Teacher held over murder of US child beauty queen

The Times ^ | August 17 | James Bone

[PghBaldy]

AN ARREST in Bangkok raised hopes last night of a breakthrough in the decade-old murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the American child beauty queen. An American primary schoolteacher was taken into custody in the Thai capital as a possible suspect in the strangling of the six-year-old girl at her home in Colorado on the night of Christmas Day 1996.

US reports said that John Karr, 41, had been in custody in Thailand on unrelated sex charges.

The case provoked a media frenzy in 1996 because of the spotlight it shone on the affluent parents and their daughter’s participation in child beauty pageants.

JonBenet followed in the footsteps of her mother, Patsy, who was crowned Miss West Virginia 1977, to win a host of child beauty titles such as Colorado’s Little Miss Christmas, Colorado State All-Star Kids Cover Girl, and National Tiny Miss Beauty.

America’s newly competitive cable television news networks aired around the clock home-video of the tiny blonde girl competing in the contests.

Patsy Ramsey summoned police to the family home in Boulder on Boxing Day, saying that she found a rambling three-page ransom note demanding $118,000 (£62,000) for her daughter.

Investigators, believing that the girl had been abducted, trampled through the crime scene before the girl’s body was found garrotted in the basement. The killing became America’s most notorious Whodunnit? JonBenet’s parents fell under an “umbrella of suspicion”, the local prosecutor said, and they were questioned by police. JonBenet’s brother, Burke, who was nine at the time of her death, was also interviewed.

But the family always protested their innocence. JonBenet’s parents eventually wrote a book called The Death of Innocence before Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in June this year at the age of 49.

In 2003 a federal judge in Atlanta concluded that the weight of the evidence was more consistent with the intruder theory than with the theory that Mrs Ramsey killed her daughter. The following year a DNA test found traces of male genetic material on JonBenet’s underwear that did not match any suspects on an FBI list of violent offenders.

Mary Lacey, the Boulder District Attorney, said yesterday that the arrest came after several months of investigation.

John Ramsey, JonBenet’s father, said: “The investigation of the individual arrested in connection with JonBenet’s death was discussed with Patsy and me by the Boulder district attorney’s office prior to Patsy’s death in June.

“So Patsy was aware that authorities were close to making an arrest in the case and had she lived to see this day, would no doubt have been as pleased as I am with today’s development almost ten years after our daughter’s murder.”

In an interview with Colorado’s KUSA-TV, he said that he did not believe he knew the suspect in Bangkok. “To my knowledge, no, I didn’t,” he said.

The suspect, who had lived in Atlanta, was visiting Thailand. The Ramseys lived in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody before moving to Colorado in 1991, a year after JonBenet was born. The suspect is expected to be brought back to the United States by the weekend.

The Ramseys’ old Tudor-style house in Colorado recently came up for sale for the fourth time since the killing at a reduced price of $1.7 million. Similar homes sell for $2 million or more.

[bboop]

Ha, very funny.

[Bonaparte]

I see that you followed this case as closely as I did. The Ramseys' judge shopping certainly paid off.

[hoosiermama]

IIRC Jon was a baby when they left....Could he have had an eye for her older brother? Was he in the same school in GA?

[Private_Sector_Does_It_Better]

Not a time to joke.

Mourn, desire revenge, get angry. Don't joke.

[One_who_hopes_to_know]

IIRC Jon was a baby when they left...Could he have had an eye for her older brother?

Yes you do recall correctly. I had not thought about the brother but that is an angle also. I have heard they have DNA evidence ... which would be rock solid. If so then obviously there must be some reason for Karr to be in Boulder. Perhaps it is just a coincidence that the Ramsey's used to live in Atlanta where Karr is from. But maybe the attachment was with the brother as you speculate. I was thinking more along the lines of an affair with the mother, which would tie in the ramson note that might have been written by Patsy. Obviously this is pure speculation. But just wondering what would place this guy in Boulder.

[struggle]

I knew a certain homosexual professor at the Japanese university that I taught at. He had quite a penchant for vacationing in Bankok, and it is totally apparent why. I truely am sorry that the media was able to skew the death of J.B. Ramsey to implicate the PARENTS. The ideal of "innocent until proven guily" does not resonate with the media.

[art_rocks]

I don't consider the parents the innocent couple who were the only ones wrongly accused. The Ramsey's also publicly named people they believed committed the crime. Those people were dragged through the mud also and we hear no apology from the Ramsey's. They want everyone to feel sorry for them being accused but forget they made other peoples lives just as miserable by accusting them. Its one thing to tell the police who might be involved and quite another to be out in public naming them. I don't believe we will ever know who did it.

[art_rocks]

The Aztec taught murder, sacrifice, but not hate. Do I get half a point?

[SR 50]

ping

[antceecee]

What could judge shopping have to do with the apprehension of suspected perpetrator of this crime?
I think some here have their "hardy boys" conclusion to this mystery and will accept nothing less than their vaulted opinion.

[Lancey Howard]

Teachers. Sheesh.

[Rte66]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685065/posts
Police: Suspect denies link to Ramsey
AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/16/06 | Sutin Wannabovorn - ap

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685022/posts
Teacher held over murder of US child beauty queen
The Times ^ | August

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685013/posts
Suspect arrested in JonBenet Ramsey case (Ramsey Tip Led To Arrest!)
Yahoo ^ | 8/16/06

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1685007/posts
Jon Benet Ramsey Suspect a Sonoma County Fugitive (California)
KRON ^ | August 16, 2006
......
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684960/posts
Suspect's DNA is a match in JonBenet Ramsey case
KUSA-TV | 8/16/06 | KUSA-TV

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684918/posts
John Ramsey on Today's Arrest in Connection With the Murder of His Daughter, JonBenet Ramsey
Yahoo, PR Newswire ^ | August 16, 2006

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684907/posts
Man arrested in death of JonBenet Ramsey ***UPDATE*** Name of suspect - John Mark Karr
AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/16/06 | Catherine Tsai - ap

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684897/posts
Suspect arrested in JonBenet death
Rocky Mountain News ^ | 8-16-06 | Charlie Brennan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684888/posts
Arrest Made In JonBenet Ramsey Case (CBS Story)
WFRV ^ | 8/16/06

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1684872/posts
Arrest in JonBenet Ramsey Case Expected "Shortly"
8.16.06 | Michael King

[onyx]

:)

[fatima]

Someone gave me these links.http://www.geocities.com/Area51/nebula/9337/unexplained.html

[fatima]

It was reported.

[Rte66]

LOL, my work as the link fairy is now done - got all of them! Hate for people to spin in circles on just one, if they don't know there are others.

[Bonaparte]

"What could judge shopping have to do with the apprehension of suspected perpetrator of this crime?"

Never said it did. It got the Ramseys off the hook a while back.