Man Detained In Thailand Over Jonbenet Death

[sriracha john]

Press conference held. He's been charged with first degree murder, kidnapping, child molestation, etc. etc.

Karr reportedly said that JonBenet and himself fell in love and they ran off together and that he had accidentily killed her.

[sriracha john]

Karr will be taken to Boulder, Colo., within the next week, where he has been charged with murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.

Karr also appeared at the news conference but did not say anything.

- AP

====================================================

"He confessed to Thai police during the investigation this morning that he had unintentionally killed JonBenet," the head of Thai immigration police, Lieutenant General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul, told AFP.

"The suspect said it was an accident."

- AFP

Edited August 17, 2006 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

BANGKOK (Reuters) - An American suspected over the murder of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey during Christmas 1996 has said her death was an accident, a senior Thai policeman said on Thursday.

"He killed the girl by accident," Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumroungsiskul told reporters after primary school teacher John Mark Karr, 41, was interrogated a day after his arrest in Bangkok.

"They fell in love with each other. She was very beautiful. So he kidnapped her and killed her by accident," Suwat said.

[Papa_Lazarou]

This copper is making himself sound like a right plonker.

[sriracha john]

John Mark Karr, an American primary school teacher, is escorted from a news conference in Bangkok August 17, 2006. The suspect over the murder of six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey during Christmas 1996 has said her death was an accident, a senior Thai policeman said on Thursday. REUTERS

[dan10400]

that pic is kinda creepy - looks like a bobble head.

listening to this story now in the US is a bit sickening. "Thailand,

notorious for sex and child trafficing....". Geeze - this guy and

Thailand are both being protrayed as guilty until proven innocent.

[toptuan]

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.

[eljeque]

He was arrested in conjuction with FBI officers after being followed for three weeks as he sought a job teaching English in Bangkok.

***** I am not in the legal or law enforcement business, but if this guy is a suspected child killer, why on earth did they wait three weeks? Did I miss something here?

"We arrested him yesterday at an apartment not far from my office after having followed him for 21 days," immigration police chief Lieutenant General Suwat Tumroungsiskul told Reuters

MSNBC said Karr had lived in Boulder at the time the child's body was found on December 26, 1996.

Suwat said he had arrived on his latest visit with a working visa issued in the United States and was looking for a job teaching English.

***** How did he get a working visa without a school sponsor? Is this possible?

Suwat said he had revoked the Karr's visa, issued in the United States and allowing him to work in Thailand, giving him the status of a "person who could pose threat to the society" under Thai law.

"People like him are dangerous. We have criminals from all over the world running away from their home countries to look for teaching jobs in Thailand," he said.

***** Not only is that a low blow to English teachers, it states that people from all over the world can teach English here when the VAST!!! majority of the teachers are from English speaking countries.

[thohts]

.... It's amazing how many shady farangs I have seen in 5 years in BKK. I'm talking some really criminal looking folks: tattoos on hands, face, neck and head. It's almost like a cess pool where some of these people migrate to. ....

I'd be much more afraid of someone with your xenophobic, racist, and just plain ignorant attitude (as you've expressed in other forums) than someone with a visible tattoo.

What comes out of your mouth says so much more about you as a person.

[Beavis and Butthead]

I suppose it is possible that the guy is a total whack job who fantacizes that he committed this horrific crime so much so that he has convinced himself that he did it, but in reality he had nothing to do with it. Pretty unlikely but possible. We will know everything very soon. Media frenzy just begun

[jdinasia]

from reports so far he divulged unreleased information via email to the informant in Colorado that turned him in

[Papa_Lazarou]

How did he get a working visa without a school sponsor? Is this possible?

Is this becoming a discussion about work permits!

[lannarebirth]

that pic is kinda creepy - looks like a bobble head.

listening to this story now in the US is a bit sickening. "Thailand,

notorious for sex and child trafficing....". Geeze - this guy and

Thailand are both being protrayed as guilty until proven innocent.

Actually, the part about Thailand is true. For all the talk on these boards about how bad Thais are, the farang I've seen are far worse. I wish Thailand would initiate some kind of background check (in their home country) for people applying for visas here. All manner of sexual deviants seem to wash up here. The suspect of course, is innocent until proven guilty.

[qualtrough]

Hope this is indeed the guy.

