Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:10 pm Post subject: The JonBenet Ramsey murder thread
Quote:
An arrest has been made in the almost 10-year-old murder of JonBenét Ramsey, according to a law enforcement official. The suspect was detained in Bangkok, Thailand at the request of the U.S. government. The suspect faces charges in Colorado.
Local authorities in Boulder, Colorado, where the suspect will face a murder charge, declined to comment.
9News, a Denver television station, claimed that the suspect had confessed to elements of the crime that were not public.
CBS News is reporting that according to their sources the suspect is John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old American man and second-grade schoolteacher, who will be brought back to the United States this weekend.
JonBenét's father, John Ramsey, told 9News that he has been notified of the arrest. Asked if he knew Karr, Ramsey replied, "To the best of my knowledge, no," the station's Web site reported.
According to CBC, John Ramsey released the following statement to the media:
I want to have only very limited comment on today's arrest because I feel it is extremely important to not only let the justice system operate to its conclusion in an orderly manner, but also to avoid feeding the type of media speculation that my wife and I were subjected to for so many years. I do want to say, however, that the investigation of the individual arrested today in connection with JonBenet's death was discussed with Patsy and me by the Boulder district attorney's office prior to Patsy's death in June. So Patsy was aware that authorities were close to making an arrest in the case and had she lived to see this day, would no doubt have been as pleased as I am with today's development almost 10 years after our daughter's murder. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude for the efforts of Boulder district attorney Mary Lacy and the members of her investigative team.
On December 26, 1996, 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, a child beauty pageant queen, was found murdered in the basement of her parents' home in Boulder, Colorado, United States, eight hours after being reported missing. The case drew national attention when no suspect was charged and suspicions turned to possible family involvement.
Accused JonBenet killer says death accident: police
BANGKOK (Reuters) - An American suspected over the murder of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey during Christmas 1996 has said her death was an accident, a senior Thai policeman said on Thursday.
"He killed the girl by accident," Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumroungsiskul told reporters after primary school teacher John Mark Karr, 41, was interrogated a day after his arrest in Bangkok.
"They fell in love with each other. She was very beautiful. So he kidnapped her and killed her by accident," Suwat said
BANGKOK, Thailand - A former American school teacher said publicly Thursday that he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she died in what he called "an accident," a stunning admission after a decade without answers in the 6-year-old girl's murder. But the suspect's ex-wife said she was with him in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's 1996 death.
John Mark Karr, 41, will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst of the Department of
Homeland Security told a news conference in Bangkok.
"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr told reporters afterward, visibly nervous and stuttering. "Her death was an accident."
Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: "No."
As he was escorted to his guesthouse to pick up his belongings, Karr told The Associated Press: "I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident."
Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: "It would take several hours to describe that. It's a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It's very painful for me to talk about it."
He told the AP he made "several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away," referring to JonBenet's mother, who died in June, "and it is my understanding that she did read my letters."
No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference Thursday about whether there was DNA evidence connecting him to the crime.
Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, told KGO-TV in California that she was with her former husband in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's killing and she does not believe her former husband was involved in the homicide.
She said her ex-husband spent a lot of time studying the cases of Ramsey and Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home and slain in 1993.
Karr on Thursday refused to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family. An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Ga.
Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand's immigration police, said Karr confessed to the killing after his arrest by Thai and U.S. authorities Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok guesthouse.
Suwat said Karr insisted that JonBenet died during a kidnapping attempt that went awry.
"He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional," Suwat said. "He said he loved this child, that he was in love with her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet."
Suwat quoted Karr as saying he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her.
JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996.
Patsy Ramsey reported finding a ransom note in the house demanding $118,000 for her daughter.
Images of the blonde girl competing in child beauty pageants helped propel the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the United States.
DNA was found beneath JonBenet's fingernails and inside her underwear, but Lin Wood, the family's longtime attorney, said two years ago that detectives were unable to match it to anyone in an
FBI database.
A law-enforcement source told the AP on condition of anonymity that Karr had been communicating periodically with somebody in Boulder who had been following the case and cooperating with law-enforcement officials.
A University of Colorado spokesman, Barrie Hartman, said journalism professor Michael Tracey communicated with Karr over several months and contacted police. The university spokesman said he didn't know what prompted Tracey to become suspicious of Karr.
Tracey produced a documentary in 2004 called "Who Killed JonBenet?" A woman who answered the phone at a number under his name said he didn't live there anymore; his office phone mailbox was full.
