The prosecutor who ordered the arrest of John Mark Karr, the man this week cleared of the murder of a child beauty queen, said she had to act before he attacked another girl.

Boulder, Colorado District Attorney Mary Lacy, who heads the team which had Karr extradited from Thailand to the US after he claimed to have killed JonBenet Ramsey, said he was considered an imminent threat to a five-year-old girl in Thailand.

"He was expressing feelings toward this child in the same way that he was expressing feelings toward the dead child," said Lacy, who had Karr apprehended after seeing a chilling series of emails he sent to a college professor in which he described killing JonBenet.

She did however concede that prosecutors lacked any concrete evidence against Karr, 41, at the time of his arrest.

With Karr now in the clear the brutal slaying of JonBent Ramsey on Boxing Day 1996 is once again a mystery.

"John Karr himself sincerely believes he killed JonBenet Ramsey so I have no sympathy for him," Lacy said. "Because he believed it himself and continues to believe it his (account of the crime) had all of the emotional impact that you would expect (from the killer)."

'Damage control'

Police have never matched DNA found in JonBenet's underwear, thought to be a mix of her blood and the saliva of a white male, to any suspect in the case. Members of the Ramsey family, initially suspects in the killing, have been eliminated as having left the DNA.

Karr's detailed confession included an explanation of why his saliva might have been found mixed with the girl's blood in her underwear, which prosecutors said lent credibility to his account.

But former prosecutor Craig Silverman called Lacy's explanations "damage control" that wouldn't wash.

"She went from the penthouse to the doghouse with this DNA report," he said.

Colorado Governor Bill Owens has also slammed Lacy, saying she should be held accountable for "the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history."

Lacy said she was still frustrated and "baffled" that JonBenet's killer eluded capture despite the thousands of hours of investigation poured into the case.

JonBenet was discovered in the basement of her Bolder home on Boxing Day 1996. She had been garroted, her skull fractured and her mouth duct-taped.

The Ramsey family moved away after the murder and her mother, Patsy, died of cancer in June. The house where the former Little Miss Colorado died now stands empty.

Source: China Daily