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American Morning
Confession Made in JonBenet Ramsey Case; Troops Deployed in Southern Lebanon
Aired August 17, 2006 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN MARK KARR: Her death was -- was an accident.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A chilling confession lifting a decade-old cloud of suspicion. An American in Thailand admitting he was involved in the death of JonBenet Ramsey on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning to you.
I'm Miles O'Brien.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad.
O'BRIEN: A decade after 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey was killed in her Colorado home, a stunning turn of events and a remarkable on camera confession.
John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old school teacher, in police custody in Bangkok, appearing before the media just a few hours ago, admitting he was with the 6-year-old girl when she died. He claims her death was an accident.
CNN's Atika Shubert has been watching things from Bangkok for us -- Atika.
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, I'm at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, where behind me, the suspect, John Mark Karr, is being held.
And it was a chaotic day today as the immigration officials brought him out to meet the press. They swarmed around him. And that's when he made a stunning on camera admission.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SHUBERT (voice-over): Paraded before the international media, John Mark Karr, the 41-year-old school teacher now accused of murder, the kidnap and sexual abuse of JonBenet Ramsey.
As he was led into police headquarters, Karr made a stunning admission.
KARR: I was there (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SHUBERT: He then sat impassively as Thai officials tried to control the media scrum (ph)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, step back.
SHUBERT: ... before speaking again.
QUESTION: What happened?
KARR: Her death was -- was an accident.
QUESTION: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
QUESTION: So you were in the basement?
KARR: Yes.
QUESTION: Can you tell us about your connection to the Ramsey family?
KARR: No comment. I'm thinking about it (ph).
QUESTION: How did you -- how did you get into the basement? (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?
KARR: No comment. I'm not (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
QUESTION: And how do you feel now? How are you being treated?
KARR: I'm being treated OK.
QUESTION: How long did you know JonBenet?
KARR: No comment on that.
SHUBERT: At a sometimes chaotic news conference, a U.S. official outlined the charges against Karr.
ANN HURST, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS: He has been charged by the State of California -- I'm sorry -- Colorado for first degree murder after deliberation, first degree murder, felony murder, first degree kidnapping, second degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.
SHUBERT: Thai police said that when informed of the charges, Karr had insisted he had not meant to kill JonBenet.
GEN. SUWAT THAMRONGSRISAKUL, CHIEF OF THAI IMMIGRATION POLICE: He said (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not intentionally.
SHUBERT (on camera): U.S. officials say Karr has cooperated with investigators. Thai police say he was detained on Wednesday at the Bloon's Apartment Building (ph) in Bangkok. FBI officers were present when he was arrested on a federal warrant. (voice-over): He had been followed for several weeks. Thai officials say Karr had been in the country several times in recent years and had recently arrived from Malaysia. Karr was reportedly looking for work as a teacher in Bangkok.
U.S. officials say Karr will be extradited within a week.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SHUBERT: Now, Karr has had his visa revoked. That's why he's being held at this immigration detention center. And officials say he -- they are trying to get him back to the U.S. as soon as possible -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: Atika, do we know where he got the money to fund all of his travels?
SHUBERT: A lot of those details are still coming in. What we do know for sure is that for the last two years he was coming in and out of Bangkok, according to Thai authorities here. He came in and out about five times. And about two months ago, that's when immigration officials noticed his name come up at the airport. They tracked him down to the apartment that he was apparently renting and they arrested him there, with FBI officials present.
O'BRIEN: Atika Shubert in Bangkok, thanks.
John Karr's confession may finally lift that umbrella of suspicion, as it was described by authorities, that haunted John and Patsy Ramsey for nearly 10 years.
Ed Lavandera live now from Boulder with that component of the story -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, the last 10 years for the Ramsey family here in Boulder, Colorado, it was an extremely tumultuous time for them -- investigators, media reports -- essentially putting them as possible suspects in this case. They lived with that for the last 10 years. So in many ways, this is coming as news that some, maybe family and friends feel is a type of vindication for a national audience, to prove for one and for all that they say that John and Patsy Ramsey were not involved.
