arrest in ten-year-old cold case...RAMSEY MURDER CASE

[The Major]

Roxy fire you or something, Yo Yo?

[clevfan]

Suspect held in JonBenet slaying (update)

By CATHERINE TSAI
Associated Press Writer



By CATHERINE TSAI
Associated Press Writer

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- A man suspected in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was arrested today in Thailand in a surprise breakthrough in one of the nation's most lurid murder cases -- a decade-old crime some feared would never be solved.

District Attorney Mary Lacy said the arrest followed several months of work. She would not disclose any details about the suspect, but the Ramsey family's attorney in Atlanta said the man was a schoolteacher who once lived in nearby Conyers, Ga.

Federal officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the suspect as John Mark Karr, a 42-year-old American, and said he was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. CBS reported he will be brought back to the United States this weekend.

The Ramsey family attorney, Lin Wood, refused to say if the Ramseys knew the suspect and said he knew nothing else about the man.

JonBenet was born in Atlanta in 1990, and the Ramseys lived in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody for several years before moving to Colorado in 1991. The couple moved back to Atlanta after their daughter's slaying.

Wood said the arrest was vindication for JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who had come under suspicion in the slaying. The attorney said the Ramseys learned about the suspect a least a month before Patsy Ramsey's death on June 24 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

"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.

JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey reported finding a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter.

The image of blonde-haired little JonBenet in a cowgirl costume and other beauty pageant outfits has haunted TV talk shows ever since, helping feed myriad theories about her killer.

Investigators said at one point that JonBenet's parents were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the slaying. But the Ramseys insisted an intruder killed their daughter, and no one was ever charged.

In the months after the slaying, Patsy Ramsey went before the cameras, vigorously defending herself and her husband, chastising the media and blasting local law enforcement as incompetent.

Over the years, some experts suggested that investigators had botched the case so thoroughly that it might never be solved.

In a statement Wednesday, John Ramsey said: "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."

Lib Waters of Marietta, Ga., visited the gravesites of Patsy and JonBenet Ramsey in the Atlanta suburb immediately after hearing news reports about the arrest.

Waters, who described herself as a longtime friend of the Ramsey family, taped a piece of notebook paper to JonBenet Ramsey's headstone that read: "Dearest Patsy, Justice has come for you and Jon. Rest in peace."

In 2003, a federal judge in Atlanta concluded that the evidence she reviewed suggested an intruder killed JonBenet. That opinion came with the judge's decision to dismiss a libel and slander lawsuit against the Ramseys by a freelance journalist, whom the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter's murder. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with the judge's declaration.

Wood said the arrest further vindicated his clients.

"I am sure there were still doubts in the minds of individuals whose thinking had been poisoned against this family because of the years of false accusations," Wood said.

"Today is additional vindication of the family, but I think that knowledgeable individuals familiar with the evidence in the case have known for many years that this family was falsely accused, that they were innocent and that what they lived through in the last 10 years was an American tragedy."

Wood said he and the Ramseys "have been totally amazed and impressed with the professionalism of law enforcement" under Lacy's direction. Lacy became district attorney in 2001.

KUSA-TV of Denver, citing no sources, reported that the suspect has confessed to certain elements of the crime.

Bob Grant, a former Adams County district attorney who worked on the case, said there was never enough evidence to convince him that any potential suspect could be successfully prosecuted.

"I wasn't convinced it was an inside job, nor was I convinced it was an outside job," he said. "All the outside suspects were cleared after exhaustive investigation, and there were a whole lot of outside suspects."

[Dominator]

Good job by the cops!

[clevfan]

ARTICLE FROM 2 WKS AGO:

For sale: Scene of a crime

Updated 8/7/2006 12:26 PM ET
By Catherine Rampell, USA TODAY

Almost 10 years after the body of 6-year-old JonBen?t Ramsey was found in the basement of her Boulder, Colo., home, the Tudor-style house at 749 15th St. is on the market again.

"It's stigmatized. It's always been stigmatized," says Joel Ripmaster, president of Colorado Landmark Realtors. Ripmaster has represented the last four owners of the property, all who purchased or sold the house at below-market value since JonBen?t's slaying in 1996.

"It's worth a couple million dollars," Ripmaster says, "but now we're asking for only $1.7 million."

That's because some buyers consider more than just location, location, location. For certain places, history, history, history can turn a dream house into a nightmare.

