Breaking news---arrest made in Ramsey case

[Mike P]

Arrest made in JonBenet Ramsey case

Suspect detained in Thailand in connection with ’96 murder, DA source says






BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 47 minutes ago

BOULDER, Colo. - A man suspected in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey nearly a decade ago was arrested Wednesday in Thailand, the district attorney said.

Colorado authorities scheduled a news conference Thursday to discuss the case but declined further comment.

Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was already being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. CBS reported that the suspect, a 41-year-old second-grade teacher from the U.S., will be brought back to the United States this weekend.

The suspect was detained in Bangkok on Wednesday morning, Denver NBC affiliate KUSA said, and was going to be brought to the U.S. within the next two days by a Boulder County district attorney investigator.

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.

According to KUSA, the suspect in custody knew details about the murder that had not been made available to the general public.

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 of ovarian cancer in June.



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, whom 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.