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.
I believe she's going the extra mile in being tight-lipped in order to not botch the continuing investigation.
Aha, arrest only for now. It may be this guy is just a delusional kook as far as the Ramsey case is concerned, but is a sexual predator for living children and needs to be off the street.
I agree FNC is ticked they did not get more info. IMHO, the DA was not the one asking this freak to confess. I have a feeling she is going to make sure this case if he is guilty is a win win. If FREAK BOY is a fake, than she is doing her job in the investigation.
msm hates having to wait for a trial or answers.. they want them now, if FREAK BOY didn't do it, I do not think the DA would be wanting her name on such a high covered case. I got the impression she is only going to investigate to the hilt. msm is going to have to get on another band wagon for a while....... us junkies included........... until their is proof in this case.
sw
Think she was pressed into having a press conference to make sure that everyone knew what was going on so the media wouldn't be howling at her office all day long.
Charges need to be filed in a short period of time. The analyst on MSNBC is convinced that the DA is much farther along then she is admitting.
Have you seen a picture of this guy? He's very "sweet" looking.
That's not what the Ramsey's lawyer said. So much speculation, so few truths.
And just maybe John didn't want his sister-in-law to know in order to protect the investigation. Some people can actually keep secrets, I think.
Dan Abrhams said the same thing that he needed off the street whether he did this or not. MSNBC is much better then Fox right now. They are pretty much convinced the DA is a lot farther along in her investigation then she let on and I would agree since Thailand had this guy under surveillance 24/7. They had to have a lot of proof to do that IMHO.
True.. but if he's a real whackjob.. maybe the family didn't want him around?
Or he would disappear and show up? It's so hard to say..
The DA named a LONG LIST of people involved in this so far.. I can't imagine that they would have spent this much time/manpower on something that they don't feel is the real deal...
(but then.. I tend to be naive... ;-) )
Do we need FOX standing at the grave site of JonBenet and Patsy ? How Tabloid of you, Fox.
Miz..chew on this case for awhile. You usually have great instincts and perception...and I'm coming up with caution lights all over the place..ugghh.
sw
..even if they've been investigating this guy for 2 months....
..even if they have dna...(which we all thought would be proven conclusive or not today)....
..even if they've found he never lived in Colorado....and folks are giving him alibis' for that night in question...
The DA is remaining closed mouth...(fine, she should)....
..but IMO, she should never have called a press conference in the first place.....if she wanted to maintain her closed mouth.
I hate teasers....
...some of you are saying she's professional....fine.
But our airwaves were buzzing since yesterday.....We know JonBenet's killer....
...I really hate the pingpong.....and I'm sure I can find better things to do with my time, then rehash this poor little girl's murder for the next several months to a year.
I'm sure there must be good reason why they couldn't say.....We have Karr's DNA and it's a match.....or
..Yes, Karr is verified as being in Boulder December 24,25 of 1996.
...Those are two key points, and they're not saying anything!....
..Enough already....not going to play this game.
I bet you feel the same way.
Nice touch, Fox. And beyond the pale.
Patty Ramsey used correct grammar and punctuation in her Christmas card. The ransom note is full of errors.
This is looking more and more phony to me every minute. I think he wanted to get back to the USA, and didn't have the money. You can't walk back, and you can't swim back. He would have to work on a tramp steamer or container ship, but it isn't a given that he could get a job in exchange for passage. A friend of mine had to buy a plane ticket to Thailand last year to go visit relatives, and it cost 1300.00 US dollars, on Priceline.com. Extradition would be a lot cheaper and quicker than any of his other options. Of course, he would have to be pretty smart and pretty crazy to be able to come up with a plan like that.
And the Christmas card could have been sitting on the desk the perp used for the note.
Honestly I can not believe how some parents are so trusting of a person to give him alone time with their children. These people need their heads examined imo.
Well take, for example, a friend who trusted the son of his minister to look after his young son. Turned out the kid was abusing his child and it was later discovered that the kid was himself formerly abused by his minister father. They are among us, acting like the nice, responsible persons anyone would want to look after their child. (Unlike this looneytune who, if he was a babysitter for the Ramseys, must have been a consummate actor.)
I'm just sincerely hoping that the networks will relegate this to the back burner until there are some FACTS to report, but maybe I'm too optimistic.
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