JonBenet Ramsey's killer may have been found

[Phil C]

See article below. If he is the one it is too bad it happened after her mother's death. Plus some people will be shamed the way they did her parents.

http://www.yahoo.com/s/370193

[pantherpop]

I sure hope they got the guy. What a terrible crime

[Bull Butter]

Maybe there's still hope for finding Ron & Nicole's killer too!;)

[tigerpride_08]

Originally posted by pantherpop
I sure hope they got the guy. What a terrible crime

my thoughts exactly...

[SnyTigBaseB07]

im semi related to the Ramseys in this case


see my name is Chris Ramsey

we're like 14th cousins twice removed or something, but by marriage.

[pantherpop]

:confused:

[piratebg]

Better late than never.

[DaHop72]

I just hope this is true and not a ruse this guy is pulling to get back to the States to avoid rotting in a Thailand jail.

[District303aPastPlayer]

Originally posted by Bull Butter
Maybe there's still hope for finding Ron & Nicole's killer too!;)

i heard his name is Orenthal

[LH Panther Mom]

Suspect confesses to JonBenet Ramsey killing
Ex-schoolteacher claims killing wasn't intentional: 'I loved her'

Thursday, August 17, 2006; Posted: 6:09 a.m. EDT (10:09 GMT)

(CNN) -- An American arrested in Thailand, confessing that he was with child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey when she died in her parents' basement nearly a decade ago, said "her death was an accident."

"I was with JonBenet when she died," suspect John Mark Karr, 41, told reporters Thursday in Bangkok. "I loved JonBenet and she died accidentally."

Asked by a reporter if he was an innocent man, Karr replied, "No." (Watch Karr confess in his own words -- 1:15)

Karr's arrest Wednesday came nearly a decade after the body of the little girl was found in the basement of her family's sprawling Boulder, Colorado, home -- setting off a media sensation and years of speculation regarding her killer.

The arrest also came less than two months after JonBenet's mother died of cancer at age 49.

Karr is a former schoolteacher and an American citizen. He was arrested at his apartment in Bangkok.

Lt. Gen. Suwat Thamrongrisakul, chief of Thai immigration, said Karr had confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey but that he claimed the killing wasn't intentional.

According to colleagues at the Thai detention center where Karr was questioned, the suspect asked police what charges he was facing and when they replied first-degree murder, he said: "No, it's second-degree -- it wasn't intentional," Suwat said during a news conference in Bangkok. (Watch authorities describe what Karr has said -- 14:54)

Karr will be extradited to Boulder within the next week and has been charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on a child, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said. Thai officials said Karr's visa had been revoked.

The former schoolteacher had been a suspect for "a while," Hurst said, adding that her office and the Thai police worked closely for two months on the case before a judge believed there was enough probable cause for an arrest.

Karr was "surprised" when he was arrested at his Bangkok apartment, according to Hurst, who was present at the time, and asked why he was being detained. (Watch how DNA evidence could be key in the case -- 4:50)

Two law enforcement sources told CNN that Karr was under investigation for an unrelated sex crime when information led to his arrest in the Ramsey case.

Mary Lacy, the district attorney in Boulder, said in a written statement the suspect was arrested "following several months of a focused and complex investigation." Lacy's statement did not identify the suspect. (Watch how the investigation was a "complex" one -- 1:51)

Law enforcement officials said the investigation was being led by the Boulder County District Attorney's Office, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A horrific slaying
The arrest will likely dispel the cloud of suspicion that has hung over JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, ever since the girl's death on Dec. 26, 1996, in their Boulder home. (Watch John Ramsey react to news of the arrest -- 2:17)

It was John Ramsey who found his daughter's body. Earlier that morning, the girl had been reported missing, and Patsy Ramsey reported finding a three-page ransom letter demanding $118,000 on a staircase in the home.

Autopsy results showed JonBenet had received a massive blow to the head and was strangled with a rope that the killer tightened by twisting an attached paint brush handle.

The Ramseys maintained an intruder killed their daughter, but they remained the subject of suspicion and speculation in the case, which provided years of fodder for news networks and tabloids. Though no one was ever named as a suspect, at one point the Boulder police said the Ramseys were under "an umbrella of suspicion."

Officials: Online communications were key to probe
Karr confessed to some elements of the crime, law enforcement officials earlier told CNN, and had been communicating off and on with someone in Boulder who was working with law enforcement on the case. Earlier, CNN affiliate KUSA had reported that the elements the suspect had confessed to were unknown to the public.

Karr's online communications were a key part of the probe, the officials said.

The arrest came too late for Patsy Ramsey, who died in June of ovarian cancer at age 49. However, John Ramsey said he and his wife knew investigators were pursuing a suspect prior to her death.

"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," he said in a written statement. "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." (Read the full statement)

John Ramsey told KUSA on Wednesday, "I was notified this morning that an arrest had been made. I'm just absolutely impressed with the effort that went into accomplishing this by the Boulder DA's office and the other agencies that were involved. ... It's just beyond impressive what they accomplished."

But Ramsey also added a note of caution.