These houses are the sites of notorious and often grisly crimes ? houses that, with the help of the evening news, become as much a character in the crime as the victims and their killers. Whether the Ramsey house or the condominium in Los Angeles where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were killed, the home remains long after evidence of the crime is gone.

Sometimes, the house ? and the lot ? stay empty for years. That's what happened at serial killer John Wayne Gacy's place in the Norwood Park Township outside of Chicago. The house was razed in 1979, and the lot sat vacant for a decade before a house was built in 1988. Other times, new owners try to change the look of the place, inside or out. Some opt to change the address, ostensibly to fool the gawkers.

Buyers have plenty of reasons to shun such properties, says Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who testified in the trials of serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Joel Rifkin. "People are superstitious. They're afraid of bad luck or ghosts, or that the house is cursed," says Dietz, who has visited dozens of crime scenes and investigated hundreds more through videos and photos. "Or they have a more rational concern that the tragedies will be more salient to them. It may be on their consciousness and decrease their joy in living."

Randall Bell, author of an upcoming book on real estate called Bottom Line Results, has a name for what Dietz describes. Bell calls it "crime scene stigma," which he defines as "the reluctance on the part of the real estate market to pay full price for a property associated with a horrific crime."

Bell, who says he's sometimes called "Dr. Disaster" by clients and colleagues, is a real estate consultant who specializes in assessing disaster-damaged properties.

Most of his business focuses on assessing the value of properties damaged by environmental disasters such as the hydrogen bomb testing at Bikini Atoll. He has also consulted with owners of the Ramsey house, the condominium where Brown Simpson and Goldman were killed in 1994, and the compound in Southern California where 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed suicide in 1997.

Based on dozens of cases, Bell says a house in which a murder or other bloody crime took place typically will stay on the market from two to seven years longer than it would otherwise.

About half of the states require sellers to disclose a home's traumatic history to buyers, Bell says, but some regulations mandate disclosure for only a short period of time.

The California Civil Code, for example, decrees that a death on a property need not be disclosed if it occurred three years before a sale. In South Dakota, sellers must disclose a "human death by homicide or suicide" only if it occurred within 12 months of the sale, according to state statutes.

Many homes, lots sit empty

Real estate agents and homeowners consult Bell's company, Bell Anderson & Sanders LLP,on how much to discount properties and ways to reduce the stigma to sell the home faster. Sometimes Bell suggests extensive remodeling. For example, the front of Brown Simpson's condo was redone, so gawkers could no longer identify the facade once plastered across TV screens.

Some of Bell's other clients have changed the street addresses of houses or demolished them, and some of the most notorious may not be redeveloped for years.

The Oxford Apartments, the building in Milwaukee where Dahmer murdered most of his victims in 1990 and 1991, was razed in 1992 and remains a vacant lot. "I've heard that people still walk across the street to avoid walking next to the lot," Bell says.

At the site of the Heaven's Gate suicides in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., the street name was changed (from Colina Norte to Paseo Victoria), the house was razed, and "every blade of grass was removed," he says.

Several years ago, Bell says he was offered the Heaven's Gate mansion "for a reasonable price." When he suggested it to his wife, he says, "she looked at me like I was the village idiot."

Even if buyers don't mind a home's stigma, they may find that their kids do. "Some parents I know had trouble getting kids to come over for birthday parties," Bell says of clients who moved into a house where a teenager had slaughtered his parents.

A special kind of home buyer

So who does buy these homes? Sometimes they're purchased by bargain hunters looking for fixer-uppers. Other times, Bell says, police officers or other buyers with strong stomachs might be willing to live there.

Take, for example, Neal Smither.

Smither is the founder and president of Crime Scene Cleaners, which he says cleans up 3,000 to 7,000 crime scenes across the country each year. Some of the jobs are simply meth labs set up in hotel rooms, and others are "just too bizarre for anyone else to touch."

He founded Crime Scene Cleaners in 1996 while studying to be a mortician. "I was watching Pulp Fiction, the scene where Harvey Keitel is called in to clean up the bloody car. It looked like a pretty good idea to me. I figured, if I can stuff a body, I can clean a mess."

Smither says he "couldn't care less" about whether his home has a traumatic history.

He won't offer details but says the previous owner of his house, which his company had cleaned, suffered a "very gruesome" death ? though one he says was devoid of foul play.

