Former teacher John Mark Karr will be extradited to the United States this week to face sexual assault, first-degree murder, and kidnapping charges in the death of JonBenet Ramsey. The beauty pageant star was found beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home in December 1996. Karr’s arrest promises closure to one of the highest-profile unsolved murder cases in the United States.
U.S. officials filed the charges against Karr following a tip from a University of Colorado journalism professor who communicated with Karr on a regular basis. The professor allegedly grew suspicious of Karr during the course of their communications, but it’s yet unclear what specifically incited his misgivings in the first place.
Thai and American law enforcement officials moved in on Karr’s Bangkok residence this morning, and took him into custody. Mr. Karr was living in a cheap hotel in a rather seedy neighborhood that included several travel agencies catering to “sex tourists,” as the Associated Press delicately puts it. The hotel rented out its rooms by the month or the hour.
An emotional Karr told AP reporters that he “was with JonBenet when she died,” and that he “only” intended to kidnap the child for an $118,000 ransom. After raping her, he “accidentally” killed her.
In a chilling interview, Karr told reporters that a full explanation of JonBenet’s death would take hours. He said he had sex with the child because he was in love with her, and never intended to hurt her. He claims he felt guilty and remorseful over the slaying, and still feels repentant to this day.
I’m sure he does.
If it would take hours just to describe what happened, how many MORE hours did he actually spend “making love” to JonBenet before he accidentally beat and strangled her? Just thinking about it makes my stomach turn. I can’t fathom how someone could commit such a hideous crime and go on with life as usual.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - lover of everything Il Divo
Maybe Karr should be "accidently" pushed off the plane while he's being extradited.
2 - Bryan
Even if he only "accidentally" murdered her, the rest of the crime is enough to keep him locked away for good.
Recommending the death penalty for this guy would be letting him off easy compared to what would be likely to happen to him in jail.
3 - diana hartman
I am pleased to tell you this article is being featured in the Culture Focus for August 17 and 18.
Diana Hartman
Culture Editor
4 - Lady Dragonfyre
Thank you Diana!
5 - IgnatiusReilly
Wow! How completely reckless of you.
You would think from the way the Ramseys were wrung through the ringer in the court of public opinion that people might slow down with the accusastions.
Have you never heard of people confessing to crimes they never committed? Karr says he drugged her, yet there was no evidence of the body being drugged during the autopsy. Conveinent you left that out.
I'm not claiming he's innocent by any means, and I am well aware of his prior offenses, but your rush to judgement labelling him the killer is disgusting and a major flaw in journalism today.
John Ramsey asked that the public to hold off on passing judgement because he remembers what he and his wife had to endure. Too bad you memory is much shorter.
6 - Lumpy
After reading the title I expected to see the 'satire' heading on this.
I'd love to hear how you can accidentqlly kidnap, drug, rape and strangle someone. I expect the next accident will be when the lethal injection needle accidentally pierces Karr's arm.
7 - Martin Lav
I'm with Iggy....shouldn't rush to judgement, but besides that, something doesn't make sense at all here. What are these public pronouncements/confessions? I've never heard of such a thing. I think this whole thing is some sort of baiting to get the real culprit to come out and take "credit". Something just doesn't add up.....
Also, Ms. Dragon,
You've gone to far with sharing your own sick imaginations with your readers: "If it would take hours just to describe what happened, how many MORE hours did he actually spend....." I mean come on really! That's a little more suggestion than we need to hear. Keep it to yourself next time please.
8 - elsa
The fact he is a nut job is coming to light. He says he picked her up at school and school was out for Christmas break.
Rumor around Boulder is that busted for pedophilia in Thailand, he copped to this because of the better treatment..
9 - IgnatiusReilly
How did Karr hide in the shadows when according to CBS an FBI source claimed Karr sent an email to Patsy Ramsey?
The author and editor might want to check out this piece at CBS News.
Reckless blogging doesn't deserve to be featured unless it goes under the title "How Not To Report A Story". What's the rational for not calling him the Alleged Killer, which is factually accurate at this moment. Are you that cavelier with your integrity and that of the site's? I hope your gamble pays off.
