The purpose of this press release is to provide some information concerning the Sonoma County Sheriffs Departments 2001 investigation into John Mark Karr. Karr is the subject who is being held by Boulder, Colorado authorities in their investigation of the 1996 murder of Jon Benet Ramsey.
We have spoken with Boulder, Colorado law enforcement authorities and we will continue to work with them to be of assistance in their case involving John Karr.
We appreciate and respect the medias and publics interests concerning Boulders current investigation as well as our 2001 child











investigation in which John Karr was arrested and charged. However, our primary concern will continue to be the need to protect the integrity of both investigations. For this reason, any comments coming from the Sonoma County Sheriffs Department (including this one) will first be cleared with the Boulder County District Attorneys Office.
The Sonoma County Sheriffs Department did open an investigation into John Mark Karr in 2001. A primary initial interest to us was to investigate Karr as a potential suspect in the 1997 murder of 12-year-old Georgia Moses in Petaluma. At this point, Karr does not appear to be a viable suspect in that case.
One of the persons who provided information to us during our investigation was Wendy Hutchens. Her information included tape recordings and emails with Karr. Through investigation efforts that included search warrants, forensic examination of digital (computer) media, and surveillance, we attempted to learn about any crimes that Karr might have committed. We provided much of our case information to the FBI, who helped us with this investigation.
Ultimately, we were only able to establish that Karr committed five violations of penal code section 311.11, possession of child











. He was charged for these crimes but he fled during the time of court proceedings so an arrest warrant was issued for him. We made efforts to locate Karr to serve this warrant, but we were unsuccessful and it appeared he fled our jurisdiction to an unknown location(s). Our warrant will be served after Karrs matters in Colorado are resolved.
During the course of our investigation in 2001, we learned of Karrs apparent fascination with the 1993 murder of Polly Klaas in Petaluma, and the 1996 murder of Jon Benet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado. In some writings, Karr presented ideas about what the murderers of Polly Klaas and Jon Benet Ramsey must have thought and felt.
Karr mostly spoke of Jon Benet Ramseys murderer in a manner that suggested he was an unknown subject, but one whom Karr was very interested in and curious about. In a few instances while he seemed to be wondering about the Jon Benet Ramsey murder, he made uncertain allusions to placing himself in the killers role. However, we never uncovered any "confession" statements, overt murder evidence, or other indications that John Karr possessed secret knowledge that only the murderer of Jon Benet Ramsey would know.
Besides the Jon Benet Ramsey murder in Colorado, Karr also made references to another child killing in another state, as well as a child molestation in yet another state. During our 2001 investigation, we made notification of our investigation to law enforcement authorities in all three jurisdictions. We had follow-up dialogue with law enforcement authorities in each jurisdiction.
Though we do appreciate the role of the media and the publics interest, these cases are open investigations and we are obliged to protect their integrity. In order to provide for that need, we will continue to exercise restraint in our public statements. Any future release of information will be made by press release. Interested parties can subscribe to receive our press releases via email when they are posted. This can be done by going to the press index page on our website,
www.sonomasheriff.org, and providing an email address there.
Prepared by: Lt. Dave Edmonds, Sonoma County Sheriffs Department