Man Detained In Thailand Over Jonbenet Death

[Papa_Lazarou]

As a rule of thumb,

More errors will be found in the media’s reports the closer one is to a news story.

Everyone wants a piece of this, ratings sweeps in the USA are coming up shortly.

The journalist with closest access to the facts and who elects to report them accurately is invariably most valid.

Those who plagiarise the basic facts from far away (instead of doing the leg-work), and then compensate via an analytical subjective overlay usually come a cropper.

Edited August 18, 2006 by Papa_Lazarou

[sonnyJ]

Results of a DNA test to be conducted in Colorado should be done in 5 days if highly prioritised.

Fox interviewed Karr's brother, he had no idea of his whereabouts for a long period.

Now Fox is playing some old sex-tourism Patpong tape, interviews with 15 and 9 year old prostitutes.

[nikster]

Hate to put a terrible spin on the case but what is to say that this Karr guy isn't just trying to get himself out of a very unpleasant Thailand jail... Most likely a pedophile... But this story gets him a one way ticket to legal defense heaven... Kind of a reverse rendition...

Thanks, buddy, for the legal advice. All us expats will keep this in our back pockets for future use.

Apart from this case - the guy is creepy but innocent until proven guilty and who knows what thai interrogators did to him - this is an interesting way of escaping thai prison.

Publicly announce that you commited some horrible unsolved crime in the U.S. and let them extradite you, then get a good attorney. Risky, but not bad.

[Papa_Lazarou]

Now Fox is playing some old sex-tourism Patpong tape, interviews with 15 and 9 year old prostitutes.

As Dr Evil would say.....right

[Ijustwannateach]

I have confirmation that, very unfortunately, the suspect in this case was teaching at Bangkok Christian College at the time of his arrest. I have mixed feelings about this because although the place is a terrible school, with a horrible reputation among foreign teachers and many of its former students' families, I don't wish such types of teachers on ANY children at ANY school. Maybe, just maybe, this will shake up those people so they will improve their hiring practices- this is not the first time (even this year) that a criminal suspect has been apprehended at BCC.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060818/D8JIKTNG0.html

Karr, 41, was arrested at a Bangkok apartment Wednesday.

He had just begun to teach at Bangkok Christian College, Thailand's oldest private school, which was established by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1852, school officials said. The school, which has about 5,000 male students in 12 grades, employs several foreign teachers for its English courses.

"Steven"

[Scott]

This guy will have a difficult, if not nearly impossible time, using the insanity plea. Even if someone is insane, they have to prove that at the time of the crime, they were unable to distinguish right from wrong. This is very hard to do. Even a lot of psychos know they shouldn't do something. Both judges and juries are onto this one.

[Papa_Lazarou]

"Even a lot of psychos know they shouldn't do something"

A classic psychopath is not remorseful. Though may be able to fake the trait, as they are compulsive liars.

[John K]

Thailand moves to deport JonBenet suspect

BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand has moved to deport the American arrested here for the murder of six-year-old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey amid new doubts about his purported confession to the crime.

Revelations about his interest in child murders, an apparent alibi from an ex-wife and the stunning comments from 41-year-old John Mark Karr himself have raised questions about whether he was responsible for JonBenet's 1996 killing.

Thai officials said they had revoked Karr's visa, clearing the way for his deportation to the United States, where the first arrest in the decade-old case has sparked another frenzy of wall-to-wall media coverage.

"He likely will leave Thailand on Sunday but the United States has not yet been able to confirm his flight," a senior immigration police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Arrested Wednesday at his Bangkok apartment, Karr on Thursday said he had been with JonBenet in the basement of her family's Colorado home, where her beaten and strangled body was discovered the day after Christmas.

Thai police said Thursday that he had confessed to killing her unintentionally. But asked by reporters if he had done so, Karr said: "No, I did not. It was an accident."

Thai police said he told them that he was "in love" with the girl, who was often pictured in lipstick or mimicking seductive adult poses in her frequent appearances in child beauty pageants.

Karr's arrest came just a day after he had begun working as a second-grade teacher at an international school in Bangkok. US media reports said he had married his two former wives when they were teens, one just 13 years old.

Both wives reportedly later said they had been coerced but the second appeared to offer her estranged husband a lifeline after his purported confession, saying they were together when JonBenet's body was found.

Lara Karr said that on December 26, 1986, when the body was discovered in Colorado, she, her husband and their three sons were together in the southeastern state of Alabama, a US television station in California reported.

