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.
true enough...
We should do a media search on all the Enquirers, star magazines and weekly world news and read all the psychics predictions of who killed the child. Then of course mock them publicly.
Something's rotten in Denmark. There's almost no reason the ex-wife would provide an allabi for this monster unless it were true. His insistence that this is only 2nd-degree murder sounds like someone looking for a trip back to the states but not death row.
He wasn't in prison on Thailand. The authorities cooperated with the INS and arrested him on the charges from CA until the Boulder authorities could get with them according to the news last night. The sex charges were the ones from CA.
It's only 2006... way too early to declare this the trial of the century!
Besides, the next Scott Peterson is probably out there plotting a fishing trip.
I'm not sure. I was all over the channels but I think it was Fox.
That would work if he had actually been in prison when the US extradited him. In fact, he was staying at some sort of dormitory-style hotel (sounds like a hostel).
The thing that will always stick with me is the ransome note. The amount of $118K? I could see if he happened upon a round number such as $150K, but he just happened to ask for that unique amount?
Also, you mean to say he stayed in that house and drafted that note AFTER he killed JonBenet?
I have a hunch that the alibi is going to be blown out of the water very shortly.
...in the sex district.
That Natalee thing hasn't panned out....
My thought was that he knows the killer and the killer gave him these details and he is protecting the killer. Who knows. The DNA will tell.
He won't walk, he's been convicted in absentia for other crimes here and is also under investigation in the US. But where would you rather spend time in prison?
Helped the girls with their evening bath??? Dear Lord, I hope they are interviewing those little girls.
Then, once they extradite you go to court in the US and deny the whole thing. The judge throws out the confession and you walk.
And he gets a free plane ticket back to the states then writes a book.
Actually, the brother said he wasn't sure, that he would have to check dated photos and such.
That $118k is the amount of the father's Christmas bonus. That factoid is puzzling.
Karr's brother, Nate, said: "This whole thing is ridiculous."
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/17/ramsey.arrest/
Still, someone who was close to him at one time, right? Not all divorces result in child custory fights and so on. She's claiming he was there for Christmas? Seems even if she's telling the truth, they were pretty friendly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.