Arrest made in JonBenet Ramsey case

Breaking news:

BOULDER, Colo. – A man suspected in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey nearly a decade ago was arrested Wednesday in Thailand, the district attorney said.

District Attorney Mary Lacey said the arrest followed several months of work. She disclosed no details about the suspect before a news conference scheduled for Thursday.

Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. CBS reported that the suspect, a 41-year-old second-grade teacher, will be brought back to the United States this weekend.

Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood said in Atlanta that he has been told that the suspect once lived in Conyers, Ga., outside of Atlanta. He would not comment on whether the Ramseys knew him, and he said he knew nothing else about the man.

JonBenet’s parents had been under suspicion for possible involvement in JonBenet’s murder. Will be interesting to see what evidence they have on the suspect they arrested today. Too bad Mrs. Ramsey isn’t around to see it.

Update: Kim Priestap at Wizbang notes in an update what she heard on Fox News about the suspect:

From Carol McKinley at Fox, the suspect’s name is John Karr. He’s in his forties, a schoolteacher, and may have lived in Conyers, Georgia. He has been in Thailand for about 2 years or so and was sending very bizarre and disturbing emails about JonBonet to Patsy for a while before she died.

20 Responses to "Arrest made in JonBenet Ramsey case"

Drewsmom says:

August 16, 2006 at 7:29 pm

Kinda makes me feel guilty cuz I suspected her Mother, she just sounded so guilty whenever she was interviewed, My bad, I made a mistake.
Sister Toldjah says:

August 16, 2006 at 9:11 pm

There was a comment made in this thread by someone who I think called themself “Nazareth” – I accidentally deleted that comment just now. Please repost it. Thanks and apologies!
SacredScoop.com says:

August 16, 2006 at 9:15 pm

Confession in Jon Bennet Ramsey Case

Fox news is reporting that Jonh Karr, who fled to thailand after pressure from authorities, has made a confession in the JonBennet Ramsey murder case. Fox also states that John Karr had been emailing people close to the case and telling them details th…
SacredScoop.com - Christian news, commentary, and inspiring daily devotions » Confession in Jon Bennet Ramsey Case says:

August 16, 2006 at 9:15 pm

[…] Sister Toldjah also has news from Yahoo on her site over here: Click Here for Story [sistertoldjah.com] This entry is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply […]
Nazareth says:

August 16, 2006 at 9:56 pm

lol no worries- was just commenting to Drewsmom that I too had the same feelings of Patsy when I saw her interviews. Some people just aren’;t good at presenting emotions, so I kinda misread Patsy’s emotions as well. I’m thankful they got the maggot, but saddened that patsy didn’t live to see it- although some measure of comfort can come from knowing that she at least knew the police were very close to an arrest.
WildPonyMom says:

August 16, 2006 at 10:08 pm

Poor Patsy died before this news broke. The entire family was under the microscope for so many years … it’s a wonder they stayed together … what a testimony to their love for one another.

A bitter-sweet day.
NC Cop says:

August 16, 2006 at 10:50 pm

I just saw a news story on Fox News where they said that the D.A. in Boulder spoke with the mother when they were closing in on this guy. At least she knew that it was just a matter of time before they got this guy. I hope this is the guy and not just a wild goose chase, we shall see.

I sure thought the parents were involved. There were just too many questions about the incident and all the answers seemed to point to the parents.
Murder, She Blogged at Blog P.I. (beta) says:

August 16, 2006 at 11:06 pm

[…] In the mid-afternoon, I detected no response at all. Late in the evening, as this Memeorandum round-up shows, the only bloggers on the case are conservative bloggers. There’s Wizbang, there’s La Shawn Barber, there’s Sister Toldjah and there’s Hot Air. […]
Macsmind - Conservative Commentary and Common Sense » Blog Archive » After ten years justice for JonBenet? says:

August 16, 2006 at 11:20 pm

[…] Others blogging the story: Wizbang, Sister Toldja. […]
stackja says:

August 17, 2006 at 6:05 am

telegraph.co.uk link
“Accused JonBenet Ramsey killer says death was an ‘accident'”
MSM accidently accused the wrong people?

