After 10 Years, Suspect Caught In Ramsey Case
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BOULDER, Colo. — A man suspected in the murder of 6-year-old beauty-queen JonBenet Ramsey was arrested yesterday in Thailand in a surprise breakthrough in one of the nation’s most lurid murder cases — a decade-old crime some feared would never be solved.
District Attorney Mary Lacy said the arrest followed several months of work. She would not disclose any details about the suspect, but the Ramsey family’s attorney in Atlanta said the man was a schoolteacher who once lived in nearby Conyers, Ga.
Federal officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the suspect as a 42-year-old American, John Mark Karr, and said he was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. CBS reported he will be brought back to America this weekend.
The Ramsey family attorney, Lin Wood, said the arrest was vindication for JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, who had come under suspicion in the slaying. The attorney said the Ramseys learned about the suspect a least a month before Patsy Ramsey’s death on June 24 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.
“It’s been a very long 10 years, and I’m just sorry Patsy isn’t here for me to hug her neck,” Mr. Wood said.
JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder on December 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey reported finding a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter.
The image of blonde-haired little JonBenet in a cowgirl costume and other beauty pageant outfits has haunted TV talk shows ever since, helping feed myriad theories about her killer.
Investigators said at one point that JonBenet’s parents were under an “umbrella of suspicion” in the slaying. But the Ramseys insisted an intruder killed their daughter, and no one was ever charged.
In a statement released yesterday, John Ramsey said: “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.”
KUSA-TV of Denver, citing no sources, reported that the suspect has confessed to certain elements of the crime.
