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Only one person has ever been arrested for the murder of JonBenét Ramsey: John Mark Karr.
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In 2006, a former teacher (under the name “Daxis”) said he was six years old when he died.
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But DNA evidence ruled him out, and he has been lying low in recent years.
The unsolved murder of JonBenét Ramsey, a six-year-old Colorado queen, has captivated the public since 1996.
In the decades since the crime, there have been many theories about who killed JonBenét and even several false confessions. The most talked about suspect in the news is John Mark Karr, who was arrested and later acquitted of involvement in the murder in 2006.
The former teacher said she had a “relationship” with JonBenét and accidentally killed him. Netflix’s new documentary, “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey,” deals with Karr’s later recanted confession. Here’s what we know about where he lives today.
John Mark Karr used the name “Daxis” to send emails to JonBenét Ramsey documentarian.
In 2002, Michael Tracey, a journalism professor who has published several articles on the JonBenét Ramsey case, was contacted by email by a man using the name “Daxis.” He told Tracey that he “loved little girls,” and said that he was with Ramsey when he died but that his death was an accident.
They communicated via email for four years. Tracey later shared her conversations with Boulder DA Mary Lacy, after Daxis appeared to know about the unsolved murder case, including the nickname JonBenét used for her grandmother.
Daxis tried to arrange to talk to Patsy Ramsey, JonBenét’s mother, to apologize before she died of ovarian cancer in June 2006. Investigators hoped to track Daxis down by setting up a phone tap, but she never called. Eventually, the authorities were able to track Daxis down to Thailand after Tracey asked him to send her the last printed photograph of JonBenét.
John Mark Karr, a former American teacher who fled to the US after being arrested on pornography charges in California in 2001, was identified as Daxis and arrested after taking Tracey’s package. After her arrest, she repeated to the press that she was with JonBenét when she died and that her death was an accident.
Karr was extradited to Colorado but the charges against him were quickly dropped in August 2006 when DNA results showed he was not the source of the DNA found on Ramsey’s underwear. His family had also said that he was at their home when Ramsey was killed.
Where is John Mark Karr now? He is leading a ‘secret life’
After Karr’s case was dismissed, he was extradited to California, where he previously faced child pornography charges in 2001. Those charges were also dismissed in October 2006 after investigators admitted they had misplaced computer evidence against Karr.
In 2017, the Monroe Journal spoke with Karr, who said she had moved out of the country, had sex reassignment surgery, and was living as a woman under the name Alex Reich. Business Insider was unable to verify this report.
As “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey”, Karr said on his website that he was living a “secret life outside the US” from May 2024.
According to what was said on that website, which appears to be run by Karr but could not be confirmed by Business Insider, Karr lived in the US from 2017 to 2020 before leaving the US again in the summer of 2020. He called his summary. he returned to America one of his “biggest regrets” and said that to stay safe and alone he wanted to stay on tour and never return to the US.
In a recent statement posted to the website on Friday, Karr denied claims by John Ramsey (originally made in 2006 after Karr’s arrest but revived by Ramsey in recent interviews and Netflix articles) that there was evidence that Karr had stalked the Charlevoix, Michigan, family’s vacation home before JonBenét’s death. Karr said there was no way he knew the Ramseys had a home there.
Joe Berlinger, the filmmaker behind “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey,” told BI that he had tried to get hold of the first suspect in the documentary but that Karr had dropped the gun since being cleared of JonBenét’s killer.
As for the one who thinks that the old teacher really killed the 6-year-old, given the renewed questions about the DNA evidence that cleared him, Berlinger said that he did not want to speculate and do what was done to the Ramseys. However, he said that once the new DNA testing is complete “everyone should be brought back to the table as a suspect.”
Read the first article on Business Insider