I don't believe it for an instant. It's too convenient. It comes just a couple months after Patsy is dead, and when John Ramsey is running for public office?http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_27267751.shtml
Jon Benet Ramsey: American, Ex School Teacher Arrested in Thailand
By Robert Hernandez
Aug 16, 2006
(Update I) An arrest has been made in connection with Jon Benet Ramsey murder case. The Associated Press, citing U.S. law enforcement officials, reported that a man was arrested in Thailand in connection with the slaying.
A report from MSNBC says the man is a 41-year old US citizen and former school teacher and has been or will be charged with the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey.
Federal officials familiar with the case told the AP on condition of anonymity that the man was being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges.
The suspect is expected to arrive back in the United States, possibly within the next two days, accompanied by an investigator from the Boulder DA's office.
The arrest comes nearly 10 years after the 6-year-old girl was found strangled and beaten to death in the basement of her home on the day after Christmas. The arrest gives great hope to many that followed this case closely and wished to see the murderer brought to justice.
Jon Benet Ramsey who many know by the pictures played over and over of her child beauty queen days was found murdered in the basement of her family's upscale Boulder, Colo., home the day after Christmas, 1996.
She was but six-years old at the time.
Many to this day believed that the mother and father John and Patsy Ramsey had something to do with their daughter's death. They refused to submit to a lie detector test and would always insist on being interviewed together and that made many suspicious that were watching the case.
ABC gives a short synopsis on the crime scene:
Patsy Ramsey, first found a handwritten ransom note on the back staircase of the home. It demanded $118,000 - the exact amount the little girl's father, John Ramsey had received as a corporate bonus - if the family wanted to see Jon Benet again. Eight hours later, Patsy Ramsey found her badly beaten daughter's body in the basement.
The Ramseys were steadfast in defending their innocence. "Let me assure you, I did not kill JonBenet," Patsy Ramsey said then. The Ramseys offered a reward of $100,000 to the person who captured their daughter's killer.
Patsy Ramsey died last month of ovarian cancer and is buried next to her daughter.
Ramsey family attorney Hal Haddon told ABC News, "It is our hope that this arrest will bring some closure to the Ramsey family after a 10-year ordeal. We respect the legal process and will have no further comment about the case or the evidence until that process is concluded."
I suspect that a deal was made for this guy to "confess" to get John off the hook. He couldn't do that while Patsy was alive...
I think the guy who wrote: "A Mother Gone Bad" had the best scenario that fit all the facts even to the statements of each parent that they, individually, did not kill their child. No, they didn't do it "individually," they BOTH did it.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/0817metjonbenet_.html
Suspect says JonBenet's slaying an accident
Suspect in 10-year-old case is captured in Thailand
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER
Published on: 08/17/06
A former metro Atlanta man said publicly in Thailand on Thursday that he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she was killed and called the 6-year-old's death "an accident."
John Mark Karr, 41, confessed to the killing after his arrest Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok apartment by Thai and American authorities, said Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand's immigration police.
"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr told reporters after his arrest, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. "Her death was an accident."
Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: "No."
Suwat said Karr insisted his crime was not first-degree murder but that she died during a kidnapping attempt that went awry.
"He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional. He said he was in love with the child, she was a pageant queen," Suwat said.
Karr declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family. Dressed in a turquoise polo shirt and khaki trousers, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.
Karr 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, where Karr was arrested.
News that Karr had been arrested shocked some family members of the little blond girl, whose killing 10 years ago riveted the nation.
Boulder, Colo., District Attorney Mary Lacy said the arrest followed several months of investigation.
The Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday that Karr drew attention to himself with a four-year exchange of e-mail with University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey.
The ongoing exchange was initiated by Karr after he watched a documentary that Tracey - long a vocal proponent of the Ramseys' innocence - produced on JonBenet's death.
Tracey passed on information he developed to former Boulder D.A.'s investigator Lou Smit and El Paso County private investigator Ollie Gray, who in turn pressed Lacy, the district attorney, to pursue Karr.
Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Karr was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges.
His brother Nate Karr, speaking from their father's home in Atlanta said, "We're sure he's innocent. We heard that there's good DNA evidence. I hope they can test him as soon as possible so they can exonerate him. We're just positive he's innocent. This is ridiculous."
JonBenet Ramsey's name still summons images of her in makeup and elaborate costumes, performing in tiny-tot pageants. Few news stories in the past decade gripped people as the death of JonBenet, a child homicide that occurred during Christmastime and steamrolled into a national obsession. Strangers thronged to her grave in Marietta, filled the Internet with theories and transformed the little girl into an icon identified by just one name: JonBenet.
