Confession in JonBenet Case Questioned By CATHERINE TSAI BOULDER, Colo. - For a moment, it seemed the decade-old mystery surrounding the slaying of a child beauty queen had been solved. But authorities Thursday cautioned against rushing to judge the schoolteacher who made a stunning confession that he killed JonBenet Ramsey. For now, the only public evidence against John Mark Karr are his own words. And questions have already been raised about the details of his story, including whether he drugged the girl, sexually assaulted her or was even in Colorado at the time of the slaying. Those questions led some to wonder whether Karr was the answer to the long-unsolved slaying or a disturbed wannabe trying to insert himself into a high-profile case. "We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy, quoting the little girl's father. "Do not jump to conclusions, do not rush to judgment, do not speculate. Let the justice system take its course." Paraded before a raucous crush of reporters in Bangkok, Thailand, the sullen Karr told how he loved JonBenet, was with her when she died but that her death was an accident. And while vague on the details _ "it would take several hours" _ he answered flatly when asked if he was innocent: "No." "The bottom line is that they now have a confession and until and unless they can corroborate that confession with either physical evidence or strong circumstantial evidence, that's all they have," said Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney who has followed the case from the beginning. Added former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman: "I have to believe they have more than this kooky confession." Karr told investigators he drugged and sexually assaulted the little girl before accidentally killing her in her Boulder home, according to a senior Thai police officer who was briefed about the interview with U.S. authorities. Yet JonBenet's autopsy report found no evidence of drugs, saying her death was caused by strangulation after a beating that included a fractured skull. And while it describes vaginal injuries, it makes no conclusions about whether she was raped. Karr's ex-wife told TV reporters she cannot defend him, then insisted he was with her in Alabama during Christmas 1996, when JonBenet's battered body was found in the basement of her home. And authorities have not said whether Karr could have written the detailed ransom note found in the Ramsey home, with its demand for $118,000 (the bonus that had recently been awarded to the girl's father, John Ramsey). Even the Colorado professor who swapped four years' worth of e-mails with Karr and brought him to the attention of prosecutors in May refused to characterize the suspect either as killer or kook. "I don't know that he's guilty," said Michael Tracey, who teaches journalism at the University of Colorado. "Obviously, I went to the district attorney for a reason, but let him have his day in court and let JonBenet have her day in court and let's see how it plays out." Karr himself added to the mystery, telling The Associated Press in Bangkok that JonBenet's death was "not what it seems to be." 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." Any previous relationship between Karr and the Ramseys remained a mystery Thursday, though both have ties to suburban Atlanta. District Attorney Lacy refused to discuss the case during a brief news conference and suggested Karr's arrest may have been forced by concern over public safety and fears the suspect might flee. "There are circumstances that exist in any case that mandate an arrest before an investigation is complete," Lacy said. Karr, 41, was arrested at a Bangkok apartment Wednesday, a day after he began teaching second grade at an international school, Lacy said. Hours later, Thai authorities sat him before a crowded room of news crews. Karr stunned reporters by admitting: "I was with JonBenet when she died. Her death was an accident." "I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," Karr told the AP. Legal experts said DNA evidence will likely be key: DNA was found beneath JonBenet's fingernails and inside her underwear and authorities have never said whether it matches anyone in an FBI database. U.S. and Thai officials did not directly answer a question at a news conference about whether there was DNA evidence connecting Karr to the crime. Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. The results of that test were not immediately known. Karr will be given another DNA test when he returns to the United States in the next several days, the official said. Karr 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 reporters in Bangkok. Lin Wood, the Ramsey family's longtime attorney in Atlanta, said Karr went to great lengths to conceal his identity in e-mails to the university professor, going so far as to use a computer server in Canada. Asked if authorities could tell whether Karr had firsthand knowledge of the murder or had just picked up information from news accounts, Wood said: "There is information about the murder that has never been publicly disclosed." He did not elaborate. Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, was quoted by San Francisco television station KGO saying she was with her former husband in Alabama at the time of JonBenet's killing and she does not believe he was involved in the homicide. Denver attorney Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said there were "serious questions" about the case. "I hope we have found the murderer of JonBenet, but I have not heard the evidence that compels that conclusion," he said. Karr's description of the case as an accident also rang false to experts. "It's hard to imagine a more intentional, deliberate murder than hitting a little girl in the head so hard that she had almost a foot-long fracture in her skull and then deliberately fashioning a garrotte to twist until it buries in her neck and slowly stops her breathing," said Silverman, the former Denver prosecutor. "This has always been a case of deliberate murder." Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington and Chase Squires in Boulder, Colo., contributed to this report. A service of the Associated Press(AP) http://rhinelanderdailynews.com/articles/2006/08/17/ap/headlines/d8jidlu81.txt

Aug 17, 2006 11:43 pm US/Mountain Questions Raised Over JonBenet Confession Man Says He Drugged, Had Sex With Ramsey (CBS News) BOULDER, Colo. As more details of John Mark Karr's confession to the killing of JonBenet Ramsey surface, several aspects of the former schoolteacher's account raise questions about his role in the 6-year-old's death in 1996. Karr claims he drugged JonBenet and then had sex with the child, but an autopsy said a blood screening showed no drugs or alcohol in the child's body. Also, while Karr reportedly claims to have sexually assaulted JonBenet, no semen was found on her body. However, the little girl did have small vaginal abrasions. Karr has not yet been formally charged, Boulder, Colo., district attorney Mary Lacy said in a news conference Thursday, adding that there is "much more work" to be done in the case. She warned the public not to "jump to conclusions," and suggested that the arrest may have been forced by other circumstances, including the need for public safety and fear that Karr might flee. Karr's ex-wife, Lara Karr, who divorced him in 2001, told KGO-TV in San Francisco that during the 1996 Christmas season, when JonBenet Ramsey was strangled and beaten to death in Colorado, she and her then-husband were living in Alabama — and that she was with him the entire season. A Thai police official said Karr told Thai interrogators that he picked up JonBenet at her school and brought her to the basement the day she was killed, Dec. 26, 1996, the day after Christmas — a highly unlikely scenario. DNA was found beneath JonBenet's fingernails and inside her underwear, but Wood said two years ago that detectives were unable to match it to anyone in an FBI database. It was not known whether investigators had any DNA evidence against Karr, despite serving time in a California jail in 2001 on child pornography charges. Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Joan Risse confirmed the pornography charges and an outstanding arrest warrant against a John M. Karr, though she didn't know if he was the same person being held in the Ramsey case. CBS News 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty reports that investigators may have arrested Karr this week not because they had definitive evidence linking him to the Ramsey murder, but because they feared he might hurt a child in Thailand. A former Boulder district attorney who investigated the Ramsey case tells Moriarty he has serious doubts about any confession because of the amount of public information surrounding the case. "I am very concerned about the viability of this case today, it does not sound to me like they've done their homework sufficiently to have arrested him at this time," says Trip DeMuth. But the deciding factor will be the DNA evidence found at the crime scene. "I think if this DNA excludes this suspect, this prosecutor has a serious problem on her hands," DeMuth says. Sources tell CBS News tests have been conducted, but the results are not yet known. Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. If the DNA does not match Karr's, this won't be the first time investigators thought they had evidence leading to the killer. 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. Even the Colorado professor who swapped four years' worth of e-mails with Karr and brought him to the attention of prosecutors in May refused to characterize the suspect either as killer or kook. "I don't know that he's guilty," said Michael Tracey, who teaches journalism at the University of Colorado. "Obviously, I went to the district attorney for a reason, but let him have his day in court and let JonBenet have her day in court and let's see how it plays out." A source described the e-mails to CBS News as "hair-raising — to see what he'd done, or contemplated doing, to children." And an FBI source tells Moriarty that Karr once wrote an e-mail to Patsy Ramsey saying he was sorry and that her daughter did not suffer. Karr 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. Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, according to a law enforcement official, and will be given another DNA test when he returns to the United States, the official said. "I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr told reporters Thursday, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. "Her death was an accident." Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: "No." As Karr was escorted to his guesthouse by U.S. and Thai authorities to pick up his belongings, he told the AP: "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." Dressed in a baggy turquoise polo shirt and khaki pants, Karr said that JonBenet's death was "not what it seems to be," though he declined to elaborate. "In every way," he added, as authorities bundled him into a waiting vehicle, "it's not at all what it seems to be." Some feared the case would never be solved — and as investigators failed to produce suspects, some suspicion fell on the girl's parents, John Ramsey and his wife, Patsy, who died of ovarian cancer in June. Karr had been in Thailand five times over the past two years, arriving most recently in Bangkok on June 6 from Penang, Malaysia, Suwat said. He was looking for a teaching job in Thailand, Thai police official Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul Suwat said. Suwat told reporters that Karr insisted his crime was not first-degree murder. "He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional," Suwat said. He said Karr told Thai interrogators that he picked up JonBenet at her school and brought her to the basement. "He said he loved this child, that he was in love her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet." The Thai officer quoted the suspect as saying he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her to death. Karr's ex-wife said he often spent time reading up on the cases of Ramsey and Petaluma, Calif., resident Polly Klaas, who was abducted and slain in 1993. She also said she does not believe that her husband committed the crime. His father told The Denver Post that while Karr was in college as an adult, a professor encouraged him to write a book about the Ramsey case after being impressed with a school paper. "He researched everything he could about her," Wexford Karr said. Hurst said Karr, who had traveled extensively across the world, may also be connected to a prior case in California's Santa Rosa County. She did not provide further details. Asked how long he had been a suspect, she said, "A long time. I can't say specifically." http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/topstories_story_228160253.html

JonBenet Suspect Known For Marriages To Teens People Doubting Man's Confession POSTED: 7:49 am EDT August 18, 2006 UPDATED: 10:09 am EDT August 18, 2006 John Mark Karr remained in a Thai jail Friday, ready to leave for the United States at any time to face accusations in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey. It's nothing like Thursday, when he answered questions from reporters and stunned them by declaring he was with JonBenet in her Boulder, Colo., home when she died on Dec. 26, 1996. He claimed it was an accident. Friday, a sign was posted at the jail telling reporters that Karr is not allowed visitors. Karr did get a visit Friday from a U.S. consular official, who had no comment on the Ramsey case. A Thai police official said Karr is ready to return to the United States, but now wants to fight the case. He said U.S. officials are preparing documents and plane tickets. For now, the only public evidence against John Mark Karr is his own words. And questions have already been raised about the details of his story. The district attorney in Boulder said Karr was arrested a day after he began teaching second grade in Bangkok. Karr had been fired from a job teaching first-graders at another Thai school in June because officials said he didn't seem to work well with young children. Another American teacher who works at the school said he found Karr to be an "oddball." Karr was known in his Alabama hometown for his flashy red sports car. But he was also dogged by questions about his marriages to teenage girls and behavior in elementary classrooms where he worked as a substitute teacher. Karr, who lived in northwest Alabama from his preteen years until after the brutal slaying in Colorado, stood out in this rural town both for his gull-winged red DeLorean and his intelligence. Marion County School Superintendent Bravell Jackson said people couldn't help but like Karr. Jackson taught Karr and later had to fire him as a substitute teacher amid parent complaints. Sandra Ford, a retired fifth-grade teacher at Kilby School in Florence supervised Karr's internship, said she was concerned by the way he related to female students. Karr's marriages to teen girls also generated talk in the area. Court records show a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of their "ceremonial marriage" in 1985. She claimed she feared for her life when she agreed to wed him in 1984, when she was just 13 and he was 19. Karr admitted she was a minor, but denied she was 13. A judge granted the annulment. Karr later married Lara Karr, who was 16 when their twin daughters died the day they were born on Sept. 1, 1989. The girls, Angel and Innocence Karr, are buried in the cemetery of a rural church in a family plot. Former Sheriff A.C. Tice said the twins were born at home. Probate Judge Annette Bozeman said Karr apparently delivered his children. Karr was described as "a nice man" with good credentials by the school official in Thailand who hired him to teach first grade. But Karr was dismissed in June after just two weeks at the prestigious Bangkok school for being too strict. The official said Karr came across in his interview as clean-cut, polite and experienced. But parents complained about his use of "time outs" for children who didn't behave. Although Karr confessed to JonBenet's slaying, experts are questioning details of his confession, and the district attorney in Boulder cautions against any rush to judgment. Doubts Arise About Story Any previous relationship between the family of JonBenet Ramsey and the Alabama man who has confessed to killing her remains a mystery -- though both once lived in suburban Atlanta. District Attorney Mary Lacy refused to say whether authorities have evidence linking to