PETALUMA, Calif. (August 17, 2006) — A former schoolteacher has been arrested in Thailand in the killing of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey.
Federal officials identified the suspect as John Mark Karr, a 42-year-old American.
It was widely reported, but not confirmed by authorities, that Karr taught in California until 2001, when he was arrested on child pornography charges. He didn’t show up for a court date, and an arrest warrant was issued for him.
A woman who said she was the ex-wife of former Petaluma teacher John Karr told KGO-TV in San Francisco that they got divorced after his arrest.
Laura Karr told KGO that she doesn’t believe her former husband was involved in JonBenet’s killing and said she was with him in Alabama at the time of the homicide.
Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Joan Risse confirmed the child pornography charges and arrest warrant against Karr. But she cautioned that she didn’t know if he was the same person held in the JonBenet case.
According to the Ramsey family’s lawyer, Karr is a schoolteacher who once lived in Conyers, Georgia, not far from Atlanta, where the Ramsey’s now live.
The lawyer isn’t saying if the Ramseys know Karr. But in a statement, JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey, says he and his wife had been aware that there was a suspect. Patsy Ramsey died in June, but her husband says she knew of the investigation.
The following is the text of a statement from John Ramsey released Wednesday:
“I want to have only very limited comment on today’s arrest because I feel it is extremely important to not only let the justice system operate to its conclusion in an orderly manner, but also to avoid feeding the type of media speculation that my wife and I were subjected to for so many years.
“I do want to say, however, that the investigation of the individual arrested today in connection with JonBenet’s death was discussed with Patsy and me by the Boulder district attorney’s office prior to Patsy’s death in June. So 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. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude for the efforts of Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy and the members of her investigative team.”
JonBenet Ramsey wasfound beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996.
Patsy and John Ramsey, had been under an “umbrella of suspicion” in JonBenet’s death. The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury investigation in Boulder ended with no indictments, and no arrests had been made in 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, who the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter’s murder. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with Carnes’ declaration.
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