I'm sure Richard Jewel is glad you weren't blogging in 1996.
10 - Jewels
In light of the information coming out today about this story and from my impressions garnered through news reports of the man in question regarding his motives and story; Diana Hartman has made the same error that you have. Premature reporting.
It is quite loomingly possible that Karr is as crazy as he appears and the Ramsey murder remains a mystery.
Time lines are wrong.
Karr most likely prefers to spend incarceration in the U.S. rather than what the prisons (and sentence) Thailand has to offer. More will issue from this story within the next few days, but DNA, handwriting analysis, will aide in outing whether the man is telling the truth or in truth an abysmal freak.
11 - Clavos
IR #9,
Isn't the reason for referring to the arestee in a news report about a crime as the "alleged" whatever to avoid libel litigation? There's no legal reason for doing so. If accuracy is what it's about, the reporter could just as easily write the "accused" murderer, or the "suspected" burglar.
12 - Lady Dragonfyre
IgnatiusReilly:
I didn't intentionally leave the drugging part out, nor the inconsistencies authorities encountered between some of his statements and the actual evidence. I wrote this story earlier this morning (8/17) JUST as the preliminary news was breaking. If all the above had come out at that time, I certainly would've included it. However, I couldn't see into a crystal ball when I was writing this at 9:30 or so this morning.
I want to point out two things though.
Even if Mr. Karr is a "nut job," he still could've murdered her. For instance, bipolar people often suffer delusions, yet they still have some grip on reality. His admission of guilt could be true, but the MEANS by which he committed the crime could be false and jumbled up in some ways. I know this because I've lived with someone with the illness.
Secondly, there ARE drugs out there that require special equipment and tests in order to be detected at all. I'm not saying this is the case here, but I wanted to point out the possibility nonetheless.
Reckless? If I had my reporter's hat on while writing this story, I'd certainly agree. However, I didn't write this as objective news. I wasn't "reporting" the arrest, I was reacting to it. I wanted to evoke a response, whether positive or negative. I obviously have. This article is part satire, part reactionary, part editorial. Take it as you will.
Blogcritics does not endorse every single opinion of every single blogger, nor does it seek to censor them. The only person liable for my words is me. I stand behind what I say, and if it turns out I'm wrong, I'll own up to it. I'm not Ann Coulter, after all.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that I have a sick imagination. However, I was not trying to unleash it upon all of you today. I was merely suggesting that, based upon Mr. Karr's statement, that the circumstances of JonBenet's death were perhaps more drawn out than was previously believed.
13 - IgnatiusReilly
Actually, Clavos, I believe the reason to refer to someone as alleged is because it's factual, which I appear to have a childhood delusion is how news used to operate.
LD, if you notice, I previously stated that I had no idea if he was guilty or not, but right now he is considered innocent. Inconsistencies that continue to pour in all day aside, what you did know when you wrote this, and didn't need a crystal ball for, was that the only thing connecting him to the crime was his confession, so he was then and still is the "alleged" killer of JBR.
Regardless of the indiscernible parts, the piece is listed as "News" not "Opinion". Plenty of info spilled out into the MSM by the time it was featured by the editor and neither the title nor categorization was changed.
You have no idea if BC censors people or not. Nicholas Stix was just complaining about it in another thread. Would you like to write a piece reacting to his statement or do you want to wait until more facts come in?
14 - Triniman
On Coast To Coast, they had this handwriting analysis expert who said that the killer was more than likely Latino due to the language used in the three age letter and the English mistakes that were crossed out.
She also said that some Latino guy ended up committing suicide, who happended to have a shoe that matched a shoe print found at the scene. Also, apparently the dust on his shoe matched dust at the crime scene.
I think we'll know pretty soon, though, if he could have been the murderer, due to DNA analysis and whether or not he can explain details that the police would know.
15 - Nancy
Latest evidence this ayem is that this is a plea copped so's he can be incarcerated in comfort in the US, instead of getting what he deserves in Thailand. Far too many people can place him far, far away from Boulder at the time of JonBenet's death. Yeah, it IS a pity they can't push him out of the plane en route back; whatever else he is, he's a convicted pedophile.