Like Smither's home, the Beverly Hills house where Lyle and Erik Menendez killed their wealthy parents in 1989 has had at least one subsequent owner suited to its sordid past: a murder mystery writer.

William Link, who co-wrote Columbo, Murder, She Wrote and scores of other TV shows and films, moved into the home with his wife, Margery, several years after the Menendez murders. He and his wife lived there for almost a decade.

He says he had a few friends who didn't want to visit because they were "afraid that one of the people killed would still be stalking like a ghost at 3 in the morning." He never worried about unwanted visits from the supernatural.

"When you're dead," he says, "you're dead."

Link says he purchased the mansion at 722 Elm Drive because of its "great beauty" and admits he became more interested in its history only after purchasing it. He rattles off the names of other celebrities who rented the home, including Michael Jackson and members of the band U2 before he mentions the Menendez family.

He says most of his friends thought his choice of residence was a "funny coincidence."

Tourists seem to agree.

The Menendez house is one of the featured stops on the Dearly Departed Tours, where "Director of Undertakings" Scott Michaels plays a recording of Lyle Menendez's 911 call as his tour bus passes the house. Link recalls hearing his r?sum? broadcast, too.

The Dearly Departed tour of the Los Angeles area also includes sites of celebrity sex scandals, but the highlights, Michaels says, are the death sites that pepper Hollywood.

"I bring people to the news," Michaels says. "People say, 'Oh my God, the killers passed this very street sign, and I grew up hearing about it!' "

Tourists can't get enough

Michaels, who also founded the celebrity death database www.findadeath.com, says tourists have an insatiable appetite for morbid stories about stars, thanks to the "tabloid culture we live in."

He laments that many of his more popular landmarks are being torn down. The Cielo Drive mansion where Charles Manson and his followers murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate in 1969 has been bulldozed and replaced with a new Italian-style villa.

Michaels says he is grateful that the tree and telephone pole from which a cult member cut the phone lines still stand.

In Hollywood, residents may be inured to the attention of tour buses, but owners elsewhere still go to great lengths to ward off gawkers and morbid entrepreneurs.

Shortly after JonBen?t's death, for instance, friends of the Ramseys got together and bought the property from father John Ramsey's relocation service.

"They didn't want it to get into the hands of speculators who'd start charging admission," says Ripmaster, who sold the house to the group. "They wanted to wait till things settled down because it was nuts around here back then. They held onto it for a few years and then decided to sell it off."

Boulder County property records show the address of the house was changed ? from 755 15th St. to 749 15th St.

The next two owners of the house ? a coach at the University of Colorado, then a family with four children ? both decided to sell the home after job transfers, Ripmaster says.

The murder of the Clutter family in 1959, a horror recounted in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, still attracts tourists to the home where they were killed in Holcomb, Kan.

The current owners of the house fended off unwanted visitors for years before opening their home ? for $5 per person ? to tours on Sundays. (They stopped giving the tours several years ago, according to local newspapers.)

Some other homes have also appreciated in value because of the fame and notoriety. The Miami oceanfront mansion where Gianni Versace lived, for example, once held the Miami-Dade County record for highest sale price at $19 million. The property is now a hotel and club. In 1997, Versace was murdered outside the home by Andrew Cunanan.

"It definitely added value to the home that (Versace) lived there and was killed there," says Carlos Justo, the SOL Sotheby's International Realty agent who sold the house.

"We had more people wanting to see it than we could show it to. It was the only home in my whole career where we had a screening process for buyers to get through," Justo says. "It even took two weeks for a Saudi prince to get clearance."

Why did the home's value increase after tragedy while other similar sites depreciated? "I don't know," Justo says. "I think it was because he was killed outside of his house, on the steps, and not inside it."

As for finding a new owner for the 15-room home where JonBen?t Ramsey lived and died, real estate agent Ripmaster says he's looking for a big family to move in. Or, perhaps, someone looking for a "great remodeling opportunity."

Ripmaster says he's going through all the "normal" channels to advertise the house. Not that he needs to. As he sees it, "It's hard for this particular house to remain anonymous."

[clevfan]

what is weird and kinda funny at same time is last wk after we left barb and dicks house during a hospital break, the same day day I went by the Ramsey house with dog for a walk, i drove by it with zach and was trying to explain the crime to him (he was only 4 yrs old at time so didn't remember it) anyhow, when I went by it I told him I wanted to take a pic of it since my friends wouldn't believe how close this house was to other houses (you have to see it to believe it, they are like 20 ft apart), anyhow, zach goes to me.....are you crazy...you want to take a pic of some house that some murder happened in that isn't gonna be solved, lol....therefore I didn't take a pic.