They have been watching, it appears, the news coming out of Thailand, the interviews with John Mark Karr. In fact, JonBenet Ramsey's aunt told us here on AMERICAN MORNING just a short while ago that she was shocked to see what that man had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAMELA PAUGH, SISTER OF PATSY RAMSEY: Saying it was an accident? Well, by what accident were you even in her home? By what accident did you tie something around her neck and choke her? By what accident did you put an eight inch crack in her skull?
These things are not accidents. Accidents are falling off the couch and bumping your head when you're a toddler.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: Of course, one of the questions that is looming largely here today is just exactly how investigators got on the trail of John Mark Karr and what brought him forth as a suspect.
Prosecutors here in Boulder will hold a press conference at 10:00 Mountain time, perhaps to answer some of those questions. But there are two reports from newspapers here in the Denver area that say that a journalism professor at the University of Colorado who had been doing some documentary work on the JonBenet Ramsey mystery had started receiving e-mails from John Mark Karr a couple of years ago, and that at some point, the e-mails became so disturbing that that professor turned those -- that information over to Boulder investigators. And through that e-mail address is how they were able to track down John Mark Karr.
Those according to published reports here in the Denver area this morning. We anticipate that prosecutors will be asked a lot about that here shortly -- Miles.
O'BRIEN: All right, we'll know more at 12:00 Eastern.
CNN will give live coverage of that Boulder district attorney's news conference when it happens.
Thank you, Ed Lavandera -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Let's head to the Middle East now.
Lebanese Army troops pouring into Southern Lebanon now. A Lebanese Army official says 15,000 troops are expected in the region within 24 hours. That as Israel pulls back across the southern Lebanese border and the Beirut airport has reopened.
Let's go live to Beirut now for more.
Anthony Mills is there -- good morning.
ANTHONY MILLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
The deployment of the Lebanese Army troops southwards is now proceeding rapidly after a few days of delay caused by behind-the- scenes cabinet disagreements, we're told by government sources.
At least 6,000 Lebanese Army troops have now crossed the Litani River, according to a high ranking Army source here. And he is expecting the full 15,000 troops pledged by the government to actually be down there in that southern swath of Lebanese territory within 24 hours.
Questions do remain, however. The information minister of Lebanon, after the cabinet session yesterday that authorized this deployment, said that the Lebanese Army would not be involved in any confrontations with what he called our Hezbollah brothers. And so what is likely to occur, say analysts, is that the Hezbollah fighters will simply melt back into the civilian population. That's where all their grassroots support comes from. Many of the fighters hail from villages down in the south. They will hide their weapons. And then maybe, at some time in the future -- nobody knows exactly when -- take them out again and possibly find themselves in direct confrontation at that point with an international force, which could come to be seen by them as taking sides on the side of Israel and the United States.
COSTELLO: Anthony, I had mentioned to our audience that the first commercial air flight has arrived at the Beirut Airport.
That the airport is open, is that a signal to the end of this conflict, perhaps?
MILLS: Well, it's certainly good news for the Lebanese. That airport has been closed for weeks. Three flights actually expected here today. One Middle East Airlines flight -- that's Lebanon's flag carrier -- has landed already and will be departing later for -- back to Amman, Jordan. Passengers on that flight traveling for free today.
There's also a flight of Royal Jordanian carrying aid and also one of BMED -- that's a franchise of British Airways -- carrying humanitarian aid, with regular flights expected to start next week.
But it is good news for the Lebanese, who had seen that airport closed for a number of weeks. And that air blockade now appearing to be lifted, although the sea one remains in place for the moment.
COSTELLO: Anthony Mills reporting live from Beirut this morning.
Thanks.
Let's take a look at some other stories CNN correspondents around the world are covering for you.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Robin Oakley reporting from London, where police have been given extra time to question suspects in the alleged plot to blow up airliners with liquid explosives. Officials say material of a substantial nature has been found.
In Pakistan, authorities say further suspects are being sought there.
