Arrest made in JonBenet slaying

BOULDER, Colo. — Investigators arrested a suspect in Thailand yesterday in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying nearly a decade after the 6-year-old girl was found strangled in her home and well after many had given up hope that the case would ever be solved.

The suspect was identified by Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood as John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old former elementary-school teacher.

U.S. authorities said he confessed to the crime after he was arrested in Bangkok on an unrelated sexual-assault charge, adding that he knew certain details about the crime that had not been released publicly.

A Boulder County investigator was expected to fly Mr. Karr to Colorado in the next day or so. He was assisted in the arrest by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Thai police.

Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy is scheduled to hold a press conference about the arrest at 2 p.m. today. One law-enforcement official told the Associated Press that Boulder police had tracked Mr. Karr down online.

The arrest is the first in one of the most widely publicized murder cases in U.S. history. The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office said the confession came after “several months of a focused and complex investigation.”

Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet’s mother, had been told that authorities were closing in on a suspect before her death of ovarian cancer on June 24, according to a statement released yesterday by her husband, John Ramsey.

“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,” Mr. Ramsey said.

“Words cannot adequately express my gratitude for the efforts of Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy and the members of her investigative team,” he said.

Mr. Wood claimed vindication for his clients after years of vilification.

“John and Patsy lived their lives knowing they were innocent, trying to raise a son despite the furor around them,” Mr. Wood told a press conference in Georgia. “The story of this family is a story of courage, and a story of an American injustice and tragedy that ultimately people will have to look back on and hopefully learn from.”

Thai police said Mr. Karr was arrested at his apartment in downtown Bangkok at the request of U.S. officials and was being held until they arrived. Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said that he was unaware of any criminal charges pending against Mr. Karr in Thailand and that he expected U.S. officials to take Mr. Karr back to America in the next few days.

Mr. Wood also said the Ramseys gave police information about Mr. Karr. Although he would not say how the Ramseys knew him, he did say Mr. Karr had lived in the Atlanta suburb of Conyers. 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.

The Ramseys moved back to the Atlanta area after their daughter’s slaying.

The Ramseys became the primary suspects in their daughter’s killing soon after her body was found the day after Christmas 1996 in a room off the family’s basement. She had been bound, gagged and strangled.

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