[hockeystl]

I hope all those talking head pukes who accused the Ramseys of killing their own child are feeling proud of themselves tonight.

[degenerategambler]

Can you think of a worse thing as a parent to have your young daughter murdered and then be falsely accused and villified for her murder? I hate the crazy lawsuits that you see in the states everyday but I would make a donation to the John Ramsey legal team to go after some of the press and law enforcement that stalked that poor family.

[Louis Cypher]

Article Launched: 8/16/2006 08:42 PM

Arrest made in JonBenet case

By Kevin Simpson
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Authorities arrested a 41-year-old man Wednesday in the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, adding a sudden, shocking twist to the sensational 1996 Boulder case that cast suspicion over the girl's parents.

John Mark Karr, who once lived near the Ramseys' suburban Atlanta home, was already being held in Bangkok, Thailand, on unrelated sex charges, according to an Associated Press report. He will be returned to the U.S. this weekend.

Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy confirmed an arrest for the Dec. 26, 1996, murder of JonBenet after what she called "several months of a focused and complex investigation," but offered no details on the suspect.

The DA's office has called a press conference for 10 a.m. Thursday.

Both John and Patsy Ramsey, whom various theories tagged as possible culprits, were consulted during the course of the investigation, the DA said in a prepared statement. The Ramsey family has been notified of the arrest.

Patsy Ramsey died on June 24 in Atlanta after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

The Ramseys contended that an intruder killed their daughter, even as investigators put the parents under an "umbrella of suspicion" for the slaying. JonBenet, whose image danced endlessly across tabloids and television screens in beauty pageant costume, had been found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's Boulder home.

While John and Patsy Ramsey fervently denied any involvement, speculation ran rampant. Some critics said that the initial investigation had been irreparably botched and doubted that JonBenet's killer ever would be found.

The announcement of the arrest was welcomed by the family and viewed as exoneration by those close to them.

"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," John Ramsey said in a statement to AP.

Family attorney Lin Wood said Wednesday's developments proved the parents' innocence amid lingering speculation.

"I am sure there were still doubts in the minds of individuals whose thinking had been poisoned against this family because of the years of false accusations," Wood told the AP.

The family had left Boulder and eventually settled in Charlevoix, Mich., where they had long kept a seasonal home. As the news of the arrest spread, the town erupted with elation, said one resident.

"Everybody's like it's a jubilee, everybody's dancing," said Linda Boss, a close friend and business partner of Patsy's. "It's an exoneration in the sense that, see, there is evidence that there was someone else. Everybody is thrilled Patsy was proven right. She always said there was evidence out there, and sooner or later somebody will find the person."

In Denver, the attorneys who represented John Ramsey during the criminal investigation praised the "diligent investigation" by Boulder DA Lacy and the detectives who worked with her.

"It is our hope that this arrest will bring some closure to the Ramsey family after a 10-year ordeal," said Hal Haddon and Pam Mackey in a prepared statement. "We respect the legal prcess and will have no further comment about the case or the evidence until that process is concluded."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also aided the DA's office and the Royal Thai Police in finding and identifying the suspect, said spokesman Dean Boyd.

Karr's father said his son had taught elementary school. But Eric Yoder, an investigator for the Colorado Department of Education, said that while the state does have a file for a John Karr, there's no evidence he'd been licensed or certified as a teacher.

He also said he couldn't verify whether the Karr in the file is the same man arrested in the JonBenet case.

An individual could be listed in the state's database for many reasons, Yoder added, such as taking a professional competency exam.

Another employee said it appeared the file had been flagged, an indication there may have been something noteworthy about the person.

[Louis Cypher]

Former Conyers man arrested in JonBenet slaying
Relative says suspect in 10-year-old case, captured in Thailand, is innocent

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/17/06

It was the arrest heard round the world. John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old teacher who previously lived in metro Atlanta, was detained in Thailand on Wednesday in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey.

News that Karr had been arrested shocked some family members of the little blond girl, whose killing 10 years ago riveted the nation.

Boulder, Colo., District Attorney Mary Lacy said the arrest followed several months of investigation. Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Karr was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges.

