Editorial: Seeking answers, closure

Friday, Aug. 18, 2006 | 9:10 a.m.

For 10 years, her angelic face was splashed across magazine covers, grocery store tabloids and television news shows as a nation wondered: Who killed 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey?

After the child's lifeless body was discovered in her family's basement the day after Christmas in 1996, Boulder (Colo.) Police investigators focused on John and Patsy Ramsey, her parents.

A contaminated crime scene and investigators' refusal to consider suspects beyond the Ramseys, however, left a nation and the Ramsey family dangling for a decade.

Until Wednesday. That's when Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy confirmed that John Mark Karr, an American schoolteacher, had been arrested in Thailand on suspicion of murdering JonBenet.

Footage of the blond beauty pageant princess prancing across a stage in ruffles and lace is now accompanied by footage of Karr in custody. It's a made-for-television ending in a case that relentlessly played out in the media.

As those enthralled by this case long for closure, it is difficult to avoid feeling relief as Karr looks into the cameras and admits to killing JonBenet.

But we shouldn't make too many assumptions, as some facts don't seem to add up. Among them, Karr claims he drugged the child, but published reports say her autopsy revealed no drugs. And so far questions have been raised as to whether Karr was in Boulder at the time of the murder.

Who killed JonBenet?

The question remains.

And although we seem to be closer to learning the answer, we must be patient.

As John Ramsey said Wednesday, we must "let the justice system operate to its conclusion in an orderly manner" and answer the nagging question, once and for all.