Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 29, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba a6 Winnipeg free press tuesday August 29, 2006 top news Case against Karr dropped Dan tests Don to tie him to Jon Benet a murder by Jon Sarche b Oulder Colo. ? prosecutors abruptly dropped their Case yesterday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of Jon Benet Ramsey saying Dan tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he strangled the six year old Beauty Queen. Just a week and a half after karrs 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 Jon Benet who confessed to a crime he did it commit. Because his Dan does not match that found in the victims blood in her underwear the people would not be Able to establish that or. Karr committed this crime despite his repeated insistence that he did District attorney Mary Lacy said in court papers. 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 we re 2001, authorities deeply said. Earlier in the Day the sheriffs distressed department by the fact announced Karr that they had been released. Lacy said Karr took this emerged As a sus Man and pet in april after he spent several dragged him years exchanging a Here from mails and later Tele Bangkok phone Calls with a Colorado professor Thailand in which he admit ? defence Ted responsibility lawyer Seth for the slaying. Temin according to court papers Karr told the professor he accidentally killed Jon Benet during sex. But officials at the Denver crime lab conducted Dan tests last Friday on a Cheek swab taken from Karr and failed to connect him to the crime. Lacy said authorities found no Evi Dence Karr was in Boulder at the time of the slaying. In addition she said karrs family provided Strong circumstantial support for their belief that he was with them in Georgia celebrating the Christmas holidays As the time of the crime. Defence lawyer 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 inde pendent factors leading to a presumption he did anything wrong Temin said. The District attorney defended the decision to arrest Karr. She said there was no Way to take a Cheek swab from him without alerting him that he was under investigation and that would have created an unacceptable risk that he would also prosecutors suggested that they were afraid Karr might harm another girl. Karr had landed a teach ing Job in Thailand and in his Corre Jon Benet Spon Dence began Ramsey to describe an interest in several girls in much the same terms that he had described his interest in Jon Benet Lacy said in court papers. Shortly before he was arrested authorities confirmed he was involved with at least one of the girls Lacy said. In an interview with the Media in Thailand after his arrest Karr said that he was with Jon Benet when she died and that her death was an Accident. Asked if he was innocent he said no. But karrs bizarre account ? and his apparent fascination with the Little girls death ? immediately raised suspicions that he might be an obsessed Follower of the Case who confessed to a crime he did to commit. Among other things karrs relatives insisted that if Karr had not been with his family at Christmas they would have certainly remembered it. Jon Benet was found beaten and strangled at her Boulder Home on dec. 26, 1996. In an interview yesterday with Man by Gary Harris who had been spokesman for the Karr family said of the Dan i knew it would to Karr has been obsessed with this Case for a Long time. He May have some personality problems but he a not a killer Harris said. He obsesses. He wanted to be a Rock Star one time. He a a dreamer. He a the kind of Guy who wants to be famous. Ramsey family lawyer Lin Wood ? who earlier this month pronounced the arrest vindication for Jon Benet spar ends who had Long been suspected in the killing ? had no immediate com ment. Captivity spared her vices austrian teen other times very badly. Search for clues. Was different from those of others. By Veronika Oleksyn i Don to want to and wont answer any Lang said Pampusch knew from the still she said i was spared some questions about intimate or personal first Day of her Captivity that she was in things ? did to Start smoking and drink Vienna Austria ? the austrian details she said. I will punish breach Strass Hof a peaceful Community North ing and did to have any bad teenager held in an underground cell for is of personal boundaries whoever of Vienna where children play freely on on a typical Day she said she would More than eight years insisted yester crosses voyeuristic boundaries. Whoey the streets and houses with Flower pots have breakfast with Priklopil a com Day she did to miss out on much in caper tries that better prepare themselves Are close together. Mun cations technician who she said Ivity and was even spared some for because construction usually did to work. The rest of the Day temptations and torments of adores she described the Man who enslaved plans to the House i Don to would be spent doing various things Cence such As smoking drinking and her As a part of my life adding that a where Pampusch was around the House. Want to dealing with bad Why i also mourn for him in a certain held were missing housework Reading watching Tele and wont on her fifth full Day of Freedom 18-Way.? investigators could not vision talking cooking. That was it for year old Natascha Pampusch broke her Pampusch also said she refused to say for certain that it answer any years. Everything tied to the fear of silence in a statement that appeared to comply with Priklopil a requests to Call had no other hidden loneliness she said. Questions lend credence to the theory she May him rooms Lang said. Although authorities have released have suffered from Stockholm syn he was not my master. I was just As Pampusch said she about photographs and video footage of the drome where victims Cope by Ridenti Strong she said in the statement read slipped to safety while cramped windowless basement cell intimate or flying with their captors. To reporters by a psychologist. Priklopil was Busy with where Pampusch was kept she referred personal Pampusch who was 10 when she was police said yesterday they have Only a cellphone Call and she to it simply As my room in her state snatched off a Street on her Way to just begun to question Pampusch about was cleaning his car in details ment which was read by criminal pay school and imprisoned in a cramped her March 1998 abduction and Many the Garden with a vac Cho Logist Max Friedrich. ? Natascha windowless cell described what she questions remain unanswered about the cum cleaner. She has police images showed the room con Pampusch went through at the hands of Wolfgang Case which until her escape last wednes been at an undisclosed trained among other things books Priklopil 44, who killed himself within Day was one of Austria a greatest location since. Clothes a television a bed a toilet and a hours of her escape by throwing himself unsolved criminal mysteries. At the time of her escape she weighed sink. Investigators say she also was beneath a commuter train. Police . Gerhard Lang of the just 92 1/2 pounds ? exactly her weight allowed to listen to the radio and watch Pampusch refused to discuss Allega Federal criminal investigations Bureau when she vanished As a freckle faced 10-some videos and with the help of a Book tons of abuse but indicated that Erik said investigators continued to follow year old the news Magazine Profil taught herself How to knit. Lopilo at times treated her Well but at every Lead and had intensified their reported. Police were in Contact with Priklopil in principle i Don to have the feeling after Pampusch a disappearance that i missed out on something Kam because he owned a White Van ? the Pusch said in the statement reflecting Type of vehicle a witness said the girl on her youth which she acknowledged was dragged into. But investigators John and Patsy Ramsey had known As recently As May that authorities were focusing on Karr because of his emails with professor Michael Tracey. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in june. Jon Benet Ramsey a aunt Pamela Paugh said she was disappointed there wont be a prosecution of someone in the Case but added i think our Justice system worked As it was supposed we asked the a to do her thing. She did it said Paugh who is Patsy Ramsey a sister. My disappointment came about the end of december 1996 when we did to have the killer then. We be had 9 1/2 years of disappoint ment and Karr was arrested in Petaluma calif., in 2001 on charges of possessing child pornography but fled before he could be tried. Colorado authorities said that after the Boulder Case against Karr was dropped California officials asked that he be turned Over to them for prosecution. ? associated press believed him when he said he was alone at Home working on construction at the time of the abduction. He was convincing Friendly co operative. One did to see any reason to doubt his statements Lang told the Austria press Agency. At the time a photo was taken of the Van which contained build ing materials and construction waste. ? associated press ;