No DNA Match, No Case Against Karr

(CBS/AP)  Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Just a week and a half after Karr's arrest in Thailand was seen as a remarkable break in the sensational, decade-old case, prosecutors suggested in court papers that he was just a man with a twisted fascination with JonBenet who confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

"The people would not be able to establish that Mr. Karr committed this crime despite his repeated insistence that he did," District Attorney Mary Lacy said in court papers.

CBS News Denver affiliate KCNC's Rick Sallinger reports that hair and saliva taken from Karr in Boulder after his arrival last week were tested over the weekend at the Denver police crime lab and that he was ruled out as the source of the DNA taken from the crime scene.

The 41-year-old schoolteacher will be kept in jail in Boulder until he can be sent to Sonoma County, Calif., to face child pornography charges dating to 2001. An extradition hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.

The district attorney vowed to keep pursuing leads in JonBenet's death: "This case is not closed."

Karr was never formally charged in the slaying. In court papers, Lacy defended the decision to arrest him and bring him back to the United States for further investigation, saying he might have otherwise fled and may have been targeting children in Thailand as well.

CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen says because officials were worried Karr would bail if they tried to get DNA tests in Thailand, they figured they'd better get him back to the U.S. and do the tests.

"The problem with doing that is you don't have a strong physical case and it's a red hot media blitz and everybody creates these large expectations for what this guy is or isn't," Cohen says. "It's a huge embarrassment for Boulder."

Lacy said Karr emerged as a suspect in April after he spent several years exchanging e-mails and later telephone calls with a University of Colorado journalism professor who had produced documentaries on the Ramsey case.

According to court papers, Karr told the professor he accidentally killed JonBenet during sex and that he tasted her blood after he injured her vaginally. But the Denver crime lab conducted DNA tests last Friday on a cheek swab taken from Karr and were unable to connect him to the crime.

"This information is critical because ... if Mr. Karr's account of his sexual involvement with the victim were accurate, it would have been highly likely that his saliva would have been mixed with the blood in the underwear," Lacy said in court papers.

She also said authorities found no evidence Karr was in Boulder at the time of the slaying. She said Karr's family provided "strong circumstantial support" for their belief that he was with them in Georgia, celebrating the Christmas holidays. JonBenet was found beaten and strangled at her Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996.

Defense attorney Seth Temin expressed outrage that Karr was even arrested.

"We're deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand, with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption he did anything wrong," Temin said.

In an interview Monday with MSNBC, Gary Harris, who had been spokesman for the Karr family, said he knew the DNA would not match.

Karr has been "obsessed with this case for a long time. He may have some personality problems, but he's not a killer," Harris said. "He obsesses. He wanted to be a rock star one time. ... He's a dreamer. He's the kind of guy who wants to be famous."

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[fallenkat]

I completely agree with "ncmommy" on her comments. Karr is a threat to our children in America and in Thailand as well and any other country he may visit or live in. He needs help. By even confessing to a crime that he didn't do and to insist on it suggests strongly that he is in great need to be in a mental health institution for years. I'm glad that they brought him to America becuse he's not able to hurt those children he was about to teach. Crazy that people think this is an embarrassment. Get over it.

[bhaynm]

After the way the initial investigation was conducted, coupled with the Karr boondoggle, the Governor of Colorado should consider changing the name of Boulder to Mayberry.

[apdepetris]

Well, he wasn't found not guilty. They were unable to tie him to the crime. Without any DNA evidence they don't have a case. He was never even formally charged. It's obvious that this guy is very disturbed. How can a grown man have "a romantic and very sexual interaction" with a 6-year-old girl. I have a 6-year-old daughter and the whole thing disgusts me. I hope they can find this guy guilty of something and lock him away so he's not able to hurt any children.

[bobbiraelee]

Although he is not guilty of actually committing the crime; He is GUILTY of falsely confessing to doing the crime and costing the U.S. and Colorado Police a great deal of money. There should be a penelty of some kind and/or sentence to a psychiatric hospital for at least two years. Make that 5 years minimum.

[bob_bob2]

Ok, enough is enough, please stop paying any attention to this guy.

[doctordonut-2009]

I am hopeful that Karr doesn't profit from all of this. He's too much of a Freak Show. If this was a Dirty Harry movie, Callahan would track Karr until he found a way to bring him to justice.

http://www.theweeklydonut.org/index.php/2006/08/25/freak-show/

[ncmommy]

Colorado should not consider bringing this man in as a waste of tax payers' money or as an embarrassment. They may have saved the lives of other children and have surely made this man recognizable as a predator.

[dixxson-2009]

Prosecution for e-mail fantasies is persecution! Prosecution for porn fantasies over the internet is persecution the persecuters could be sentencd for. The defense lawyer has every right to be outraged and indignant.
This kind of official incompetence makes life
easy for criminals. All of you law and oder people wanted the parents arreseted right then just like now! If they had been, and Karr did
it, he could rest easy!
If they found him out later he would not need WILLIAM KUNSTLER, JOHNNY COCHRAN, F LEE BAILEY. He would have the best defenders in all the galaxies, the Boulder police, the proseceuters, the District Attorney, Mayor and
Govornor would shield him like no dream team could ever dream!

[madinusa]

I knew from the start he was lying to avoid the charges in Thailand and going to prison there. So now that he has been found not guilty in the Ramsey case he should be extradited back to Thailand to face those charges. Everyone knows child *** offenders cannot be rehabilitated, so who's child here in the USA is going to be his next victim?

[barbarast59]

Mr Karrs attorney can put away the indignant act. The only reason his client was living in Thailand was the perfusion of child pornography and the availability of *** with innocent children. This type of person will never be cured or rehabilitated and the types of crimes he perputates should have stronger punishment than one who commits murder