Report: Suspect Arrested In JonBenet Ramsey Murder Case

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BOULDER, Colo. ? A man arrested in Thailand is being held in connection with the slaying nearly a decade ago of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

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. Media reported that the suspect, a 41-year-old second-grade teacher, will be brought back to the United States this weekend.

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, officials in Washington said. They asked to remain anonymous pending an announcement in Colorado.

KUSA-TV of Denver, citing no sources, reported that the suspect has confessed to certain elements of the crime.

Officials in the Boulder County District Attorney's Office had no immediate comment. Nor did local police and sheriff's officials.


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 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.