BANGKOK, Thailand - A former American school teacher said publicly Thursday
that he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she died in what he called "an accident,"
a stunning admission after a decade without answers in the 6-year-old girl's
murder. But the suspect's ex-wife said she was with him in Alabama at the time
of JonBenet's 1996 death.
John Mark Karr, 41, will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will
face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann
Hurst of the Department of Homeland Security told a news conference in Bangkok.
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American John Mark Karr sits as he is shown at
a police news conference at Immigration office in Bangkok, Thailand
Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006. Thai police said that Karr, a 41-year-old
American schoolteacher, admitted to the killing a decade ago of 6-year-old
beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in the United States _ a sensational crime
some feared would never be solved. Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of
Thailand's immigration police, told The Associated Press that John Mark
Karr confessed to the killing after his arrest Wednesday afternoon at a
downtown Bangkok apartment. [AP]
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"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr told reporters afterward, visibly
nervous and stuttering. "Her death was an accident."
Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: "No."
As he was escorted to his guesthouse to pick up his belongings, Karr told The
Associated Press: "I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It's very
important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death
was unintentional, that it was an accident."
Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: "It would take several hours
to describe that. It's a very involved series of events that would involve a lot
of time. It's very painful for me to talk about it."
He told the AP he made "several efforts to communicate with Patricia before
she passed away," referring to JonBenet's mother, who died in June, "and it is
my understanding that she did read my letters."
No evidence against Karr has been made public beyond his own admission. U.S.
and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at the news conference
Thursday about whether there was DNA evidence connecting him to the crime.
Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, told KGO-TV in California that she was with her
former husband in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's killing and she does not
believe her former husband was involved in the homicide.
She said her ex-husband spent a lot of time studying the cases of Ramsey and
Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home and slain in 1993.
Karr on Thursday refused to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family.
An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the
family in Conyers, Ga.
Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand's immigration police, said
Karr confessed to the killing after his arrest by Thai and U.S. authorities
Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok guesthouse.
Suwat said Karr insisted that JonBenet died during a kidnapping attempt that
went awry.
"He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional," Suwat
said. "He said he loved this child, that he was in love with her. He said she
was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and
sweet."