Investigators said at one point that JonBenet's parents were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the slaying, and some news accounts cast suspicion on JonBenet's older brother, Burke. But the Ramseys insisted an intruder killed their daughter, and no one was ever charged.
Over the years, some experts suggested that investigators had botched the case so thoroughly that it might never be solved. The Ramseys moved back to Atlanta after their daughter's slaying.
"It's been a very long 10 years, and I'm just sorry Patsy isn't here for me to hug her neck," Wood said.
"John and Patsy lived their lives knowing they were innocent, trying to raise a son despite the furor around them," he told MSNBC.
The Ramseys learned that police were investigating Karr at least a month before Patsy Ramsey's death from ovarian cancer, the family said.
In a statement Wednesday, John Ramsey said that if his wife had lived to see Karr's arrest, she "would no doubt have been as pleased as I am with today's development almost 10 years after our daughter's murder."
Bob Raines, principal at Wilson Elementary School outside Petaluma, said he twice hired Karr as a substitute in second- and fourth-grade classes in 2001. After observing him, Raines said he concluded Karr hadn't been trained, had poor skills keeping classes focused and was ineffective.
A couple months later, Sonoma County sheriff's officials sent a letter to school officials saying Karr had been arrested, said Carl Wong, the Sonoma County superintendent of schools.
Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Joan Risse confirmed the child pornography charges and arrest warrant against a John Mark Karr, though she cautioned that she didn't know if he was the same person held Bangkok. State records show Karr lost his teaching credential in 2002.
Police said Karr had been living in a dormitory-style guesthouse called The Blooms in a neighborhood of massage parlors and travel agents that cater to expatriate residents and sex tourists.
Suwat said U.S. authorities informed Thai police on Aug. 11 that an arrest warrant had been issued for Karr on charges of premeditated murder. The warrant was sent to Thai police on Wednesday.
"Through investigation we were able to determine where his residence was and the Thais arrested him," Hurst said. "He did not resist. He did express surprise."
Hurst said Karr has been "very cooperative" with authorities and that he's shown a "variety of emotions."
Suwat said Karr arrived in Bangkok on June 6 from Malaysia to look for a teaching job. It was not clear whether he had gotten a job, the police officer said.
Karr's visa has been revoked for being an "undesirable person" after the accusations against him, and U.S. authorities were expected to take him to the United States in the next few days, Suwat said.
Hurst, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Bangkok, said that Karr had left the United States several years ago and had not returned.
We frankly never thought we'd see this day. Back in 1999, when Gov. Bill Owens issued a melodramatic warning to the killer or killers of JonBenet Ramsey - "You only think you have gotten away with murder" - we cautioned against such bravado. Killers escape justice all of the time, we noted, and probably will in this case, too.
Now, nearly seven years later, Owens may turn out to have been right - although not in the way he evidently anticipated.
After all, the governor used that same press conference to call out John and Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's parents, demanding that they stop "hiding" behind their lawyers. He claimed the killers had "stonewalled" and "covered their tracks" (note the plural "their"), thus directing further suspicion toward the couple.
And therein lies a broader tale that must be confronted head on.
If it turns out that suspect John Karr did in fact kill JonBenet, then the Ramseys - the father who survives and the mother who died not long ago - were mistreated by a number of public figures, members of law enforcement and, yes, journalists.
Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor and co-host of a KHOW radio talk show, said Wednesday that the Ramseys will be counted among the most cruelly abused victims of a rush to judgment in U.S. history.
That's going too far, but it's hard to dispute the underlying point.
The record will show that this newspaper attempted to explore all possible explanations for the murder, including the theory of outside intruder. As a result of those efforts, the paper was contemptuously dubbed "The Ramsey Mountain News" by one fierce media critic of the family. This fellow also targeted a News reporter for regular on-air ridicule.
So much for the certitude of amateur detectives.
But the aura of suspicion was by no means the product solely of outside amateurs. Just weeks after the murder, Boulder District Attorney Alex Hunter held a press conference in which he seemed to hint at the parents' involvement. Police conceded they were suspects. Some of the evidence did suggest an inside job. And for that matter, the Rameys shocked many observers (ourselves included) by rejecting requests for interviews with police and prosecutors.
The Ramseys' behavior, their wealth, JonBenet's involvement in beauty pageants, the mysterious "ransom note" and a host of other details virtually guaranteed that the murder investigation would become a national sensation.
Now the garish saga may be entering its final phase.