16 - Tex Atlanta
Dad did it. Maybe an affair with Karr? Karr was "Kept" by a rich man in Atlanta! Guess where
Daddy lived most of his adult life!!!!
17 - summer rain
Quoting this statement by Lady Dragonfyre:
'Even if Mr. Karr is a "nut job," he still could've murdered her. For instance, bipolar people often suffer delusions, yet they still have some grip on reality.'
I'd like to make a clarification. SOME people with bipolar disorder experience delusions. Most of those have a grasp on reality some of the time, most of the time, or shall we say, the rest of the time. The statement above is not an absolute, nor is it completely correct. The majority (yes, majority) of persons with bipolar disorder never experience delusions at all.
There is a lot of interesting, reliable, information on both medical and consumer (non-blog) sites throughout the web. Good sites are WebMD.com, nima.gov, and pendulum.org.
summer rain
Doing my part to correct mental health misinformation on the web
18 - Martin Lav
The Lady may be suffering from APS (anythings possible syndrome)
19 - IgnatiusReilly
to be fair, LD nust suffer from something because in her reality Karr was the killer when everyone knew he was only alleged to be her killer.
20 - The mentally disturbed Lady Dragonfyre
Iggy:
to be fair, LD nust suffer from something because in her reality Karr was the killer when everyone knew he was only alleged to be her killer.
Martin:
he Lady may be suffering from APS (anythings possible syndrome)
Those in glass houses must not throw stones. The two of you must have a touch of something yourselves, as you're still fired up about this article two weeks later, AND after I updated it.
~ LD
21 - IgnatiusReilly
"The two of you must have a touch of something yourselves"
I can't speak for Martin, but as for myself, I have a case of accuratus truthitis. I hope you catch it.
Was your update featured in the Culture section or was it left to be buried in this article where only those who stumbled across it later could discover it?
22 - Lady Dragonfyre
I can't speak for Martin, but as for myself, I have a case of accuratus truthitis. I hope you catch it.
Was your update featured in the Culture section or was it left to be buried in this article where only those who stumbled across it later could discover it?
It's not buried in the article. It's not like I wrote the update in code and threaded it throughout the text.
It's up to the editors, not I, to decide what gets featured and what doesn't.
23 - jayden
i reacen he's a sick twisted pervert how could've she accidently strangled that would've been his exuse when they found that she had know drugs in her small body he just wanted to hide the violent bits thats if he did do it and hello!SHE HAD A FRACTURED SKULL whats he going to say to that "i fractured her skull by accident" and the child was severley beaten "oh that was an accident too"
and if your reading this john mark karr next time
find out more about someones death before pretending you killed someone in fact i think you got a kick out of it all that attention you got john mark karr are you guilty of the death of jonbenet ramsey john karr did you do it did you do it i think your a sick twisted perverted man go to a home for gods sakes! ahh i'm here because i have fantasies of killing people its my dream i wanna do it i wanna kill defenceles little girls anyways if he did do it i feel REALLY sorry for porr little sweet defenceless jonbenet.
24 - jasmine
i realy don't understand this world why would he pretend he killed her because he's sick at first i actually never heard of jonbenet ramsey's death until i saw all these videos on the news of a little girl dressed in a cow girl outfit singing in a gorgeous little voice "i want to be a cowboy sweet heart" this is what the publishes think remember the beauty queen not the child but i think remember the child not the beauty queen.
25 - lisa
come on jasmine do you really think this has anything to do with jonbenet sweet little ramsey i mean all your saying is how gorgous and talented she was just because she can hit a phew notes in her voice i mean she went to heaps of voice lessons and she must've tried really hard two years of dncing prancing around like a show off i mean jonbenet didn't think she was beautiful she KNEW she was she didn't have to show to EVERYONE i mean if she ever lost a pageant i bet she would've had a shocked look on her face she thought she could beat anyone at anything thats what her irresponsible mother probably would've said she probably forced jonbenet to trie her very hardest to win the pageant not that jonbenet any better she didn't there was anything wrong with that lisa