(Washington-AP) August 16, 2006 - Investigators have identified the suspect in the death of JonBenet Ramsey as John Mark Karr, 42. According to law enforcement officials, the former schoolteacher was tracked online by Boulder police.
Federal officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Karr is already being held in Thailand on unrelated sex charges. According to the Ramsey family's lawyer, Karr is a schoolteacher who once lived in Conyers, Georgia, not far from Atlanta, where the Ramseys now live.
The lawyer isn't saying if the Ramseys know Karr.
In a statement issued by his lawyer, John Ramsey doesn't name the individual. But he says his wife, Patsy, was "aware that authorities were close to making an arrest" when she died in June from ovarian cancer. He says they'd talked to the Boulder, Colorado, district attorney about the suspect, though the statement doesn't indicate when that discussion took place.
John Ramsey says that had his wife lived to see this day he has no doubt she would've been as pleased as he is. Ramsey also thanked law enforcement - singling out Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy.
But reflecting the tabloid story that his daughter's death had become, Ramsey says he wants to let the criminal justice system see this through, to "avoid feeding the type of media speculation that my wife and I were subjected to for so many years."
JonBenet Ramsey was a six-year-old beauty queen. Her body was found in the basement of the family's home the day after Christmas, 1996. She was buried in suburban Atlanta, where her parents moved not long after her death.
Officials in Washington say authorities from Boulder are flying to Bangkok to present Thai authorities with documents in the slaying of the six-year-old beauty pageant contestant.
John and Patsy Ramsey 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.
Updated 10:40pm by Chantelle Janelle