For everyone's sake, we at least hope that's the case.
Authorities in Boulder, Colorado have just wrapped up a news conference, releasing new information in the arrest of John Karr. Karr is the suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation.
He says he loved the child and is “very sorry for what happened.” Karr admits he was with the girl when she died, but that her death was an “accident.”
Authorities say it took a lot of work to make this arrest.
“He has travel extensively since leaving the United States several years ago. The District Attorney’s Office in conjunction with many other law enforcement agencies have spent the last few months locating, identifying, and finally yesterday arresting Mr. Karr,” District Attorney Mary Lacy said.
Karr is in custody in Thailand, and will be sent back to the U.S. in the coming days. Associated Press Story:
By CATHERINE TSAI / Associated Press Writer
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- The district attorney in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying said Thursday there is “much more work” to be done in the case against the suspect, and she warned the public not to “jump to conclusions.”
Mary Lacy, who has spearheaded the investigation for Boulder County, did not immediately disclose any details about evidence against John Mark Karr, 41, who was arrested on Wednesday, a day after he began teaching second grade in Bangkok, Thailand. In an interview with the Associated Press, Karr said he killed the girl by accident.
Lacy suggested that the arrest may have been forced by other circumstances, including the need for public safety and fear the suspect might flee.
“There are circumstances that exist in any case that mandate an arrest before an investigation is complete,” Lacy said.
She refused to say whether authorities were worried Karr was lying about killing the little girl. Lacy said Karr has not been formally charged, and declined to speculate what counts he might face.
“I’m asking you this morning, let us do our job thoroughly and carefully. The analysis of the evidence in this case continues on a day-by-day, on an hour-by-hour basis as we speak,” she said, adding that “there is much more work to be done now that the suspect is in custody.”
“We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey yesterday,” she said, referring to JonBenet’s father. “He said do not jump to conclusions, do not rush to judgment, do not speculate, let the justice system take its course.”
Lacy said Colorado investigators were in Thailand, but refused to provide a timeline of when Karr might be returned to the United States. She said he just started work as a second-grade teacher in a Bangkok international school on Tuesday and had traveled extensively since leaving the U.S. several years ago.
Karr told The Associated Press he was with JonBenet when she died.
“I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet,” he told the AP in Bangkok. “Her death was an accident.” Asked if he was innocent, Karr said: “No.”
A senior Thai police officer said Karr also told investigators he drugged and had sex with the 6-year-old beauty queen before accidentally killing her.
JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family’s home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996.
An autopsy done a day after her body was found showed no drugs or alcohol in her system but said she had vaginal abrasions.
Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The results of that test were not immediately known.
Karr will be given another DNA test when he returns to the United States, the official said.
A California woman who said she was Karr’s ex-wife told San Francisco television station KGO that she was with him in Alabama at the time of the homicide. She said she does not believe her former husband was involved in JonBenet’s killing.
Ramsey suspect being looked at in Paulk murder case
PRATTVILLE—Investigators in the Shannon Paulk case are treating the man arrested in the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey as a suspect.
John Mark Karr was arrested Wednesday in Thailand and charged with the murder of Jon Benet. The 6-year-old was found dead in her Colorado home Christmas 10 years ago.
Shannon, 11, went missing from her Candlestick Park neighborhood Aug. 16, 2001. Her body was found seven weeks later in a wooded area about 15 miles north of Prattville.
Karr lived in Alabama, Georgia and Florida during the time of Shannon’s abduction and investigators say they are backtracking his whereabouts during that time frame.
But District Attorney Randall Houston said it is standard procedure to eliminate anyone who may be a suspect in the case. Investigators are urging the public to concentrate on the composite of the man released in Shannon’s case.
Most evidence points to him as the prime suspect, police say.
“I got chills when I found out about the arrest in the Jon Benet case,” Houston said.
“In Jon Benet’s case it shows that even after 10 years, there is still a chance for justice," he said. "I want to assure Shannon’s family and this community that not a day goes by that we aren’t working Shannon’s case. I fully believe that one day we will make an arrest and get a conviction.”
Houston, who represents Autauga, Elmore and Chilton counties, held a press conference this morning in Prattville.
He announced Gov. Bob Riley had offered a $10,000 reward for information in Shannon’s case. The city of Prattville also is offering $10,000 for a total reward of $20,000.
The disappearance of two other 11-year-old girls, one from north Alabama, the other from Georgia, also share a resemblance to the Paulk case, officials said earlier this week
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