Her comments were not reported directly, but paraphrased by a reporter in Petaluma, a town in northern California.

Lara Karr said her ex-husband had spent a lot of time studying the unsolved cases of Ramsey and Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma home and slain in 1993, the station said.

Meanwhile the Denver Post newspaper reported that a veteran Denver attorney Phil Cherner, who has represented clients who have falsely confessed, said he saw evidence the suspect was lying.

"This guy seems to be not just confessing, but openly inviting everyone to a microphone to hear him confess. That raises questions in my mind as to his guilt," Cherner was quoted as saying.

In Boulder, Colorado, District Attorney Mary Lacy said it had taken months to track down Karr and that more work needed to be done on the case.

Lacy said authorities would have preferred to conduct their investigation out of the public eye, but that circumstances can sometimes warrant an arrest "before an investigation is complete."

"Exigent circumstances" -- such as a fear of flight or a desire to ensure public safety -- "can drive the timing of an arrest," she said.

JonBenet's murder raised the curtain on the world of child beauty pageants, as television reports showed the young child wearing lipstick, jewelry and gowns, posing in cowgirl outfits or seductive dresses and gowns.

Suspicion was cast on her parents and even her then nine-year-old brother, but her family insisted that an intruder must have got into the house and murdered her. An autopsy showed she might have been sexually assaulted.

"I hope they can test him (for DNA) as soon as possible so they can exonerate him," the suspect's brother Nate Karr told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. "He's innocent."

[sriracha john]

*Edit... same post deleted...beaten to the post again, this time by John K by 50 seconds... additional quote remains:

*noteworthy additional quote:

Karr's ex-wife, Lara Knutson, told reporters she cannot defend him, then insisted he was with her in Alabama that Christmas.

"She cannot think of a Christmas while they were together when he was away from the family on Christmas day or immediately thereafter," said her attorney, Michael Rains, though he added his client could not specifically recall Christmas 1996.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060818/ap_on_...jonbenet_ramsey

Edited August 18, 2006 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Ramsey slaying suspect dismissed from Bangkok school for 'too strict'

John Mark Karr, the suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey slaying was dismissed as a teacher at a prestigious Bangkok school in June for being too strict, a school official told Associated Press on Friday.

Karr, 41, worked just two weeks before he was fired from his job as an English teacher in the elementary school at Bangkok Christian College, said Banchong Chompowong, assistant director of the school's English immersion program.

He said Karr was so strict with his class of first-graders that parents had complained to the all-boys school for Thais, which is considered among the best in the city.

But Banchong said Karr did well in his interview. He was clean-cut, polite and articulate and had a resume detailing experience in countries spanning from the US to Japan, along with other schools in Bangkok.

"John Karr came to us with a good resume and with credentials, but then we allowed him a trial (period) with students, we found he was too strict," Banchong told the AP.

He gave some children "time outs," a form of discipline forcing a child to sit quietly and not participate with other classmates in activities.

He taught only one class for the first two weeks of June right after the school year began. The school, founded in 1852 by American Presbyterian missionaries, has a total enrollment of 5,500 students in grades 1 through 12. About 100 native English-speaking teachers work at the school, which has a high turnover rate.

"He's just a nice person _ a nice man," Banchong said of his first impression of the suspect. "And he takes his work seriously."

Karr was arrested in Bangkok on Wednesday. He told US investigators he drugged and then raped Ramsey, the 6-year-old girl former child beauty queen, before accidentally killing her in the US state of Colorado in 1996.

Associated Press

[Beavis and Butthead]

clearly this guy is obsessed with these child kidnap murder stories. He even moved to Petaluma CA, where Polly Klaas was abducted. That was another famous case of child abduction and murder that he was obsessed with. I'm surprised the media hasn't said anything about why he was living there of all places

[HenryB]

This is what America thinks of Farangs living in Bangkok.

August 18, 2006 -- In his last days of freedom before his stunning admission that he drugged, raped and killed JonBenet Ramsey, John Mark Karr was shacked up at a seedy flophouse in a rundown section of Bangkok popular with the lowest class of sex tourists.

Tipped off to his presence by Colorado officials, Thai investigators tailed the clean-cut Karr for weeks as he frequented the city's sleaziest sex emporiums - well known for nud_e girls who wear nothing but cowboy hats, dance bottomless atop glass floors, and put on lesbian shows.

