Jonbenet Ramsey

JonBenet Ramsey's father, John Ramsey, has finally acknowledged what many Americans have long wanted to hear: He regrets showcasing his daughter in beauty pageants and parades. He also suggests that putting the girl front-and-center in the public eye might have contributed to the 6-year-old's killing. "We were so naïve," he told ABC . "I now believe with all my heart that it's not a good idea to put your child on public display. " Ramsey is currently promoting his new book, out Wednesday, about his struggle to recover from the death of his daughter, who would now be 21. John Ramsey said he's haunted, in particular, by an incident that occurred just before the girl's slaying, which took place the day after Christmas in 1996.

The JonBenet Ramsey slaying took another tortuous twist with a report that a grand jury had indicted the 6-year-old's parents in 1999. But the prosecutor then in charge of the case, Boulder Dist. Atty. Alex Hunter, decided not to sign off on the charge of child abuse resulting in death, according to a report by the Boulder Daily Camera . The case eventually dissipated without a conviction. The Camera cited multiple unidentified sources, including jurors who are bound by law to remain silent on grand jury proceedings -- which are conducted in secret and intended to shield citizens from weak prosecutions.

The JonBenet Ramsey slaying took another tortuous twist with a report that a grand jury had indicted the 6-year-old's parents in 1999. But the prosecutor then in charge of the case, Boulder Dist. Atty. Alex Hunter, decided not to sign off on the charge of child abuse resulting in death, according to a report by the Boulder Daily Camera . The case eventually dissipated without a conviction. The Camera cited multiple unidentified sources, including jurors who are bound by law to remain silent on grand jury proceedings -- which are conducted in secret and intended to shield citizens from weak prosecutions.

JonBenet Ramsey's father, John Ramsey, has finally acknowledged what many Americans have long wanted to hear: He regrets showcasing his daughter in beauty pageants and parades. He also suggests that putting the girl front-and-center in the public eye might have contributed to the 6-year-old's killing. "We were so naïve," he told ABC . "I now believe with all my heart that it's not a good idea to put your child on public display. " Ramsey is currently promoting his new book, out Wednesday, about his struggle to recover from the death of his daughter, who would now be 21. John Ramsey said he's haunted, in particular, by an incident that occurred just before the girl's slaying, which took place the day after Christmas in 1996.

JonBenet Ramsey's body was sprawled on the living room floor, covered with a blanket when the coroner arrived. Around her neck was a cord attached to a stick that was believed to have been used as a garrote. Wednesday's court-ordered release of the complete autopsy report on the 6-year-old beauty queen provided grisly new details but didn't give the time of death, which could help investigators pinpoint who was around her. JonBenet's body was discovered in the basement of her family's house Dec.

JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old beauty queen whose slaying has stymied investigators in this college town for more than a decade, did not die at the hands of her family, the Boulder district attorney said Wednesday. New DNA evidence supports the theory that an unidentified man killed the child, Mary Lacy said.

John Ramsey, the father of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, announced in Charlevoix that he would run for the Michigan state House. Ramsey joins five fellow Republicans and two Democrats seeking to represent a district in the northwest corner of the state's Lower Peninsula. "Borne out of the tragedy of the loss of our daughter, I have been given a platform -- one that I did not seek," Ramsey said in Charlevoix. "But my task, I believe, is to use that platform for good."

John Mark Karr was freed Thursday after a judge dismissed child pornography charges against the onetime suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying because prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial. Judge Rene Chouteau ordered Karr released immediately, bringing an end to his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand in the Ramsey case. He left Sonoma County Jail flanked by his attorneys and rode off in a black Volvo SUV.

A "stressed" John Mark Karr agreed Tuesday to be sent to Colorado to face charges in the death a decade ago of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. Karr looked pale in his first court appearance in the United States, and his lawyer described him as "getting a little bit stressed out." "Yes, your honor," Karr responded when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge asked him if he understood that he could fight extradition.

The lead investigator in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying strongly urged the district attorney Tuesday to turn the case over to a grand jury, which has broad powers that he said could help police catch the little girl's killer. "I have an idea of who did it," said Police Cmdr. Mark Beckner. "If I were the D.A., I would go ahead with a grand jury at this point." Beckner's statements came at the end of two days of meetings in which police presented the evidence in the case to Boulder County Dist. Atty.

The slaying of JonBenet Ramsey will be investigated as a cold case with all evidence and actions taken 12 years ago reviewed anew, Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said. The girl, 6, was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her home in 1996. L. Lin Wood, an attorney for JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, called the announcement a "positive sign." Wood and Ramsey have been critical of previous police efforts, saying they unfairly focused on the family and ignored other evidence.

The face of JonBenet Ramsey emerges once more from the dark archives of her death a dozen years ago. Her smile is frozen at age 6, the eternal image of a little girl whose appeal and sadness continue to haunt us. We see this isn't just a picture of a child at play but a child pitched into an adult world of mascara and lip gloss as a beauty contestant, and paraded before audiences, cameras and the monsters who prey on children. She's in the news again by default.

JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old beauty queen whose slaying has stymied investigators in this college town for more than a decade, did not die at the hands of her family, the Boulder district attorney said Wednesday. New DNA evidence supports the theory that an unidentified man killed the child, Mary Lacy said.

John Mark Karr was freed Thursday after a judge dismissed child pornography charges against the onetime suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying because prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to take the case to trial. Judge Rene Chouteau ordered Karr released immediately, bringing an end to his two-month odyssey in the U.S. criminal justice system after he was extradited from Thailand in the Ramsey case. He left Sonoma County Jail flanked by his attorneys and rode off in a black Volvo SUV.

Sonoma County authorities say they've lost the computer belonging to John Mark Karr, the onetime suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case, that allegedly held the child pornography images he's charged with possessing. But the missing computer was not expected to jeopardize the case against him.

The governor has ridiculed her, former colleagues have criticized her, and constituents have demanded that she be run out of town. But Boulder County Dist. Atty. Mary Lacy on Tuesday defended her decision to arrest John Mark Karr on suspicion of killing 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey -- a move based solely on his repeated confessions to a journalism professor he had contacted by e-mail and phone. Those confessions were lurid, but not always accurate or telling.

Sonoma County authorities say they've lost the computer belonging to John Mark Karr, the onetime suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey case, that allegedly held the child pornography images he's charged with possessing. But the missing computer was not expected to jeopardize the case against him.

JonBenet Ramsey's killer was obsessed with crime movies and quoted from them in a ransom note, her parents said. John and Patricia Ramsey plan to run a newspaper advertisement Sunday--their fourth since JonBenet's death--in the Daily Camera of Boulder that includes phrases from the movies "Ransom," "Dirty Harry" and "Speed." The advertisement lists 10 phrases from movies. They include: "Now listen. Listen very carefully," from "Dirty Harry."

Prosecutors on Monday abruptly dropped their case against John Mark Karr, the itinerant schoolteacher arrested in the decade-old killing of JonBenet Ramsey, saying his DNA did not match blood recovered from the crime scene. Less than two weeks after flying Karr from Thailand to face charges -- an event that set off an international media circus -- Boulder County Dist. Atty.

John Mark Karr, 41, waited in a private jail cell in Boulder for a court appearance Monday in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, while a public defender sought to protect DNA samples taken from his client and a sample of his handwriting. Deputy Public Defender Seth Temin filed a flurry of motions asking the judge to prohibit prosecutors and police from conducting any DNA testing without first notifying the court and the defense.