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Arrest Made in JonBenet Ramsey Murder; Lieberman Ahead in Polls Again; West Virginia Airport Terminal Evacuated on Bomb Suspicions

Aired August 17, 2006 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: An American in Bangkok, is he the key to a 10-year-old murder case? Nobody is saying much about the explosive developments in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, but here's what we do know.
John Mark Karr, arrested early yesterday in Bangkok, will be expelled from Thailand and brought to the U.S. Boulder, Colorado, District Attorney Mary Lacy won't say what charges he'll face. In a news conference that you may have seen live here on CNN, Lacy did imply the arrest came now for public safety reasons.

Karr just began a job teaching second graders at a Bangkok school on Tuesday. Now right now, John Mark Karr is being held in a Thai immigration center. His transfer back to the U.S. possible as early as next week.

CNN international correspondent Atika Shubert is in Bangkok to bring us up to date. Atika, he's right behind you, right?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The detention center is right behind me. That's where John Mark Karr is being held. And there have been some incredible developments today. As you say, there was a news conference earlier in the day, quite a chaotic one, where a media frenzy took place around Karr as he told the press that he loved JonBenet, and that it was an accident. Saying that he had been there when, apparently, she died.

Also, in addition to that, he also told reporters that he was trying to contact the Ramsey family. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN MARK KARR, SUSPECT IN RAMSEY CASE: I've contacted the Ramsey family, especially before Patricia passed away, and I conveyed to her many things, among them that I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet and it's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, and that her death was unintentional and it was an accident. And I made several efforts to communicate with Patricia before she passed away and it's my understanding that she did read my letter and she was aware of me before she passed away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened in the basement?

KARR: It was -- it would take several hours to describe that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just, if you could be brief? KARR: There's no way that I could be brief about -- there's no way I could be brief about it.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Some very chilling but cryptic statements, perhaps ones that leave more questions than answers. Prosecutors may find more answers once he is extradited back to the States. That could happen within the next few days, at the latest within a week -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Atika Shubert, thanks so much.

Well, in California, John Mark Karr's ex-wife tells TV station KGO that she doesn't believe Karr was involved in JonBenet's killing. Laura Karr says he was with her in Alabama throughout the Christmas holidays of 1996. She says she divorced Karr after he was arrested on child pornography charges in 2001. He had been working as an elementary schoolteacher at the time.

The Ramsey case has been a tragedy, some would say a travesty, a scandal and a media sensation. One man who has followed every twist and turn is former FBI agent Harold Copus. He was hired by the Ramseys as a private investigator. He joins me now with some insights.

All right, I want to hit the angle of something that doesn't seem right here. He's saying things and then he's saying no comment, and there's just a lot of unanswered questions. Do you think they have the guy?

HAROLD COPUS, FMR. FBI AGENT: Well, you never know. And, obviously, you assume someone's innocent until proven guilty. Two things will come about. DNA, which he can't escape, and handwriting exemplars, which will have to be taken and matched against that ransom note. That's either going to put him in or take him out.

PHILLIPS: What's your gut on this? Do you think this is the guy?

COPUS: I'm suspicious.

PHILLIPS: You are suspicious. Why are you suspicious?

COPUS: It just doesn't fit right. Let's hope for the family this is the guy. But we don't want to go too fast, too far. Let's just wait and see what happens next.

PHILLIPS: All right, I want to get in some more details. Stay with me just for a second. We've got to break away just for a second. Carol Lin, working some details on a developing story.

Carol, what do you have?

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, CNN has confirmed that the Justice Department is officially appealing a federal judge's ruling that the Bush administration -- the wiretapping program without a warrant is unconstitutional. She had ordered an immediate halt to it. We were waiting to hear what the government's response was. We had heard from the ACLU that the government was going to be officially appealing, and we have now confirmed it.

So, in talking with Ed Henry at our -- one of our White House correspondents -- and Jeffrey Toobin, our legal analyst, this is going to be an interesting test case to see whether the government will be able to go forward with its wiretapping of international e-mails and phone calls of people who are suspected of having ties to terrorists. Some might say a subjective determination without a warrant. So we'll see what happens.

PHILLIPS: All right. We're following it. Also waiting to hear more out of the NSA, as well. Carol, thanks so much.