Ramsey family members, many of whom live in metro Atlanta, said they hoped Wednesday's arrest would finally vindicate her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who not only suffered her death but then were cast in a tabloid tableau as the chief suspects in the case.
In a statement Wednesday, John Ramsey said he regretted that his wife did not live to see this day. Patsy Ramsey died in June after a long battle with ovarian cancer.
"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 10 years after our daughter's murder," he said.
Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood would not comment on whether the Ramseys knew the suspect. He said he knew nothing else about the man other than he previously lived in Atlanta. Wood is an Atlanta attorney who has represented the family since they returned to Atlanta from Boulder shortly after JonBenet's death.
Wood said the Ramseys learned about the suspect at least a month before Patsy Ramsey died on June 24.
"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.
JonBenet was born in Atlanta in 1990 and her family lived in Dunwoody before moving to Colorado. JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996.
Although the slaying was among the most investigated and publicized crimes in modern times, news of Karr's arrest emerged without advance warning.
Karr in Alabama
Nate Karr said his younger brother lived with grandparents in Alabama, where he went to high school and college and where he went on to become a teacher.
Bravell Jackson, superintendant of Marion County Schools in Alabama, said he knew Carr as a young boy and taught him in physical education at Hamilton Elementary School.
He said Karr graduated from Hamilton High School around 1983, and for a time was a substitute teacher at the elementary school. "He wasn't here very long, for about 15 days in August and September of 1996, and I had to remove him from the sub list," said Jackson. "There were some complaints from parents. I can't say more than that."
Karr moved to Northern California and taught at several schools. The Sonoma County district attorney's office said Karr had been arrested there in 2001 on several charges of possessing child pornography. He did not show up for a court appearance in December and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Wednesday evening, Nate Karr told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren that his brother, to his knowledge, did not know the Ramsey family, and did not have any contact with them.
He added, "To my knowledge he never lived in Boulder, Colorado."
"We believe he may have been here in Atlanta with us when this terrible tragedy occurred," Nate Karr said.
He said his brother had been researching a possible book "on men who commit these horrible crimes against children."
Lacy, the Boulder district attorney, said she will hold a press conference today to release further details.
Greg Ramsey, a cousin of JonBenet who lives in Alpharetta, said he was "excited" to hear the news. He said he had been losing hope after so many years without an arrest.
Greg Ramsey, 29, said he has spoken to several family members and none could recall the name John Mark Karr.
He did remember his young cousin, who would have turned 16 on Aug. 6, as a funny, loving child. He recalled her performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" for the family during a summer vacation, excited to show everyone that she remembered all the words.
The details of the girl's death remain vivid in many people's minds: Her father said he found her lifeless body in a seldom-used basement room, duct tape strapped across her mouth, after her mother found a ransom note stating, "We have your daughter."
Investigators said that at one point the Ramseys were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the slaying, but they were never charged. The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury investigation in Boulder ended with no charges.
A retired Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who worked on the JonBenet Ramsey case says he was surprised by Karr's arrest.
John Lang, who lives in Conyers, was the case agent in the murder investigation based in Atlanta. He told the Rockdale Citizen that Karr's name never surfaced as far as he knows. Lang said he has worked closely with the Boulder police throughout the past several years.
The Citizen reported that officials with the Rockdale County Public Schools said a preliminary search of their records was unable to verify that Karr was employed by the school district during the years he was believed to have lived in the Atlanta area. Reports indicate that would have been between 1988 and 1992. The assistant superintendent for instruction - Bonnie Knight - says a more thorough search is planned for this morning.
Authorities in Rockdale County and Conyers have no record of Karr ever being logged into the county jail, nor does his name appear on any county sex offender registry.
'A long time coming'
Seven months after JonBenet's death, the Ramseys moved from Boulder to a Georgian mansion in northwest Atlanta, not far from where JonBenet - and now Patsy Ramsey - are buried. Several other family members also reside in the area.
Pam Paugh, the sister of Patsy Ramsey and aunt of JonBenet, said from her Roswell home that the family is "elated" that a suspect has been found.
"It's been a long time coming. We always knew this time would come," said Paugh, 47. She said John Ramsey called to tell her an arrest was imminent. "He's quite ready for this to happen. He's quite ready for justice to occur," she said.
Paugh said John Ramsey is still grieving the recent loss of his wife. She said her sister is in heaven and knows the truth and what is happening. "She is probably elated herself," she said.
