Suspect Is Held in Ramsey Slaying

Authorities in Thailand arrested an American man Wednesday in the slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, a major breakthrough in a decade-long mystery. The case has outlasted numerous investigators, spawned bitter lawsuits and media frenzies, and riveted a public that has followed a shifting cloud of suspicion that settled for a time over the young girl’s parents.

A source close to the investigation identified the suspect as John Mark Karr. He is believed to be in his early 40s and to have worked briefly as a substitute teacher in Petaluma, Calif. The office of Boulder, Colo., Dist. Atty. Mary T. Lacy said in a statement that the suspect in the case was found in Bangkok after a “focused and complex” investigation that lasted several months.

The arrest -- which was made by the Royal Thai Police with the assistance of U.S. immigration officials -- opens a new chapter in the unsolved mystery. Little was known Wednesday about Karr’s alleged motive, or his relationship, if any, with the Ramseys. It also is unclear whether he is the sole suspect in the 1996 Colorado slaying. The district attorney’s office refused to grant interviews Wednesday. A news conference is planned for today. The Associated Press reported late Wednesday that, according to the head of Thailand immigration police, Karr admitted to the killing after he was arrested at his downtown Bangkok apartment. Karr arrived in Bangkok on June 6 from Malaysia to look for a teaching job, Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul told the news service.

During the course of the investigation, the girl’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were consulted by the district attorney’s office, Lacy’s statement said. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in June.

Officials notified her husband of the arrest Wednesday morning. In an interview with Denver TV station KUSA, John Ramsey was asked whether he knew the suspect.

“To my knowledge, no, I didn’t,” he said. “But I don’t know enough yet.”

Paulette Davis, 42, a sister of Patsy Ramsey, said she was overwhelmed by emotion when she received news that a suspect had been arrested.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Davis, a resident of Marietta, Ga. “I actually fell to my knees and praised God and just really went to pieces.”

Still, she said, members of the family aren’t sure what to expect next. “Everybody is waiting patiently to find out what the next move is, or what is going to be going on.”

Details of Karr’s background remained unverified. However, he is believed to have once lived in Conyers, Ga., about 25 miles east-southeast of Atlanta, as well as Northern California. JonBenet was born in Atlanta in 1990, and the family moved to Colorado in 1991.

In Atlanta on Wednesday, Nate Karr, identified as the brother of the suspect, said in an interview with WAGA-TV that accusations of John Karr’s involvement with the JonBenet slaying were “ridiculous, without a doubt.”

But records indicated that a man named John Mark Karr, apparently the suspect, had a past brush with the law.

According to Sgt. Clint Shubel of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department, a John Mark Karr was arrested in April 2001 on five charges of possessing child pornography. He failed to show up for a court appearance and a warrant was issued for his arrest, Shubel said.

Records also show that a John M. Karr, who would now be 41, briefly worked as a substitute teacher at “several” of the seven elementary schools in the Petaluma City Schools system but was terminated for unspecified reasons, according to Steve Bolman, the district’s deputy superintendent for business and administration. Bolman said Karr worked for the district for 11 days between Dec. 8, 2000, and April 2, 2001. That was about the time of his arrest, but Bolman said Karr’s file did not indicate the reason for his termination.

For years after their daughter’s death, the Ramseys remained under what Boulder authorities called an “umbrella of suspicion” as the investigation unfolded under intense media scrutiny. All the while, the Ramseys vigorously maintained their innocence. At one point, they identified as a suspect a freelance journalist, who in turn filed a libel and slander lawsuit against them. The suit was dismissed in 2003 by a federal judge who concluded that an intruder killed the girl.

In a prepared statement Wednesday, John Ramsey said he would limit his comments on the case “to avoid feeding the type of media speculation that my wife and I were subjected to for so many years.”

His wife, he said, “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.”

John Ramsey, a wealthy computer entrepreneur, and his wife, Patsy, a former Miss West Virginia, were unknown to the broader public when their daughter was discovered on the concrete floor of the family’s basement the day after Christmas 1996. There was duct tape on her mouth and a garrote around her throat.

The case quickly became a national phenomenon. JonBenet was a perky, blond contestant in child beauty pageants -- she had been named, among other things, “National Tiny Miss Beauty” -- and cable news channels repeatedly played footage of her dancing and exuding a Shirley Temple-like charm. The slaying was the only one recorded that year in the prosperous college town of Boulder. Tabloids and mainstream media dissected the investigation, which took a number of controversial turns.

