Exclusive: 'I Married John Karr At 13'

  

Aug. 23 -- Quientana Ray was just 12 years old when she met John Mark Karr, the 41-year-old man under arrest for the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Within a year, against her parents wishes, she and Karr, then 19, were married.

Today, she talked about her ex-husband in an exclusive interview on "Good Morning America."

Ray said she met Karr at a party in Hamilton, Ala.,and he proceeded to seduce her. Her parents, Melissa and Larry Shotts, said they were opposed to the marriage.

The couple had a lengthy battle with Ray's parents over the relationship. According to Ray's parents, Karr became more defensive and threatening as they continued to oppose the couple's plans.

And Ray said Karr became a different person after they were married.

"I believed he loved me," she said. But her marriage to Karr lasted less than a year. That year, according to Ray, was a tumultuous one.

"I was drugged and things were done to me without me having any idea," said Ray, who is now married with a 4-month-old child.

In 1985, after nine months of marriage, Shotts filed for an annulment, complaining in court records that she was "fearful for her life and safety."

In a response filed with the court, Karr contested Shotts' age, saying she was in fact 14. A judge later granted the annulment.

Karr later married a second time, to Lara Karr, who was 16 when their twin daughters died the day they were born on Sept. 1, 1989.

Ray also told "Good Morning America" that Karr frequently talked about young girls.

"He had fantasies about little girls he would talk to me about," she said.

Karr awaits extradition from California to Colorado to face first-degree murder charge and kidnapping charges for the Ramsey slaying.

In addition to first-degree murder, the counts against Karr in a sealed probable-cause arrest warrant include felony murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.

Boulder, Colo. Prosecutors have not revealed the evidence they have gathered against Karr, though critics have been skeptical about the truthfulness of his alleged confession, because of inconsistencies between his statements and the circumstances surrounding JonBenet's slaying.

Still, Ray's parents said they discovered letters Karr wrote to their daughter that were signed "S.B.T.C." -- the same initials found on a ransom note left in the Ramseys' home.

Reflecting on her relationship and marriage to Karr, Ray said she wishes police would have intervened, as her parents had requested.

"If the law would have done something, he would have something on his record," she said. "Maybe he would have been watched. I could have had help I would have told what happened to me," she said, stifling tears.

Quientana Ray and her parents asked that families in similar situations contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for help.

For more information, visit the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on the web at www.missingkids.com

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