Paugh said that even though the news story has subsided over the years, the investigation continued behind the scenes and many people prayed for this day to come, she said.
"Thousands have been praying for this day," Paugh said.
The family's hopes were raised when the Boulder County district attorney took over the investigation, she said.
There had been private meetings between the district attorney's office and John and Patsy Ramsey, and Wood, their Atlanta attorney, Paugh said.
Wood said he and the Ramseys "have been totally amazed and impressed with the professionalism of law enforcement" under Lacy's direction. Lacy became district attorney in 2001. Over the years, the Ramseys accused Boulder police of botching the case.
In 2003, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes in Atlanta concluded that the evidence she reviewed suggested an intruder killed JonBenet. That opinion came with the judge's decision to dismiss a libel and slander lawsuit against the Ramseys by a freelance journalist whom the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter's slaying. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with Carnes' declaration.
The Ramseys have kept a residence in metro Atlanta but moved full time last fall to the summer place they've owned since 1992 in Charlevoix, a Lake Michigan tourist town about 230 miles northwest of Detroit.
Paugh said the family still had hard feelings toward the Boulder County Police Department, which had named the Ramsey parents as suspects.
"They put us through hell," she said. "They are incompetent."
She said she would let the legal system decide whether the suspect should face the death penalty.
Karr taught at several California schools, and in 2001 was charged with five counts of possessing child pornography, the Petaluma Argus-Courier reported. His teaching credential was suspended and he is still wanted in California, the newspaper said.
Karr and his wife at the time, Laura, married in 1989 and lived in Alabama before moving to Petaluma in 2000. He began teaching in Petaluma and Napa, and Petaluma City Schools received no complaints about his work. Laura Karr filed for divorce in 2001, after he was charged with possessing pornography, the newspaper reported.
Grave site visitor
The St. James Episcopal Church Cemetery in Marietta, where JonBenet, her half sister and her mother are buried, was virtually empty Wednesday afternoon. The dogwood tree that hangs over JonBenet's grave is laden with butterfly and angel ornaments, wind chimes and other items. A pair of blue sunglasses hangs from a yellow ribbon.
An angel statue and smaller figurines have been placed on the grave itself, along with a toy car. Next to the grave are a stone bench and a well-tended shade garden of hostas encircled by a rock wall. Blue and purple flowers are planted on either side of her grave.
Lib Waters of Marietta, who described herself as a longtime friend of the Ramsey family, visited the grave sites Wednesday. Waters taped a piece of notebook paper to JonBenet's headstone with a handwritten message that read: "Dearest Patsy, Justice has come for you and John. Rest in peace."
Paulette Paugh Davis, JonBenet's aunt, who lives in Marietta, said, "We know pretty much as much as you. I'm grieving and ... it is big news. I am grieving. ... I want to be left alone."
Law enforcement officials from Boulder were flying to Bangkok to present Thai authorities with documents in the slaying, officials in Washington said.
Welcome news in Roswell
In the Roswell neighborhood where Patsy Ramsey's father, Donald Paugh, lives, residents said they were glad to hear the news.
"I'm glad for the family they have found someone," said Donna Stokely, 50, who has lived in the Brookfield West subdivision for about eight years. "The family's taken a lot of heat over this. ... Finally they'll have a little bit of closure and a little bit of vindication."
Valerie Barckhoff was walking her dog Wednesday afternoon in the upscale neighborhood just west of Roswell High School. She has lived in the neighborhood about two years. "I'm sure they've got to be relieved," she said of the Ramsey relatives. As a mother, Barckhoff reflected on Patsy Ramsey, who died before a suspect was arrested in her daughter's death. "I would think it would have given her some peace, knowing that there was some closure," Barckhoff said.
Tim Crain was exercising in the gym at the Brookfield Country Club when he saw the news about the arrest on TV. "I'm shocked they found somebody - it's taken so long," said Crain, who lives in Whittingham Park, a neighboring community. "Good for them. It's amazing. How do you find someone in Thailand?"
Billy and Yvonne Garmon have lived in Brookfield Glen for two years.
"I was glad to hear [Patsy] was aware of this before her death," Yvonne Garmon said. "It was halfway across the world, but I'm glad they went that far to pursue it."
Dan Tretinik of Roswell said he had two thoughts when heard about the arrest on the radio.
"My first thought, 'It's been an awfully long time. I never thought they'd get a lead or anyone ever," Tretinik said. "Second thought, 'It's about time. You'd like to think justice is going to be served."