The European Union has agreed to fund research into liquid explosives and will seek to close down Web sites giving bomb making instruction.
With flights slowly returning to normal, airlines say they may sue the British government for up to $600 million over security imposed delays.
HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Harris Whitbeck in Baghdad. Near simultaneous bombs in Baghdad yesterday afternoon killed 13 people and wounded dozens more. The explosions occurred on a busy street just hours before curfew, at a time when many people were out trying to finish their day's affairs before heading home. Those attacks came on the heels of another bombing, which occurred in a busy marketplace, once again targeting day workers. Nine people were killed in that attack.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health says the month of July was the deadliest for Iraqi civilians since the war itself. The U.S. White House says, however, it's seen a slight decrease in the violence.
STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. I'm Stan Grant in Beijing.
It's been a wild year in China. Dust storms coating the capital, a crippling drought in the southeast of the country leaving millions without drinking water and typhoon after typhoon battering the coast, the latest killing more than 300 people.
What's up with China's weather?
COSTELLO: For more on these or any other top stories, head to our Web site, cnn.com.
O'BRIEN: Time for a check of the forecast now.
Chad Myers at the CNN Center -- hello, Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Miles.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Coming up, the arrest of -- in the killing of JonBenet -- it's a vindication for the Ramsey family, potentially. We'll talk to a former FBI profiler who said from the outset they were innocent.
COSTELLO: Also, the relief effort in Lebanon. We'll find out why some agencies are being forced to compete with Hezbollah to hand out aid.
O'BRIEN: Plus, the military having a little bit of trouble finding a few good men and women.
But are some recruiters stepping over the line?
That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: It was the day after Christmas, 1996, when a horrible crime ended the short life of a beautiful young girl in Boulder, Colorado.
Ever since, the story of JonBenet Ramsey has remained a mystery, a tragedy, a media spectacle and an unending nightmare for her family.
CNN's Mary Snow takes us back.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The mystery of JonBenet Ramsey's death a decade ago outlived the length of her short life that ended when she was just six. The child beauty pageant star was strangled with a piece of rope and her skull was fractured. The day after Christmas, 1996, mother Patsy reports finding a two-and-a- half page ransom note on a staircase, demanding $118,000 in ransom.
Eight hours after that, JonBenet's father John reports finding his daughter's body in the basement of the family's Boulder, Colorado home.
The family buries their little girl, wearing a tiny tiara, then gives an exclusive interview to CNN the following day.
PATSY RAMSEY, JONBENET'S MOTHER: There is a killer on the loose.
JOHN RAMSEY, JONBENET'S FATHER: Absolutely.
P. RAMSEY: I don't know who it is. I don't know if it's a he or a she, but if I were a resident of Boulder I would tell my friends to keep -- keep your babies close to you. There's someone out there.
SNOW: The Ramseys' relationship with authorities quickly turned cold when suspicions resolved around the family. JonBenet's adult half-brother, half-sister and 9-year-old brother were officially cleared, but her parents were not.
MARK BECKNER, BOULDER LEAD DETECTIVE: They do remain under an umbrella of suspicion, but we're not ready to name any suspects.
SNOW: The Ramseys waged a very public fight, with scathing criticism of the police. They offered a $100,000 reward for information about JonBenet's killer. By October of 1999, a grand jury investigating the case returned no indictments, with prosecutors citing a lack of sufficient evidence. But it didn't stop the speculation. And JonBenet's mother Patsy Ramsey would not live to see any arrests made. She died of ovarian cancer in June.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
O'BRIEN: The Ramsey family was not just frustrated with the Boulder police, they had the financial wherewithal to do something about it, to conduct their own investigation, hiring good lawyers, private investigators, even a former FBI profiler.
That profiler, John Douglas, joining us from Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Mr. Douglas, good to have you with us.
JOHN DOUGLAS, FORMER FBI CRIMINAL PROFILER: Good morning. O'BRIEN: Were you convinced all along that the Ramseys were innocent?
