Bangkok Post
(dpa) - Prosecutors Tuesday dropped the case against teacher John Mark Karr, who had given himself up to Thai police last week and made a confession in the notorious slaying of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey in 1996.
"The warrant on Mr Karr has been dropped by the district attorney," Karr's lawyer Seth Temin said outside the jail where Karr was being held. "They are not proceeding with this case." Temin suggested that the intense media interest around the case had prompted prosecutors to act hastily.
"We are deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Thailand, with no forensic evidence concerning the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption that he did anything wrong," he said. It was not immediately clear when or how Karr might be released from custody.
The dramatic development came just hours after a Denver TV station reported that his DNA samples did not match the unidentified DNA found in Ramsey's underwear on the scene. Later reports confirmed the DNA results and quoted unnamed officials as saying that prosecutors had not unearthed any physical evidence linking Karr to the crime and could not even place him in the city where the crime occurred.
Karr arrived Thursday in Boulder, Colorado after he gave himself up to police in Thailand and confessed to involvement in the killing of 6-year-old Ramsey. Karr said he was with Ramsey when she died, but that her death was an accident. Family members have claimed that Karr was with them in Georgia or Alabama when the slaying took place in Boulder, while legal experts have pointed to other inconsistencies in his confession.
His arrest last week in Thailand sparked a firestorm of media attention, reflecting the celebrated nature of the December 1996 murder. The story continued to garner national news coverage for years as police failed to apprehend any suspect and a cloud of suspicion enveloped JonBenet's parents.
Karr had worked for years as a primary-school teacher and began working abroad after he left the United States in 2001 after being charged with the possession of child pornography. The suspect had entered Thailand five times since October. He had been sacked after a fortnight's test teaching at one Bangkok school for being "too strict" and "strange," according to administrators at the school. He had just found a new teaching job before his arrest.
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Originally Posted by Pearl of the Orient
