The slaying of JonBenet Ramsey will be investigated as a cold case with all evidence and actions taken 12 years ago reviewed anew, the police chief said Monday as the department resumed a probe for which it had long been criticized.

Chief Mark Beckner said new technology gives investigators tools they didn't have a decade ago; the 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her Boulder home in 1996.

Police had transferred the probe to the district attorney's office six years ago amid criticism of how the case was handled.

"We'd love to solve this case for JonBenet so she can rest in peace," Beckner said at a news conference announcing the shift.

Police will handle the investigation as a cold case, "reviewing everything that's been done, the evidence that's been collected, trying to determine where do we go from here," he said.

L. Lin Wood, an attorney for JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, said the decision was a "positive sign in terms of my hope that the Boulder Police Department will take not only a new review in terms of a cold case review, but that it will go in this time with an objective review."

Wood and Ramsey have been critical of previous police efforts, saying they unfairly focused on the family and ignored other evidence.

Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's mother and John Ramsey's wife, died in 2006 after a long battle with cancer.