[Vision2020] [Spam] Doubts Linger in JonBenet Case

[lfalen]

Karr is obviously a nut case. We should wait and see if there is anything to his confession.

Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Tom Hansen" thansen at moscow.com
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 06:32:53 -0700
To: "Joan Opyr" joanopyr at moscow.com, "'Moscow Vision 2020'" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Spam] [Vision2020] Doubts Linger in JonBenet Case

> >From today's (August 18, 2006) Spokesman Review -
> 
> >From the article:
> 
> "If John Mark Karr is telling the truth, he picked up 6-year-old JonBenet
> Ramsey at school, took her home to drug and rape her, and then accidentally
> killed her nearly 10 years ago.
> 
> But schools were closed for the Christmas break when JonBenet died . . . "
> 
> As the article suggests, it will all come down to DNA.  If there is a DNA
> match, it becomes a slam dunk.  If the DNA does not match . . .
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Doubts linger in JonBenet case 
> Despite confession, questions remain
> 
> Catherine Tsai and Jon Sarche
> Associated Press
> August 18, 2006
> 
> BOULDER, Colo. - If John Mark Karr is telling the truth, he picked up
> 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey at school, took her home to drug and rape her,
> and then accidentally killed her nearly 10 years ago.
> 
> But schools were closed for the Christmas break when JonBenet died and the
> coroner found no evidence of drugs or sexual assault on the little girl's
> body. And few experts believe that a girl who was slowly strangled with a
> garrote was killed by accident. There are even questions whether Karr was in
> Colorado at the time of the slaying.
> 
> The doubts have led some to wonder whether the 41-year-old Karr is the
> answer to the long-unsolved slaying of the child beauty queen or a disturbed
> wannabe trying to insert himself into a high-profile case.
> 
> "We should all heed the poignant advice of John Ramsey," said Boulder County
> District Attorney Mary Lacy, quoting the girl's father. "Do not jump to
> conclusions, do not rush to judgment, do not speculate. Let the justice
> system take its course."
> 
> Experts said the questions surrounding Karr's story put more pressure on
> corroborating evidence such as DNA.
> 
> "They either have a miss or a match on the DNA," former Denver prosecutor
> Craig Silverman said. "If it's a miss, the prosecution has serious problems.
> If it's a match, then it's game, set and match for this case. Couple the DNA
> with the kooky confession and it's enough for most people to convict."
> 
>  
> That confession came Thursday when the sullen Karr was paraded before a
> raucous crush of reporters in Bangkok, Thailand. 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.
> 
> 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. Investigators later concluded there was no semen on
> JonBenet's body.
> 
> According to Thai police, Karr also said he picked JonBenet up at school and
> took her back to her home. But the slaying came during the holiday vacation
> season.
> 
> 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."
> 
> Also unclear is whether Karr - whose record includes a 2001 arrest on
> misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography - had any previous
> relationship with the Ramsey family, 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 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.
> 
> 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.
> 
> 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 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 garrote 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."
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Seeya round town, Moscow.
> 
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
> 
> 
> ********************************************
> 
> "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism"
> 
> - Thomas Jefferson
> 
> ********************************************
> 
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