His brother Nate Karr, speaking from their father's home in Atlanta said, "We're sure he's innocent. We heard that there's good DNA evidence. I hope they can test him as soon as possible so they can exonerate him. We're just positive he's innocent. This is ridiculous."

JonBenet Ramsey's name still summons images of her in makeup and elaborate costumes, performing in tiny-tot pageants. Few news stories in the past decade gripped people as the death of JonBenet, a child homicide that occurred during Christmastime and steamrolled into a national obsession. Strangers thronged to her grave in Marietta, filled the Internet with theories and transformed the little girl into an icon identified by just one name: JonBenet.

Ramsey family members, many of whom live in metro Atlanta, said they hoped Wednesday's arrest would finally vindicate her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who not only suffered her death but then were cast in a tabloid tableau as the chief suspects in the case.

In a statement Wednesday, John Ramsey said he regretted that his wife did not live to see this day. Patsy Ramsey died in June after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

"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," he said.

Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood would not comment on whether the Ramseys knew the suspect. He said he knew nothing else about the man other than he previously lived in Atlanta. Wood is an Atlanta attorney who has represented the family since they returned to Atlanta from Boulder shortly after JonBenet's death.

Wood said the Ramseys learned about the suspect at least a month before Patsy Ramsey died on June 24.

"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.

JonBenet was born in Atlanta in 1990 and her family lived in Dunwoody before moving to Colorado. JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996.

Although the slaying was among the most investigated and publicized crimes in modern times, news of Karr's arrest emerged without advance warning.

Confession reported

A source close to the investigation said Karr confessed to elements of the crime, according to The Associated Press. The AP also said a law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Karr had been communicating periodically with someone in Boulder who had been following the case and cooperating with law enforcement officials.

Nate Karr said his younger brother lived with grandparents in Alabama, where he went to high school and college and where he went on to become a teacher.

Bravell Jackson, superintendant of Marion County Schools in Alabama, said he knew Carr as a young boy and taught him in physical education at Hamilton Elementary School.

He said Karr graduated from Hamilton High School around 1983, and for a time was a substitute teacher at the elementary school. "He wasn't here very long, for about 15 days in August and September of 1996, and I had to remove him from the sub list," said Jackson. "There were some complaints from parents. I can't say more than that."

Karr moved to Northern California and taught at several schools. The Sonoma County district attorney's office said Karr had been arrested there in 2001 on several charges of possessing child pornography. He did not show up for a court appearance in December and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Wednesday evening, Nate Karr told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that his brother, to his knowledge, did not know the Ramsey family, and did not have any contact with them.

He added, "To my knowledge he never lived in Boulder, Colorado."

"We believe he may have been here in Atlanta with us when this terrible tragedy occurred," Nate Karr said.

He said his brother had been researching a possible book "on men who commit these horrible crimes against children."

Lacy, the Boulder district attorney, said she will hold a press conference today to release further details.

Greg Ramsey, a cousin of JonBenet who lives in Alpharetta, said he was "excited" to hear the news. He said he had been losing hope after so many years without an arrest.

Greg Ramsey, 29, said he has spoken to several family members and none could recall the name John Mark Karr.

16th birthday this month

He did remember his young cousin, who would have turned 16 on Aug. 6, as a funny, loving child. He recalled her performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the family during a summer vacation, excited to show everyone that she remembered all the words.

The details of the girl's death remain vivid in many people's minds: Her father said he found her lifeless body in a seldom-used basement room, duct tape strapped across her mouth, after her mother found a ransom note stating, "We have your daughter."

Investigators said that at one point the Ramseys were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the slaying, but they were never charged. The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury investigation in Boulder ended with no charges.

'A long time coming'

Seven months after JonBenet's death, the Ramseys moved from Boulder to a Georgian mansion in northwest Atlanta, not far from where JonBenet â?" and now Patsy Ramsey â?" are buried. Several other family members also reside in the area.

Pam Paugh, the sister of Patsy Ramsey and aunt of JonBenet, said from her Roswell home that the family is "elated" that a suspect has been found.

"It's been a long time coming. We always knew this time would come," said Paugh, 47. She said John Ramsey called to tell her an arrest was imminent. "He's quite ready for this to happen. He's quite ready for justice to occur," she said.

Paugh said John Ramsey is still grieving the recent loss of his wife. She said her sister is in heaven and knows the truth and what is happening. "She is probably elated herself," she said.