Karr, a former used-car salesman who had two child brides, lived in a spare, ninth-floor room at the Blooms Hotel, a dingy establishment that rents rooms for as short a time as three hours - for only $8 - and offers monthly stays that start at a rate of $170.

U.S. and Thai cops moved into rooms down the hall from Karr to keep tabs on him.

Karr, 41, a slight man with steely blue eyes and brown hair, was arrested Wednesday at the Blooms, his latest stop on a globetrotting odyssey that saw him travel from one seedy sex haven to another, while keeping focused on one mission: staying near children.

Since arriving in Thailand from neighboring Malaysia in June, Karr went from job to job as an English teacher - starting in his latest post on Tuesday.

His odd behavior made it difficult for him to hold down steady work.

Karr was fired from one teaching job - but quickly moved to another school, from which he was fired almost immediately, said a fellow teacher.

"He was fired from here within a month," said the teacher, who asked his name and the school's name not be revealed. "I know he got another job straight away."

The teacher said Karr struck his colleagues as odd because of an absolute obsession with celebrity culture and television personalities. He often described in minute detail aspects of celebrities' lives - and seemed particularly fixated on Sonny and Cher. But there was no sign he had ever acted inappropriately with kids.

"He was fired for being weird - not for interfering with the children. I guess he gets fired everywhere for being weird," the teacher said.

That Karr was hiding a secret was no surprise.

"We called him the 'Cisco Kid' because he said he was from San Francisco, yet he h

[LoveDaBlues]

Hey Shotover, good to see you! I guess the link was taken down after their server crashed from all the hits!

Anyway, I have a feeling that this guy is not the murderer. Yes, he looks the part, but something just does not seem right about the whole thing and his story....I'm pretty sure he is guilty of all those things that he was charged with , but I don't think he was anywhere near the Ramsey home that night. Maybe he was so obssesed with the Jon Benet murder that he actually thought that he was the actual killer - He must have gone out of his way to get as much information as possible about the case, so much so that he became a good suspect..

I, like many Americans, followed this story since the night of her murder, ( It was a BIG deal here ) and there are still many questions left unanswered about the case, like why was the ransom note found at the scene in Patsy Ramey's handwriting? Why was there no footprints at all outside in the newly fallen snow outside the house, and why the Ramsey's never took a lie detector test, among other things...

And I also find it strange that after all this time, they finally find the suspect in Bangkok. A pedophile - in Thailand of all places? What a surprise! Just too convienient a story , if you ask me - it sounds like something you would see on a bad episode of "Cold Case". I would believe the story more if they found him in Latvia, or Uraguay, or even Indonesia. This thing looks similar to how they suddenly found the killer of the Lindberg Baby, out of the blue. Remember that one?

I guess we'll have to wait for the DNA tests to really be sure now....But then again, DNA as evidence was not a factor in winning that other high profile murder case...

Speaking of which, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if next we find out that OJ is really innocent, and that Nicole and Ron Goldman's real killer has finally been found in Phuket as a scuba diving instructor...

PLEASE......let's don't spread this 'rumor' as the truth. The ransom note WAS NOT verified to be in Patsy's handwriting. Here are the facts not the rumor. The handwriting experts could not EXCLUDE her and say POSITIVELY that she DID NOT WRITE THE NOTE. However, they could also not say that SHE WROTE THE NOTE. When pressed the experts admitted that if handwriting samples were taken from every American there would be MILLIONS who could NOT be excluded from having written the ransom note.........right along with Patsy.

lie detector test....... not admissable in court because of too many 'false positives'

I've never believed either parent was involved in killing the little girl.

[sriracha john]

This is what America thinks of Farangs living in Bangkok.

August 18, 2006 -- In his last days of freedom before his stunning admission that he drugged, raped and killed JonBenet Ramsey, John Mark Karr was shacked up at a seedy flophouse

can you name and shame the producer of this garbage, please?

[MissAnge]

...... as an English teacher in the elementary school at Bangkok Christian College....

i find this interesting that the school being mentioned is Bangkok Christian, this doesn't explain the media circus that surrounded New Sathorn International School today.... i've a feeling that after he was let go from Bangkok Christian, NSIS may have made him an offer....

[lomatopo]

According to the morning shows here (U.S.A.), no charges have been filed in Boulder, CO, and Mr. Karr is being deported (from Thailand to the U.S.A.) for visa violations. Evidently it's taking a while because of air ticket availability.

