What the Boulder DA should've done was get someone from the Medical Examiner's office to fly to Thailand for a cheek swab and then fly it back here for the DNA comparison. Instead, the knuckleheads spent...how much more?
what a waste. wasn't it clear his story was garbage after he said he drove her home from school, and had 3 or 4 people placing him in another state at the time of the murders?
hopefully this IS used against her when the new DA elections come up
The problem is that it becomes clear to Karr that he's under investigation when you do that and he might disappear.
If you read the five-page motion to quash (FoxNews.com has it linked), you can see that they were afraid he was a flight risk (he'd already fled the country and knew he was still wanted in California). He allegedly told the professor some things they *thought* were confidential (the part about trying to taste JBR's vaginal blood) and figured it was worth the risk.
I don't really fault the Boulder DA for making the arrest, costly as it was. We all want to see the murder solved and he's definitely a risk to children whether they be Thai, German, Honduran or American so locking him up is still a good deal.
What was wrong was the public spectacle made of the whole thing. The motion also says that Karr refused to be swabbed the first two times but then consented but the investigators claimed their kit wasn't ready. I think the smart thing would have been to swab him twice in Thailand (however long that took) and FedEx the results back to Boulder for testing. You do it twice to reduce the defense charge of contamination and to provide a paper trail to verify the swab is really his.
Certainly, it would have been cheaper to fly the swabs all the way back to the U.S. and not the suspect. I'm guessing Thailand's laws on holding a suspect are harsher than American laws so they could have used that to their advantage.
In retrospect, they should have done more checking first but they were probably afraid he'd bolt if they contacted family members (they'd never know the ex-wife hated him and the father thought he was dead) and swooped in on him while they had the chance.
I always felt the case against him was weak but, sometimes, you just have to roll the dice. He was practically offering himself up to them.
Then you have these kind of problems:
Any DNA samples taken from JonBenét Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr were taken without his consent and without a judge's order, Colorado attorneys for the 41-year-old schoolteacher claim.
Seth Temin, head of the Boulder Public Defender's Office, said in a motion filed late Friday that before any DNA testing is done by authorities, he wants a hearing in which he will seek to block testing of the biological samples.
...Authorities reportedly took DNA from Karr in Thailand after he was arrested. Experts believe that samples taken overseas could cause prosecutors various legal and technical problems if they attempt to introduce the samples at trial in Colorado.