Paugh said that even though the news story has subsided over the years, the investigation continued behind the scenes and many people prayed for this day to come, she said.

"Thousands have been praying for this day," Paugh said.

The family's hopes were raised when the Boulder County district attorney took over the investigation, she said.

There had been private meetings between the district attorney's office and John and Patsy Ramsey, and Wood, their Atlanta attorney, Paugh said.

Wood said he and the Ramseys "have been totally amazed and impressed with the professionalism of law enforcement" under Lacy's direction. Lacy became district attorney in 2001. Over the years, the Ramseys accused Boulder police of botching the case.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes in Atlanta concluded that the evidence she reviewed suggested an intruder killed JonBenet. That opinion came with the judge's decision to dismiss a libel and slander lawsuit against the Ramseys by a freelance journalist whom the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter's slaying. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with Carnes' declaration.

Ramseys moved to Michigan

The Ramseys have kept a residence in metro Atlanta but moved full time last fall to the summer place they've owned since 1992 in Charlevoix, a Lake Michigan tourist town about 230 miles northwest of Detroit.

Paugh said the family still had hard feelings toward the Boulder County Police Department, which had named the Ramsey parents as suspects.

"They put us through hell," she said. "They are incompetent."

She said she would let the legal system decide whether the suspect should face the death penalty.

Karr taught at several California schools, and in 2001 was charged with five counts of possessing child pornography, the Petaluma Argus-Courier reported. His teaching credential was suspended and he is still wanted in California, the newspaper said.

Karr and his wife at the time, Laura, married in 1989 and lived in Alabama before moving to Petaluma in 2000. He began teaching in Petaluma and Napa, and Petaluma City Schools received no complaints about his work. Laura Karr filed for divorce in 2001, after he was charged with possessing pornography, the newspaper reported.

Gravesite visitor

The St. James Episcopal Church Cemetery in Marietta, where JonBenet, her half sister and her mother are buried, was virtually empty Wednesday afternoon. The dogwood tree that hangs over JonBenet's grave is laden with butterfly and angel ornaments, wind chimes and other items. A pair of blue sunglasses hangs from a yellow ribbon.

An angel statue and smaller figurines have been placed on the grave itself, along with a toy car. Next to the grave are a stone bench and a well-tended shade garden of hostas encircled by a rock wall. Blue and purple flowers are planted on either side of her grave.

Lib Waters of Marietta, who described herself as a longtime friend of the Ramsey family, visited the grave sites Wednesday. Waters taped a piece of notebook paper to JonBenet's headstone with a handwritten message that read: "Dearest Patsy, Justice has come for you and John. Rest in peace."

Paulette Paugh Davis, JonBenet's aunt, who lives in Marietta, said, "We know pretty much as much as you. I'm grieving and ... it is big news. I am grieving. ... I want to be left alone."

Law enforcement officials from Boulder were flying to Bangkok to present Thai authorities with documents in the slaying, officials in Washington said.

Welcome news in Roswell

In the Roswell neighborhood where Patsy Ramsey's father, Donald Paugh, lives, residents said they were glad to hear the news.

"I'm glad for the family they have found someone," said Donna Stokely, 50, who has lived in the Brookfield West subdivision for about eight years. "The family's taken a lot of heat over this. ... Finally they'll have a little bit of closure and a little bit of vindication."

Valerie Barckhoff was walking her dog Wednesday afternoon in the upscale neighborhood just west of Roswell High School. She has lived in the neighborhood about two years. "I'm sure they've got to be relieved," she said of the Ramsey relatives. As a mother, Barckhoff reflected on Patsy Ramsey, who died before a suspect was arrested in her daughter's death. "I would think it would have given her some peace, knowing that there was some closure," Barckhoff said.

Tim Crain was exercising in the gym at the Brookfield Country Club when he saw the news about the arrest on TV. "I'm shocked they found somebody â?" it's taken so long," said Crain, who lives in Whittingham Park, a neighboring community. "Good for them. It's amazing. How do you find someone in Thailand?"

Billy and Yvonne Garmon have lived in Brookfield Glen for two years.

"I was glad to hear [Patsy] was aware of this before her death," Yvonne Garmon said. "It was halfway across the world, but I'm glad they went that far to pursue it."

Dan Tretinik of Roswell said he had two thoughts when heard about the arrest on the radio.

