BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) -- Prosecutors abandoned their case against schoolteacher John Mark Karr on Monday, saying that DNA tests failed to link Karr to the slaying of child beauty contestant JonBenet Ramsey.
Karr was briefly freed from jail but was quickly returned to await extradition to California, where he is wanted on five misdemeanor child pornography counts, Boulder County Sheriff Joseph Pelle said.
District Attorney Mary Lacy revealed how the case against Karr was built -- and unraveled -- in a five-page motion asking a judge to drop the arrest warrant that brought Karr from Bangkok, Thailand.
DNA tests completed Saturday confirmed that Karr "was not the source of the DNA found on the underwear of JonBenet Ramsey" -- disproving his claim that he was sexually involved with the child and killed her by accident.
Karr's family also provided "strong circumstantial" evidence he was with them in Georgia at the time of the crime, court papers stated.
The prosecutor's motion said "no evidence has developed, other than his own repeated admissions, to place Mr. Karr at the scene of the crime."
Karr's Colorado public defender, Seth Temin, first disclosed that no charges would be filed and that a hearing scheduled for late Monday afternoon had been canceled.
Defender 'distressed'
"We're deeply distressed by the fact they took this man, dragged him back here from Bangkok, Thailand, with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption that he did anything wrong," Temin said.
Prosecutors will offer their version of events Tuesday.
According to Lacy's court papers, University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey brought Karr to the attention of investigators in April.
Using the pseudonyms "D" and later, "Daxis," Karr began communicating in 2002 with the professor, who has produced documentaries on the 10-year Ramsey investigation.
At first, court papers say, "Daxis" claimed to know two people who participated in the crime, but later insisted he was personally responsible.
His story emerged slowly, through e-mails, a manuscript and nearly a dozen phone calls. Still, the writer continued to keep his true identity and whereabouts secret from Tracey, the court papers stated.
He claimed to be sexually involved with the child, including "temporarily asphyxiating her," the court papers said.
'Lost track of time'
And, he said he "had 'accidentally' killed her by becoming so sexually involved that he lost track of time so that the asphyxiation lasted longer than he intended, causing her severe injury and leading him to inflict a severe blow to her head," the document stated.
Autopsy results showed JonBenet had suffered a blow to the head and been strangled with a garrote tightened with a paintbrush handle.
Tracey reached out to authorities in April when his contact became increasingly interested in contacting Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet's mother, who was in the final weeks of her life. Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in June. The contact also related that he was in continuing contact with young girls, the court papers stated.
Authorities were able to trace phone calls to Tracey from "Daxis" to Karr in Thailand, court papers said.
In a court filing last week, Boulder prosecutors said they had known Karr's identity for just five days before he was arrested and that the investigation into his possible role in the case was in its preliminary phase.
After his arrest, Karr told reporters in Thailand he was with JonBenet the night she died, and that her death was an accident. The 6-year-old's beaten and strangled body was found December 26, 1996, in the basement of her family's Boulder home.
Karr's arrest, nearly 10 years after the grisly crime that grew into an international media sensation, had given the Ramsey family hope that the slaying had, at long last, been solved.
Patsy Ramsey's sister, Paulette Paugh-Davis, said the family was "hanging in there." She declined to comment further.
After Karr's statements in Thailand, questions have surfaced as to whether the slight, soft-spoken man could have been involved in the grisly killing. On Monday, what some experts had been saying appeared to ring true: John Mark Karr's involvement with JonBenet Ramsey's murder was a fantasy.
So now the murder's still unsolved. Again. Better than the wrong man being put away for it, but I can't help but think they've really ****ed this one up.
Also, if they had DNA on the underwear, why'd they always think it was the parents? I don't get that.
"I'm for it so we can put Nuclear power plants up there, and then beam the power back to earth on a laser beam." ~ Whidden
I think they were saying they had hundreds of people confess to her murder before... it's just something that happens when a widely publicized crime like this occurs.
"I'm for it so we can put Nuclear power plants up there, and then beam the power back to earth on a laser beam." ~ Whidden
This guy does not need to be locked up he needs help with his mental health and he needs it now. I hear they are now trying to rush his case for possession of child pornography but I think that before he stands any trial he needs to be evaluated by a psychiatrist becuase I doubt that he is fit to stand trial.
As for the police and the DA well they are so incompotent it almost beggers belief.
I wondered if it was even possible this nut job did it. Isn't there a DNA database that they could run the DNA and find possible matches? I thought they had the technology, I saw something on CSI about that, or maybe a movie.
All pedophiles should be registered in a DNA bank, maybe everyone should (??), at least those with a criminal history.
I know it sounds Orwellian but for a good cause it would be worth it. One the other hand, I don't necessarily want the gov't to have MY DNA.
We're still holding on to the hope that they will find the real killer of JonBenet someday. I hope they solve this someday.
Mary Lacy and her Keystone Kops should all be fired. They have zero credibility after the way they botched this case. If you want to get away with murder, go to Boulder, Colorado.
I woudn't even trust them to investigate a case of malicious jaywalking.
To "lickekty split", give your DNA to the Boulder Kops so they can close the JonBenet case!
Nsanebrane said this in post #7 : Mary Lacy and her Keystone Kops should all be fired. They have zero credibility after the way they botched this case. If you want to get away with murder, go to Boulder, Colorado.
I woudn't even trust them to investigate a case of malicious jaywalking.
To "lickekty split", give your DNA to the Boulder Kops so they can close the JonBenet case!
Are you trying to me? That comment wasn't funny, or appropriate. Let's see what else you come up with....
Hey, don't get bent outta shape, that was meant to be funny. My point is that an incompetent police force (like Boulder's) can misuse DNA samples in order to clear old homicdes off their books.
On a serious note, that's the danger when "good citizens" willingly surrender their rights to authorities.
I'm just wondering if you were trying to be "funny" or not. Your need some emoticon support I guess. I did have a counter point to the DNA collection suggestion, did you read it? I was suggesting that convicted felons, especially PEDOPHILES would be good candidates.
Ok, with that straightened out, I plead NOT GUILTY!
08-29-2006 02:12 AM
me? That comment wasn't funny, or appropriate. Let's see what else you come up with.... 
