I've always had a passing interest in the JonBenet Ramsey case. Mostly because I thought her parents were demonized by the media, driving then from their home in Colorado, and her mother to an early grave.
Now, it seems they have perhaps found the true killer years later, in Thailand.
A law enforcement source identified the suspect as 41-year-old John Mark Carr, a one-time school teacher.
Carr was arrested Wednesday morning and has confessed to certain elements of the crime that are unknown to the general public, KUSA reported.
JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, told 9NEWS in Denver, Colorado, that he has been notified of the arrest. Asked if he knew Carr, Ramsey replied, "To the best of my knowledge, no," the station's Web site reported.
This person was arrested on an unrelated sex crime in Thailand (and I can take a wild guess what that might be), and confessed to the Ramsey murder. How odd, and sad that her mother never lived to see her killer brought to justice.
UPDATE 8/17 :The resume of the suspect can be found here. And case documents for the murder can be found here.
In addition, this was reported from CNN today:
John Mark Karr displayed a deep fascination with JonBenet Ramsey long before he was arrested in her death...Lara Karr of Petaluma, who divorced Karr in 2001, told KGO-TV in San Francisco that he often spent time reading up on the cases of Ramsey and Petaluma resident Polly Klaas, who was abducted and slain in 1993.
Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood told The Associated Press on Thursday that Karr sent numerous e-mails over the last several months to a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, making statements in the messages about JonBenet's death. The e-mails were key in linking Karr to the crime, he said.
"There is information about the murder that has never been publicly disclosed," Wood said.
The head of Thailand's immigration police, Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, quoted Karr as saying that he tried to kidnap JonBenet for $118,000 ransom but that the plan went awry and he strangled her. "He said he was in love with the child, she was a pageant queen," Suwat said.
- Log in to post comments
Who cares that you can take a wild guess what his sex crime might be. Why don't you just say it? The man was probably having sex with a very underage, indentured prostitute. National Geographic has done an hour special all about right, white, middle-aged american men going to Asian and South-American countries for this reason. Alot of doctors, lawyers, and pharmacists, I think; also known as golf club members.
Yes, Aerik, it sickens and saddens me, but you are surely correct. I can only hope that in the 10 years it took to find this guy, other children were not abused. Although, common sense tells me otherwise.
I'll be very much relieved if this confession turns out to be real. I always felt sorry for Patsy and John Ramsey as well -- especially for Patsy, who at the time of her daughter's death was already dealing with the cancer that eventually killed her. The amount of hatred that spilled out towards the Ramseys was appalling. I saw some of that nastiness pouring out on some blogs and newsgroups after Patsy Ramsey died a few months ago. There was never any evidence that either parent killed the child, and the few hypothetical motives put forth for why they would kill her never did hold up.
I'd always presumed that the killer was either a violent pedophile (which looks like the supported hypothesis right now) or, less likely, someone with a horrific grudge against the family.
If, as everyone hopes, the case has now been solved, we stand united in agreement that the family is owed an apology by just about everyone. It's important to remember, though, that one reason for the initial surge of doubt about them in the days following the crime was their bizarre decision to immediately hire a PR specialist. WTF? Perhaps such a crisis control strategy is what rich people feel they need to do when tragedy strikes, but for most of us, it smacked of calculated indifference and stage management and, like the kiddie porn beauty pageants themselves, seemed more than a little bit creepy.
Various "psychic detectives" have made pronouncements about this case over the years. If the prosecution of Mr. Karr holds up, it is an opportunity to check the accuracy of such "psychics as Dorothy Allison
Well, here's a new definition of 'accident':
Meanwhile, Karr's then-wife says he was in Alabama at the time
There's quite a bit of weirdness to this, I suppose it will shake out in time. Sometimes unbalanced people do confess to crimes they did not commit.
Curiouser and curiouser. Although the chloroform bit was supposedly a piece of info that wasn't generally known to the public, and gives some creedence to his confession.
Apparently there is DNA evidence. if that matches, it will refute the false confession possibility.