Family vindicated as arrest made in hunt for little JonBenet’s murder

MOST Americans knew JonBenet Ramsey only in death — as the blonde-haired little girl in the pink cowgirl outfit, bouncing across the stage with a million-dollar smile.

“I want to be a cowboy sweetheart,” she sang, with a white hat atop her golden curls.

The performance was played around the world after the six-year-old beauty pageant competitor was found strangled and beaten on December 26, 1996. The images persisted on talk shows for years afterwards, helping feed theories about her killer.

Patsy Ramsey knew before she died of cancer in June that police were seeking a potential suspect in the death of her six-year-old child JonBenet nearly 10 years ago.

She didn’t live to see what her husband and attorney call complete vindication: the arrest of a suspect in the little girl’s killing, and his confession.

Former schoolteacher John Mark Karr, 41, was arrested yesterday in Bangkok, Thailand.

But even before the confession, the Ramsey family was heralding news they hoped would finally end the suspicion hanging over JonBenet’s parents.

“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,” said John Ramsey, the girl’s father, in a statement.

Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood said the Ramseys gave police information about Karr before he was identified as a suspect.

He would not say how the Ramseys knew Karr, though 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. Karr was a teacher who once lived in Conyers, Georgia, another Atlanta suburb, according to Mr Wood.

The Post reported Karr disappeared after being released from jail in 2001 in California where he had been held on child pornography charges.

A law enforcement source said Karr had been communicating with somebody in Boulder who was cooperating with law enforcement officials. A spokesman for University of Colorado, Barrie Hartman, confirmed journalism professor Michael Tracey communicated with Karr over several months and contacted police.

Tracey produced a documentary in 2004 called Who Killed JonBenet?

JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder on December 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey reported finding a ransom note in the house demanding $118,000 (€173,000) for her daughter. The case became one of the most sensational US unsolved murder cases.

Investigators at one point said JonBenet’s parents were under an “umbrella of suspicion”.