The more a story is reported the less I believe it. 9/11 is not reported much, while stories like JonBenet Ramsey are. Why?
CZ says:

August 17, 2006 at 8:00 am

I spent a lot of time in Boulder CO. Very beautiful place but just loaded with nutballs. Boulder police can botch a simple drug bust. And UC has a lot more problems than Ward Churchil.

Think of Boulder as San Francisco, near the rockies.
mahwah says:

August 17, 2006 at 1:45 pm

I, for one, never thought Patsy would do something this horrific to her own child. Yes, parents do kill their children occasionally, as the recent Andrea Yates story shows, but they do not kill their children in the way that Jon Bennet was murdered. It was a sick, perverted mind that did that to her, and I could never believe her parents were involved.

I certainly hope they have finally caught her killer. He certainly seems to fit the profile of someone capable of this kind of gruesome act, but he also seems to be a bit mentally debilitated and , to me, and is talking way more than your typical child predator would in his situation. This case needs closure, and I hope this will bring peace to the Ramsey family and friends.
Karl says:

August 17, 2006 at 3:58 pm

I dont buy the confession. Too many inconsistencies.

I think the guy may have some information, but he seems more like a case stalker, not a killer.

And yes I think her parents knew more then they told, and acted in a way that put them under suspicion with cause.
NC Cop says:

August 17, 2006 at 5:08 pm

I have talked to several people who agree with you Karl. They are not sold on this guy yet. Some believe he is just looking for attention. Not to mention if you were an accused child molester/pervert wouldn’t you like to be in a U.S. prison compared to a Thailand prison? These are pretty interesting points, I guess we will find out soon enough.
Big Bang Hunter says:

August 17, 2006 at 6:05 pm

– Karr has already made two statements that are at odds with the published case info. Now either he’s blowing smoke or the police withheld certain facts.

– His ex-wife, who once was so concerned about his “activities” she got a restarining order against him, claims he was home with her on christmas eve 1996. She has absolutely no reason to lie for him.

– The most basic item in all of this, rests on the idea that to do a crime, as a minimum you have to be at the scene. So far I’ve seen not one mention of anyone who thinks he’s ever even been to Boulder, much less lived there.

– Just for the sake of curiosity, I went back and reviewed Dectective Steve Thomas’s book on the case to refresh my memory.

– The Ramsey’s sued Thomas, but just at the point when it was deposition time They dropped the entire suit. No harm, no foul, no wrongdoing, etc etc. Some think it was because Patsy was afraid of breaking down on the stand under cross.

Thomas lost his saving’s and house, but maintained his presentation was the most likely senario. Patsy was not a Killer, in the sense that she intentionally murdered her child, but she most likely did lash out at her over the bed wetting incident that night, something she was known to be extremely angry over, and in the process the child was probably fatally injured. I’ll leave it to those of you interested enough to review the excerpts from his writing which appear online in a fairly compact, but concise review. Patsy was not a bad person, just a wealthy socialite who panicked in a situation and handled it in the Kennedy way.

– Reviewing the ransom note, one is struck with the use of certain words such as “attache”, and several other words which are not commonly used in middle class circles. It seems to wax back and forth from faux “tough talk” to an aloof writing style. Such as you might expect from a panicky debutante, trying to sound brutish, but unable to escape her refined upbringing. the fact that the writter knew almost exactly the amount of John’s most recent bonus is rather damning.

– Overall, its the proponderance of “devil in the details” that is so compeling.

– If you havn’t seen it ST you might want to glance it over. Unless this latest suspect turns out to be real deal, the Thomas senario is hard to refute. If true we’ll probably never know for sure, since she will have taken the truth with her to her grave.
NC Cop says:

August 17, 2006 at 10:02 pm

Bang,

Having read that book I want to ask you, was there anything in there about finding a crumpled up note in the trash?? I had heard that they found a half written ransom note crumpled up in the trash as if the person writing it decided they didn’t like what they had written and threw it in the trash to start over.
Big Bang Hunter says:

August 18, 2006 at 12:51 am

– NC. I believe they found writing impressions of different “trial” runs of the ransom note in Patsy’s notebook, but were never able to locate the pages torn out. One of the discarded versions started with “Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey”. It’s been years since I read the evidence surrounding the ransom note, so I don’t remember the exact details, but I do recall that the material did support the “insider” idea.