JonBenet's death. Hours after Karr told reporters in Thailand he was with the child beauty queen when she died, questions arose about his claims. That includes whether he drugged the 6-year-old girl, sexually assaulted her or was even in Colorado at the time she was killed. Author Carlton Smith wrote 1997's "Death of a Little Princess: The Tragic Story of the Murder of JonBenet Ramsey." He said of Karr, "It's clear to me that he's somewhat interested or maybe even obsessed by the case and the real question is whether he's inserting himself into it for some obscure psychological reason." Karr told investigators he drugged and sexually assaulted the girl before accidentally killing her. Yet JonBenet's autopsy report found no evidence of drugs, saying her death was caused by strangulation after a beating that included a fractured skull. Thai police said Karr told them he picked JonBenet up at school and took her to her home. But the slaying occurred during Christmas break. Karr's ex-wife, Lara Knutson, told reporters she cannot defend him, then insisted he was with her in Alabama that Christmas. Jailed For Child Porn Karr was once jailed briefly in Sonoma County, Calif., for investigation of possessing child pornography, but skipped town before going to trial. Karr's wife filed for divorce a few days after his 2001 arrest in Petaluma, where Karr had done some substitute teaching at elementary schools. Lara Karr won custody of their three children and got a restraining order against Karr about six months later, after he was released from jail pending trial. Soon after that, he disappeared. Karr had told detectives he was researching a book on convicted child killer Richard Allen Davis, who's on death row for murdering Polly Klaas. He said he had a letter from Davis and a copy of Polly Klaas' death certificate. E-Mail Helps Track Karr A Colorado university professor said he swapped e-mails about the JonBenet Ramsey case with a man for four years before contacting authorities. Michael Tracey said something about the messages changed in May, prompting him to give the correspondence to prosecutors. He won't reveal what changed, but he said it led to this week's arrest of Karr. The University of Colorado journalism professor has produced three documentaries about the Ramsey case and said he has received thousands of e-mail messages in response. Tracey said most come from people with their own wild theories. But Tracey said one he received in 2002 stood out and led to the extended correspondence. Again, he won't say why. Tracey has criticized investigators who publicly identified the child beauty queen's parents as suspects. He has praised the current district attorney's handling of the case. http://www.newsnet5.com/home-backup/9698989/detail.html

E-mails a portrait of 'my darkness' Messages to CU prof paint a disturbing picture of Karr By Todd Hartman and Kevin Vaughan, © 2006 Rocky Mountain News August 18, 2006 It was the day before Christmas Eve 2005 when John Mark Karr sent an e-mail to University of Colorado professor Michael Tracey, seeking a strange favor. He asked Tracey to visit JonBenet Ramsey's old house in Boulder and read aloud an ode he called JonBenet, My Love. "JonBenet, my love, my life. I love you and shall forever love you. I pray that you can hear my voice calling out to you from my darkness - this darkness that now separates us," it read, in part. The e-mail was part of a small sample of the often lurid and disturbing correspondence between a person that investigators believe to be Karr and Tracey. The e-mails were obtained Thursday by the Rocky Mountain News from a source close to the investigation. None includes any statements from Karr about his possible role in JonBenet's death. They do, however, include several interesting - and sometimes bizarre - exchanges between the two, including one in which Karr expresses concern that Tracey has obtained a photograph of him; another in which Karr said he was under federal investigation for "child murder and child molestation" in four states; and one in which the two traded views on the Peter Pan-related film Finding Neverland. Karr was arrested in Thailand early Wednesday on a warrant naming him as the suspect in the unsolved murder of 6-year-old JonBenet in 1996. He is expected to be extradited to the United States next week. In one of the e-mails obtained by the News, Karr brought up the legal travails of pop singer Michael Jackson, long under scrutiny for what seemed by his critics to be unusually close relationships with young boys. "I will tell you that I can understand people like Michael Jackson and feel sympathy when he suffers as he has," Karr wrote. He added that he, himself, "is trapped in a world that does not understand." The News reported exclusively Wednesday that Tracey and Karr have swapped hundreds of e-mails during a four-year span, and that it was the content of those e-mails that gave rise to Tracey's suspicions about Karr's potential involvement in JonBenet's killing. Tracey, in turn, passed his concerns on to investigators working the case privately. They, in turn, would later take it to prosecutors at the Boulder District Attorney's Office. Tracey declined to comment on the e-mails obtained by the News Thursday, and a statement provided by a CU spokesman said Tracey would continue to decline interview requests "until he feels the time is right." "Tracey said it is important now that people respect the judicial process and make no judgments about the guilt or innocence of the suspect until more information is available," the CU statement said. It also said that Tracey wants to resume writing a book about the 10-year-old investigation and is planning to produce additional documentaries on the case, beyond the three he has already completed. In a related development Thursday, the Daily Camera reported that Tracey shared details of his research into the Ramsey case with students months before he alerted authorities. The paper reported former students as saying that someone sent Tracey a childhood picture of himself holding a white Santa Claus teddy bear and purportedly taken on a Christmas morning. The stuffed animal was apparently just like the one that mysteriously showed up in JonBenet's bedroom and stumped the family and investigators. One of e-mails obtained by the News began with Karr chiding Tracey for failing to respond to an earlier message entitled, "Pretty Little Boy." That e-mail included what appears to be a back-and-forth exchange - a passage from Tracey and an answer from Karr. However, it appears that Karr took a Tracey e-mail and then inserted his answers after each paragraph. At one point, Tracey wrote to Karr, "I'm also curious as to why you feel that talking to me is dangerous and that you have shared too much." Karr wrote back: "I was the subject of at lease (sic) a four-state federal investigation for child murder and child molestation. These people were not finished with me when I left the U.S. I cannot return. Since you have never been through something like this in your own life, you cannot know the paranoia it causes. You mentioned you have access to my photograph after talking to you for at least two years. I have reason to be concerned. Consider, if you will, post-traumatic stress." A later e-mail included "Resend of Pretty Little Boy" in its subject line. Again, it appeared to include a back-and-forth exchange. "This is a letter that was sent on October 10th," Karr wrote. "I have found that you are easily overwhelmed and, when so, you seem to stop responding altogether. That being said, I am also responding to your last mail and will prepare a short message for JonBenet for Christmas night. Please check your mail each day prior to Christmas. Don't stop responding now." Karr then wrote about his anger that a third person had provided Tracey with a photograph of him. "You NEVER said he HAD a photo of me," Karr wrote. "This changes everything. You have everything but my name and fingerprints. This comes as a major blow. Why did you not tell me this in the past?" At another point, Karr responded to Tracey's challenge to follow through on his pledge to be "intense and thorough." "Oh, Michael," Karr wrote, "I was referring to you - not me. I AM intense and thorough. I wanted you to be more intense and thorough in your responses to me. Your desire from