DOUGLAS: No. The only into -- into the case, I was in Provo, Utah at the time doing some instruction when I got the call from attorneys to go out to -- and if I could assist in analyzing the case for them. And I told this police officer, I said, "I'm going to break this case."
And I was just relying on, like everyone else, the media accounts of what the case was about. But I was just keeping this inside.
Once I went out there and I started to look at the material that they had, look at the method and manner of death, looking to see the motive behind this family -- if there was a motive why the mother and father would kill their child, and then to kill the child in the fashion that JonBenet was murdered.
A lot of people in this country did not have that information and did not have that knowledge. If you would see the crime scene photographs to see how this child was garroted so strongly, you couldn't even see the garrote in her neck. Her hands were tied over her head. She had duct tape on her mouth.
And then after the killer did this and the child was on her last breath, he still had the anger inside of him to strike her in the head with some blunt force instrument, cracking her skull eight-and-a-half inches.
O'BRIEN: Yes.
All right...
DOUGLAS: Looking at her on the floor, you wouldn't have noticed that -- any -- there was no bruising or anything. The reason was is because her heart had stopped. Once they did the autopsy, they removed the scalp, here was her skull cracked eight-and-a-half inches.
O'BRIEN: All right.
All right...
DOUGLAS: And there was no way...
O'BRIEN: We get the idea.
DOUGLAS: ... there was no way it was the family.
O'BRIEN: It was a brutal crime. I'm sorry, it's just hard to listen to all of those details, Mr. Douglas.
DOUGLAS: Right. Yes.
O'BRIEN: But a couple of things I wanted to share with you from some other media this morning. The Associated Press is reporting that this guy Karr was actually sending correspondence to Patsy Ramsey before she passed away. Apparently she might have read some of these letters. We're not sure what was in them. And then this. According to the "Denver Post," there's a journalism professor there who has done some documentaries on JonBenet and apparently he was receiving letters from Karr and they became increasingly more troubling to him. And, as a matter of fact, that might have been what turned this case around.
Based on what you know about this type of character, any of that surprise you?
DOUGLAS: No, because oftentimes in the research that I've done with serial killers, at some point in their life they begin to have the desire to inject themselves into the investigation, just like the BTK strangler, a book that I'm working on right now. And I interviewed Dennis Rader. He did the same thing. He went 30 -- 30 years before he began to resurface at the age of 59 and injected himself into the investigation.
It's usually not some sign of guilt, often -- on the part of the offenders. Oftentimes it's further manipulation of the family.
The case was brutal, Miles, and it was because of that that I said there was no way the parents were responsible for this. But the investigations were -- was convinced it was them. They eliminated potential suspects in the form of sex offenders. There was over 50 sex offenders in the area.
I was asked a couple of years ago to go back and assist the prosecution. So I went on the defense side and I did pro bono work for the prosecution, analyzed the case and gave them my opinion as to why, in my belief, that the family was not responsible, and testified before the grand jury.
O'BRIEN: So what you're saying is, in the case, if you're making it analogous to the BTK, for example, what you have there is a narcissistic character, a person who wants to control all events around him.
And is that what you're seeing the threads of here in Mr. Karr?
DOUGLAS: That's what it sounds like so far. What I've seen here and just the way -- you know, we had the two-and-a-half page, you know, ransom note left behind. This was someone, at the time, we felt was not a very, very young offender. And he would have been about 30, 31. I would be surprised, by looking at that case, of JonBenet Ramsey, that they would -- there were not other cases landing up to that case, because of the brutality exhibited at that crime scene.
O'BRIEN: Oh, really?
DOUGLAS: So you have to go back. This could not be the first case that he's involved with...
O'BRIEN: So that there might be other crimes. DOUGLAS: ... and it would not be the last.
O'BRIEN: Wow!
DOUGLAS: Right. There would be others.
O'BRIEN: So this, this whole thing is, I -- you know, a certain amount of vindication for the family.
In a sense, is it vindication for you?
DOUGLAS: Oh, I was raked over the coals, Miles.
