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.
Patsy gave 6 handwritings samples for analysis. The DA said she scored a 4 to 4.5 on those samples. On the scale a 1 is a perfect match and a 5 is a totally excluded. In a court this would not even be admissible as proof that she wrote it because with that score the probability was so high that she didn't write it.
He wasn't in a Thailand Jail. He was arrested at an 'apartment' in a hotel that is notorious for sexual exploits.
The aunt on Fox this morning said the Boulder police made comments that one of the parents did it even while the evidence bags were still in the house. Another case of trying to make the evidence fit the suspect(s) they have already picked out.
You got it right. He wasn't in prison in Thailand until the US officials had him arrested. Apparently, they were able to find him through the journalism professor in Boulder with whom he had been communicating. I heard last night that the place where he was living ("Guesthouse" doesn't begin to describe it!) was in a block of apartments and hotels that cater to the sex tourists. The place where he was living rents rooms for as little as 3 hours. EEEEWWWWW!
I've been thinking about how he could have possibly known enough about the family to have written the ransom note and asked for a ransom equal to the exact amount of the dad's bonus check. I came up with the possibility that he had been stalking the family, and possibly gained entrance to the home and spent some time there before the actual murder.
One thing that doesn't make sense is that they say that the murderer fed Jonbenet a bowl of fruit and drank a glass of ice tea, while she ate, before taking her to the basement to be murdered. That just doesn't jive with a kidnap attempt.
Karr wasn't in jail in Thailand. He was being held for American authorities on kiddie porn charges from California from 2001.
Exactly, Remember Robin Cotton of Cellmark. The DNA matched and demon is free and still living a nice healthy life.
Perhaps the killer asked Jon Benet if there was a "private" and "secret" room somewhere in the home and she directed him to this room in the basement. Just conjecture.
I was waiting to hear the newspeople say that he lived in Colorado at some point or taught at the elementary school. I've not heard that he has friends in CO, so why would he be at the Ramseys on Christmas night? How would he have known about JonBenet in the first place unless he was a regular patron of kiddie pageants. And why would his former wife vouch for his whereabouts that evening? Why protect a convicted child molester? Through his book research he has had a lot of opportunity to be contacted by the real killer, and he looks like a nobody, seeking publicity. Lots of unanswered questions.
"He never applied for a teaching license, certification or authorization here. A file was opened in his name, however, which may have been triggered by the submission of either test scores or fingerprints, signaling his intention to apply for a license. But Karr never did so."
Why submit your test scores and/or fingerprints, unless he was considering asking for a job in the Boulder area?
This gave me the chills. Call me old fashioned or sexist but there is no way I would ever hire a MAN to care for my small kids, especially allow them to be bathed and put to bed. I know you have to be just as careful with women, especially with all that is coming to light about them as well. Personally, I believe if you have kids, it's your responsibility to take care of them. My boys have never had more than a sitter come while we were out for the evening.
One guy on the case thought the Ramseys were guilty and it took his investigation 10 months to admit he was dead wrong.
yes. Sex tourism.
Thanks! I missed that one! The FBI profiler last night and the expert on polygraphs were adament that this couple did not do the crime. Then one of the cops writes a book to make everything fit. Always thought the Boulder authorities stunk in this case and wouldn't look farther then the end of their nose.
And all that 10 months a perp was on the lose and has been ever since.
Okay, you're old-fashioned.
j/k ;-)
Pedophiles who murder aren't exactly known for making sense.
interesting.
It was Christmas, and it isn't out of the question that a Father would spend Christmas with his kids..So the ex-wife could be telling the truth.
sw
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