Ledger DC Journal - News, Politics & Crime

(Corrected) Michael Tracey exchanged hundreds of e-mails with the man that has confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey. Tracey, a University of Colorado journalism professor produced three documentaries on the JonBenet Ramsey case.

Michael Tracey E-Mails with Karr Helped in JonBenet Case

That apparently sparked interest from the suspect, 41-year old ex teacher John Mark Karr.

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The Rocky Mountain News reports that Karr was intrigued by what he saw and wanted to talk things over with Tracey, a man whose rigorous documentaries have challenged conventional police theories about the case and criticized what he saw as a rush to convict John and Patsy Ramsey in the court of public opinion.

Karr became interested in Tracey's documentary "Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey?" and started an e-mail correspondence with him, private investigator Ollie Gray said. Tracey eventually became disturbed by Karr's writings and was encouraged to continue corresponding with him.

Ollie Gray is a private investigator who was hired by the Ramseys and has worked on the case for years alongside retired Colorado Springs homicide detective Lou Smit.

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RMN reports that Tracey, closely aligned with Smit and Gray, was disturbed by the e-mails from Karr and brought the two into the loop on their exchanges, according to Gray.

"We encouraged (Tracey) to continue to communicate with him on it," Gray said.

Gray then told the newspaper that he was in possession of a "three-quarter-inch" stack of the e-mails and characterized them broadly:

"(The suspect) talked about being there, about doing this and doing that, and knowing this and knowing that - 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."

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Reuters reports that 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.

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

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Karr told The Associated Press: "I am so very sorry for what happened to Jon Benet. It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident."

CBS reported that Karr will be brought back to the US this weekend.

--Debra Beste