Let's continue talking with Harold Copus now, former FBI agent. You were actually hired by -- was it the Ramsey family or investigators on the case -- to help investigate this?

COPUS: Investigators on the case. They were working the primary case, obviously, and always has been -- has been in Boulder. We're just doing some leads down here in Georgia.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's -- we'll talk about those leads in a minute. But back to the issue of why you think this is a little fishy. Give me one or two thoughts that immediately hit you when you thought, hmm, I don't know if something's quite right here.

COPUS: Maybe his demeanor. Always have to watch that any time you're working a case. Second thing, supposedly this guy says that he drugged JonBenet and then had sex with her. When that autopsy came out, there was no mention of drugs. Nothing was in there. I don't believe that would have been suppressed. I just have a feeling that we need to be very cautious here. Let's just see what happens. Let's see what evidence rolls out. I'm concerned.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right, so when you were working the case actively, was this a name that ever came up?

COPUS: This guy's name just came out of the blue. That's just something that's happened here in the last, oh -- publicly, it's come up in the last three or four days. Obviously, this is a name that the police will say that they've been working on for a month or more. But that's not for public consumption, that was private.

PHILLIPS: When you were working the case, did you feel that you were hot on anyone's trail? Or was it pretty much cold?

COPUS: Oh, what we're here doing was really lead covering. Means that you're just doing small, benign-type things. Nothing really spectacular.

PHILLIPS: So what would make you certain that they had the right guy? The DNA match?

COPUS: DNA and handwriting. PHILLIPS: And how soon will we know that? And why aren't we hearing something right now? You would think if they arrested this guy and they held news conferences, they're plastering his name all over the media, that they would have the results of either that handwriting test or that DNA test, right?

COPUS: They very well could have the handwriting already available. Now, we know that there's work been going on by the police. Getting his handwriting may or may not be too hard. They've contacted his wife. They've done a lot of things from that standpoint to see if anybody's picked up that. DNA is another matter, though. They may wait until they bring him into the States and do it from here.

PHILLIPS: So do think they have done that DNA test yet? Do think they could know if there's a match or not?

COPUS: I don't know. None of us would know. I suspect they'll wait until they come back to the United States.

PHILLIPS: Let's say that there isn't a DNA match. Do they just let him go?

COPUS: I think they'd have to, if they have DNA already there that they've collected, which they've told us they have. It's -- this has a few more twists and turns, I think, before we get to the end.

PHILLIPS: Do you find it interesting that John Mark Karr was obsessed with the Polly Klaas case and says that he contacted Mark Klaas about that case? And now there's this talk that he was obsessed with the JonBenet case and he had these e-mails going back and forth with this professor that did this documentary?

COPUS: One of the things I said was I'm worried we may have a serial confessor more than anything else.

PHILLIPS: What was it -- when you looked into his eyes, his mannerisms, what was it that made you sit back and think, hmm?

COPUS: I guess it's too many years of doing this for a living. I just judge folks, and I'm pretty good at it. I can't...

PHILLIPS: It's your gut.

COPUS: It's a gut feeling.

PHILLIPS: So are you going to get back involved in this case, or are you finished?

COPUS: Oh, we're finished. We did leads eight or nine years ago. There's no reason for us. This is a police case now.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. All right. Keep following this for us, Harold, because it will be interesting to see if, indeed, this isn't the guy, your gut's right.

COPUS: We'll find out.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Harold.

Let's get back to Carol, more details now. Same topic, Carol, or different story?

LIN: No, different developing story, Kyra, this one out of West Virginia. The Tri-State Airport terminal has been evacuated. Commercial flights were halted, temporarily suspended after a bomb- sniffing dog detected something in a woman's purse. She was going through security and according to the "Herald Dispatch" newspaper, federal officials telling the "Herald Dispatch" that it was a water bottle, and it has first screened positive for what could be an explosive material.

This going down at about 9:15 this morning, and then confirmed later at about 11:25 a.m. by a TSA explosive detection canine team. At least one flight was diverted to Charleston's Yeager Airport. According to the local newspaper there, it was a U.S. Airway's flight to Charlotte, North Carolina.

I'm told that that flight, I understand, actually did end up taking off, but this morning about 100 passengers and airport employees were ordered to leave the terminal. They were taken to a nearby parking lot while this testing was underway. And currently the FBI is investigating.

