Posted on 08/17/2006 7:51:23 AM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Ex-wife gives alibi for JonBenet suspect
By ALISA TANG, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 1 minute ago
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.
That may be plausible, but there are other areas of the ransom note that need explanations, like the Ramsey's usage of the phrase "and hence" duplicated exactly in the ransom note.
More importantly, an examination of the author's writing style shows us that whatever comes before the phrase "and hence" comes after the phrase "and hence."
13. delivery will be exhausting so I advise you to be rested. If we
14. monitor you getting the money early, we might call you early to
15. arrange an earlier delivery of the money and hence a earlier
16. delivery pickup of your daughter.
We see the same writing style in the Ramsey's Christmas message.
"Had there been no birth of Christ, there would be no hope of eternal life, and, hence, no hope of ever being with our loved ones again."
So, the Ramsey supporters would have us believe that the Ramseys not only adopted the word "hence" they also adopted the phrase "and hence" and they also adopted the killer's writing style! Possible but not probable.
Interesting scenario: Was he hired to abduct her? Did she die earlier and the man only seems to have his ex as an alibi?
then why wouldn't John Ramsey have told the police that? he could simply have shown them he had a letter or tax form on his desk, that showed the amount of the bonus - eliminating one of the strange issues surrounding this case regarding how the killer knew how much to ask for in the ransom note.
Isn't Thailand where they caned the U.S. kid who spray-painted graffiti on some cars? If Karr was being held in Thailand for sex-related charges, I doubt a Thai prison was in his long term future. More likely a thorough caning and a pine box of some sort. Even more reason for Karr to lie his way out of Thailand. Until the DNA matches, this one doesn't pass the smell test.
That's exactly what I was thinking. It would be very much like a sexual stalker to invade these people's home and snoop into every aspect of their lives, before committing the actual crime. Perhaps entering the house numerous times.
We had a stalker once, who did this to us. He took my checking account information and sold it to someone with the same name as me. This guy wanted us to know that he had been in the house, though. On nights when my husband wasn't home, I used to sleep with a huge knife that my husband brought home from Vietnam, stuck between the mattress and box springs of my bed.
A distinct possibility here. I also wonder about Anglo-Saxon based law, which is common to Gt Britain and the USA. A famous case there to clear the name of an executed man. It was that of James Hanratty. A man who was interviewed many years later. At the time of the murder he had a likeness to the identi-kit. He claimed in Paris,France, HE did the crime.
He sure got paid plenty by the press. Later DNA tests proved the police got their sums right originally. That lying, do nothing, con man- Peter Alphons, could not be charged, under some tenet of law.
It could be that some law applies to a statement made in a foreign country. One could get ten years though, for obstruction of justice, if made in the country where the crime was committed.
Why people get so angered because one has a theory, I don't know. No one here really knows.
I go with your gut feeling.
But you are talking facts. That will never do. We must rely on our feelings, you know. After all the parents , gasp, put stage makeup on her-- the perverts. She didn't wear it to ride her bicycle and do all the other normal kid things she did, but the small amount of time she was in pageants was hideous to many Freepers. Amazingly, my grand daughters who did the same thing are thriving. The Ramseys are victims of a killer, and the drive by media, and those who should know better than to believe media lies.
oops left out link
http://www.statementanalysis.com/ramseynote/
If the case against Karr does fall apart under scrutiny, it will be interesting to note the alacrity with which John Ramsey sped before the cameras upon the announcement of Karr's arrest. He and Karr seem to fulfill each other's needs perfectly -- too perfectly, one might surmise.
He was not being held for Thai-sex charges. Those charges stemmed from California.
One thing stands out: They would remember who was present when the Ramsey story hit the news and they talked about it amongst themselves. After all, she has southern ties.
Hmmm. Is this guy just a 'murder junkie', memorizing information about crimes, or is his ex-wife just trying to cover up and get him off the charge. If he was in a different state altogether, surely there must be some other evidence of his not having been there. Of course, if the DNA comes back as a match for HIM, then no alibi will hold water.
Sigh. Again, he wasn't in a prison until the US extradited him on the child porn charges from California. He was a "guest house" (which sounded like a hostel for perverts) in the sex district.
I thought that the ransom note was copied from the book that Patsy Ramsey was reading, that was found on her night stand.
Maybe John did tell the inept polica in Boulder and they chose not to believe him.
That's the great thing about FR. I've never heard of chaetophobia. Googled it and discovered an entire industry devoted to curing people of it.
Apparently the primary symptom (according to your post) is having a buzz cut. Me and my boy--chaetophobics to the max.
Funny. He sure didn't mention the child porn charges in California, did he? Either there's a lot he doesn't know about his brother, or there's a lot he's hiding about his brother.
I never heard the Ramsey attorney asserting that simple fact - "my bonus letter was on my desk, anyone inside the house could have seen it". not saying it didn't happen, I just never heard that assertion made.
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