Czar Soonerov
8/16/2006, 04:39 PM
http://kutv.com/topstories/topstories_story_228160253.html
(CBS) DENVER A man arrested in Thailand is being held in connection with the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, U.S. law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges.
Sources tell CBS News that the suspect, a 41-year-old American second-grade schoolteacher, will be brought back to the United States this weekend.
A statement released by the Boulder District Attorney's office said a suspect was arrested Wednesday in Thailand "following several months of a focused and complex investigation."
"John and Patsy Ramsey both were consulted during the course of the investigation," said the statement. "The Ramsey family has been notified of the arrest."
Patsy Ramsey died in June 2006 from complications from cancer in Atlanta.
A news conference on the arrest will be held in Boulder at 4 p.m. ET Thursday.
Patsy Ramsey made the 911 call on December 26, 1996, telling police that her daughter was missing. "There's a note left and our daughter's gone," she said breathlessly.
Ramsey said she found a ransom note on the back staircase of the family's home demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet.
Boulder police responded immediately to Ramsey's call for help, and what first looked like a kidnapping quickly became a murder investigation, when JonBenet's body was found by her father in a small storage room in the basement of her house.
An autopsy concluded JonBenet suffered a skull fracture, and was strangled and beaten.
Because of the bizarre ransom note, and the fact that JonBenet was killed in her own home, detectives focused on her parents, John and Patsy, as their prime suspects.
Boulder police brushed aside many of the leads that came in, and dismissed the possibility that an intruder had somehow slipped inside the house and committed the murder.
The police chief said the parents were "under an umbrella of suspicion," but a grand jury did not indict the couple for murder.
Throughout lengthy and sometimes hostile police interrogations, both in 1998 and 2000, the Ramseys maintained their innocence. A 2005 48 Hours report found that DNA evidence ruled out the parents as suspects and investigators were no longer focusing on the Ramsey family.
The couple wrote a book, "The Death of Innocence," which was published in 2000.
They later left Colorado and had residences in Atlanta and in Michigan, where John Ramsey unsuccessfully ran for a state House seat in 2004. The Ramseys discussed their daughter's death during the campaign.
"We can't just hold our breath and hope the killer will be found and then go on with our lives," Patsy Ramsey said in 2004. "We have to move ahead now. We can't let evil win."
(CBS) DENVER A man arrested in Thailand is being held in connection with the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, U.S. law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Federal officials familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the man was being held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges.
Sources tell CBS News that the suspect, a 41-year-old American second-grade schoolteacher, will be brought back to the United States this weekend.
A statement released by the Boulder District Attorney's office said a suspect was arrested Wednesday in Thailand "following several months of a focused and complex investigation."
"John and Patsy Ramsey both were consulted during the course of the investigation," said the statement. "The Ramsey family has been notified of the arrest."
Patsy Ramsey died in June 2006 from complications from cancer in Atlanta.
A news conference on the arrest will be held in Boulder at 4 p.m. ET Thursday.
Patsy Ramsey made the 911 call on December 26, 1996, telling police that her daughter was missing. "There's a note left and our daughter's gone," she said breathlessly.
Ramsey said she found a ransom note on the back staircase of the family's home demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet.
Boulder police responded immediately to Ramsey's call for help, and what first looked like a kidnapping quickly became a murder investigation, when JonBenet's body was found by her father in a small storage room in the basement of her house.
An autopsy concluded JonBenet suffered a skull fracture, and was strangled and beaten.
Because of the bizarre ransom note, and the fact that JonBenet was killed in her own home, detectives focused on her parents, John and Patsy, as their prime suspects.
Boulder police brushed aside many of the leads that came in, and dismissed the possibility that an intruder had somehow slipped inside the house and committed the murder.
The police chief said the parents were "under an umbrella of suspicion," but a grand jury did not indict the couple for murder.
Throughout lengthy and sometimes hostile police interrogations, both in 1998 and 2000, the Ramseys maintained their innocence. A 2005 48 Hours report found that DNA evidence ruled out the parents as suspects and investigators were no longer focusing on the Ramsey family.
The couple wrote a book, "The Death of Innocence," which was published in 2000.
They later left Colorado and had residences in Atlanta and in Michigan, where John Ramsey unsuccessfully ran for a state House seat in 2004. The Ramseys discussed their daughter's death during the campaign.
"We can't just hold our breath and hope the killer will be found and then go on with our lives," Patsy Ramsey said in 2004. "We have to move ahead now. We can't let evil win."