That's all I have right now. We'll find out more about whether this woman was detained, questioned, what in fact was in the water bottle. But so far, according to the local newspaper, Kyra, testing for some kind of explosive material.

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll follow it. Carol, thanks so much.

Well, he came in second in his own party's primary, but Joe Lieberman apparently is out in front in the race that really counts. We're LIVE FROM Connecticut.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Busy day in the newsroom. Carol, what do you have?

LIN: Well, this story out of West Virginia, the main airport there, Kyra, the Tri-State Airport, evacuated shortly before noon today after a bomb-sniffing dog reacted to a water bottle in a woman's purse.

Now, according to a local newspaper out there -- the "Herald Dispatch," says that federal officials tell reporters there that the water bottle first screened positive for what could be an explosive material around 9:15 this morning, and that the test was then confirmed about two hours later by a TSA explosive detection canine team based out of the nearby town of Huntington.

So, apparently, the terminal has been evacuated, about 100 passengers and airport employees ordered to leave the terminal at the Tri-State Airport. They were taken to a nearby parking lot. FBI agents are investigating right now.

According to the "Herald Dispatch," it was a U.S. Airways flight that she was trying to board that was on its way to Charlotte, North Carolina. I understand that flight did manage to take off and leave.

As for the situation with this woman, we'll see. Surely, people must be questioning her on the scene, but this is a story that's developing. So, Kyra, as soon as we get a little bit more, we're going to bring it to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Carol. Appreciate it.

Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Joe Lieberman's political death may be greatly exaggerated. Even though the three- term Connecticut senator lost a Democratic primary, a new poll shows that there's a very good chance he may be reelected anyway.

CNN's Mary Snow is in New Haven. What are the numbers, Mary. How far he is up?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, by 12 points. And, you know, I done think anyone is ever going to accuse this race of being dull. What a difference a week makes. Now that Senator Joseph Lieberman lost the Democratic primary, he's going to be on the ticket as an independent, and that changed the whole ball game.

The latest poll out in a three-way race shows, of likely voters, that Senator Lieberman would get 53 percent of those likely voters, 41 percent to Ned Lamont -- of course, the Democrat who challenged Lieberman -- and for the Republican candidate in the state for Senate, Republican Alan Schlesinger only gets four percent. Earlier today Senator Lieberman said he was encouraged, but doesn't want to take anything for granted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: The first thing I'd say is that it's great to be ahead in a poll again. The second thing is, I learned from the primary campaign that early polling results don't decide campaigns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: And that's because early in the primary poll, Senator Lieberman was way ahead. Ned Lamont wasn't even seen as having a chance to win. And, of course, as we know, he did, largely building his campaign on his stance on Iraq. He is supporting a troop withdrawal within a year which, of course, has gained so much attention.

Now, as for the Lamont camp, his camp is saying it, too, is encouraged by these numbers. He feels that he can get a broad support base and he's encouraged by the Democrats coming to his side later today here in New Haven. Senator John Edwards is going to be the latest Democrat to come and rally for Ned Lamont -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll be following it. Mary Snow, thanks so much.

We're going to get back to Carol Lin now. She's got more information on that story out of West Virginia -- Carol.

LIN: That's right. A report that bomb-sniffing dogs have detected some form of explosive materials inside a water bottle of a passenger trying to board a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina.

On the telephone with me right now is Larry Salyers. He is the director of the Tri-State Airport in West Virginia.

Larry, good to have you. Can you confirm for us whether these bomb-sniffing dogs actually detected something?

VOICE OF LARRY SALYERS, TRI-STATE AIRPORT DIRECTOR: Yes, they did, but first let me say that the Transportation Security Administration officers at the screening point detected some items in a carry-on bag that are on the not permitted list.

LIN: Right, do you know what they were?

SALYERS: And so they took those out of the checked bags and, further, their preliminary investigation revealed that those items were suspect. And so the West Virginia State Police arrived at the scene with their dogs and they detected, as well as the TSA's equipment detected, contents in the two items out of four that were not permissible and were very suspect.

That took the situation into a full investigation which they are doing now to try to determine precisely what to do with the items. The items are being taken to a remote area on the airport by a robot, and at this time that's the status right now.

LIN: Larry, can I ...

SALYERS: The female passenger was detained by the FBI.

LIN: All right. So she is probably being questioned right now, Larry?

