'A very long 10 years'
2006-08-17 15:47
Boulder - Patsy Ramsey knew before she died of cancer in June that police were looking into a potential suspect in the gruesome death of six-year-old daughter JonBenet nearly 10 years ago.
She didn't live to see what her husband and attorney call complete vindication: The arrest of a suspect in the little girl's slaying, and his confession to reporters on Thursday that he was "with JonBenet when she died."
Former schoolteacher John Mark Karr, 41, was arrested on Wednesday at an apartment in Bangkok, Thailand, where he said the death was "an accident."
But even before the confession, the Ramsey family was heralding news they hoped would finally end the suspicion that has hung over the parents of the six-year-old beauty pageant contestant.
Mom knew cops were close
"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," said John Ramsey, the girl's father, in a statement.
Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood said the Ramseys gave police information about Karr before he was identified as a suspect.
He would not say how the Ramseys knew Karr, though JonBenet was born in Atlanta in 1990, and the Ramseys lived in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody for several years before moving to Colorado in 1991. Karr was a teacher who once lived in Conyers, Georgia, another Atlanta suburb, according to Wood.
Karr's father, Wexford Karr of Atlanta, told The Denver Post that he feared his son may have been dead before Wednesday's arrest because he hadn't heard from him in several years.
The Post reported that Karr disappeared after being released from jail in 2001 in California where he had been held on child pornography charges. Wexford Karr told the newspaper that his son had told him he was behind bars in connection with the Ramsey case.
A law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Karr had been communicating periodically with somebody in Boulder who was co-operating with law enforcement officials. A spokesperson for the University of Colorado, Barrie Hartman, confirmed that journalism professor Michael Tracey, communicated with Karr over several months and contacted police.
Tracey, who produced a documentary in 2004 called Who Killed JonBenet?, could not be located for comment.
JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder on December 26 1996. Patsy Ramsey reported finding a ransom note in the house demanding $118 000 for her daughter.
The image of little blonde-haired JonBenet in a cowgirl costume and other beauty pageant outfits has haunted TV talk shows ever since, helping feed myriad theories about her killer, and the case became one of the most sensational unsolved murder cases in the nation.
Investigators at one point said JonBenet's parents were under an "umbrella of suspicion" in the slaying. And some news accounts cast suspicion on JonBenet's older brother, Burke. But the Ramseys insisted an intruder killed their daughter, and no one was ever charged.
Patsy Ramsey's sister, Pam Paugh of Roswell, Georgia, said the family was celebrating the news of the arrest. "We are elated. We are elated. If this is, in fact, the killer, then we have a very heinous killer off the streets to never harm another child," Paugh said.
- AP