The search for JonBenet Ramsey’s killer will begin anew, as DNA tests have excluded confessor John Mark Karr from the list of suspects.

The DNA sample taken from John Mark Karr does not match DNA found on JonBenet Ramsey’s body when she was murdered in 1996, CNN affiliate KUSA is reporting.

KUSA, based in Denver, Colorado, quoted two sources in a bulletin on its Web site: “9NEWS has confirmed from two sources that the DNA sample taken from John Mark Karr is not a match with the foreign DNA found on JonBenet Ramsey’s body when she was murdered in 1996. 9NEWS has also learned the Boulder County District Attorney’s office will not file charges against Karr in connection with the Ramsey case.”

Bad news for the Ramsey family, as a match might have provided some much needed closure.

John Mark Karr, who is continually referred to as “JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect” despite having voluntarily confessed to the crime, was treated like a king on his flight home from Thailand. Legal experts have mixed reviews.

Authorities probably had a very good reason for allowing JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr to live it up on the 15-hour flight to the United States, legal experts say — they wanted him to talk. Denver attorney Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the royal treatment during Sunday’s journey — king prawns, champagne, French wine — was “a brilliant move.” “What the cops want most is this guy to talk. They say he is not under arrest. Then they do not put him in handcuffs on the plane. And they say he is over the age of 21, free to drink,” Pozner said. “He is therefore free to talk.” If Karr says something incriminating that is challenged in court, Pozner said, the investigator who was sitting next to him simply says he was never in my custody. “There is always a reason when the unusual happens,” Pozner said. “He is in nobody’s custody. He is free to leave if he can find a way at 38,000 feet

Karr left Bangkok on a Thai Airways International flight at about 9 a.m. EDT for the long flight to Los Angeles. The 41-year-old teacher sat in a business class window seat next to Mark Spray, an investigator with the Boulder County District Attorney’s office. Before takeoff, he sipped champagne. During dinner, Karr had pate, salad with walnut dressing and fried king prawn with steamed rice and broccoli. Karr had a beer before a glass of French chardonnay with the main course.

This is a variation of a classic interrogation technique. Still, others have their doubts.

Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor familiar with the case, said was surprised that authorities would allow Karr to sit on the plane sipping champagne and drinking beer. “It could be that if he got a little inebriated he would make further statements that could include or exclude him from this case,” Silverman said.

Bob Grant, a former Adams County district attorney who was involved in the Ramsey investigation, disagreed. “It seems odd to me,” he said. “It is very strange. Whoever is in control of him ought to make sure he isn’t doing things like drinking champagne.”

I don’t know the legal technicalities here, let alone whether the plan (if that was the plan) worked. Still, I can’t believe a judge would consider that Karr was not under arrest in these circumstances. Even in an ordinary traffic stop for a non-criminal ordinance infraction, people who reasonably feel they are not free to leave are considered to be in custody.

Josh Marshall passes on an amusing observation from reader DK:

Number of reporters contributing to Friday’s front page New York Times story on the JonBenet Ramsey case: 13

Number of reporters contributing to Friday’s front page New York Times story on the federal court ruling that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional: 2

Amusing if unsurprising.

After a day when it looked like his confession might have been a hoax or a delusion, it now looks like John Mark Karr’s confession is legitimate.

John Mark Karr gave authorities graphic details about the condition of JonBenet Ramsey’s body that have been kept secret for nearly a decade, a U.S. law enforcement source told CNN on Friday. Those details were known only to the medical examiner and the investigators probing the December 26, 1996 murder of the six-year-old beauty queen, the law enforcement official said.

There are still quite a few questions, apparently.

CNN Breaking News: “Authorities arrest a suspect in Bangkok, Thailand, in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case, two law enforcement officials confirm to CNN.”

UPDATE: AP:

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.

The girl was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996.

Law enforcement officials from Boulder were flying to Bangkok to present Thai authorities with documents in the slaying of the 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant, officials in Washington said. They asked to remain anonymous pending an announcement in Colorado.

