This is a partial transcript from "On the Record," August 16, 2006, that has been edited for clarity.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST: This a FOX News Alert: An arrest. After 10 years, an arrest in the JonBenet Ramsey murder. John Karr, an American citizen, was arrested Wednesday in Bangkok, Thailand. And at this hour, it is unclear what Mr. Karr is charged with, but Boulder police want him back in Boulder.
Joining us live on the phone is Nate Karr, John Karr's brother. Welcome, Nate.
NATE KARR, BROTHER OF RAMSEY SUSPECT: Hi, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: How are you, Nate, this evening?
KARR: I'm fine. We're actually in the airport, so the reception may be a little bad. I apologize.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. That's fine. Nate, do you know if your brother has left Bangkok for Boulder, Colorado, yet?
KARR: I do not have any idea where he is at this point in transit. We've been contacted by no one, as far as the law enforcement.
VAN SUSTEREN: So police haven't contacted your family at all.
KARR: Not as of yet. I guess they're waiting until they get him back in the United States, I would imagine.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know if your brother, John, ever lived in Boulder, Colorado?
KARR: To my knowledge, he never lived in Boulder, Colorado, and I don't think that he was ever there, to be honest with you. He may have been through there in transit at one point when he was moving to California maybe four years ago, but to my knowledge, that's the only time he would have ever been in Boulder, Colorado.
VAN SUSTEREN: What's your brother like?
KARR: He's just a great guy. He's a family man. He has three beautiful sons. You know, he was always a very loving brother and always there for the family, caring. And it's just beyond us how this could be possible.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Now, your brother grew up in Alabama and Georgia, is that right?
KARR: That's right. He did live for a while with our grandparents in Alabama.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Did he ever work in Georgia?
KARR: To my knowledge, he didn't work in Georgia. I believe he taught in Alabama, and for a short time, in California.
VAN SUSTEREN: About what age did he leave Georgia?
KARR: Well, he moved to California. You know, he was here off and on for family functions, but he lived in Alabama. I think he left Georgia maybe when he was young, very young, 12 years old or something like that, to live with the grandparents.
VAN SUSTEREN: And so then he moved to Alabama. And then about what age did he leave Alabama?
KARR: Well, he was in Alabama until four years ago or so, five years ago, when he moved to California with his family for a teaching job.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Now, the JonBenet Ramsey murder case occurred 10 years ago. Did your brother live in Alabama up until four years ago? Is that what you said?
KARR: Yes. Yes. To the best of my knowledge, he did reside in Alabama up until four or five years ago, when he moved to California, yes. He actually lived in a family home that we owned there that had belonged to our grandparents. And we had constant, you know, communication with him. They would come to our house in Atlanta for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And that's one of the points of contention maybe we talk about — and maybe we talk to you tomorrow night — is there's a possibility that we believe he could have been even here in Atlanta with us when this horrible tragedy occurred to little JonBenet Ramsey. And we don't know that for sure. We have to check our photo album and get the dates right.
But you know, there's so many things that are going on that — maybe we can talk to you more in depth tomorrow about why we think he is implicated in this. And it's — to us, it's — it's believable that they would implicate him because of some things that he was researching.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right...
KARR: And maybe he got his nose in where he shouldn't have gotten in it or whatever. But we can talk more about that tomorrow if we could get a chance to talk to you.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Do you know if he knew the Ramsey family?
KARR: To my knowledge, he did not know the Ramsey family, never had any contact with the Ramsey family directly, no. Even though we all did live in Atlanta, we were not affiliated in any way to the Ramseys.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did he ever mention to you the death of JonBenet?
KARR: Yes, he did, actually. That maybe we could get into more in depth. He was in the process several years ago, you know, maybe five, six years ago, long after the JonBenet murder, about researching a book he was going to try to write about men who create — commit these horrible crimes against children. And I think he had even, at one point, been in contact with several, you know, convicted people. Like, I think that he actually had correspondence with the gentleman that was involved in the Polly Klaas case, and things of that nature. He was on the Internet, you know, doing research for his book.
And that's why I say, you know, it's very possible that through his investigations for the book he was trying to write, you know, he was contacting people. He was trying to get the real feeling of why these people did this, what they were doing, how they would possibly go about doing this. And maybe, you know, the FBI or whatever saw this — you know, his going to contact these people or him researching the Ramsey case so thoroughly and having such interest in it, maybe — that is the only possible way that we think that he could have been brought into this because, of course, there's going to be no physical evidence. If they do, in fact, have DNA at the scene, please test him immediately so he can be vindicated.
VAN SUSTEREN: What did he tell you about his research about the JonBenet Ramsey case?