Former Boulder Police Det. Linda Arndt, the first investigator on the scene, initially assumed JonBenet was a kidnap victim. The detective was later criticized for allowing John Ramsey to leave the house, return and then search it for his daughter. He found her body in the basement. Experts said his decision to remove the tape that covered her mouth could have destroyed key evidence.

As the investigation wore on, the office of Boulder’s then-Dist. Atty. Alex Hunter was criticized for being too cozy with the Ramseys’ attorneys, while police were said to be more suspicious of the couple.

Worried that the police were not impartial, the Ramseys hired attorneys and publicists, and did not consent to formal police interviews until four months after the crime. Authorities said that Patsy Ramsey could not be ruled out as the author of a ransom note left in the house.

In September 1998, a grand jury began investigating the case, reviewing 30,000 pieces of evidence. Thirteen months later, they declined to return an indictment.

Hunter, Boulder’s top prosecutor for a quarter century, declined to seek reelection soon after. In 2000, voters elected a sex-crimes prosecutor from Hunter’s office, Mary T. Lacy, to the post. (At the time, she went by the name Mary T. Keenan.)

After the slaying, the Ramseys left Boulder, splitting time between Michigan and Georgia. They wrote a book, “The Death of Innocence,” about their ordeal, and fought their detractors vigorously in court. They sued at least half a dozen media outlets, including Time magazine and Court TV, for reporting allegations that their young son, Burke, who was 9 years old at the time, was the killer. Five of those cases resulted in confidential settlements.

John Ramsey mounted an unsuccessful campaign for a seat in the Michigan state House of Representatives.

In early 2003, the Boulder Police Department ended its investigation, unequivocally handing the reins to the district attorney’s office. The Ramseys had threatened to sue the department for ignoring leads and tips.

On Wednesday, the Ramseys’ attorney, L. Lin Wood of Atlanta, singled out Lacy for praise, saying he was “totally amazed and impressed” with the effort she headed up.

“This was obviously an incredibly complex task but one that has been carried out in almost textbook fashion with the investigation of this individual going on for several months, without any leaks in the case,” he said.

As the sun set Wednesday over the tiny St. James Episcopal Cemetery in Marietta, Ga., news crews from across the country pointed their cameras at JonBenet Ramsey’s carefully tended marble headstone. Her mother’s grave, fresh and as yet unmarked, was a few feet away.

A friend had left a handwritten note for Patsy Ramsey. “Dearest Patsy, Justice has come,” it said. “Rest in peace!”

Fausset reported from Atlanta and Silverstein from Los Angeles. Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Jenny Jarvie in Atlanta, Ralph Vartabedian in Los Angeles, Lynn Marshall in Seattle, and the Associated Press.

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Timeline

Key dates in the JonBenet Ramsey case:

1996

Dec. 26: JonBenet Ramsey, 6, is found dead in the basement of her Boulder, Colo., home. Patsy Ramsey says she found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter.

Dec. 31: Ramsey family hires an attorney, publicist and investigators.

1997

Feb. 24: Ramsey spokesman says family members know they are “at the top of the list of possible suspects.”

April 18: Dist. Atty. Alex Hunter says Ramseys are under an “umbrella of suspicion.”

April 30: Ramseys are interviewed by police in first formal sessions.

May 14: Two detectives, including the first to arrive at the Ramsey home, are removed from the case.

Oct. 10: Police Chief Tom Koby admits mistakes were made early in the case.

1998

June 23-25: Ramseys are questioned by police, their first interviews in more than a year. JonBenet’s brother, Burke, who was 9 at the time of her death, is interviewed for six hours.

Sept. 15: Grand jury begins investigation.

1999

Oct. 13: District attorney says no indictments will be issued and cites a lack of sufficient evidence.

2002

Dec. 20: New Dist. Atty. Mary Keenan (now Mary Lacy) takes over the investigation and promises a fresh look.

2003

March 31: A federal judge in Atlanta concludes that the weight of the evidence is more consistent with the intruder theory than with the theory that Patsy Ramsey killed JonBenet.

April 7: Lacy issues a statement agreeing with the judge.

June: Retired Det. Tom Bennett is hired by the Boulder district attorney’s office to lead a refocused investigation.

2004

June 4: The Ramseys’ attorney says DNA found in JonBenet’s underwear did not match any samples in an FBI database of convicted violent offenders.

2006

June 24: Patsy Ramsey dies at 49 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

Aug. 16: Lacy says a suspect in JonBenet’s slaying has been arrested in Thailand.

Source: Associated Press

Los Angeles Times