Man arrested in 1996 child murder case that gripped US

Los Angeles - A 41-year-old American man suspected of killing a six-year-old girl in 1996 was arrested in Thailand Wednesday, US officials announced, a dramatic development in a murder case that had gripped the nation.

The victim, JonBenet Ramsey, a veteran of child beauty pageants, was found strangled to death in the basement of her parents' Colorado home the day after Christmas.

Endless speculation about the case and the lack of a suspect had quieted down in recent years, but the arrest was top news in the country Wednesday.

"There has been an arrest in Bangkok, Thailand for the December 26, 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey ... following several months of a focused and complex investigation," Mary Lacy, district attorney in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement.

CNN television said the suspect was a 41-year-old former school teacher detained in Thailand in a separate case of sexual delinquency.

The mother of the victim, Patsy Ramsey, died in June of cancer at the age of 49.

Agence France Presse

(CNN) -- Authorities have arrested a "possible suspect" in the decade-old JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, law enforcement sources told CNN on Wednesday.

An investigator with the Boulder County, Colorado, District Attorney's office is bringing the man from Bangkok, Thailand, CNN Denver affiliate KUSA reported.

Sources tell CBS News that he is a 41-year-old American and second-grade schoolteacher and that he will be brought back to the United States this weekend.

The man was being held in Bangkok on sex charges, sources told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors in Boulder have not confirmed the person's identity but are expected to hold a news conference later today.

KUSA reported that a man they call a suspect was arrested Wednesday morning and has confessed to certain elements of the crime that are unknown to the general public, KUSA reported.

JonBenet's beaten and strangled body was found in the basement of the family home in Boulder, Colorado, the day after Christmas in 1996. She was 6.

A grand jury investigation into the death of the child beauty pageant winner ended without charges in 1999.

The investigation focused a spotlight on the child's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. Patsy Ramsey died in June of ovarian cancer. She was 49.

The Ramseys said an intruder committed the crime, but they remained the subject of suspicion and speculation.

In 2003 a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Ramseys, blaming the police and the FBI for bungling the investigation. The Boulder County District Attorney's Office concurred with the judge's opinion the following month, saying there was little evidence against the couple

The Ramseys left Colorado and had a house in Charlevoix, Michigan, where John Ramsey unsuccessfully ran for office in 2004, and in Atlanta, Georgia.

CNN's Kelli Arena contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — A suspect was arrested Wednesday in Bangkok, Thailand for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old girl whose gruesome death nearly a decade ago garnered nationwide attention and cast a cloud of suspicion over her own parents.

Federal officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the suspect as John Mark Karr, a 42-year-old American, and one law enforcement official told the Associated Press that Boulder police had tracked him down online.

ON DEADLINE: How the story developed

The Ramsey family's attorney in Atlanta pronounced the arrest vindication for JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer on June 24.

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

The attorney said the Ramseys learned about the suspect a least a month before Patsy Ramsey's death. "It's been a very long 10 years, and I'm just sorry Patsy isn't here for me to hug her neck," Wood said.

Karr was a teacher who once lived in Conyers, Ga., according to Wood. The attorney said the Ramseys gave police information about Karr before he was identified as a suspect.

Wood would not say how the Ramseys knew Karr. But 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.

A source close to the investigation told the AP that Karr confessed to elements of the crime. Also, a law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Karr had been communicating periodically with somebody in Boulder who had been following the case and cooperating with law enforcement officials.

In a statement posted on her office's website, Boulder County, Colo. District Attorney Mary Lacy confirmed "there has been an arrest in Bangkok, Thailand for the December 26, 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey." The statement said the suspect was arrested Wednesday "following several months of a focused and complex investigation."

Denver television station KUSA reported a Boulder County investigator has been sent to Bangkok and is expected to return with the suspect to the United States "possibly within the next two days."

JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family's home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey reported finding a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter.

The image of blonde-haired little JonBenet in a cowgirl costume and other beauty pageant outfits has haunted TV talk shows ever since, helping feed myriad theories about her killer.

Law enforcement officials from Boulder were flying to Bangkok to present Thai authorities with documents in the slaying of the 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant, officials in Washington said. They asked to remain anonymous pending an announcement in Colorado.

The girl's parents, Patsy and John Ramsey, had been under an "umbrella of suspicion" in JonBenet's death. The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury investigation in Boulder ended with no indictments, and no arrests had been made in the case.

In a statement Wednesday, John Ramsey said: "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."

KUSA also contacted John Ramsey, who told the station, "The justice system needs to run its course and I don't want to speculate and discuss what I know or don't know."When asked if he knew the suspect, Ramsey responded, "I can't comment on that now...to the best of my knowledge, no."

Patsy Ramsey's sister, Pam Paugh, of Roswell, Ga., 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.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes in Atlanta concluded that the evidence she reviewed suggested an intruder killed JonBenet. That opinion came with the judge's decision to dismiss a libel and slander lawsuit against the Ramseys by a freelance journalist, who the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter's murder. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with Carnes' declaration.

Author Lawrence Schiller, who wrote the 1999 book "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town" about the case, said Wednesday he understood the man had been on a list of sexual offenders who were suspects for a long time.

"There are a lot of facts about her actual death that the public does not know." Schiller said. "If he did confess to some facts of the murder, to reveal those facts of the case, that would finish the puzzle."

Among the facts he said were not generally known was the murder weapon and what the killer did with it.

Bob Grant, a former Adams County district attorney who worked on the case, said there was never enough evidence to convince him that any potential suspect could be successfully prosecuted.

"I wasn't convinced it was an inside job, nor was I convinced it was an outside job," he said. "All the outside suspects were cleared after exhaustive investigation, and there were a whole lot of outside suspects."

The Associated Press

Suspect denies connection to JonBenet Ramsey murder

BANGKOK, Thailand - A former school teacher suspected in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, is said to have denied involvement.

That's according to authorities in Bangkok, Thailand, where John Mark Karr is in custody.

Thai authorities regard Karr as an "undesirable person" because he has been accused of the murder. Immigration police say his visa has been revoked, but he has not been charged with any crimes in Thailand. Earlier, U-S officials speaking on the condition of anonymity, had said Thai authorities were holding Karr on unrelated sex charges.

A Thai official says Karr is expected to be returned by U-S authorities in a few days.

The Associated Press