KARR: There was multiple things. I mean, you know, there was — it was very in-depth. It was a research project for a manuscript he was going to write. So he got involved as much as he possibly could. But he never, to my knowledge, ever contacted the Ramsey family after the — you know, at all. He would do things like, you know, research police reports or maybe even a coroner's report or, you know — he was just trying to get in as in- depth as he could, to not only this case but other cases, as well. I mean, he wasn't some — you know, it wasn't some — something that he was, like, obsessed with the JonBenet Ramsey case. He was researching multiple incidences.
You know, as I say, he had correspondence, I believe, with the — I can't remember the gentleman's name who was involved with the Polly Klaas case or whatever. But you know, this should be documented. You know, you guys can probably find this guy out through, you know, some kind of record, I'm sure. But — so it's not just this case that he was interested in, it was multiple things because he was, as I said, was going to — attempting to write a manuscript covering this whole genre of murder.
I mean, it sounds like a horrible topic, but you know, things do — those kinds of things sell books, you know? And that's probably, you know, what he was interested in, getting into the nitty-gritty, into the minds of these people to write a real expose kind of manuscript. And I think that he just got in too far and too deep without explanation and the FBI or whatever picked up on it.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So if he moved out of Alabama four years ago, that's about the year 2002. In the...
KARR: That's not exact. It could be five years ago.
VAN SUSTEREN: I know.
KARR: I'm a little shaken up today, so I don't have my dates exactly right, but it's been about four or five years ago.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, 2001, 2002. In the years leading up to that, was he teaching 2nd grade in Alabama?
KARR: I'm not exactly positive of the exact grade he was teaching, but I know he was doing some — I think some student teaching and some teaching in Alabama, yes.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did he ever...
KARR: I'm not exactly sure…
VAN SUSTEREN: Did he ever have any trouble with the law?
KARR: He may have had some trouble with the law, but that's something I don't know about and I can't comment about. I really have no idea. There may have been some other difficulty with him once he got to California. But it's nothing that I could have any comment about because I know nothing at all.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right. So when did he get married, when he was in Alabama or when he was in California?
KARR: He got married years ago, maybe 13 years ago or more. I don't know exactly. I'm sorry. As I said, I'm a little shook up. But it was many, many, many, many years ago. And they have three lovely children.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is he currently married?
KARR: I'm not sure of his status with his wife right now. They may be separated. That could be part of the reason why he was where he was. I don't know.
VAN SUSTEREN: And the children are about how old?
KARR: I believe that the oldest is about 12 or 13, and they digress about one or two years apart from that.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know how long he's been in Thailand?
KARR: I do not. And in fact, I really had no idea he was in Thailand, to be honest with you.
VAN SUSTEREN: Is that unusual that he would be in Thailand, and you, as a brother, don't know that?
KARR: Well, we had limited communications over the last few years because he had moved to the West Coast. And if he had had any marital trouble, he may have gone there to escape and just get away and think. I really could not comment on that. I don't know what he was thinking, to be honest with you.
VAN SUSTEREN: Anything unusual about him at all, Nate?
KARR: No. You know, he was just a well-rounded kid. I mean, he was on the dean's list in college. He played musical instruments, very intelligent, just, like, a wonderful person that loved his sons and loved his family. It's just very bizarre that he's going to have to go through this, and it's unfortunate, because I'm sure that he will be exonerated.
VAN SUSTEREN: Where did he go to college?
KARR: I'm sorry?
VAN SUSTEREN: Where'd he go to college?
KARR: He actually went to a college in Alabama. I believe it was — it was a smaller community college, but I — oh, my goodness, I can't remember the name of it, Bevel (ph) State College or something like that.
VAN SUSTEREN: And so he was...
KARR: But he did really excellent, dean's list, you know, top of his class, all throughout high school, everything, you know, wonderful.
VAN SUSTEREN: When he was researching his book about men who commit horrible crimes against children, was this his first book, or had he written a book before?
KARR: No, that was going to be his first, you know, sort of thing that he was going to do. And after the fact, he couldn't get enough information. He ran into problems obtaining the information because he did some many things, you know, trying to, you know, contact people who had been convicted of these crimes and accessing records, and blah, blah, blah. And I think it just got to too much. And so the project sort of died. It just sort of died off and it was never completed.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you know who the man he was researching in the JonBenet case? Because that had essentially been unsolved. Did he have some idea...
KARR: No, I don't think...
VAN SUSTEREN: ... of what man to research?
KARR: I don't know that he had any — I don't think he had any real - - he may have a personal opinion about what happened, but he was voicing no suspect, in our minds. It was just, you know, it was just a horrible tragedy that happened and why did it happen. And again, that's why he had tried to communicate with the gentleman in the — I believe it's Polly Klaas, if I'm pronouncing that last name correct, that happened. You know, there was correspondence between them. And so he was, you know, really trying to gain information from any outlet that he could, and I guess that turned up to look very suspicious.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right...
KARR: And I believe that's why he's where he is now.
VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Nate. So we'll see you tomorrow night, and by then, I'm sure you'll have more information. Thank you, Nate.
KARR: OK. Thank you so much, Greta. Bye-bye.
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