Ex-wife gives alibi for JonBenet suspect

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."

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.

My opinion is that he is a nut job!

JonBenet Ramsey Ransom Note

http://www.statementanalysis.com/ramseynote/

There are just too many points covered in this analysis to ignore suspicions of Patsey Ramsey's involvement.

I believe as many in the investigative field that the Boulder Police Department fumbled the ball big time. The officers botched the crime scene and mishandled crucial evidence. So now ten years later perhaps some piece of the puzzle will be revealed. Then again, I have to look at the motivation of this "suspect" voluntarily confessing to commission of a murder. Could his only motive be that he wants to get the hell out of the third world country after being arrested for a sexual crime over there? Someone may confess to murdering JFK, or more just to get out of that hell hole in Bangkok.

Just a thought...

European aristocrat dies in notorious Thai jail
By Graham Keeley in Barcelona
Published: 17 August 2006

Christoph von Hohenlohe, a member of one of Europe's most illustrious aristocratic families, was buried yesterday in the southern Spanish resort of Marbella after dying in mysterious circumstances in a notorious Bangkok jail.

"Kiko" von Hohenlohe, 49, was a prince and member of the Agnelli family, the powerful Italian industrial dynasty. But he died earlier this month at the hospital unit of the squalid Klongprem Central Prison in Thailand.

His mother, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg, 66, a well-known European socialite and former sister-in-law of the fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg, is demanding an autopsy and an investigation into the circumstances of her son's death. The Thai authorities have so far declined to open an inquiry.

Hospital sources have suggested the playboy aristocrat died from a blood infection or insulin deprivation. A glittering array of European aristocrats attended the funeral, as Von Hohenlohe was buried next to his father Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe at San Pedro de Alcántara, near Marbella.

Alfonso von Hohenlohe was famous for turning the former fishing village of Marbella, on the Costa del Sol, into an upmarket, fashionable resort for the Hollywood jet set and European aristocrats during the 1960s and 1970s.

His Marbella Club Hotel became a popular refuge from the paparazzi for the likes of Princess Grace of Monaco, and the actors James Stewart, Tony Curtis and Sean Connery. European royals were known to rub shoulders there with Arab sheikhs and South American dictators.

Christoph von Hohenlohe's grandparents on his mother's side were Prince Tassilo Egon Maria Karl George Leo von Fürstenberg and Clara Agnelli, a Fiat heiress.

Von Hohenlohe was arrested and jailed in Bangkok on 31 July on a charge of falsifying documents. The prince, who had travelled to Bangkok apparently for treatment to lose weight at a luxury health clinic, was due to return home to Hawaii, but was delayed by three days after failing to get on a flight.

As his exit visa had run out, he changed the date in pen so as to avoid more paperwork. However, this was spotted by officials and. Despite attempts to convince a judge that he had not intended to commit a crime, he was sent to Klongprem jail. Klongprem has been condemned by the human rights group Amnesty International for its inhumane conditions.

With up to 40 prisoners to a cell, Von Hohenlohe's health deteriorated rapidly in the overcrowded conditions. Though not a diabetic, his blood-sugar levels were abnormally high just before he died. The prince's brother, Hubertus von Hohenlohe, told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that his mother had only been able to visit him once before his death.

"It is all a bit strange. He was held in a small room with 40 inmates and no mattresses," said Hubertus, who travelled to Bangkok to try to get his brother out of jail. He added his brother had twice been denied bail. An unnamed prison official said: "Christoph von Hohenlohe died on 6 August. We've sent the details to the Swiss embassy. He was here on charges of possessing false documents."

The Swiss embassy in Bangkok, which acts for Liechtenstein, Von Hohenlohe's birthplace, confirmed it was investigating the death but refused to divulge any details. An embassy spokesman said: "It is a matter of privacy. At this point we don't see the case escalating into a diplomatic issue."

What irritates me is being subjected to wall to wall coverage of every ignorant pundit with two cents to add on all the news shows this weekend over a ten year old story.

We'll have 'experts' telling us how Bangkok, Thailand is the center of pedophilia, even though she was killed in Colorado by a guy that used to live in Georgia. We'll have other 'experts' say that his hairstyle is indicative of a psychological condition known as Chaetophobia and that according to FBI profiling 'experts', Ted Bundy had this same condition.

Then some more 'experts' will tell us that a man in a basement couldn't possibly find the room she was found in, because someone not familiar with the home is incapable of opening wooden doors and seeing what's behind them, all the time being reinforced by 'expert' psychologists that this condition is known as Xylophobia.

Then attorney Lis Wheil, will come out and tell us of all the constitutional reasons we should cry and attorney Wendy Murphy will call all men baby rapists.

And that's just this Saturday.

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