– One of the things that’s always bothered me about this case is the manner in which John Ramsey used his money and influence to “control” as many aspects of the investigation as possible. The Ramsey’s most definately were not required to follow any of the normal investigative steps that any average persons in the same situation would have been impeled to do, and even on those occassions when they met with authorities, they demanded and got special treatment.

– Larry King had all three on his talk show a few years after the tradgedy, and its obvious the Ramseys were very carefully controlling every instance of media or law inforcement interface. that seems to be one of the very reasons thomas and the Boulder police were suspicious. The Ramseys mounted a very concerted effort to play up the notion that the police were inept, and messed up the investigation, particularly after they failed to cooperate in a straightforward manner and came under suspicion. Here’s the link to the transcript of Larry’s show.

– In summary, they manged to ruin Thomas, but never were held accountable in any meaningful way for all the evidence that pointed to Patsy, and most importantly, and I think this is really the key, Patsy never had to appear on the stand in a court of law, which I think was the bottom line for Johns efforts. I think he deeply suspected his wife was involved, and didn’t ever want to face that possibility. Everything the Ramseys did from day one had the effect, and result, of avoiding a direct confrontation or accounting with the police.

– Bang
armchair detective says:

August 19, 2006 at 7:22 pm

For years I thought the Ramseys were guilty. From the way the police narrowed in on them, the news report that there were no foot prints in the snow around the house the morning after her murder, coupled with the creepy beauty queen photos of her and what many experts say about the ransom note, it seemed like an open and shut case.

Then I saw a documentary on the Discovery channel that completely changed my mind. This documentary really showed how the Ramseys were tried and convicted in the press in the first couple of days of the investigations and how the police ignored important leads.
For instance, there was no snow on the ground as the press stated, for an intruder to leave foot prints in.
Also, the Boulder police didn’t secure the crime scene for hours after they arrived, this really shoots their credability in my book and points out that when it comes to serious crime this police department is simply not experienced.
Another point was that in the room where Jonbennet was found there was an unlocked window above which was a gate on the outside of the house that had recently been lifted (as evident by the still green weeds and grass trapped under it).
But two things were most compelling in changing my mind. First, a girl who went to the same dance school that Jonbennet attended, was sexually assaulted much the same way and shortly before Jonbennet was murdered. In this case the intruder had been laying in wait while the mother and daughter were out and once the little girl had been put to bed the intruder began assaulting her after silencing her with a stun gun (there were marks on Jonbennets neck that appear to be burn marks from a stun gun). The mother eventually heard movement and interrupted the intruder as he was trying to leave the house with her daughter. The Boulder police ignored this lead.
Secondly, the DNA under Jonbennet’s fingernails and in her underwear exonerated everyone in the Ramsey family and yet the police still pursused them to the exclusion of all other leads.
If I found my daughter raped, beaten about the head and strangled with a garrote on Christmas morning and the police accused me or anyone in my family to the exclusion of all other leads, I wouldn’t be very cooperative or rational either.
The odds are always high, when a child is murdered, that it was the parents but there’s always a history of abuse or neglect prior to the murder.
To be honest, I don’t think Karr killed her either. I have no doubt that he’s a pedephile and was ‘in love’ with Jonbennet. But he also seems too nuty to be organized enough to committ this crime.
I do hope that people will begin to see what chaos jumping to conclusions, not following procedure and tunnel vision can do to our justice system.
Whoever did this, I’m sure assaulted other kids before and after assualting Jonbennet, and hopefully is not free much longer to continue.
Ashlay Perkins says:

August 22, 2006 at 11:31 pm

John Karr is inocent of the recent charges but he is a weirdo and now everyone knows. I’m so sorry for the Ramsey family… so sorry… -Ash-
Bob Millman says:

August 29, 2006 at 7:04 pm

John Ramsey never took a police administered lie detector test-I have always felt he was guilty-and, as those that say “how could a man kill his daughter?”, I have 2 words-Andrea Yates.

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