SALYERS: Yes.

LIN: All right, Larry, can you be more specific about those items? What were they? Bottles, gels, creams?

SALYERS: The lady is still in custody and the items were plastic containers.

LIN: That's it.

SALYERS: Yes.

LIN: All right, but they were filled with some kind of a substance.

SALYERS: They were filled with, yes, they were. LIN: All right, did the TSA officials there give you any indication that this woman may have had the makings for a bomb?

SALYERS: I think their equipment detected material in the two containers that would indicate to them that it very well could be a bomb.

LIN: How often do you get a false positive, Larry?

SALYERS: We have not had a false positive that I'm aware of.

LIN: Terminal evacuated right now?

SALYERS: Terminal is evacuated right now.

LIN: How many passengers had to be evacuated?

SALYERS: I think at the time there was about 100.

LIN: As well as airport employees.

SALYERS: Oh, yes.

LIN: All right, where are they now?

SALYERS: They were in our private aircraft terminal building, firehouses, just different locations that we put them in. We ordered food for them, drink, water. We're accommodating the best we can. Some of them have left. Some of them are still here.

LIN: And commercial flights taking off still or not?

SALYERS: No, there was a commercial plane that just took off that we let taxi out and they ferried back to Cincinnati, a jet to Cincinnati.

LIN: Larry, can you give me any more of a description of this woman?

SALYERS: Well, the lady was born in 1978. And she had on her a passport and her driver's license and they match. She's from Jackson, Michigan, originally here in the states and she has also lived for some time, which I have not been involved in the interrogation, so or questioning, I'm not sure how long she has been in Huntington. But she has lived in the Huntington, area.

LIN: All right Larry Salyers, thank you very much. Larry Salyers, director of the Tri-State Airport. Kyra, we'll keep you posted. It sounds like they are going to be taking these suspicious items out to a field, probably detonating them, but we'll hopefully try to find out more about what the TSA officers actually found about these substances.

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll check in with you. Thanks Carol.

A cold case for years but once a hot topic that gripped a nation. We're going to look back on the JonBenet Ramsey case and bring you the latest on the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Something to be proud of? Well he can sing about it all he wants but country music's Troy Lee Gentry isn't likely to get respect from animal lovers. Gentry, half of the act of Montgomery Gentry, is accused of buying and then killing a tame black bear in 2004. Authorities say Gentry and wildlife photographer Lee Marvin Freenly (ph) put the bear, named Cubbie, in a pen and made a videotape of Gentry killing him with a bow and arrow. The tape was edited to make it look like a wild kill. If convicted both men face up to five years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Gentry's manager says the singer expects to be exonerated.

Lucas Glover tops the leader board at the PGA Championship under way outside Chicago. Lucas who? CNN's Larry Smith has more on Glover and some of those other guys playing in that tournament. Hey Larry.

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, how are you? Yes, certainly you can back anonymous here at the final major of the year, especially when you're playing with a group of two guys named Phil Michelson and Tiger Woods. The third member of that very popular group is Geoff Ogilvy. Now the Australian won the U.S. Open back in June to join the list of major championship winners, but also the very short list of current 20-somethings who have won a major. But, again, you can kind of get lost in the shuffle when you're playing next to the likes of Woods and Michelson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel sorry for Geoff Ogilvy, is who I feel sorry for. Because you're going to have people that just love Tiger and people that just love Phil and they are going to be screaming at each other. I hope, they shouldn't serve any alcohol that day. That is what I think.

GEOFF OGILVY, 2006 U.S. OPEN CHAMP: Most of us out here, we've all seen pretty much everyone play golf and it's ho-hum, it's a bit of a yawn out here. It's OK, but when you play with Tiger, he is enjoyable to watch. I haven't played with him since 2002, maybe. I don't know. But, I played with him with a couple of times in 1999 and that was pretty impressive to watch. You do find yourself just watching him play, just thinking this is pretty impressive and then all of a sudden you're on the sixth hole and you haven't really paid much attention to what you're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Well, Ogilvy, Woods and Michelson all finished their first round at three under par, three shots behind Lucas Glover. Let's go back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right Larry, thanks so much. Well, our top story is the arrest in the JonBenet Ramsey case. What led authorities to John Mark Karr? A closer look at the case and is this the right guy? The third hour of LIVE FROM straight ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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