BOULDER, Colo. - A man suspected in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey nearly a decade ago was arrested Wednesday in Thailand, the district attorney said.

 

Colorado authorities scheduled a news conference Thursday to discuss the case but declined further comment.

 

Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. CBS reported that the suspect, a 41-year-old second-grade teacher from the U.S., will be brought back to the United States this weekend.

 

The suspect was detained in Bangkok on Wednesday morning, Denver NBC affiliate KUSA said, and was going to be brought to the U.S. within the next two days by a Boulder County district attorney investigator.

 

The girl was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family?s home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996.

 

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.

 

According to KUSA, the suspect in custody knew details about the murder that had not been made available to the general public.

 

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.

 

Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in June.

 

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, whom 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.

 

I always thought that it was the parents...

I also assumed it was the parents. I think it takes a special kind of twisted parent to get their kid involved in pageants.

I've never thought it was the parents, no evidence at all pointed to them. Just because they had no other clues doesn't automatically make the parents guilty.It would have been way too random.

 

I feel horrible for all they had to go thru the past 10 years. At least this vindicates them somewhat.

 

Although the mother is dead, she died a couple months of cancer. Damn shame.

I've never thought it was the parents, no evidence at all pointed to them. Just because they had no other clues doesn't automatically make the parents guilty.It would have been way too random.

 

I feel horrible for all they had to go thru the past 10 years. At least this vindicates them somewhat.

 

Although the mother is dead, she died a couple months of cancer. Damn shame.

 

wow...crazy...yeah...its too bad the mother didnt live to see that the person who may have killed her daughter may finally get what he deserves...but just a question here...if he was in custody in thailand on an unrelated charge...would they still hand him over to US authorities? i mean...thailand isnt exactly known for letting criminals go anywhere but 6 feet under

Well, it's been confirmed that he is on his way back to the U.S. with some kind of police officers.

If this in fact true I think its great that law enforcement forged ahead when all the leads were coming up blanks.

 

Its surely a high profile case for them but the thought of the scum who committed that heinous crime getting away with it was enough to make me throw up.

 

Hopefully he gets what he deserves. The Chair.

I also assumed it was the parents. I think it takes a special kind of twisted parent to get their kid involved in pageants.

Ignorant.

 

The guy freaks me out. He has a past of child pornography and said he 'loved' JonBen?t. Yikes.

 

I'm defintiely glad to know that Patsy Ramsey knew of the investigation of the guy before she passed.

hopefully the dad goes off on the media

I never really thought it was the parents either. I agree with Passion that the guy seemed a bit creepy to me, from the way he talks and how he said he was in love with Jon Benet. Scary. I hope he gets what he deserves. What a sicko.

If this turns out to be the guy, I think a lot of folks owe Jon Benet's parents an apology.

Wow this guy is a loonie... very chilling to think there are people like this out there.

msnbc is saying the ex-wife said this guy was in alabama with her when ramsey was killed.

I thought the most interesting thing about this case was the fact that this John Mark Karr guy was writing a book about people who commit violent crimes on children. The main subject of the book would be Jon Benet.

 

He was fascinated by the stuff, and spent years researching every little detail of these kidnappings. Almost seems too eerily similar to a Hannibal Lector case. I would not be at all suprised if this wasn't the guy.

msnbc is saying the ex-wife said this guy was in alabama with her when ramsey was killed.

 

 

I don't buy it

msnbc is saying the ex-wife said this guy was in alabama with her when ramsey was killed.

 

 

I don't buy it

 

im just saying, this man's crazy and ive heard some of the people on tv talk about people so crazy that they confess to crimes they never committed and its possible with this fool. this man's saying he aint a innocent man and he was with her when she died on tv but has no comment on how he knew her?

On a totally immature note, has anyone seen John Mark Karr's ex-wife ? She is smokin' hot !

I find it interesting that he said he drugged her yet the autopsy showed no drugs in her system. This is getting more and more fishy. Get ready for a soap opera.

Out of the thousands of children who have been kidnapped, killed, are missing, etc. why is this one receiving so much media coverage? So the parents were rich and white, big f***ing deal. What about some 6 year old black girl from Liberty City who has been missing for 10 years? Where is the media circus with the missing children like that?

 

This whole thing is sad, it's a shame the mother didn't live to see the killer captured, but it's disgusting how the media has focused so much on it when there are thousands of other missing children out there with hope to still be found. If the media spent the amount of time they have spent reporting about this ONE case for the past decade and dedicated that same time to reporting about all children who are still missing and there was still hope to find them, a lot of them probably could have been found.

I don't think this dude killed her, he is just trying to get out of Thai prison.

Out of the thousands of children who have been kidnapped, killed, are missing, etc. why is this one receiving so much media coverage? So the parents were rich and white, big f***ing deal. What about some 6 year old black girl from Liberty City who has been missing for 10 years? Where is the media circus with the missing children like that?

 

This whole thing is sad, it's a shame the mother didn't live to see the killer captured, but it's disgusting how the media has focused so much on it when there are thousands of other missing children out there with hope to still be found. If the media spent the amount of time they have spent reporting about this ONE case for the past decade and dedicated that same time to reporting about all children who are still missing and there was still hope to find them, a lot of them probably could have been found.

Welcome to society. Its unfair, but thats how it is.

Out of the thousands of children who have been kidnapped, killed, are missing, etc. why is this one receiving so much media coverage? So the parents were rich and white, big f***ing deal. What about some 6 year old black girl from Liberty City who has been missing for 10 years? Where is the media circus with the missing children like that?

 

This whole thing is sad, it's a shame the mother didn't live to see the killer captured, but it's disgusting how the media has focused so much on it when there are thousands of other missing children out there with hope to still be found. If the media spent the amount of time they have spent reporting about this ONE case for the past decade and dedicated that same time to reporting about all children who are still missing and there was still hope to find them, a lot of them probably could have been found.

Welcome to society. Its unfair, but thats how it is.

Unfortunately, it's the truth.

 

I said the same thing with the other cases like Laci Peterson and the case of the girl in Aruba, both of which got nauseating amounts of coverage by the media.

This sicko deserves to roast regardless of whether he is guilty of this particular crime or not. Until all the details are out we can't know if he is one of those obsessed weirdos who want to take credit for a crime they did not commit. There are a lot of unanswered questions at this point.

 

Sometimes people get arrested for these types of crimes and they don't look like people you would suspect but in many cases, like this guy, they are totally creepy and just give off that sicko vibe. Supposedly he had worked as a caregiver to a lot of little kids in the past and you just wonder how anyone would allow such a strange creepy looking type to be so close to their children.

yeah I have a feeling it's not him either. I think his ex-wife also said that he had been obsessed with this case. Maybe he's just become so obsessed with it over the years that he's inserted himself into it & created his own reality. He married a 12 year-old when he was 18, then married a 16 year-old at 23. He obviously likes little girls.

Well this might dispel those rumors.

 

On the top of CNN.com, they're reporting in Breakingnews that Karr knew very intricate details about her mutilated body and condition that were never made public. Either he's very good, or he's your guy.