Former Petaluma substitute teacher nabbed for JonBenet murder
Published: Thursday, Aug 17, 2006
A former Petaluma substitute school teacher terminated for possessing child pornography was arrested in Thailand Wednesday as a suspect in the highly publicized murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colo., in 1996.
John Mark Karr, 41, admitted to being in the room with JonBenet when she died, but claimed that her death was an accident.
He served for 11 days as a substitute teacher for Petaluma City Schools from Dec. 8, 2000 to April 2, 2001, said Steve Bolman, the district’s deputy superintendent of business and administration.
Karr taught at several of the district’s schools — as well as at schools in the Liberty, Old Adobe and Wilmar elementary school districts — and in 2001 was charged with five counts of possessing child pornography. His teaching credential was suspended and then revoked for violating the education code. He is still wanted in California for failing to appear on those charges.
Karr and his wife at the time, Lara, married in 1989 and lived in Alabama before moving to Petaluma in 2000. He began teaching in Petaluma and Napa. Carl Wong, Sonoma County superintendent of schools, said he received no complaints about Karr’s work. Laura Karr, who still lives in Petaluma with her three children, filed for divorce in 2001, after he was charged with possessing pornography.
His arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, on Wednesday followed several months of highly intensified investigation, said Mary Lacy, the district attorney in Boulder. An investigator from the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office is bringing Karr from Thailand to Colorado.
JonBenet’s beaten and strangled 6-year-old body was found in the basement of the home of her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, on Dec. 26, 1996. She received a massive blow to the head and was strangled with a device made from a paintbrush.
Karr is the first suspect arrested for the murder, which many people thought might never be solved.
Karr also was a suspect in several sex crimes near his former homes in Alabama and Georgia, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation reported.