Once again officials investigating the JonBenet Ramsey murder case have been left with egg on their faces — omelette-sized.
Events have unfolded in rapid succession. First came the news that there was no DNA match in the case of confessed killer John Mark Karr:
The Boulder District Attorney’s office Monday dropped a case against suspect John MarkKarr in connection to the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, then released more than 400 pages of documents detailing their case against him. Earlier Monday 9News broke the story that Karr’s DNA doesn’t match DNA found on the girl’s body.
Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy entered a motion to quash the case against Karr after 9NEWS reported the discrepancy in the DNA. Lacy has not commented on the developments in the case but did authorize the release of hundreds of pages of documents related to her office’s case against Karr.
Then the news that the Karr would be freed (briefly):
Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.
Just a week and a half after Karr’s 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 JonBenet who confessed to a crime he didn’t commit.
“The people would not be able to establish that Mr. 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 2001.
This report contained the understatement of the young 21st Century:
The district attorney vowed to keep pursuing leads in JonBenet’s death: “This case is not closed.”
But does that mean the unopened case will go anywhere? The AP:
Scott Robinson, an attorney who has been following the case, said the arrest and clearing of Karr could put the case back at “square negative one.”
….Gov. Bill Owens and legal experts criticized spending thousand of dollars extraditing Karr to Colorado when he was already wanted in California on misdemeanor child pornography charges. Karr faces an extradition hearing Tuesday to determine whether he will be sent to Sonoma County, Calif., to face charges.
“Unfortunately, the hysterics surrounding John Mark Karr served only to distract Boulder officials from doing their job, which should be solving the murder of JonBenet Ramsey,” Owens said. “I find it incredible that Boulder authorities wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars to bring Karr to Colorado given such a lack of evidence. Mary Lacy should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history.”
A collection of quotes about the decision not to charge Karr are here.
In the end, although Karr may be extradited to California, he had a nice ride back in a first-class airplane.
He drank champagne…
And he ate shrimp…
All prosecutors were left with was egg on their faces.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.