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Prosecutors cleared JonBenet Ramsey’s parents and brother Wednesday in the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen, saying they were “deeply sorry” for putting the family under a cloud of suspicion that hung heavy for more than a decade.
New DNA tests, which focus on skin cells left behind from a mere touch, point to a mysterious outsider. They came too late to clear the name of JonBenet’s mother, Patsy, who died of cancer in 2006.
“To the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry,” Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote in a letter to the little girl’s father, John Ramsey. “No innocent person should have to endure such an extensive trial in the court of public opinion.”
Lacy said new “touch DNA” tests on skin cells that were left behind on JonBenet’s long underwear point to an “unexplained third party” and not a member of the family.
John Ramsey, a software entrepreneur who now lives in Michigan, said Wednesday he is hopeful the killer will be found based on the DNA evidence.
“I think the people that are in charge of the investigation are focused on that, and that gives me a lot of comfort,” he told KUSA-TV in Denver. He added: “Certainly we are grateful that they acknowledged that we, based on that, certainly could not have been involved.”
For years after the slaying, tabloids and crime shows went after the couple, and Lacy’s predecessor as district attorney, Alex Hunter, said in 1997 that the parents were under an “umbrella of suspicion.” News reports also cast suspicion on JonBenet’s older brother, Burke, who was 9 when his sister was killed.
The suspicions outlived Patsy, who died at age 49 in Atlanta, where the family moved after JonBenet’s death.
“My first thought was obviously I wish Patsy Ramsey was here with us to be able to at least share vindication of her family,” said L. Lin Wood, an attorney for the Ramsey family. “There are many people in this country, if not around the world, that also owe John and Patsy Ramsey and Burke Ramsey an apology.”
Early in the investigation, police found male DNA in a drop of blood on JonBenet’s underwear and determined it was not from anyone in her family. But Lacy said investigators were unable to say who it came from and whether that person was the killer.
Then, late last year, prosecutors turned over long underwear JonBenet was wearing to the Bode Technology Group near Washington, which looked for “touch DNA,” or cells left behind where someone has touched something.
The lab has only been using this technology for about three years.
The laboratory found previously undiscovered genetic material on the sides of the girl’s long underwear, where an attacker would have grasped the clothing to pull it down, authorities said. The DNA matched the genetic material found earlier.
Lacy said the presence of the same male DNA in three places on the girl’s clothing convinced investigators it belonged to JonBenet’s killer and had not been left accidentally by an innocent party.
“It is therefore the position of the Boulder District Attorney’s Office that this profile belongs to the perpetrator of the homicide,” she said in a statement. In her letter to the Ramseys, she said the DNA evidence “has vindicated your family.”
She said investigators hope someday to find a DNA match in the ever-expanding national DNA databank.
Through a spokeswoman, Lacy declined to comment any further.
John Ramsey found his daughter’s strangled and bludgeoned body in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey said she found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter.
In all honesty, I don’t think they’ll ever figure out who killed this poor little girl.
source: JonBenet’s family cleared by DNA [chicago sun]
I simply can’t believe this. Cindy Crawford’s daughter, Kaia is the model of Melissa Odabash’s childrens swimwear summer 2006 campaign.
The first thumbnail is absolutely in bad taste. It’s this very behavior that brings the pervs out of the woodwork and creates another monster headline such as “Jon Bonet Ramsey“. Why would you put a bikini on a young girl anyway?
 
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After a day when it looked like his confession might have been a hoax or a delusion, it now looks like John Mark Karr’s confession is legitimate.
John Mark Karr gave authorities graphic details about the condition of JonBenet Ramsey’s body that have been kept secret for nearly a decade, a U.S. law enforcement source told CNN on Friday. Those details were known only to the medical examiner and the investigators probing the December 26, 1996 murder of the six-year-old beauty queen, the law enforcement official said.
There are still quite a few questions, apparently.
OTB
CNN Breaking News: “Authorities arrest a suspect in Bangkok, Thailand, in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, two law enforcement officials confirm to CNN.”
UPDATE: AP:
A man arrested in Thailand is being held in connection with the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, U.S. law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges.
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.
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 in July.
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, who 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.
UPDATE: Blogswarm, activate.
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AllahPundit: “Thailand. Sex charges. Gobsmackingly vile.“
- Mary Katharine Ham: “I know it’s a Greta Van Susteren story . . .”
- LaShawn Barber: “Some people, including me, suspected that her mother, the late Patsy Ramsey, was involved with the killing. I’ll hold off making a statement until I get more info.” [A clear violation of the blogger code! - ed.]
UPDATE: The suspect, American John Mark Karr, has confessed.
 The American suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case said publicly Thursday he was with the 6-year-old when she died and called her death “an accident,” a stunning admission that will help answer 10 years of questions in the unsolved murder case. “I was with JonBenet when she died,” John Mark Karr told reporters in Bangkok, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. “Her death was an accident.”
Police said Karr, 41, admitted to the killing after he was arrested Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok apartment by Thai and American authorities. Karr will be taken to Colorado within the next week where he will face charges of murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.
Karr, speaking to reporters after the news conference, declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family or how long he had known JonBenet. Wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.
[...]
Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said U.S. authorities informed Thai police on Aug. 11 that an arrest warrant had been issued for Karr on charges of premeditated murder. The warrant was sent to Thai police on Wednesday. At the press conference, Suwat said Karr insisted after his arrest that his crime was not first-degree murder. “He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional. He said he was in love with the child. She was a pageant queen,” Suwat said. The Thai officer quoted the suspect as saying he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her to death. Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet’s mother, reported finding a ransom note in the house demanding $118,000 for her daughter.
Hurst said Karr has been “very cooperative” with authorities and that he’s shown a “variety of emotions.” She said he has been a suspect “for a while” but wouldn’t specify how long. Suwat said Karr arrived in Bangkok on June 6 from Malaysia to look for a teaching job. It was not clear whether he had gotten a job, the police officer said.
Patsy Ramsey, made famous by the murder of her daughter JonBenet, died today at 49.
 Patsy Ramsey, who was thrust into the national spotlight by the unsolved 1996 slaying of her daughter, 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenet, died Saturday following a long battle with ovarian cancer, her lawyer said. She was 49.
Ramsey was diagnosed with the disease in 1993 and suffered a recurrence several years ago, attorney L. Lin Wood said. She died at her father’s home in Roswell, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, with her husband, John, at her bedside. “It is not unexpected but it is a sad day,” Wood told The Associated Press.
JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey said she found a ransom note on the back staircase demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet. John Ramsey said he found his daughter’s body in a basement room eight hours later.
Boulder police said early on that Patsy and John Ramsey were 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 have been made in the case.
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, who 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. “Hopefully her legacy will not be tied to the false accusation related to the brutal murder of her daughter,” Wood said of Patsy Ramsey Saturday.
I frankly never understood the national fascination with the death of JonBenet Ramsey, whose death I found tragic but no moreso than that of thousands of other children of whom we’ve never heard. Still, it’s a story that gripped the nation for years. That the family had to endure the additional tragedy of being baselessly suspected of their daughter’s murder was especially sad, however.
OTB
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