The case against the teacher sensationally arrested over the brutal murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey has been dropped, after tests revealed that his DNA does not match samples found on the girl's body.
Prosecutors said that despite John Mark Karr's "repeated insistence" that he accidentally killed the six-year-old, there is no evidence he was even in Boulder, Colorado, when she was found beaten and strangled in her home there on Boxing Day in 1996.
Instead, they suggest in court papers, he merely had a twisted fascination with the little girl whose death has horrified America for a decade, and confessed to a crime he did not commit.
Almost a fortnight after he was arrested in Bangkok, the 41-year-old remains in custody in Boulder awaiting extradition to California to face child pornography charges dating from 2001.
Karr emerged as a suspect in April, when a US-based British academic with whom he had been exchanging emails and phone calls for several years alerted authorities that he had now admitted responsibility for JonBenet's death.
According to court papers, Karr told journalism professor Michael Tracey that he accidentally killed her during sex.
But officials said DNA tests conducted in Denver on Friday on a cheek swab taken from Karr do no connect him to the crime.
"The DNA associated with the victim in this case does not match John Mark Karr," Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said.
Karr's family has provided "strong circumstantial support" for their belief that he was with them in Atlanta, Georgia, celebrating Christmas at the time of the crime.
