John Mark Karr Biography

John Mark Karr was arrested in Thailand in 2006 — but then released two weeks later — in connection with the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey.

JonBenet Ramsey was a six-year-old girl found strangled in her Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996. Her killing was heavily covered in the media, helped along by photos of the young victim’s many appearances in junior beauty pageants.

Authorities began to suspect in 2006 that John Mark Karr might have killed Ramsey, based on comments in emails Karr sent to documentary filmmaker Michael Tracey.

Karr had been arrested in California for possession of child pornography in 2001, left the United States soon after, and drifted around Central America and Asia teaching English and taking other transient jobs.

Shortly after being arrested in Thailand, Karr set off a media frenzy by telling reporters, “I was with JonBenet when she died” and that the death “an accident.”

By the time Karr was flown back to Los Angeles and then on to Boulder County Jail, however, questions had arisen about Karr’s truthfulness. Among other things, Karr’s ex-wife told authorities that Karr had been with family in Georgia during the holidays in 1996.

Karr claimed to have drugged Jon Benet and that she’d died accidentally, but there was no evidence of drugs in her body.

On August 28, 2006, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy announced that DNA taken from Karr did not match DNA found at the scene of Ramsey’s death, and said that charges would not be filed against Karr.

Karr was later extradited to California based on the outstanding 2001 pornography charges there, but was ultimately freed on those charges as well.

In 2010, The Daily Beast reported that Karr was living as a woman under the name of Delia Alexis Reich. By 2020, she had moved to Alabama and taken the name Alex Reich (the surname because of a stated love of Germany).