The girl’s parents, Patsy and John Ramsey, had been under an “umbrella of suspicion” in JonBenet’s death. The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury investigation in Boulder ended with no indictments, and no arrests had been made in the case. Patsy Ramsey died in July.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes in Atlanta concluded that the evidence she reviewed suggested an intruder killed JonBenet. That opinion came with the judge’s decision to dismiss a libel and slander lawsuit against the Ramseys by a freelance journalist, who the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter’s murder. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with Carnes’ declaration.

UPDATE: Blogswarm, activate.

• AllahPundit: “Thailand. Sex charges. Gobsmackingly vile.“
• Mary Katharine Ham: “I know it’s a Greta Van Susteren story . . .”
• LaShawn Barber: “Some people, including me, suspected that her mother, the late Patsy Ramsey, was involved with the killing. I’ll hold off making a statement until I get more info.” [A clear violation of the blogger code! - ed.]

UPDATE: The suspect, American John Mark Karr, has confessed.

The American suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case said publicly Thursday he was with the 6-year-old when she died and called her death “an accident,” a stunning admission that will help answer 10 years of questions in the unsolved murder case. “I was with JonBenet when she died,” John Mark Karr told reporters in Bangkok, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. “Her death was an accident.”

Police said Karr, 41, admitted to the killing after he was arrested Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok apartment by Thai and American authorities. Karr will be taken to Colorado within the next week where he will face charges of murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.

Karr, speaking to reporters after the news conference, declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family or how long he had known JonBenet. Wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.

[...]

Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said U.S. authorities informed Thai police on Aug. 11 that an arrest warrant had been issued for Karr on charges of premeditated murder. The warrant was sent to Thai police on Wednesday. At the press conference, Suwat said Karr insisted after his arrest that his crime was not first-degree murder. “He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional. He said he was in love with the child. She was a pageant queen,” Suwat said. The Thai officer quoted the suspect as saying he tried to kidnap JonBenet for a $118,000 ransom but that his plan went awry and he strangled her to death. Patsy Ramsey, JonBenet’s mother, reported finding a ransom note in the house demanding $118,000 for her daughter.

Hurst said Karr has been “very cooperative” with authorities and that he’s shown a “variety of emotions.” She said he has been a suspect “for a while” but wouldn’t specify how long. Suwat said Karr arrived in Bangkok on June 6 from Malaysia to look for a teaching job. It was not clear whether he had gotten a job, the police officer said.

If Karr is the real murderer, he will join a long line of infamous killers who use three names (John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman come readily to mind).

Patsy Ramsey, made famous by the murder of her daughter JonBenet, died today at 49.

Patsy Ramsey, who was thrust into the national spotlight by the unsolved 1996 slaying of her daughter, 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant JonBenet, died Saturday following a long battle with ovarian cancer, her lawyer said. She was 49.

Ramsey was diagnosed with the disease in 1993 and suffered a recurrence several years ago, attorney L. Lin Wood said. She died at her father’s home in Roswell, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, with her husband, John, at her bedside. “It is not unexpected but it is a sad day,” Wood told The Associated Press.

JonBenet was found beaten and strangled in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder, Colo., on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey said she found a ransom note on the back staircase demanding $118,000 for the safe return of JonBenet. John Ramsey said he found his daughter’s body in a basement room eight hours later.

Boulder police said early on that Patsy and John Ramsey were under an “umbrella of suspicion” in JonBenet’s death. The Ramseys said an intruder killed their daughter. A grand jury investigation in Boulder ended with no indictments, and no arrests have been made in the case.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Julie Carnes in Atlanta concluded that the evidence she reviewed suggested an intruder killed JonBenet. That opinion came with the judge’s decision to dismiss a libel and slander lawsuit against the Ramseys by a freelance journalist, who the Ramseys had named as a suspect in their daughter’s murder. The Boulder district attorney at the time said she agreed with Carnes’ declaration. “Hopefully her legacy will not be tied to the false accusation related to the brutal murder of her daughter,” Wood said of Patsy Ramsey Saturday.

I frankly never understood the national fascination with the death of JonBenet Ramsey, whose death I found tragic but no moreso than that of thousands of other children of whom we’ve never heard. Still, it’s a story that gripped the nation for years. That the family had to endure the additional tragedy of being baselessly suspected of their daughter’s murder was especially sad, however.

Gone Hollywood