"My first thought, 'It's been an awfully long time. I never thought they'd get a lead or anyone ever," Tretinik said. "Second thought, 'It's about time. You'd like to think justice is going to be served."

Staff writers Jennifer Brett, Cynthia Daniels, Charles Yoo, Marcus Garner, Saeed Ahmed, Jeffry Scott, Christian Boone and Chandler Brown, staff researcher Nisa Asokan, The Associated Press and other news sources contributed to this article.




John Mark Karr

[simpleton]

This is a bogus story. Karr did not do it. The Ramsey's are guilty. Lots of freaks confess of crimes they did not do. Shocked the media is totally running with this thing. It's portrayed as if we can finally wash our hands of this ordeal because of this bogus confession. Mark my words.......Karr is not the killer.

[clevfan]

Who is John Mark Karr?

The Boulder Daily Camera
August 17, 2006

Born Dec. 11, 1964.

Married Lara Knutson 1989, in Alabama. They were divorced in 2001.

Four children: two teens, who live in Petaluma, Calif., and twins named Angel and Innocence who died at birth on Sept. 1, 1989

Elementary substitute teacher for Petaluma City, Calif., Elementary School District from Dec. 8, 2000, to April 2, 2001.

Arrested in April 2001 in Sonoma County, Calif., and charged with five counts of possession of child pornography. Arrest warrant issued after he failed to appear for a court hearing.

Teacher's license suspended by California Commission on Teacher Credentialing on April 11, 2002, for allegedly committing an offense "involving aiding and abetting the unlawful sale, use or exchange to minors of controlled substances."

Teacher's license revoked in 2003.

Colorado Department of Education has a file on Karr, but there's nothing to indicate he was ever licensed as a teacher in Colorado.

Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley School District officials do not have any record of Karr teaching in their schools.

Lived in Alabama and California before moving to Thailand, where he was seeking work as a teacher.

He wanted to write a book about the JonBenet Ramsey homicide, his brother said.

[clevfan]

E-mail first step on trail
CU prof had long correspondence on case with suspect

By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News
August 17, 2006

The investigation that led law enforcement to John Mark Karr can be traced to a single e-mail, sent some four years ago.

Karr sent the correspondence to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey after viewing the first of three Tracey-produced documentaries on the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Apparently, Karr was intrigued by what he saw and wanted to talk things over with Tracey, a man whose rigorous documentaries have challenged conventional police theories about the case and criticized what he saw as a rush to convict John and Patsy Ramsey in the court of public opinion.

Since then, Karr and Tracey swapped hundreds of e-mails in an exchange that led the Boulder County District Attorney's Office on Wednesday to name Karr as the prime suspect in the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet almost 10 years ago.

"Michael Tracey was instrumental in this investigation," said Susan Stine, a close and longtime Ramsey family friend who spent considerable time with them through Patsy Ramsey's losing battle with cancer.

"He was instrumental in flushing this person out in the sense of getting him to talk," Stine added. "(The suspect) was in e-mail communication with Michael over a period of (time), and that helped to develop the case."

Tracey himself declined to comment on his role, saying only this about the suspect:

"I do believe he has the right to be presumed innocent. I got involved in this, for 10 years, because I believe that right was never extended to the Ramseys, and that was wrong."

Tracey also complimented Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy and DA investigator Tom Bennett, saying they did a "phenomenal job" and are "taking a real risk."

"We'll see how this thing unfolds," he said.

Stine's description of Tracey's role in the case was confirmed by Ollie Gray, a private investigator who was hired by the Ramseys and has worked on the case for years alongside retired Colorado Springs homicide detective Lou Smit.

Tracey, closely aligned with Smit and Gray, was disturbed by the e-mails from Karr and brought the two into the loop on their exchanges, according to Gray.

"We encouraged (Tracey) to continue to communicate with him on it," Gray said.

Gray said he was in possession of a "three-quarter-inch" stack of the e-mails and characterized them broadly: "(The suspect) talked about being there, about doing this and doing that, and knowing this and knowing that - he had a whole bunch of things that didn't come out before. It wasn't part of what the media was allowed to get at before."

Smit, in keeping with his generally by-the-book approach to cases, declined to comment Wednesday, deferring questions to the Boulder DA's office.

"Mary Lacy's in charge of this case," he said.