me is that I cut to the chase and be specific about locations, names and all the other elements that journalist (sic) look for in a story. I am sorry that this is not the way I express myself about this matter." Karr wrote later that his father was a "strong influence but rarely around," and then responded to Tracey's question about whether his "fascination with little girls - which clearly has a strong erotic component - is a way of going back." "Maybe I am not going back but have simply stayed consistent," Karr wrote. "My peer group has not changed since I was a little boy, and girls were the people I was with always. Referring to them as a peer group is somewhat incorrect, but might also be the very definition of what they continue to be in my life." At another point, Tracey wrote, "You told me once that your mother tended to raise you as a girl. This must have had a powerful effect on your developing sexuality - confusion maybe?" Karr responded: "Michael, I will not discuss my sexuality as if it is a psychological disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In my case, I disagree with that totally, and if this is to be the way we progress in discussing it, I might as well stop while I am ahead. "On the other hand, if you would like to learn something about my sexuality on an intellectual, nonjudgmental, nontraditional and nonpsychological way, I would love to share. It would help you understand a lot about my connection with JonBenet and possibly about the case. Shall we?" Tracey also wrote to Karr about the movie Finding Neverland, which was about the author of Peter Pan. "I can only say," Karr wrote, "that I can relate very well to children and the way they think and feel. I think you are asking if I am much a 'Peter Pan.' In many ways, the answer is yes. In other ways, I suppose it is no because I am trapped in a world that does not understand." In his words • Excerpts from e-mails written by John Mark Karr to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey: "I am tortured mostly because of my present situation. I appreciate that you would refer to my childhood. It was unique . . . " "I will tell you that I can understand people like Michael Jackson and feel sympathy when he suffers as he has. I do think that he is sexually attracted to certain children but could never divulge this. He made an attempt when he talked of sleeping with little boys but was completely misunderstood. I think he made an assertion and quickly had to back down. On the other hand, his comments might have had nothing to do with having the type of sex one might equate with the sense of the term, sex." "Again, I was talking about you in reference to more intensity. The investigation was Federal. It involved four states. Knowing now that you have my photo, I am not keen on telling you of the specific states. I lost every friend, contact and family member as a result of this investigation. Some of my closest little girls were questioned by the authorities which broke my heart into pieces. I will never have contact with anyone in my past ever again. I lost my identity when this happened. This was the easy part. The worst was yet to come." "I 'want' to tell you much though I cannot due to the fact that it has been revealed to me that you now know what I look like. This is a blow to our conversations and to my sharing. Had I known this earlier, I would have shared less - I am sure of it. With that said, I still responded to your mail in full . . . "Sometimes little girls are closer to me than with their parents or any other person in their lives. When I refer to myself as JonBenet's Closest, maybe now you understand." "I am interested in telling you anything that does not cost me everything as it did in the past." Extradition policy • The process for getting back an American citizen suspected of a crime, such as John Mark Karr, from a foreign country depends on the terms of the extradition treaty the United States has with it. "If we have a treaty with the country, it lays out the protocol in which you seek the return," said Bryan Sierra, spokesman for the Department of Justice. • The United States does have an extradition treaty with Thailand, but it was not clear Thursday what the terms are.A formal request, either by the Department of Justice or the State Department, or sometimes both, would be made to the foreign country under the terms of the treaty. • There had been no response Thursday to the Department of Justice's request to have Karr extradited. The decision on when the suspect is extradited is up to Thailand. "We're not the ones who have the control of the system," Sierra said. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4926302,00.html

Aug 18, 2006 11:50 pm US/Eastern Local Expert: Karr's Confession May Not Be True David Highfield Reporting (KDKA) PITTSBURGH Is David Mark Karr really the man who killed JonBenet Ramsey or just someone so obsessed with her that he confessed to a crime he didn't commit. KDKA's David Highfield talked with a local expert about how tricky confessions can be. Larry Likar is a former FBI supervisor. Now, he's at La Roche College in charge of the justice and law program. He tells KDKA that just because someone confesses doesn't mean they actually did it. In fact, the Ramsey family attorney says a number of people have confessed to the murder over the years. "They will become famous for a brief period of time," said Likar. Likar says those moments in the spotlight can be enough for some people to confess. "They also, in some cases, surely know that they're going to be found out that the confession is false," said Likar. "But in the meantime, they've gathered a great deal of what they consider to be fame." Back in the 1930s the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby made headlines and by one account more than 200 confessions came in. "Every famous case almost have had instances when people have come forward to confess to the police," said Likar. "Most of the time the public isn't even aware of this." But what about John Mark Karr's claims that he was with JonBenet when she died? Karr's ex-wife claims he was with her that Christmas Day in Alabama. Likar says investigators keep some facts private that can help corroborate a confession. He said, "They keep these elements secret to see whether or not the person confessing can actually bring that type of evidence out." In another odd twist, it turns out Karr had a fascination with another child murder case -- that of 12 year-old Polly Klaas and with her killer Richard Allen Davis. So much so that investigators have now searched Davis' jail cell. "We have a significant percentage of our population with mental issues," said Likar. "In some cases this fascination with crime becomes an obsession." Legal experts say the key to this case will likely be DNA. If the DNA found under on JonBenet's fingernails matches Karr. http://kdka.com/topstories/local_story_230233326.html

August 19. 2006 4:00PM Sonoma County to hold off on porn charges against Ramsey suspect The Associated Press Sonoma County prosecutors said they will hold off on pursuing child pornography charges pending against the suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. John Mark Karr, 41, worked briefly was a substitute teacher in Sonoma County until early 2001, when he was charged with possessing child pornography. He was jailed for about six months, then disappeared before his trial was due to start in January 2002. Karr is scheduled to be flown Sunday to Boulder, Colo., to face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault in connection with the 1996 slaying of the child beauty queen. Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said Friday that the misdemeanor child pornography case will wait while Colorado authorities to pursue the Ramsey case. "The priority is the homicide case," Passalacqua said. But, he added, "if for some reason that doesn't materialize, then we'll revisit the issue and make an appropriate decision at the time." With good behavior and credit for time already served, Karr probably wouldn't spend much more time in jail if convicted, but a conviction would require him to register as a sex offender, Passalacqua said. http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060819/APN/608190725