I was -- went up against the FBI and the Boulder Police Department. I did interviews and to this day there were people saying that you're wrong, you're wrong. And then just last night I received calls to my home apologizing to me that we were wrong about you.
And I had information. I had inside information. I've worked thousands of cases. And it's very similar to a medical doctor putting a diagnosis on a case. And sometimes you can hit it right on the nose. And I knew then, within days, that they were barking up the wrong tree. And I felt sad that not only had they lost a child, but now here they're being falsely accused of killing their child. And I really feel bad about the Ramsey family.
O'BRIEN: What a horrible nightmare.
A final thought, quickly, because we don't have much time.
DOUGLAS: All right.
O'BRIEN: But do we have any idea what the connection was prior between this guy and JonBenet? Did he meet her? Had he seen her in a pageant? Had he seen her at a playground? Do you have any idea? Any thoughts?
DOUGLAS: Well, I wouldn't be surprised, because she was high profile just before she was murdered. She was, in fact, in a parade in Boulder, Colorado. She was in a pageant and there was articles written about her in the newspaper. And that family, they were very, kind of, not really that security conscious. They left doors open, windows open. They had their home being constructed, different various people had access to the house.
So it was a very safe community. They only have one or two homicides a year. And so someone like this, I believe, slipped into that house beforehand and waited for them to return.
O'BRIEN: There is a lesson for all parents in that statement.
Thank you very much, John Douglas.
We appreciate your time this morning.
DOUGLAS: Thanks, Miles. O'BRIEN: All right -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Coming up, Uncle Sam wants you, but he may have crossed the line to sign up some recruits. We will explain.
Plus, varicose veins -- they're certainly unsightly. But they can also be extremely painful.
When is it time to get medical treatment?
Our health series for people in their 30s and 40s and 50s on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: This morning in our health series for people in their 30s and 40s and 50s, a closer look at those varicose veins. They aren't pretty and they can be painful over time.
Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, has more for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Laurie Hawks is a busy 40-year-old working mother of two who recently decided to take the time to fix her varicose veins.
LAURIE HAWKS, PATIENT: I had both my children in my early 30s and really it started then. You know, every year it got a little worse and a little worse. So then finally I decided I'm just tired of it and I'm going to do something about it.
COHEN: Varicose veins are those ugly, bulging veins caused by a defect in the pumping system. Blood that's supposed to go back to the heart instead pools up in the veins in the leg. They're common in your 30s, but they can occur any time.
Like Laurie, many people don't do anything about them until their 40s, when varicose veins often become painful.
HAWKS: It just has gotten more uncomfortable over time and then it has become to the point where a certain part of my leg is really painful. And that's where I've decided this is silly -- I need to go see somebody and find out what my options are.
COHEN: There are various ways of getting rid of varicose veins. Laurie decided on a laser procedure.
DR. ROSS MILNER, VASCULAR SURGEON: We put the catheter -- it's a small catheter -- into the vein, to use the laser to get rid of that vein and scar down the vein so it doesn't have that reflux that we talk about where the blood is going in the wrong direction and causing the varicose veins and the discomfort in your leg.
Once the laser part is done, we then remove the other veins that are obvious and bothersome and are the bulging veins that we treat. And we remove those with very small incisions.
COHEN: Doctors say if your varicose veins aren't painful and you don't mind the look of them, it's often OK not to treat them. But, if your varicose veins are swollen, red, warm or tender to the touch, you should definitely talk to your doctor.
In your 50s, if varicose veins are left untreated, they can become increasingly painful and develop ulcers.
Laurie Hawks is hoping she won't have that problem.
HAWKS: I'm real hopeful that it'll, you know, give me relief from my pain and give me some strength back in my leg.
MILNER: That's it. The laser is all done. And not too bad.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
O'BRIEN: Our top stories are straight ahead.
We'll take a closer look at the relief effort in Lebanon and why some agencies are competing with Hezbollah to help.
Plus, the president is poised to approve sweeping changes to the nation's pension laws. A look at how it could affect your retirement, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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