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Don't be too hasty judging JonBenet case

By SUE CARLTON
Published September 1, 2006

	A book proposal outlines Karr's perverse fixations

Looks like that squirrelly guy with the pinwheels spinning in his eyes didn't kill JonBenet Ramsey after all, and now some people want the prosecutor to pay.

Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy has been ducking rotten tomatoes ever since DNA from the body of the 6-year-old pageant princess failed to match that of John Mark Karr, the creepy schoolteacher picked up in Thailand. Hint that something might have been amiss despite his confession: People reports he told Thai officials before he left, "The DNA might not match, but you can't trust the test."

Some who had hoped to see a killer caught and a 10-year-old mystery solved howled their outrage at Lacy. Even Colorado Gov. Bill Owens got his licks in, saying she "should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history." (Had they made a match, might he have called it "money well spent"?)

Lacy also heard from furious residents, among them a guy who wanted her tarred, feathered and booted out of town.

The DA - who gets credit for taking full responsibility for going after Karr - has suggested her critics have a look at the arrest affidavit. Good idea.

Nearly 100 pages detail investigators' reasons for suspecting him. Much of the document centers on the e-mail relationship between a University of Colorado professor and one scary-sounding character later identified as Karr. He sends messages titled Kisses for JonBenet and JonBenet/Near Death and gives intimate details of the crime, including the engraved bracelet she wore that night. These facts could have been dug up by anyone obsessed with the high-profile case, but there was more.

The e-mailer wrote at length of his infatuation with young girls ("When they get past the doll stage, I am no longer physically attracted") and physical encounters he says he's had with them.

The DA later said Karr, who was teaching second grade, had been "paying attention to" a 5-year-old at school. "There was a real public safety concern for a particular child," Lacy said, "and that was a huge factor."

Bottom line: Karr knew an awful lot about what happened to JonBenet. He said he did it. And if this guy isn't a sexual predator on the loose, he sure could play one on TV.

They needed his DNA to be sure. Samples obtained surreptitiously weren't adequate, according to news reports.

In a letter asking a judge to seal the arrest warrant to avoid the media explosion that came anyway, the DA's office wrote, "The suspect has not yet been taken into custody and is in a foreign country. It is highly likely he would flee and go into hiding if he were to learn that the authorities know his identity, whereabouts, and other information in these documents." (Turns out it was just as likely he'd hold a press conference and sign a book deal, but I digress.)

It wasn't unreasonable for investigators to assume they wouldn't have a lot of success politely asking a murder suspect to hang around while they processed a little evidence that might get him executed. Your average suspect - average, not someone living for the moment the cameras might focus on him - probably would not have obliged. He might have, you know, left.

And wouldn't JonBenet Slaying Suspect Slips from DA's Grasp have made one eye-catching headline?

It didn't help that investigators had been criticized from the beginning for their handling of the case, long before Lacy got there.

And while we could have done without the image of a suspected child killer sipping champagne on the plane home - I'm all for treating arrestees humanely, but sheesh - the investigators generally did what investigators are supposed to do.

They get tips, scrutinize evidence, try to figure out what is and isn't there. This can be messy and inexact, a jigsaw puzzle missing too many pieces to make a whole picture.

The power to arrest, to pluck someone from his life and lock him up, is awesome and easily abused. Law enforcement better have solid probable cause, even with the most wretched of suspects. With Karr, seems they had that.

Of course we're critical of this latest dead end, this mystery that exposed us as voyeurs and remains unsolved even a decade later. All we can hope is that police and prosecutors keep pushing, for us and in spite of us.

Sue Carlton can be reached at carlton@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 1, 2006, 01:14:15]