Ramsey murder suspect en route to U.S. By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 3 minutes ago ABOARD THAI AIRWAYS TO LOS ANGELES - The suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey left Thailand on Sunday aboard a flight to the United States, where he faces charges in the killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen. John Mark Karr, escorted by three U.S. officials, was on Thai Airways International flight TG794 bound for Los Angeles. It took off from Don Muang International Airport just after 8 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT.) The 41-year-old teacher is to end his journey in Boulder, Colorado, where he faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault in connection with the 1996 killing. Karr, who is not charged with any crime in Thailand, is being expelled from the country because he is regarded as an undesirable person. He is not being extradited. He sat in a business class window seat next to Mark Stray, an investigator with the Boulder District Attorney's office. A U.S. Embassy official and a security officer with " Homeland Security" emblazoned on his T-shirt were also part of the escort party. Before take-off, Karr took a glass of champagne from a cabin attendant and clinked classes with Stray, who had selected an orange juice. Before entering the aircraft, he chatted amiably with passengers at the departure area. He wore a red short-sleeved, button-down shirt and tie. Just hours before his departure a doctor at a clinic that specializes in sex-change operations said Karr had been one of his patients. But Dr. Thep Vechavisit refused to provide details of the treatment. Thep has received considerable local publicity for his male-to-female operations and the clinic is one of the sponsors of an annual beauty pageant for transsexuals in the seaside resort of Pattaya. A staffer at the Pratunam Polyclinic, speaking on condition of anonymity since she was not authorized to make statements to the media, said Karr had consulted the doctor about a sex-change operation. This could not be confirmed. Karr was whisked into the immigration and customs zone at the airport after arriving in a white van from an immigration jail in downtown Bangkok. At the departure gate, he chatted amiably with fellow passengers. Bangkok, where Karr lived on and off for two years, is regarded as a major global center for sex change operations, which cost a fraction of the price charged in Western countries. The JonBenet case, which people in Thailand were generally unaware of before Karr's arrest, has been drawing increasing attention. The local focus has been on the qualifications of expatriate teachers, and whether there are checks in place to weed out criminals and deviants. A divorced father of three children once detained on charges of possessing child pornography, Karr in recent years apparently traveled to Europe, Central America and Asia to search for teaching jobs. He was arrested a day after he began teaching second grade in Bangkok, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy told reporters in Colorado. Thai authorities said he had also worked at two schools in Thailand. An official at one of the Thai schools, the prestigious elementary school at Bangkok Christian College, said Karr was fired in mid-June after only two weeks on the job because he was too strict with students. Thai Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang said Saturday he had ordered his ministry to look into the screening of foreigners seeking teaching jobs. It has been too easy for unqualified foreigners to be hired, in part because those with the proper qualifications are too expensive for many schools, Chaturon was quoted as saying by the state Thai News Agency. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_us/jonbenet_ramsey

'TOY' CLUE VS. JONBENET PERV TEDDY BEAR AND LETTERS TO PROF MAY CRACK SLAY By JENNIFER FERMINO, BARRY BORTNICK and LUKAS I. ALPERT August 19, 2006 -- A mysterious white Santa Claus teddy bear found in JonBenet Ramsey's room after she was killed - which has stumped investigators for a decade - has emerged as a tantalizing clue that may tie her confessed killer, John Mark Karr, to the lurid crime. The bear resurfaced after a University of Colorado professor, an expert on the case, carried on a correspondence with Karr over the years. Karr, who is expected to be extradited back to the United States tomorrow, faces murder, kidnapping and sexual assault charges, Thai police said early today. The professor's students said he told them he had received a childhood photo which showed someone he identified as "D" holding a white teddy bear similar to the one found in Jon Benet's bedroom in Boulder, Colo., after she was found dead on Dec. 26, 1996. A Ramsey family private investigator told The Post that "D" was Karr. The clue emerged as prosecutors contacted a former high school classmate of Karr in Alabama after she re vealed he had written in her yearbook in 1983, "Though, deep in the future, maybe I shall be the conqueror and live in multiple peace." Investigators are eyeing the expression "shall be the conqueror" - which was written in capital letters - as the possible source for "S.B.T.C.," the cryptic signoff on the ransom note found in the Ramsey home. The TV show "Inside Edition" obtained several handwriting samples from Karr - a job application and a note he wrote to a friend - and asked handwriting expert Robert Baier to compare them to the ransom note. He found striking similarities with the letter "D" and the letter "A." Meanwhile, Marie Case, a lawyer who represented Karr in a 2001 child porn possession case in northern California, told The Washington Post that law enforcement officials suspected he may have been involved in JonBenet's death. Members of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department told her that "there was possibly some involvement" in the tiny beauty queen's slaying, saying, "Hey, we're looking at this guy," she said. Case said it "seemed somebody dropped the ball" because "it never went anywhere." Wendy Hutchens, who became a police informant in the case, said she exchanged e-mails and recorded 20 hours of phone conversations with Karr in which he revealed his fascination with JonBenet's slaying. The Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat reported that in one late-night conversation, Karr described the circumstances surrounding the girl's strangulation: "She was in a lot of pain before she died and suffered and was tortured. There is physical evidence of that. What a shame. It's shameful. That person did that to the most beautiful girl in the world." Karr sent Professor Michael Tracey hundreds of e-mails over the years - including a creepy poem to "JonBenet, my love, my life" and another in which he sympathized with Michael Jackson's plight. With the ninth anniversary of JonBenet's death approaching in 2005, Karr penned a startling ode to the focus of his obsession - titled "JonBenet, My Love," The Rocky Mountain News reported. Karr then e-mailed his homage to Tracey with a bizarre request: for him to read it aloud outside the home where the beauty-pageant girl was killed, on the anniversary of her death. "JonBenet, my love, my life. I love you and shall forever love you. I pray that you can hear my voice calling out to you from my darkness - this darkness that now separates us," it read. Tracey told his media class last fall that "D" sent him a childhood photograph - supposedly taken on Christmas morning - of "D" holding a white Santa Claus teddy bear, according to student Emilie Johnson. "Tracey did mention the teddy bear," Johnson recalled. "I remember that it stuck out in Tracey's mind and that 'D' said Tracey might want to check this out." The bear was found in JonBenet's room the day after Christmas in 1996 - the day after she was murdered - and her parents reportedly told probers they didn't recognize it. In 1999, Colorado authorities appealed to the public to help identify who manufactured the distinctive toy and which stores sold it, and even released a photo of the bear. At the time, authorities declined to say anything more about it - fueling endless speculation about whether the killer left behind a creepy memento. The trail had appeared to grow cold on the bear mystery - until Tracey told the classroom of students about "D." When students asked whether "D" was a pedophile, "Michael Tracey was like, there's no doubt in my mind - he likes kids way too much," recalled Johnson. Private eye John San Augustin, who works for the Ramsey family, said he has seen the e-mails and "D" is simply the first initial of an odd word the sender chose as a moniker. "D" claimed his nickname symbolized the month of December, among other things. Karr's birthday is Dec. 11, 1964, and JonBenet is believed to have been killed the night of Dec. 25, 1996. San Augustin told The Post he's aware that Karr sent Tracey a photo and claimed it depicted himself as a boy, holding a bear. At one point in the e-mail exchange between the professor and Karr, the alleged killer expressed alarm that Tracey had gotten his photograph from a third person. Karr claimed he had been the focus of a four-state federal investigation "for child murder and child molestation." Karr wrote of how his mother had raised him "as a little girl," but became belligerent with the notion that his sexuality had been affected adversely because of it. "I will not discuss my sexuality as if it is a psychological disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In my case, I disagree with it totally, and if this is to be the way we progress in discussing it. I might as well stop while I am ahead," he wrote in one exchange. In other developments yesterday: * CNN reported that Karr provided graphic details to police about the condition of Ramsey's body that had never been publicly released and had been known only by the medical examiner and investigators in the case. * The attorney for Karr's second wife - who has provided him with an alibi for the day Ramsey was killed - said his client could not specifically remember what they did for Christmas 1996, but "cannot think of a Christmas while they were together when he was away from the family." Additional reporting by Andrew Drummond in Bangkok and David K. Li in Hamilton, Ala. lukas.alpert@nypost.com http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/toy_clue_vs__jonbenet_perv_nationalnews_jennifer_fermino__barry_bortnick_and_lukas_i__alpert.htm

Ramsey murder suspect held in L.A. jail By JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 7 minutes ago LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr's hours of champagne toasts and roast duck vanished the second his plane touched down on U.S. soil. By Monday morning, he was in a high-security jail cell awaiting transfer to Colorado to face charges in the killing of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. Karr was arrested at the airport on a warrant from Boulder County, Colo. A helicopter whisked him to the Twin Towers jail shortly before midnight in a sobering end to a day that began in Bangkok and included fine dining, movies and small talk with his U.S. escorts aboard the Thai Airways flight. "He is going to be housed here in the men's jail, kept in isolation in a 6-by-9 room with a bed, a toilet no windows and no phones," said Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore. "He'll get jail chow, he won't get king crab, I'll tell you that." Karr was to be held in a "high power" cell for noteworthy inmates, checked by guards every 15 minutes, and separated from other inmates who often target suspected child molesters, sheriff's officials said. Boulder County authorities said Karr was expected to have an extradition hearing in Los Angeles within days, and would be taken to Colorado if he waived extradition. No hearing date was immediately set. Karr, who last week suddenly emerged as a suspect in a case long believed to have gone cold, told reporters in Thailand that he was with 6-year-old JonBenet when she died in the basement of her home on Dec. 26, 1996, but that her death was an accident. U.S. officials have been silent about what Karr told them during interrogations. While in Thailand, Karr had visited a clinic to have facial hair removed permanently because he wanted to prepare for a sex-change operation, a doctor said Monday. The 41-year-old school teacher's return to the United States was voluntary, and he wasn't handcuffed before or during the 15-hour Thai Airways flight from Bankok. Dressed in a red, short-sleeve, button-down shirt and black tie, Karr was whisked through Don Muang International Airport in Bangkok. He chatted with fellow passengers at the departure gate. Aboard the jet he took a window seat next to Mark Spray, an investigator with the Boulder County district attorney's office. The escort also included a U.S. Embassy official and an agent with " Homeland Security" on his shirt. Before takeoff, Karr took a glass of champagne from a flight attendant and clinked glasses with Spray, who sipped orange juice. Karr first dined on pate, salad, fried king prawn, steamed rice, broccoli and chocolate cake. He also had a beer — crushing the empty can with his hands — and then had a glass of chardonnay. Karr appeared to order the drinks himself. He later dined on roast duck with soy sauce and yellow noodles, and for his third meal had pizza, chocolates and a bottle of Evian. He sometimes conversed with Spray, who took notes on some of the remarks. Karr told an AP reporter that it was "small talk." Also during the flight, Karr flipped through movie channels, watched "The Last Samurai," dozed and made several trips to the restroom accompanied by two guards. Each time the door was left slightly ajar. At one point he changed out of the red shirt and tie, replacing them with a blue polo, but then changed back into the shirt and tie before the landing. Earlier this year, Karr had gone to the Siam Swan Cosmetic Clinic and its branches in Bangkok to have his sideburns and hair under his chin removed with lasers, Dr. Setthakarn Attakonpan said Monday. "He wanted to prepare himself to do a sex-change operation," said Setthakarn, a dermatologist. Hours before Karr's departure from Bangkok on Sunday, a doctor at a clinic specializing in sex-change surgery said Karr had gone there for treatment. "He was one of my patients," Dr. Thep Vechavisit of the Pratunam Polyclinic said. He refused to provide further details. Bangkok, where Karr lived on and off for two years, is regarded as a center for sex change operations. The Pratunam clinic advertises sex-change surgery for $1,625 — a bargain compared to U.S. prices, where male-to-female reassignment surgery can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Karr, once detained on charges of possessing child pornography, in recent years apparently traveled to Europe, Central America and Asia to search for teaching jobs. He taught in at least two Thai schools. ___ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060821/ap_on_re_us/jonbenet_ramsey

Hearing set for Ramsey suspect in Calif. By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent 46 minutes ago LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr, arrested in Thailand in connection with the decade-old slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, could soon be bound for Colorado — though his legal fate could linger if he decides to fight extradition. Karr was expected to make his first of many expected court appearances Tuesday when he goes before a judge and either agrees to be transported to Boulder, Colo., or challenges the order. "What we're really focusing on is getting him back to Colorado and getting through that first appearance and going from there," said Carolyn French, spokeswoman for the district attorney of Boulder County, where authorities have a sealed arrest warrant for Karr. The 41-year-old teacher has told reporters he was with the 6-year-old beauty pageant princess when she died and that her slaying in the basement of her Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996, was an accident. Little is publicly known, however, about what evidence Boulder officials have. Karr spent Monday in a high-security jail cell, where officials said he met with various lawyers. They included attorneys from the public defender's office and San Jose lawyer Patience Van Zandt, who represented Karr when he was charged in 2001 with possessing child pornography in Northern California. It was unclear who would represent Karr on Tuesday. In Los Angeles County's Twin Towers jail, Karr is in a high-security isolation cell and kept far away from the other 3,500 male inmates. "There may be inmates in here who might take an opportunity to hurt him, so we have to be careful," said sheriff's Chief Marc Klugman, who oversees county jails. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has yet to be asked to compare any evidence from Karr with evidence taken from the Ramsey crime scene, bureau spokesman Lance Clem said Monday. A law enforcement official said last week on condition of anonymity that Karr was given a mouth-swab DNA test in Bangkok, but the results of that test were not known. The Boulder district attorney's spokeswoman declined to comment on any evidence in the case. Media organizations including The Associated Press on Monday asked a judge to unseal the arrest warrant and other documents involving Karr. The filing noted previous mistakes in the Ramsey investigation and said there is "great public interest" in whether Karr's arrest "is yet another `mistake.'" In an Aug. 15 order, Boulder County District Judge Roxanne Bailin ordered case documents sealed, saying disclosure could jeopardize the investigation. Monday's filing asked her to consider releasing edited versions of the documents if she rules against their full release. In recent years Karr apparently traveled to Europe, Central America and Asia to search for teaching jobs. He taught in at least two schools in two Thai schools. U.S. authorities brought him from Thailand to Los Angeles on a commercial flight Sunday. ___ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060822/ap_on_re_us/jonbenet_ramsey

Karr heading to Colorado to face murder charges By BOB KEEFE Cox News Service Wednesday, August 23, 2006 LOS ANGELES — A brief court hearing Tuesday cleared the way for John Mark Karr to be sent to Boulder, Colo., to face charges that he murdered 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey a decade ago. The 41-year-old former metro Atlanta resident wore an orange prison jumpsuit and stood emotionless during the three-minute session. His only words were "Yes, sir," when asked by the judge to confirm his decision not to contest extradition. That decision means that the former schoolteacher will soon be traveling under police escort on a flight to Colorado. There, perhaps by Friday, he is expected to face five charges related to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, who was born in Atlanta and is buried there. California Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin said the charges filed in Boulder include first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault. Karr's arrest warrant and an affidavit were placed under court seal immediately after they were filed last week. Despite the pending extradition, doubts continue to swirl about Karr's involvement in Ramsey's murder. Before being expelled from Thailand on Sunday, he told reporters that he was with Ramsey when she died in Boulder, and called her death from strangulation and a fractured skull "an accident." But an attorney for Karr's family in Georgia confirmed Tuesday that they were certain he was with them there over Christmas in 1996, when the young beauty pageant participant was found murdered in her parents' basement in Boulder. Gary Harris, an attorney for Karr's family, said they produced a photo from that Christmas that includes Karr's three children, along with a newborn nephew. While Karr is not in the photo, "they know that if his children were there, he would have been there," Harris said. Karr's family members said they no recollection of him ever missing a family Christmas gathering until five years ago, according to Harris, when he became a fugitive from child pornography charges filed in California. Jamie Harmon, a California attorney who said she met with Karr for more than three hours Monday, declined to discuss those claims by Karr's family or the claim of his ex-wife that he was living with her in Alabama when the murder occurred. Harmon, whose firm represented Karr in his child pornography case, said she has not been retained by Karr but is serving as "an adviser" to him. She said a partner in her firm, Patience Van Zandt, had also met with Karr for about seven hours since he arrived in Los Angeles from Thailand. Harmon said Karr told her he was "very anxious" to go to Boulder, in part to clear up media misconceptions about him. "Mr. Karr has been portrayed by the media as a flake, as being mentally unstable ... unwell," Harmon said. "And he is none of those things." "He is anxious to have the opportunity to address the allegations against him and to be portrayed in a more accurate ... way," she said. Harmon described Karr as "a very different kind of person - he marches to the beat of a different drummer." That doesn't mean he has done anything wrong, she added. She also cautioned that Karr's statements in Thailand about being with Ramsey and that he is not "innocent" didn't constitute a confession, but were simply "sound bites." Harmon added that Karr was upset with the media coverage about him, and that he was suffering from three bruised ribs because of the crush of photographers in Thailand. Meanwhile, more unusual tidbits surfaced about Karr's past life in Alabama. A friend of the family told ABC News that Karr's mother tried to kill him when he was a baby. Patricia Elaine Adcock "made a big round doughnut (of kindling) and put him in the middle of it," George McCrary, 76, told the network. McCrary said he has known Karr's father, Wexford Karr, for 40 years. John's older brother Michael "came running in just before she got the flame to the flammable material," McCrary told ABC. Adcock was later committed to a mental institution and died in 2000, according to published reports. Bryan Frederick, 46, who grew up with Karr in Hamilton, Ala., said he does not believe McCrary's account. "That sounds kind of far-fetched. He never had anything but respect for his mother," said Frederick. "He loved her." Also Tuesday, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Human Resources confirmed that in June 1997, Karr received a license to run a "day care home" in Marion County. Under the two-year license, the home could have up to six children. Records show there were no complaints against the license. Officials with the Boulder district attorney's office have declined to discuss any details of the case, and the Boulder County sheriff's office declined to discuss details of Karr's planned transfer to Colorado. In a formality that allowed Tuesday's court hearing to take place, the Los Angeles district attorney's office issued a felony complaint charging Karr with one count of being a fugitive from justice. The complaint noted that "conviction of this offense will require the defendant to provide DNA samples and (finger) print impressions." Karr submitted to a mouth swab for DNA on Saturday before leaving Thailand, but the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said Monday it had not been asked to compare any sample from Karr with DNA recovered from the murder scene. The DNA evidence is seen as one possible way to verify Karr's statement after being arrested in Thailand that he "was with JonBenet when she died." Scott Robinson, a Denver attorney who has followed the Ramsey murder from the beginning, said he didn't know of any attorneys who want to represent Karr. He predicted that the public defenders office would take up the case. Robinson said Karr would likely have his first court hearing within 48 hours after his arrival in Boulder. There, he will once again be read the charges against him and advised of his rights. "And then the whole bizarre spectacle will continue," Robinson said. Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Craig Schneider and Mike Morris contributed to this story. http://www.western-star.com/school/content/shared/news/stories/KARR23_1STLD_COX_A5642.html

Aug 23, 2006 3:33 pm US/Eastern Ex-Wife: Karr Fantasized About Little Girls (AP) LOS ANGELES Some new accusations from John Karr’s first wife, who was just 13 when they married. Quientana Ray told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he used to tell her about fantasies he had about little girls. She also says he was controlling. Karr is a suspect in the slaying of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. He has said that he loved JonBenet and that he was with her when she died. Ray says she was drugged and that “things were done” to her without her knowing. She didn’t elaborate. Ray’s parents said they discovered letters Karr wrote to their daughter that were signed “SBTC.” Those are the same initials found on a ransom note left in the Ramsey home. One of his lawyers says Karr “marches to the beat of a different drummer.” Karr has waived extradition to Bolder, Colorado, where JonBenet was killed in 1996. No word on when he will be transferred. http://cbs3.com/topstories/topstories_story_235092054.html

