By Mathew Scott August 21, 2006 01:00am
THE man who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey had another bizarre secret up his sleeve in the months before his arrest - he was visiting a surgical centre that specialises in sex-change operations.
Staff at the Pratunam Clinic, Thailand's top transgender centre, confirmed 41-year-old John Mark Karr was a patient of theirs - but wouldn't say how close he was to getting "sexual reassignment" surgery.
"Yes, he had treatment here," a representative said. "He was our patient. But we cannot give out details on his treatment as we are ethically bound to keep these things private."
It was also revealed that Karr, who boarded a US-bound flight from Thailand last night at 11pm (AEST), sought a Bangkok cosmetic surgeons' help in changing his facial features. In his nine months there, he made 12 phone calls from his hotel room - nine of them to plastic surgeons.
Two calls were to the Pratunam Clinic, which specialises in putting men under the knife to become "ladyboys" and also sponsors the annual World's Most Beautiful Transsexual competition. It charges $1600 for the surgery, which could cost up to $25,000 in the West.
Karr was nabbed in Bangkok last week for JonBenet's 1996 murder, telling police and reporters that he accidentally killed the little girl in an assault motivated by his obsessive love for her.
He will face charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault.
Karr is the first suspect arrested in the death of the child beauty queen - who was strangled and had her skull fractured - after years of investigations and grand jury hearings.
US authorities tracked him down after reading four years' worth of emails between Karr and University of Colorado journalism professor Michael Tracey, 58, who produced documentaries about JonBenet's murder - and who tried to draw out more details about Karr through their hundreds of messages.
The email exchanges began four years ago after Karr met an American writer while staying in a hostel above a Paris bookstore. They immediately revealed his fixation on the beauty princess' mysterious death.
An email he sent on December 23, 2005, just before the anniversary of her death read, in part: "JonBenet, my love, my life.
"I love you and shall forever love you".
As authorities continued to build their case against Karr ahead of his return to the US, prison guards searched the death row cell of Polly Klaas' s killer Richard Davis after learning he may have corresponded with Karr.
No letters were found.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/15320674.htm
Does enough evidence remain to ID Karr?
DEBORAH HASTINGS
Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. - The most important evidence amounts to this: DNA taken from two blood stains, hair and fibers taken from the body, half a footprint and two partial palm prints.
What it boils down to is this: It is infinitely easier to prove itinerant teacher John Mark Karr did not kill JonBenet Ramsey 10 years ago than it is to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that he garroted and beat the 6-year-old child he claims to have loved.
Because of the nature of DNA testing, it is simpler to prove a negative.
"DNA is the sure way to eliminate him," said Scott Robinson, a Denver defense attorney who has closely followed the case. "If it's negative, you ride that horse all the way to the stable."
The stable, in this case, being the exoneration of Karr, arrested in Bangkok last week and paraded before journalists to whom he professed his love for the little beauty pageant contestant and then claimed he was present when she died.
He called her death "an accident."
Since then, his fantastic professions have been met with increasing suspicion and distrust.
So if genetic testing rules him out, as some legal experts predict, what happens next?
"If it's not this man's DNA, then there has to be some very strong and compelling evidence that places him at the crime scene," said Lin Wood, the Ramsey family's longtime attorney. "Unless you have some positive evidence of DNA, it would be an extremely difficult case."
Difficult, agreed Robinson, but not impossible.
"There are other things," he said, including questions that Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy should be asking: "Can we place him in Boulder at the time of the murder? Can we place him in some relationship with the Ramseys?"
Whether the prosecutor has the answers to those queries is anyone's guess at this point. Since announcing Karr's arrest, she has refused to comment on nearly all aspects of the investigation.
There is no publicly known evidence putting Karr in Boulder or any other town in Colorado. JonBenet's father, John Ramsey, has said he has no recollection of the man meeting anyone in his family.
Prosecutors would also have to corroborate Karr's statements to Thai police, including claims he sexually assaulted the girl, said Bob Grant, a former Adams County DA who helped investigate JonBenet's death.
An autopsy found no semen in or on the child's body, but noted vaginal abrasions and tearing of the hymen. There was not enough evidence to determine what caused those injuries.
The theory that an intruder killed JonBenet is supported by unexplained evidence: a mysterious boot print found outside the house after her body was found Dec. 26, 1996; marks on her body some say could have been made by a stun gun; and signs that someone may have entered the house through a basement window.
Then there is the DNA of an unknown male found in blood in JonBenet's underpants. Tests in 1997 and 1999 indicated it was from a male who was not a member of the Ramsey family.
Two years ago, Wood said a better-quality DNA profile was worked up but it did not match any samples in an FBI database of convicted violent offenders. At the time, that database included 1.5 million samples.
Celebrity forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee, who initially participated in the Ramsey case, said even a positive DNA match is not always enough to convict.
"It can never be 100 percent," he said of the analysis which matches samples and donors by statistical probability.
If it turns out that a DNA sample from Karr matches crime-scene DNA, the first salvo from his attorney - whomever that turns out to be - would be against the testing process. As demonstrated by the O.J. Simpson criminal case, even supposedly ironclad genetic test results can be shaken by lapses in testing protocols or procedural breakdowns in handling evidence.
"Whoever represents this guy will whine about the testing that was done, and not being able to do their own testing," Grant said. "It's pretty standard."
There were also DNA traces found under the child's fingernails, but they were degraded and tests were inconclusive, Grant said.
Prosecutors need to find out if Karr truly knows anything about the case that isn't public knowledge, he said. In this sensationalized investigation, he does not think that is possible.
"The whole world knows everything about this case," Grant said. "I'd be surprised if everything I knew (as an investigator) wasn't out in the public domain."
This is the first time I am reading that he STILL feels very feminine. His handwriting in high school was very feminine. The ransom note was written by a masculine person. Unless he is so clever as to be able to adjust his handwriting to look more masculine (which may be the case in other work-related samples the authorities may have), I don't think he's the killer.
Also, there don't seem to be any violent tendencies in him in the years since JBR's death. The murderer of JonBenet seems to have wanted her dead faster. I get that impression from an earlier poster in the thread who remarked that her skull fractures occured about at the same time as the ligature strangulation. It sounded like the killer was in some kind of hurry to kill her, which seems so cruel.
This guy is hugely creepy but doesn't show cruelty or seem to have any known history of violence.
I'm thinking that all of his JonBenet and Boulder info comes from his fascination after her death. I agree with a different previous poster that there is no doubt much JonBenet discussion and fascination in the international world of pedophiles who are after girls.