BOULDER, Colo. - An American primary school teacher was arrested in Thailand on Wednesday in the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, 10 years after the child beauty queen's grisly death triggered a media frenzy that transfixed much of America.

Patsy Ramsey's sisters, Pam Paugh, left, and Paulette Davis embrace in front of the family home in Roswell, Ga., Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006. A man arrested in Thailand is being held in connection with the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996.[AP]

The suspect was not named by authorities but U.S. media identified him as 41-year-old John Mark Karr, a second-grade school teacher.

He was traveling in Thailand and "was arrested following several months of a focused and complex investigation," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said in a statement.

Karr was taken into custody in Bangkok and KUSA-TV in Denver said he had confessed to elements of the crime that were unknown to the general public.

JonBenet Ramsey. [AP]

He was expected to be returned within days to the United States, which has an extradition treaty with Thailand.

MSNBC said Karr had lived in Boulder Colorado at the time of the December 6 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet, whose body was found in the basement of the family home.

A note was left on a staircase saying she had been kidnapped by a "small foreign faction" who wanted $118,000 in ransom.

Both JonBenet's father, John, and mother, Patsy, were consulted during the course of the investigation that led to Karr's arrest. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer 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," John Ramsey said in a statement.

Ramsey told KUSA that to the best of his knowledge he was not acquainted with the suspect.

No charges were ever filed in the 10 years since JonBenet was found beaten and strangled. Her parents came under the Boulder police "umbrella of suspicion" but a grand jury issued no indictments.

The killing drew intense media coverage focusing on JonBenet's success in youth beauty pageants, the family's affluence and mysterious elements of the case, including the note that first led police to believe the girl had been kidnapped.