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.
Only until the next "new news" bumps it from the headlines.
You are neither able or capable of exonerating anyone.
Not to mention his visit to Thailand. Of all the places to run to escape child porn charges......
""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.""
___
He probably would chalk that up to his brother's "research" on the subject of pedophila and child murderers.
Pete Townsend defense.
I soon as I heard the suspect speak I had a hunch he was mentally ill and most likely not the real killer.
The killer was either in the family, a friend of the family, or a neighbor.
Someone who knew the layout of that house and who would be in it.
jmo
It's possible. It's also possible that he DID do it and like some pervs, enjoys reliving the crime and talking about it.
I'm sure you could be right. IMO this weirdo is just a pedophile but didn't do this. Just "confessed" because he is a whacko.
If only going by buzz cuts, than so are most boys who live in warm climates. Every summer in Arizona, boys lose hair.
I hope she says this to a Federal Agent,then if it's not true, they can prosecute her also for lyng to a Federal Agent.
And Miz..yes, I agree with you. I'll go further and hope for a Gag order..
sw
Bet he molested the little girl on his resume too as well as others in classes he listed.
http://www.statementanalysis.com/ramseynote/
The writer misspells two common words in lines #4 and #5, "business" and "possessions." However, the writer correctly spells the words "deviation" and "attache" even including the accent on the word "attache." This leads us to believe the writer purposefully misspelled these two words to try to make it look like an uneducated person or a foreigner wrote this note. The two misspellings occur in the first paragraph. After that, the writer uses correct grammar except for using the article "a" when he should have written "an." This is further indication the misspellings were done on purpose. The writer showed his true writing skills and forgot to misspell words throughout the note.
"Around 2001, John Karr and his family moved to California. Around that same time, Karr also began doing research for a book he wanted to write about men who commit crimes against girls, Nate Karr said. He believes the research, which included reviewing police and coroner reports about the JonBenet murder, may have been what landed his brother in trouble"
This may be why Karr knew so much about the murder.
The guy said he drugged her. But the autopsy report says no drugs found:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/jonbenet1.html
Not trying to vilianize the parents, at all, but I will never understand these parents that let men spend time with their children. No strange man is ever or will be ever around my kids without me in the room. Ever. There is no valid reason a grown man wants to or needs to spend one on one time alone with a child.
No. That happened in Singapore.
"Also, you mean to say he stayed in that house and drafted that note AFTER he killed JonBenet?"
I think: Someone (maybe this perfert) entered the house when the family was at the party and waited until they were asleep. He killed JB and left. Patsy found the body in the night, assumed husband or a son killed her, so wrote the LONG kidnap letter to throw suspiciaion away from her family.
That makes no sense, I still say it was Patsy
Oh my, I are one and didn't even know it. What is the cure, SuperCuts?
Actually they were the cause, I figured I could mess my own hair up for a lot less, and wiythout the wise@ss insults.
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