By Jon Sarche and Chase Squires

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — After eight days of tantalizing admissions, speculation and a marathon trip from Asia, a suspect in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey arrived in Colorado to face an investigation prosecutors admit is still in its infancy.

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John Mark Karr, the enigmatic former schoolteacher who claims he was with 6-year-old JonBenet when she was beaten and strangled 10 years ago, was locked up in solitary confinement late Thursday. He arrived hours earlier on a flight from Los Angeles.

Formal charges were pending and the date of Karr's first court appearance will probably be announced Friday, the district attorney's office said.

Questions about Karr's involvement in the case have arisen since he told reporters following his arrest in Thailand that he was with the beauty pageant contestant at the time of her death, which he said was an accident.

Prosecutors have refused to detail any evidence they might have, but in a court filing this week said investigators didn't learn of Karr's name until Aug. 11, five days before his arrest. They also said he was arrested in part because they feared he might get tipped off and vanish.

"It is like this guy fell out of the sky for them and they're trying to figure out what they have going," said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor. "They can't really let him go or proceed to convict him until they have the evidence. It's in a bit of a limbo now."

The court filing conflicts with the Sonoma County, Calif., sheriff, who said his office alerted Boulder authorities about Karr in 2001 after he was arrested on child pornography charges. The sheriff and Boulder prosecutors declined to comment on the apparent discrepancy.

Karr, 41, has professed love for JonBenet in e-mails with a Colorado professor, and told a California woman, Wendy Hutchens, he believes the little girl was tortured before she was strangled.

Sonoma County sheriff's Lt. Dave Edmonds said Karr expressed an "apparent fascination" with 1993 murder victim Polly Klaas and JonBenet, and "presented ideas about what the murderers of Polly Klaas and JonBenet Ramsey must have thought and felt."

But there was no confession, Edmonds said, or anything else to suggest Karr played a role in JonBenet's slaying.

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