An American school teacher accused of the grisly Christmas murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in 1996 said Thursday he was with the child beauty queen at the time of her death, which he called an accident.
But questions arose over the man's story when his ex-wife was cited as saying he was with her in another state around the time of the killing. John Mark Karr, 41, arrested in Bangkok Wednesday in a dramatic breakthrough in a case which has gripped US media for a decade, told reporters that he loved Ramsey.
"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr, charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual abuse of a child, said when asked if he kidnapped her. "The death was an accident."
"I loved JonBenet," Karr said in a quiet voice. Asked if he had killed the girl, he appeared to shake his head, but said again: "She died accidentally." JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996, and the unsolved case fuelled countless theories.
Karr, slender, sandy haired and dressed in a blue polo shirt and beige corduroy trousers, looked pale and dazed as he was presented briefly at a news conference, encircled by police.
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