But Stine said it was Tracey, along with Smit, Gray and their colleague, John Sanagustin, who played a major role in the case long before the Boulder District Attorney's office was involved.

"Lou . . . never stopped looking for the killer," Stine said of the man recently credited with helping reveal that a convicted Colorado Springs killer, Robert Browne, appears to be responsible for perhaps dozens of murders in several states.

"Lou Smit is the hero in all this," Stine said. "Lou Smit stood up against an onslaught of foolish people in Boulder and suffered the consequences for many years.

"Ollie was a big part of this," Stine added. "He and Lou worked together for all this time. They collaborated, they shared ideas, they brainstormed together."

Gray said he and his associates initially struggled to get officials at the Boulder DA's office interested in pursuing the suspect.

It wasn't until he and his associates considered going to Paris - where Karr apparently was sending e-mails at some point - and confronting the suspect themselves that prosecutors "got interested," Gray said.

Boulder prosecutors formally interviewed Tracey sometime in June, Gray said in an interview late Wednesday.

"Then they got damn serious in a big hurry," Gray added. "I would characterize it this way: I think the DA's office did a great job when they finally got started working on the case, which is what we said needed to be done all along."

Lacy has said she will discuss the details of the case during a news conference today.

Tracey hinted in his third documentary that a major break was coming in the case.

A 2004 CU press release promoting Tracey's third documentary said, "A new team of investigators has uncovered dramatic new evidence about the murder, resulting in the identification of a key suspect."

But it's not clear if that was the suspect now under arrest.

"This compelling evidence points to a new way of thinking about who it was that actually killed JonBenet," Tracey said in the December 2004 press release. "Previously, media leaks about the evidence and absurd theories as to how JonBenet died helped to convince the public that the parents did it.

"A whole new theory of who should have been investigated - but was not - is at the forefront of the investigation reported in the documentary."

[jackyl]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: simpleton

This is a bogus story. Karr did not do it. The Ramsey's are guilty. Lots of freaks confess of crimes they did not do. Shocked the media is totally running with this thing. It's portrayed as if we can finally wash our hands of this ordeal because of this bogus confession. Mark my words.......Karr is not the killer.</end quote></div>



I'm leaning towards this as well! This guy seems like a real piece of work, maybe an attention whore!

[clevfan]

Here's his resume that he posted:

Job4Teacher

[ic]

His DNA will not match.

[old as dirt]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: simpleton

This is a bogus story. Karr did not do it. The Ramsey's are guilty. Lots of freaks confess of crimes they did not do. Shocked the media is totally running with this thing. It's portrayed as if we can finally wash our hands of this ordeal because of this bogus confession. Mark my words.......Karr is not the killer.</end quote></div>


Simpleton,
You have won the award for the most aptly named poster! Karr may not have done it; in fact, I would say if the DNA does not match, then definitely he did not do it. But that does not mean the Ramseys are guilty! The police and the DA do not have one bit of evidence that the Ramseys did it; in fact they dismissed them as suspects in this case many years ago. Wake up and smell the coffee!

[Buck Swope]

Ex-wife gives alibi for JonBenet suspect

By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer 6 minutes ago

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.
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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."

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.

Lin Wood, the Ramsey family's longtime attorney in Atlanta, said that Karr had sent numerous e-mails in recent months making statements about the murder to a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Wood said those e-mails were key in linking Karr to the slaying. When asked if authorities could tell whether Karr had firsthand knowledge of the murder or had just picked up information from news accounts, Wood said; "There is information about the murder that has never been publicly disclosed."

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 that she does not believe he was involved in the homicide.

Lara Karr 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.

As he was escorted to his guesthouse to pick up his belongings, John Mark Karr told the AP: "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, "and it is my understanding that she did read my letters."

Wood said that Karr had tried to correspond with Patsy Ramsey in the months before the woman's death from ovarian cancer. Wood said Ramsey did not reply, but handed that information over to investigators who used it to link Karr to the case.

Wood said he did not know the contents of the correspondence, which he said was in the form of e-mails or letters.

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 Wood said two years ago that detectives were unable to match it to anyone in an
FBI database.

Wood said Karr went to elaborate attempts to conceal his identity in e-mails to the university professor, going so far as to use a computer server in Canada.

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, 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.

In Bangkok, 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.

Karr lost any legal protection in Thailand after the revocation, leaving Thai authorities free to hand him over to the U.S.

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.

____

Associated Press Writer Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.