Artist arrested in Ramsey house arson
Web posted 6/20/97

The Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - An artist who admitted stealing a logbook page that recorded the arrival of JonBenet Ramsey's body at the morgue was accused Thursday of trying to burn down the Ramsey home.

James M. Thompson, who calls himself J.T. Colfax, was arrested after he turned himself in to police. He told investigators he tried to set fire to the vacant house after spending the night on the property, police said.

The Ramseys, whose 6-year-old daughter was found slain in the basement of the home on Dec. 26, have put the house up for sale and reportedly are trying to buy a home outside Atlanta.

Thompson called a police detective and told him he had set paper on fire and had shoved it through the Ramseys' mail slot, police said.

Police looked through a door window and saw what appeared to be burned papers and a lighter on the floor beneath the mail slot. They said they saw no flames or smoke coming out of the house.

Authorities did not say how much damage, if any, the house sustained. Police confiscated from Thompson two packs of matches, a lighter and a handwritten note reading ``Something must happen today.''

Thompson, 33, faces charges of first-degree attempted arson and third-degree criminal trespass. He was being held without bond and is scheduled to appear in court Friday.

He was charged in May with abusing corpses after he took photographs of bodies he had posed with various written messages. Later that month, he admitted stealing the page from the morgue, and said he made copies and mailed them to his friends.

Police questioned him in the death of the child beauty queen, who was found beaten and strangled in the family's upscale, Tudor-style home. No suspects have been arrested.

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