"Based on what happened to us, I don't think it's proper that we speculate or discuss the case," John Ramsey told KUSA. "It's important that justice be allowed to run its course and do its job."

"We have, in a sense, turned the justice process over to the media," he said. "I think it's gotten out of control."

Pam Paugh, Patsy Ramsey's sister, said, "I don't feel that I need to stand here and say to the world, 'I told you so.' We are a family that has lived on the truth, and the truth as we knew it was that neither John nor Patsy, Burke (JonBenet's older brother) nor any other family member had ever laid a hand on JonBenet." (Watch JonBenet's aunt react to the arrest -- 4:36)

Lacy's office has scheduled a news conference on Thursday.

Suspect's brother: 'Whole thing is ridiculous'
Ramsey attorney Lin Wood of Atlanta said Karr "has some background" in Conyers, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, and at one point was a schoolteacher.

Karr's father and brother still live in metro Atlanta, in the suburb of Sandy Springs, but were not home Wednesday night. However, Karr's brother, Nate, told CNN: "This whole thing is ridiculous."

Asked by KUSA whether he knew the suspect, John Ramsey said, "I really can't comment on that. To my knowledge, no, I didn't, but I don't know enough yet (to say for sure)."

The Ramseys also lived in the Atlanta area before they moved to Boulder. The day after JonBenet was buried in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, the Ramseys gave CNN an exclusive interview. "There is a killer on the loose," a tearful Patsy Ramsey said in that interview. "I don't know who it is. I don't know if it is a he or a she, but if I were a resident of Boulder, I would tell my friends to keep your babies close to you. There's someone out there."

Patsy Ramsey was laid to rest beside her daughter in Marietta. On Wednesday, a family friend taped a note to her grave. It read, "Dear Patsy, justice has come for you and John. Rest in peace."

Wood said he regretted "that Patsy's not here to be able to speak to you herself and express her feelings to you. I am confident she would urge the media to refrain from speculating about this individual, despite his arrest."

Speaking of John Ramsey, Wood said: "I know that he feels some sense of relief.

"I know that he feels that this is a major step, potentially, in the final resolution to the case. We may be, and I say may be, one step closer to the final resolution of the case. But again, I would urge that Mr. Karr be given the presumption of innocence."

A statement issued by another Ramsey attorney, Hal Haddon, said: "It is our hope that this arrest will bring some closure to the Ramsey family after a 10-year ordeal."

In 2003, a federal judge dismissed a libel-slander lawsuit against the Ramseys and said evidence suggested an intruder had killed JonBenet. The lawsuit had been filed by a freelance journalist whom the Ramseys had described as a suspect in a book they had written.

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office concurred with the judge's opinion the following month, saying there was little evidence against the couple.

Asked about the worst part of the whole ordeal, John Ramsey said, "The hardest part was losing a child, by far."

CNN's Kelli Arena, Randi Kaye, Narunart Prapanya and Andy Flick contributed to this report.

CNN.com link (http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/17/ramsey.arrest/index.html)

[pirate44]

its sad Patsy died before this suspect was caught:(

[Jason1725]

Suwat told reporters that Karr insisted his crime was not first-degree murder.

"He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional," Suwat said. He said Karr told Thai interrogators that he picked JonBenet up at her school and brought her to the basement.

1996:

JonBenet, winner of America's Tiny Little Miss contest this year, disappeared Christmas night after going to bed in her home at 755 15th St. Her mother called 911 at 5:22 a.m. Thursday, saying JonBenet had been kidnapped and a ransom note had been left. The girl's body was found in the basement about 2 that afternoon, reportedly by her father.

[Phil C]

Thankfully it seems that Mrs. Ramsey knew they had a suspect that they were after and about to arrest.


http://www.yahoo.com/s/370620

[The One]

I will bet that this is not the guy!! Remember that I posted this on August 17th.. DNA testing will prove me right!

[GOFOR2]

Originally posted by Bull Butter
Maybe there's still hope for finding Ron & Nicole's killer too!;)

yea, they had him in court about 11 years ago.

[SWMustang]

Obviously this guy's a POS, but on a side note I think I'm gonna refrain from dressing my daughter up like a whore and prancing her around a stage for onlookers.

I would also like to know who was supposed to pick this girl up from school and how is it that mom and dad didn't know she was gone until 5AM the next day?

[SWMustang]

Originally posted by GOFOR2
yea, they had him in court about 11 years ago.

right on..:thumbsup:

[Bandera YaYa]

Originally posted by SWMustang
Obviously this guy's a POS, but on a side note I think I'm gonna refrain from dressing my daughter up like a whore and prancing her around a stage for onlookers.

I would also like to know who was supposed to pick this girl up from school and how is it that mom and dad didn't know she was gone until 5AM the next day? I don't think this part is correct.....at the time it happened, the Ramseys had had a Christmas party at their house and their daughter was in attendance, least that is what was said at the time. He may be lying here.

[SWMustang]

Originally posted by Bandera YaYa
I don't think this part is correct.....at the time it happened, the Ramseys had had a Christmas party at their house and their daughter was in attendance, least that is what was said at the time. He may be lying here.

I think I'm missing something there also. sounds bizarre to me.