[John K]

This is what America thinks of Farangs living in Bangkok.

August 18, 2006 -- In his last days of freedom before his stunning admission that he drugged, raped and killed JonBenet Ramsey, John Mark Karr was shacked up at a seedy flophouse in a rundown section of Bangkok popular with the lowest class of sex tourists.

Tipped off to his presence by Colorado officials, Thai investigators tailed the clean-cut Karr for weeks as he frequented the city's sleaziest sex emporiums - well known for nud_e girls who wear nothing but cowboy hats, dance bottomless atop glass floors, and put on lesbian shows.

Karr, a former used-car salesman who had two child brides, lived in a spare, ninth-floor room at the Blooms Hotel, a dingy establishment that rents rooms for as short a time as three hours - for only $8 - and offers monthly stays that start at a rate of $170.

U.S. and Thai cops moved into rooms down the hall from Karr to keep tabs on him.

Karr, 41, a slight man with steely blue eyes and brown hair, was arrested Wednesday at the Blooms, his latest stop on a globetrotting odyssey that saw him travel from one seedy sex haven to another, while keeping focused on one mission: staying near children.

Since arriving in Thailand from neighboring Malaysia in June, Karr went from job to job as an English teacher - starting in his latest post on Tuesday.

His odd behavior made it difficult for him to hold down steady work.

Karr was fired from one teaching job - but quickly moved to another school, from which he was fired almost immediately, said a fellow teacher.

"He was fired from here within a month," said the teacher, who asked his name and the school's name not be revealed. "I know he got another job straight away."

The teacher said Karr struck his colleagues as odd because of an absolute obsession with celebrity culture and television personalities. He often described in minute detail aspects of celebrities' lives - and seemed particularly fixated on Sonny and Cher. But there was no sign he had ever acted inappropriately with kids.

"He was fired for being weird - not for interfering with the children. I guess he gets fired everywhere for being weird," the teacher said.

That Karr was hiding a secret was no surprise.

"We called him the 'Cisco Kid' because he said he was from San Francisco, yet he h

HenryB

It is very easy to discover if a story is from an Internet source or your keyboard. Care to confess as that seems to be the focus of this thread? Google is our friend.

Edited August 18, 2006 by John K

[Zorro 69]

Yes, the two threads should probably be merged.

I am, however, wondering why so many fugitives end up in Thailand. Is it because fugitives just navigate in this direction or is it because Thailand does such a good job of catching them?

many of these fugitives are paedophiles or other sex-criminals...and yes, it is good to see that lately there have been several significant arrests. Thailand and Sri Lanka are both targeting paedophiles with good results. I suspect, however, that the number of arrests represents only the tip of a particularly ugly iceberg.

He looks a right weirdo. The DNA results will be interesting to say the least. Most victims know their killer allegedly.

I wish Thailand would tighten up their act on some of the people visiting and living there.

Some running from the police in their own country etc. The rogues from the Costa del Crime

have found Thailand a convenient haven. Plus all the perves on the run.

Thailand has a reputation it needs to change. I've seen some right criminals and ex-cons masquerading as decent citizens.

Clearing them out would make it better for everybody else who haven't got form.

[mr_hippo]

Karr said it was an accident - since when were strangulation and battery accidental?

Kidnappers demanded £118,000 - why such an odd number? Some people explain this by saying it was the amount of the bonus that Mr. Ramsay received, was this public knowledge before the kidnapping?

You put your child to bed and then find your child missing - what is the first thing that you would do? Wouldn't you do a proper search of your house, garden and outbuildings?

After the body was found why did the father move the body upstairs and why did the police move it back again?

Edited August 18, 2006 by mr_hippo

[SamuiJens]

Knowing the Media, I find that alot of "wan-a-be reporters" here on TV Forum, think they know more than they have HEARD-SHAME-you're not a bit better, in fact worse, since you're grasping at straws!

What will some of you do after this thread dies down?

Same-Same

[merlion]

Knowing the Media, I find that alot of "wan-a-be reporters" here on TV Forum, think they know more than they have HEARD-SHAME-you're not a bit better, in fact worse, since you're grasping at straws!

What will some of you do after this thread dies down?

Same-Same

This guy, if convicted, should be caned and locked up for the rest of his miserable life.

