June primary will determine the Democratic nominee. No Republican has yet stepped forward to run for the seat.