JonBenet suspect says he loved victim

The suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey killing held in Thailand said he was “very sorry for what happened” to the six-year-old beauty queen who was murdered a decade ago in the basement of her home, and that he loved her “very much”.

John Mark Karr, a former American schoolteacher arrested in Bangkok yesterday, also said that he made efforts to contact Ramsey’s mother, Patsy, before she died of cancer inJune.

“I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet,” Karr said. “It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much and that her death was unintentional and that it was an accident.”

He said he made “several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away”, referring to JonBenet’s mother, “and it is my understanding that she did read my letters”.

Karr made the comments at his Bangkok guest house, where American and Thai authorities had escorted him to retrieve his belongings before being extradited to the United States in coming days.