Police make arrest in JonBenet Ramsey murder

LOS ANGELES, Aug 16 (Reuters) An arrest has been made in Thailand in the 10-year-old murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a child beauty queen whose grisly death triggered a US media frenzy, a US law enforcement official said today.

The official, in Washington, said the U.S. government ''facilitated a request'' for the arrest of the unidentified suspect who was detained in Bangkok. The suspect faces charges in the western state of Colorado, where the girl had lived.

KUSA-TV in Denver, Colorado, said the suspect confessed to elements of the crime that were unknown to the general public.

Representatives of the Boulder, Colorado, Police Department and Boulder District Attorney's Office declined to comment.

JonBenet, 6, was found beaten and strangled in the family's Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996, in a case that remains unsolved.

Her parents came under the Boulder police ''umbrella of suspicion'' but a grand jury issued no indictments.

The killing drew intense media coverage focusing on JonBenet's success in youth beauty pageants, the family's affluence and mysterious elements of the case, including a note that first led police to believe the girl had been kidnapped.

Patsy Ramsey, the girl's mother, died in June of cancer.

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