THAILAND / USA: Thai police arrest American primary school teacher John Mark Karr in Bangkok over the 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet in Boulder, Colorado, USA

An American primary school teacher accused of the grisly Christmas 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey said on Thursday (August 17) the child beauty queen died accidentally. John Mark Karr, 41, arrested in Thailand on Wednesday (August 16) in a dramatic twist in the case that has gripped the U.S. media, was charged with murder, kidnapping and sexual abuse of a child. In a brief appearance at a news conference, Karr appeared nervous and stuttered as he answered reporters' questions, saying he was with the girl when she died. "I was with, I was, I was with JonBenet when she died." (Reporter: Were there other people with you?) "No," said Karr, adding her death was accidental. "Her death was an accident. (Reporter: So you were in the basement?) Yes," Karr said. Karr was arrested on a U.S. Federal warrant in the presence of FBI officers after being followed for three weeks as he sought a job teaching English and Mathematics in Bangkok. Police said Karr had applied for jobs at Bangkok's dozens of international schools. They had said earlier one had hired him. Thai police had followed Karr for 21 days before arresting him at a serviced apartment in downtown Bangkok. Karr had been in and out of Thailand a couple of times in the past, and has been staying in the country for two months before his arrest late on Wednesday. He "was arrested following several months of a focused and complex investigation," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said in a statement. "The district attorney's office, in conjunction with many other law enforcement agencies, have spent the past few months locating, identifying, and, finally, yesterday, arresting Mr. Karr. Much work has been done in those efforts. There is much more work to be done now that the suspect is in custody." The district attorney stressed that the investigation was ongoing and she could give no details of the case. "We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey yesterday. He said: do not jump to conclusions, do not jump to judgement, do not speculate. Let the justice system take its course. I'm asking you, this morning: let us do our job thoroughly and carefully. The analysis of the evidence in this case continues on a day by day, on an hour by hour basis as we speak," Lacy said. "As I stated, this is early in the investigation. There have been no charges filed at this time. There is a presumption of innocence." U.S. media said Karr had been living in JonBenet's hometown of Boulder, Colorado at the time of the murder. The child was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her home on Dec. 26 1996. At the time of JonBenet's murder, a note was left on a staircase of the family home saying she had been kidnapped by a "small foreign faction" who wanted $118,000 in ransom. JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy, came under suspicion during the initial investigation and in 2002 they reached an out-of-court cash settlement with a former detective who wrote a book accusing them of murdering their own daughter. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in June. The couple had been informed of the progress of the investigation that led to Karr's arrest. Ramsey told KUSA-TV in Denver that, to the best of his knowledge, he was not acquainted with Karr. No charges were ever filed in the decade since JonBenet was killed, but the murder generated intense media coverage drawn by JonBenet's success in youth beauty pageants, the family's wealth and mysterious elements of the case, including the note.

ITN Source | August 18, 2006

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