E-mail exchange helped lead authorities to Karr

John Mark Karr’s correspondence with a professor who made documentaries on the JonBenet Ramsey case was key to his arrest in the decade-old slaying, a private investigator was quoted as saying.

Karr, 41, arrested Wednesday in Bangkok, began an exchange of hundreds of e-mails with University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey four years ago, revealing critical information about the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty-pageant star, investigator Ollie Gray told the Rocky Mountain News.

“(The suspect) talked about being there, about doing this and doing that, and knowing this and knowing that,” Gray said. ”He had a whole bunch of things that didn’t come out before. It wasn’t part of what the media was allowed to get at before.”

Tracey produced three documentaries on the Boulder, Colorado, case and contended the girl’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were unfairly viewed as suspects. He worked closely with Gray, who had been hired by the Ramsey family, alongside former Colorado Springs police detective Lou Smit.

Karr became interested in Tracey’s documentary “Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?” and started an e-mail correspondence with him, Gray said. He said Tracey eventually became disturbed by Karr’s writings and was encouraged to continue corresponding with him.

Tracey declined to comment on his role in the Karr investigation but was quoted by the News as saying, “I do believe he has the right to be presumed innocent. I got involved in this, for 10 years, because I believe that right was never extended to the Ramseys and that was wrong.”

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Gray said he and his associates pressed the Boulder district attorney to look into Karr, but that authorities were reluctant until Gray was on the verge of going to Paris, where Karr was believed to have been, to confront Karr himself.

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Prosecutors interviewed Tracey in June and “then they got damn serious in a big hurry,” Gray said.

“Michael Tracey was instrumental in this investigation,” Susan Stine, a Ramsey family friend, told the Rocky Mountain News. “He was instrumental in flushing this person (Karr) out in the sense of getting him to talk.”