John Mark Karr

 Less than two weeks since Karr was arrested in Thailand and flown to the United States, District Attorney Mary Lacy said a DNA sample from Karr failed to match DNA traces at the crime scene and that witnesses put him elsewhere at the time of the murder.

 "The DNA associated with the victim in this case does not match John Mark Karr," Lacy, Boulder's district attorney.

 "The family of Mr. Karr cooperated by providing circumstantial evidence that Mr. Karr spent Christmas with his family in Atlanta, Georgia," at the time of the murder in 1996, Lacy said.

 After a media circus covering Karr's extradition from Thailand, featuring Karr, 41, in Thai Airways business class reportedly drinking champagne, eating pate and king prawns next to a US Homeland Security agent, the case, remains unsolved.

 Karr's attorney, Seth Temin, accused US authorities of acting without proof against his client.

 "We are deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him, and no supporting factors leading to a presumption that he did anything wrong," Temin said.

 The prosecutor came under similar criticism from legal commentators, including former prosecutors, who said Boulder authorities had botched the case and should have asked Thai police to conduct a DNA test.

 The governor of Colorado, Bill Owens, joined in the criticism.

 "I find it incredible that Boulder authorities wasted thousands of taxpayer dollars to bring Karr to Colorado given such a lack of evidence," the governor said in a statement quoted by local media.

 Prosecutor "Mary Lacy should be held accountable for the most extravagant and expensive DNA test in Colorado history."

 Ramsey's parents found their daughter's mutilated body in their wine cellar the day after Christmas in 1996 in a case that drew national media coverage.

 Boulder Sheriff Joe Pelle said he will extradite Karr to Sonoma County, California, where he faces child pornography charges from 2001.

 "He remains in our custody for the officials in California," Pelle said.

 Thai police, who arrested Karr on August 16 on the outstanding child pornography charges, said Karr had confessed to killing Ramsey unintentionally. They said Karr told them he was "in love" with JonBenet, who wore makeup and glamorous outfits and struck precocious poses in her appearances at child beauty pageants.

 US officials tracked Karr to Bangkok after studying four years' worth of his e-mails to University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey.

 "I am trapped in a world that does not understand," Karr said in one exchange. "I can understand people like Michael Jackson and feel sympathy when he suffers as he has."

 While his arrest has revived huge interest in the murder -- in which, at one point, JonBenet's parents were investigated as possible suspects -- suspicions arose that Karr might not be the girl's killer.

 Karr's ex-wife Lara Marie Knutson has said that on the day JonBenet's body was found, she was with Karr and their three sons in the southeastern US state of Alabama.

 Her 11-year marriage to Karr ended in 2001, the year Sonoma County, California alleged Karr possessed child pornography.

 And a Thai police officer further raised suspicions when he reportedly said Karr had mentioned that he had drugged and sexually assaulted the Ramsey girl before she died.

 But the Ramsey's family lawyer noted that JonBenet's autopsy showed no signs of drugs and inconclusive evidence of sexual assault.

 Asked last week by reporters if he had killed her, Karr said: "No, I did not. It was an accident." However, the girl's body was found beaten and strangled with a garrote.

 Karr also reportedly told Thai police that he had "loved" the little girl.

 Karr's motive for the confession remains fodder for speculation, along with the identity of the real murderer.