Karr Could Get 'Dream Team' Of Lawyers POSTED: 6:57 am EDT August 23, 2006 UPDATED: 5:46 pm EDT August 23, 2006 LOS ANGELES -- The 41-year-old suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case may get his "dream team" after all. The father and brother of John Mark Karr said they hope to get a big-name lawyer to defend Karr and have hired an actor-turned-author to help them find one. Larry Garrison, who's based in Los Angeles, said he's already secured the movie and book rights for the Karr family's story. Garrison said he hasn't gotten a cent -- only a promise of a percentage to come from any profit. He said the Karr family wants the money to go to Karr's defense and a college fund for his kids. Meanwhile, Karr is said to be upset over having to appear in public wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. From his police custody appearances last week in Thailand, to his media-swarmed return to the United States over the weekend, he wore street clothes and wasn't even handcuffed. But since Karr has been back in the United States, it's been jail attire. A public defender who represented Karr during his Tuesday extradition hearing in Los Angeles, Haydeh Takasugi, said she met with him for more than two hours at the jail. She said he reported being "treated very well in Thailand" but that he was upset when he was denied the right to wear civilian clothes in court. "It's going to taint any potential jury pool out there," she said. In court Tuesday, Karr also wore handcuffs attached to a chain around his waist. He agreed to be sent to Colorado to face a murder warrant in the long-unsolved killing of the 6-year-old child, but officials gave no hint at all on when he'll be transferred. The counts in the sealed probable-cause warrant issued Aug. 15 in Boulder County, Colo., include first-degree murder after deliberation, felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child. Karr slowly closed his eyes when the first of the murder counts was read. However, those might not be the actual charges he faces. The district attorney stressed that even though the arrest warrant lists crimes ranging from kidnap to murder, those are only possible charges. For now, Karr hasn't been charged with anything. Karr been held in Los Angeles following his return from Thailand on Sunday night. Takasugi said he wants to go to Colorado as soon as possible and "get the whole thing started." According to Takasugi, it could be a few days before Colorado officials pick Karr up to take him to Boulder. The court said that has to happen by Sept. 6. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office had charged him with being a fugitive from justice. The complaint notes that Karr was charged with murder in a warrant issued last week in Boulder, Colo. Family Says Photo Proves He Wasn't In Colorado Karr's family said he couldn't have been at the scene of the crime when JonBenet was killed in Colorado nearly a decade ago. His father said Karr was with the family in Georgia during Christmas of 1996 -- thousands of miles away from where the 6-year-old beauty queen was killed the day after Christmas. A lawyer for Karr's relatives told reporters a photo shows Karr's young sons during the family's Christmas dinner in Atlanta. He said the family is sure that if the three boys were there, Karr would have been with them. Karr, however, is not pictured. Karr's second wife has already told authorities that she and Karr were together for the holidays that year, though her attorney admits she can't be "absolutely certain." Public Defender Could Do Right O.J. Simpson had his "dream team" of lawyers -- and although it's still early, there's a chance Karr might well wind up with some big names defending him. But even if he gets a public defender, Karr could be in good shape. The public defender system in Colorado is different from a lot of places. For one thing, experts said, the system is well-funded. It's also well respected for its work on tough cases using DNA evidence, and it attracts some of the best law school graduates. http://www.news4jax.com/news/9722039/detail.html

Ramsey suspect raised suspicions in 2001 By CHRISTINA ALMEIDA, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago LOS ANGELES - John Mark Karr first came to the attention of California officials five years ago when he emerged as a potential suspect in the murder of a 12-year-old girl and showed an "apparent fascination" with the murders of JonBenet Ramsey and Polly Klaas. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Department, which launched an investigation that would ultimately lead to Karr being charged with child pornography, made the disclosure in a statement Wednesday. "In a few instances while he seemed to be wondering about the JonBenet Ramsey murder, he made uncertain allusions to placing himself in the killer's role," according to a statement by Lt. Dave Edmonds. "However, we never uncovered any 'confession' statements, overt murder evidence, or other indications that John Karr possessed secret knowledge that only the murderer of JonBenet Ramsey would know." The Sonoma department also noted Karr made references to two other crimes in two different states, including the 1993 murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas in Petaluma and a child molestation. Information about Karr was provided in 2001 to the investigating agencies in all those states, including Colorado, and there were follow-up discussions, the release said. Boulder police referred questions to the district attorney's office. A spokeswoman for that office did not return after-hours calls Wednesday. The 2001 investigation is the earliest known time that Karr was brought to the attention of authorities investigating the 1996 slaying of 6-year-old JonBenet in her Boulder County, Colo., home. Ultimately, Karr, who did not appear to be a viable suspect in the 1997 murder of a 12-year-old named Georgia Moses, was charged with possession of child pornography. He fled and an arrest warrant was issued, but authorities said they were unable to locate him. "During the course of our investigation in 2001, we learned of Karr's apparent fascination with the 1993 murder of Polly Klaas in Petaluma, and the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado. In some writings, Karr presented ideas about what the murderers of Polly Klaas and JonBenet Ramsey must have thought and felt," the statement said. Karr remained jailed in Los Angeles on Thursday awaiting transport to Colorado, which has issued a murder warrant for his arrest. He told reporters in Thailand, where he was detained last week, that he was with JonBenet when she died and that it was an accident. Karr's family contends he was with them in Georgia at the time of the Colorado killing, while an ex-wife has said she believes Karr was likely with her in Alabama. Neither she or the family have offered definitive proof. Beyond first-degree murder, the counts against Karr in a sealed probable-cause arrest warrant include murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault on a child. In other developments Wednesday, Karr's relatives offered up the book and film rights to the family's story in hopes of raising money for a high-powered attorney to defend Karr against charges that he killed JonBenet. "They're not looking for money for themselves," said Larry Garrison, a producer the family hired to represent them in media deals. "They're looking to support John's boys' college education and to make sure all legal fees are covered." ___ Associated Press Writers Jordan Robertson in San Jose, Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Dan Elliott in Denver and Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: Press release: http://www.sonomasheriff.org/press.php http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060824/ap_on_re_us/jonbenet_ramsey