A Break in the JonBenet Ramsey Case: Too Easy?

Aug. 17, 2006 — -- In some ways, the long-awaited possible big break in the 10-year-old case of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey seemed a little too easy.

The arrest of 41-year-old former teacher John Mark Karr in Thailand on Thursday appeared to erase the cloud of suspicion that had hovered over John and Patsy Ramsey since their daughter was found strangled and beaten in the basement of their Boulder, Colo., home in 1996.

As cameras focused on him and lenses clicked, he confessed to the slaying.

"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr said to reporters. "Her death was an accident."

When asked whether he was innocent of her slaying, Karr said, "No."

Karr didn't stop there. He told The Associated Press that he loved the 6-year-old and was sorry about what had happened to her.

"I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," he said. "It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident."

A Thailand police officer also told the AP that Karr had admitted to drugging and having sex with the beauty queen before accidentally killing her.

Karr's ex-wife, however, immediately came to his defense.

Lara Karr said to ABC News affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco that she was with her former husband in Alabama, where they lived at the time of JonBenet's killing, and that she did not believe he was involved in the slaying.

Karr, she said, was fascinated with the Ramsey investigation long before his arrest and spent a lot of time studying her case, as well as the case of Polly Klaas, the 12-year-old girl who was abducted from her Petaluma, Calif., home and slain in 1993.

Could Karr have falsely confessed to JonBenet's killing?

It's possible, some experts say. Karr could have had such an obsession with JonBenet that he could have falsely confessed.

"Think about the 'BTK' Killer [Dennis Rader, who was arrested last year and is serving life in prison for serial killings in Wichita, Kan., between 1974 and 1991]. He wasn't caught killing anyone. He was caught trying to get attention, baiting law enforcement," said Jack Levin, professor and director of the Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence at Northeastern University in Boston.

"This guy, John Karr, could have been trying to get attention, get publicity, and he got way more than he bargained for. However, I have to believe investigators have more on him than a confession."