BOULDER, Colorado: Prosecutors have dropped charges against the former schoolteacher arrested for the grisly 1996 slaying of a child beauty queen.

For a few days after the arrest two weeks ago of John Mark Karr, it seemed as if the decade long mystery of who murdered 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey had finally been solved.

But cracks in Karr's confession started appearing even before he was brought back to America from Thailand.

And on Monday the charges were dropped after it was found that his DNA did not match samples found at the scene of the crime.

"The warrant on Mr Karr has been dropped by the district attorney," Karr's public defender Seth Temin said outside the jail where he was being held. "They are not proceeding with the case."

Karr, 41, was arrested nearly two weeks ago in Thailand, where he had been working as a teacher, after he was identified as the source of emails claiming responsibility for the murder sent to Michael Tracey, a British journalism professor at Colorado University, who had made documentaries about the case.

At a press conference before his flight back to the US Karr told reporters that he had been with JonBenet at the time of her death, which he claimed was an accident. Asked if he was innocent, he said no.

However there were concerns that Karr might be a disturbed attention-seeker, obsessed with the case.

His ex-wife said he had been with his family in Georgia and Alabama for the 1996 Christmas holidays, while experts said his handwriting did not match a ransom note thought to be from the murderer.

Although he will not stand trial for the murder, Karr still faces child pornography charges in California.

Gary Harris, a spokesman for the Karr family, said he expected the DNA test result. "I knew it wouldn't match," he told MSNBC. He said Karr had been 'obsessed with this case for a long time.'

"He may have some personality problems, but he's not a killer," said Harris. "He obsesses. He wanted to be a rock star one time... He's a dreamer. He's the kind of guy who wants to be famous."

Hair fibres found on a blanket placed over JonBenet's body did not match any of the Ramsey family or about 100 people whose DNA was tested.

Among the other evidence found at the scene was a garrotte and a paintbrush handle used to tighten it, a boot print outside the family house and some signs an intruder could have entered through a basement window.

"JonBenet, my love, my life. I love you and shall forever love you," Karr wrote in one email to Professor Tracy. "I pray that you can hear my voice calling out to you from... this darkness that now separates us."

Karr served six months jail in California for possessing child pornography but skipped bail in 2001, before turning up in Thailand.

Source: China Daily