[jomama]

If you want to know what school he was employed at in BKK (according to the report, for one month, then fired) see:

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4199089

[Stephen Cleary]

"Is sex among people under 10 a rarity or common place?" - John Mark Karr, 02/06/1996

Check out some damning Internet evidence against John Karr in a brandnew website related to his pedophile missing children company run on the Internet by him in 1996. (powerwurks) and it disappeared just after the murder.

Just see how the pedophile tried to start contact with 10 year-olds.

www.powerwurks.com

Notes: Seems that within the past 30 minutes, Google has blocked the original PowerWurks advertisements (as linked from the new site above). But anyway, the site tells you what John Karr was posting ads about. Guess they'll reproduce the original posts asap.

Edited August 18, 2006 by stevesuphan

[mr_hippo]

Knowing the Media, I find that alot of "wan-a-be reporters" here on TV Forum, think they know more than they have HEARD-SHAME-you're not a bit better, in fact worse, since you're grasping at straws!

What will some of you do after this thread dies down?

Same-Same

Haven't you realised that this is a forum? I will not insult your intelligence by asking you what you think a forum is. People of all ages, nationalities and walks of life come here to put forward their thoughts and ideas about many things, just like any other gathering place.

You ask, "What will we do after this thread dies down?" Start new threads about - the new airport, Christmas in Thailand, the new football season, polar bear hunting on Samui, the best way to treat an ingrowing toenail, where to find the best sausages in Thailand or countless other subjects.

By the way, the thread about polar bear hunting on Samui will be a non-starter because my great-great-grandfather was a successful polar bear hunter there many years ago. He must have been very successful - have you ever seen a live polar bear on Samui?

Edited August 18, 2006 by mr_hippo

[coltrane]

_ April 13: Karr was arrested on five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography, the Sonoma County sheriff's office said.

_ Oct. 5: After a series of court hearings, Karr was released from jail, but was ordered to report to a probation officer ...

Is it normal in the US to spend - what? - around 6 month in jail for misdemeanor counts of this sort?

And that seems, by inference, to be just on remand? Otherwise, why is he considered to be 'on the run'? For breaking parole conditions?

[SamuiJens]

Knowing the Media, I find that alot of "wan-a-be reporters" here on TV Forum, think they know more than they have HEARD-SHAME-you're not a bit better, in fact worse, since you're grasping at straws!

What will some of you do after this thread dies down?

Same-Same

This guy, if convicted, should be caned and locked up for the rest of his miserable life.

You're completlly right, when convicted the other prisoners can have him for breakfast, lunch & dinner.

I was referring to the ones that THINK they know more than the stated facts.

[HenryB]

This is what America thinks of Farangs living in Bangkok.

August 18, 2006 -- In his last days of freedom before his stunning admission that he drugged, raped and killed JonBenet Ramsey, John Mark Karr was shacked up at a seedy flophouse

can you name and shame the producer of this garbage, please?

ts from todays New York Post

That's August 18 2006

SEX SICKO'S SEEDY LIFE ON

THE RUN IN FOREIGN SLEAZE

DENS

By ANDREW DRUMMOND in Bangkok, JOANNE CLEMENTS in Petaluma, Calif., and LUKAS I. ALPERT in New York

[HenryB]

HenryB

It is very easy to discover if a story is from an Internet source or your keyboard. Care to confess as that seems to be the focus of this thread? Google is our friend.

ts from todays New York Post

That's August 18 2006

SEX SICKO'S SEEDY LIFE ON

THE RUN IN FOREIGN SLEAZE

DENS

By ANDREW DRUMMOND in Bangkok, JOANNE CLEMENTS in Petaluma, Calif., and LUKAS I. ALPERT in New York

Just check with Google or listen to radio from America.

Glad I can help you

[Beavis and Butthead]

I've been reading online forums about this case and general consensus is no one believes this guy committed the crime.

[Beavis and Butthead]

HenryB

It is very easy to discover if a story is from an Internet source or your keyboard. Care to confess as that seems to be the focus of this thread? Google is our friend.

ts from todays New York Post

That's August 18 2006

SEX SICKO'S SEEDY LIFE ON

THE RUN IN FOREIGN SLEAZE

DENS

By ANDREW DRUMMOND in Bangkok, JOANNE CLEMENTS in Petaluma, Calif., and LUKAS I. ALPERT in New York

Just check with Google or listen to radio from America.

Glad I can help you

Good pickup Henry. That is classic NY Post writing style. I love that paper. "Sex sicko's seedy life on the run in foreign sleaze dens" LOL, too classic

Edited August 18, 2006 by Beavis and Butthead