Posted on 08/19/2006 3:43:31 PM PDT by Shermy
The American suspected of killing a six-year-old beauty queen will be deported to the United States this evening.
Amid mounting doubts as to whether John Karr, now 41, really murdered JonBenet Ramsey a decade ago, Lt-General Suwat Thamrongsisakul, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said yesterday that an air ticket for Karr's departure was ready.
The suspect will be transferred from the detention centre at the bureau's head office to Bangkok International Airport at 3pm, he said.
Karr's Thai visa was reportedly cancelled.
Officials have said the schoolteacher would be flown to Boulder, Colorado, where he will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault.
A Thai Airways official said Karr was booked on TG794 bound for Los Angeles and would be accompanied by US security officers.
Suwat said a special detail might be provided because Karr was involved in a high-profile criminal case and an army of reporters were likely to follow
his move from Suan Plu to the airport.
A US Embassy source could not confirm Karr's departure date and said authorities were working through legal paperwork to expedite his expulsion. After three days in custody, Karr's mental status was still good, Suwat said.
Two police had been assigned to guard him. Yesterday he was served food from KFC as he requested.
Karr earlier told reporters he was alone with JonBenet when she died in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado home on December 26, 1996, but that her death was an accident.
"I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet," Karr said on Thursday as police took him to his hotel to collect his belongings following his arrest.
"It's very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident."
US officials, the only ones who have actually interrogated Karr, have been silent about what he told them, citing his right to privacy and legal procedures, while Thai officials have been characteristically casual about giving out information about the case, rarely qualifying its reliability.
But police statements have raised questions about whether Karr is the killer or merely someone obsessed with the murder, one of the most notorious unsolved killings of the past decade in the United States.
On Friday, Suwat backed off of certain details he had given of Karr's story - details that had cast suspicion on his confession.
Suwat had initially quoted Karr as saying he had sexually assaulted the girl and given
her drugs, even though the autopsy showed no drugs in the girl's body.
He also told reporters before a news conference that Karr had claimed to have picked up JonBenet at her school, though her death came during the holiday break.
On Friday, Suwat confirmed his account of the sexual assault but revised the parts about Karr giving the girl drugs and fetching her from school.
"It may have been drugs, or it may have been something else because [Karr said] it [the encounter] was a blur, blur," Suwat said.
Also the statement about the girl being picked up from school was based on a documentary he had seen and not the interrogation, he said. Questions have also arisen over whether Karr was in Colorado at the time of the murder.
But access to Karr has been barred.
A sign was posted on Friday at the gate of the immigration centre lockup where he is being held, saying Karr would not be allowed visitors.
The sign directed those seeking to interview him to contact the US Embassy directly.
Denver attorney Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers, said there were "serious questions" about the case.
"I hope we have found the murderer of JonBenet, but I have not heard the evidence that compels that conclusion," he said.
That's what they've been saying all day - "suicide watch" and that he's muttering over and to himself in his cell about JonBenet - that there are two Thai cops *in the cell with him* to make sure he doesn't do anything to harm himself.
And yet the article says, " ... Karr's mental status was still good, Suwat said. ..."
Right. I don't think it's good at any time, in jail or out!
Several stories have said she was working full-time while he was just subbing sometimes. I have no idea what she was doing for work, with 3 kids and him running around to different schools and according to one neighbor, not a help with the kids.
Lara is not the one who said she was working; she has only said they were dirt-poor when she was married to him.
It's magic!
Still haven't figured it out, but his mother died sometime around 1976, when he was 12 and went to live with his father's parents in Hamilton, AL.
That (paternal) grandfather died in 1978, but his wife was alive until 1997 - she died 2-3 months after JonBenet was killed. She apparently had gone to live with her son, JMK's father, in Atlanta before that.
When JMK was 17, in 1982, and wanting to go to college the next school year after that, his father said they didn't have enough money to send him. He didn't graduate from the HS where people knew him in Hamilton - he only attended 6 weeks of his senior year, then skipped out. Where, I don't know - but maybe back to Atlanta.
His father owns several properties in Lynn, Mass, and I'm thinking maybe it was his wife's family's stuff, since she had died. Don't know - that's just a guess. Can't even find for sure her death record - maiden name may have been Sharlow - also not sure, but that's brother Nate's middle name and the older brother has his paternal grandfather's first name as his middle name.
Lots of blanks still to be filled in.
What's the name of the website where you can track airline flights worldwide. Kinda like to track this one.
There was an interview on FOX of the woman ICE (I think) officer that had arrange his return to the US. She said he was NOT on suicide watch. That he had been VERY talkative (insinuating that he was giving them a lot of details.)
Would the grandparents illness/deaths have triggered an emotional stress to "put him over the edge"?
Dunno. That was 30 years ago, but maybe he is stunted at age 11 in "emo" years or something. Can't speculate on that.
This woman said that both John and Lara subbed at the same time and when John was let go because parents had complained that he was too affectionate to children, Lara kept on subbing.
The woman said she asked Lara what John was doing and Lara said he was staying home with the kids and working on the computer.
The woman said that surprised her, that while she didn't have any problem with a father staying home with the kids while the wife worked, usually that only happened when the wife was making enough money to support the family.
The woman said that even though Lara was subbing full-time she would only be making about $35 a day, not enough to support a husband and three kids.
Well, just found this from the AJC - his mother didn't die. His parents separated in 1969 (he was 5) and divorced in 1973 (he was 9).
I just copied this part, but haven't read the whole story yet, because I haven't gotten to where brother Nathaniel entered the picture, 7 years younger than JMK.
Excerpt:
" ... His own childhood began in metro Atlanta.
His father, Wexford Karr, married Patricia Elaine Adcock on Aug. 21, 1958. He was 37 and she was 18, according to court documents.
Their union produced two sons, Michael and John, who was born Dec. 12, 1964.
The couple separated 11 years after they married, and Wexford Karr filed for divorce in 1973 in Clayton County, saying the marriage was "irretrievably broken" and that the boys were in his custody. His wife received a $5,000 mobile home and $125 a month in alimony, according to court papers.
Soon after, Wexford Karr, then 52, married a woman 23 years his junior, Susan Simpson. But his union with the 29-year-old burned out in divorce six months later. ..."
"Sins of the father????????"
Interesting info on this thread.
I still haven't found Nate, lol. Gotten sidetracked onto a hundred different topics to read and still not caught up.
$125 a month in alimony in 1973 and a $5000 trailer would have been a lot of money....especially down south.
The union produced two sons...Michael and John...but only one date is given. Were they twins??
I'm sure Karr will start reading up on "Insanity Cases". He was very careful to say on "LIVE CAMERA"; "It was an accident" and add..."That's 2nd degree not 1st".
mark
John Karr was a used car salesman while in high school? He was a hs student at the time.
No, that's Jean-Marquet's birthdate. Michael Andrew is older - 5 years older. Born Aug 1959.
Haven't found the definitive article on Nate yet. He was born before Wex and Pat were divorced, but Pat apparently isn't his mother, nor was Susan, the 2nd wife.
And yet Nate is the one who is closest to his dad, in business with him and living near him, all that. One of his companies is even named Wexford & Associates. That one does the house remodeling work, plus cabinetry installation.
Michael is a RE agent, who seems to live in Norcross, GA, but I haven't confirmed that. I noted in a post the first day that their licenses had expired (his dad's, too) and lo and behold, when I checked something else yesterday, he had updated his listing and his new company affiliation - Intown Atlanta LLC. Glad to help them out there.
Anyway, don't know where Nathaniel came from! The stork, I guess.
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