JonBenet's hometown back in spotlight

updated 6:55 p.m. ET Aug. 21, 2006

BOULDER, Colo. - Just when they thought the media spotlight had faded on the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, residents of this college town at the foot of the Rocky Mountains reacted to the latest glare with a heavy sigh: We’ve had enough attention, thank you. Please leave us alone.

That is unlikely to happen after the arrest of John Mark Karr, a school teacher who cryptically claimed to have been present when JonBenet Ramsey was killed in 1996.

The body of the 6-year-old beauty queen was found beaten and strangled in the wine cellar of the Ramsey family’s 15-room house in a pricey Boulder neighborhood that now draws curious onlookers and news media.

Karr has said her death was an accident but offered no details.

“We’re all sick of it,” said 22-year-old Charles Bond, emptying a trash bin at a park just blocks from the shuttered Ramsey house that has stood empty for years.

“It had all blown over. No one talked about it anymore. Now the reporters are back,” Bond complained.

And downtown Boulder, with its long pedestrian mall and many high-end shops, “is a circus,” said Bond, grumbling about the new swarm of journalists.

Suspect to be sent to Boulder
Karr arrived in Los Angeles late Sunday after a flight from Thailand, where he was arrested last week. He faces legal proceedings in California before he is sent to Boulder.

ARREST IN JONBENET RAMSEY CASE A meeting with suspect? Karr wedded 2 teen girls Suspect studied Calif. case Fact file: Inconsistencies Boulder, Colo., back in spotlight Evidence again under scrutiny E-mails: ‘JonBenet, my love’ Suspect: Death ‘an accident’ Ramsey family ‘elated’ by arrest When a murder confession isn’t E-mail trail led police to suspect Newsweek: Mystery of John Mark Karr Pedophiles find cover in Asia   Discuss: Your thoughts on JonBenet case Timeline: Key events in investigation

Karr flew in business class, sipped champagne and dined on gourmet food on the trip. Some Boulder residents questioned whether they should pay for the trip.

“I don’t think anyone who’s being extradited from a country should be schmoozing on the taxpayers’ dime,” said Brandon Pelcher, 25, a worker at the Boulder Book Store. The case “is already a comedy of errors, and this just seems like another twist in a crazy saga.”

To understand Boulder’s aversion to limelight requires a bit of history: The city for years has struggled with the occasional problems of the hometown University of Colorado. Two years ago, prosecutors alleged the school’s football program was using sex and booze as a way to attract recruits. Last year, professor Ward Churchill compared some of the World Trade Center victims to Nazi Adolf Eichmann, a key planner of the Holocaust.

But the city is also home to Nobel laureates, top cyclists and rock climbers. It has a budding tech industry and lots of boomers and hippies. It’s mostly white and upscale and carries a reputation as a liberal bastion.

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