Karr Reported To Have Lived in Costa Rica
Former schoolteacher John Mark Karr who was arrested Wednesday in Thailand in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey and fugitive from justice since 2001, is reported to have lived in Costa Rica and Honduras among other countries.

The Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (Costa Rican immigration service) records indicate that Karr left Costa Rica on August 3, 2004, though there is no record of his entry to the country, which immigration officials believe the man made his entry to the country illegally.

Thai police said that when Karr was arrested, he denied any involvement in JonBenet's slaying. But a source close to the investigation in the U.S. said Karr confessed to certain elements of the crime. Also, a law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Karr had been communicating periodically with somebody in Boulder who had been following the case and cooperating with law enforcement officials.

The arrest was a surprise breakthrough in a lurid, decade-old murder mystery that had cast a cloud of suspicion over JonBenet's parents, John and Patsy Ramsey.

Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood said the arrest vindicated JonBenet's parents.

"John and Patsy lived their lives knowing they were innocent, trying to raise a son despite the furor around them," Wood said. "The story of this family is a story of courage, and story of an American injustice and tragedy that ultimately people will have to look back on and hopefully learn from."

Karr told reporters on Thursday that JonBenet's death was accident.

The brutal murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey on Christmas night in 1996 shocked America to its core. Just as the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder seven decades earlier had seared the nation’s consciousness, this murder – of a beautiful and talented child in a wealthy Boulder, Colo., home – renewed every parent’s worst nightmare: No child was truly safe, not even tucked in at home on Christmas night.

U.S. authorities said Karr was initially taken into custody in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges. But Thai police Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said he was unaware of any criminal charges the suspect faced in Thailand.

Karr was arrested at his apartment in downtown Bangkok at the request of U.S. officials, and was being held until they arrived.