BTW, if Thailand starts deporting 'undesirable' farangs this forum might become a pretty lonely place soon

[fruittbatt]

I suppose it is possible that the guy is a total whack job who fantacizes that he committed this horrific crime so much so that he has convinced himself that he did it, but in reality he had nothing to do with it. Pretty unlikely but possible. We will know everything very soon. Media frenzy just begun

and you're loving it, right? Whatever the case, this person deservs a fair trial. Given the level of speculation and emotion and pre-judicial evidence that prospect looks pretty dubious

[Ijustwannateach]

Oh, just great. That comment by the immigration police will just make our lives as foreign teachers here THAT much easier.

"Steven"

[sriracha john]

John Mark Karr, 41, arrested in Bangkok on Wednesday in a dramatic bolt from the blue, was told he was charged with first degree murder, Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumroungsiskul told a news conference.

Karr replied: "No, not first degree, it was an accident'," Suwat said.

Karr told police they had fallen in love with each other, Suwat said. "She was very beautiful. So he kidnapped her and killed her by accident," the police chief added.

Karr, slender, sandy haired and dressed in a blue polo shirt and beige corduroy trousers, was impassive as he was presented briefly at a news conference.

He remained stony faced within a ring of policemen as a pack of reporters crowded around, demanding to know whether he was guilty of murder.

"During the arrest, we were accompanied by American officers. He has been in and out of Thailand a couple of times and the arrest warrant was issued just a couple of days ago," Suwat said.

REUTERS

[jdinasia]

none of us KNOW the facts yet Fruit ....

my conjecture would be that over the last 21 days this guy was followed ... a dna sample collected from something discarded ...

the 2 pieces of evidence together... DNA on JonBenet and the e-mail evidence together supported the charge and extradition

[Beavis and Butthead]

Loving it? I resent that, Jack. This was a horrific crime and I hope this brings it to closure, punk

[lannarebirth]

Oh, just great. That comment by the immigration police will just make our lives as foreign teachers here THAT much easier.

"Steven"

If good foreign teachers want to make their life easier, they should petition immigration authorities and their respective schools to do exhaustive criminal background checks on the teachers they would hire. By culling out these undesirables before they get here, your life, and the esteem in which your held, should improve. It wouldn't surprise me to see salaries improve as well.

[sriracha john]

Suspect John Mark Karr, who was already wanted in California for possession of child pornography, was arrested in Bangkok.

"This guy is a dirty, kiddie molesting, porn trafficking" expletive, said one law enforcement source.

Karr, 42, a divorced father of three, denied any involvement in the the girl's killing when he was arrested at his Bangkok apartment, a Thai police official told The Associated Press today.

The former second-grade teacher allegedly confessed to details of the 6-year-old pageant winner's slaying that were "not publicly known," MSNBC reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.

One report said the suspect was identified after he started e-mailing a Colorado journalist who had covered the child's murder case. The e-mails displayed inside knowledge of the case, according to an ABC News Web site.

- New York Daily News

[Papa_Lazarou]

It wouldn't surprise me to see salaries improve as well.

It would certainly surprise me.

[lannarebirth]

It wouldn't surprise me to see salaries improve as well.

It would certainly surprise me.

I only meant that fugitives generally aren't in a position to be dictating terms of hire. They take what they can get and I would think wouldn't say much about problems they encounter, wishin g to keep a low profile I assume. Their removal ought to create a more professional environment.

[Papa_Lazarou]

I only meant that fugitives generally aren't in a position to be dictating terms of hire. They take what they can get and I would think wouldn't say much about problems they encounter, wishin g to keep a low profile I assume. Their removal ought to create a more professional environment.

I don't think there is a large demographic of fugitives teaching English. Not to the extent that by ousting them wages would go up. Still one always lives in hope of higher lesson fees.

..Perhaps some good can come of this gruesome crime.

Edited August 17, 2006 by Papa_Lazarou

[sriracha john]

Shocked dad had thought son was dead

John Mark Karr's arrest in Thailand after he had vanished for several years was a mixed blessing for his 85-year-old father.

"I thought someone had killed him," Wexford Karr said Wednesday afternoon while sobbing during a telephone interview from his home in Atlanta. "This is such a surprise that he is alive."

But learning his son was alive came with the news that his son, who is 41, was arrested in the Dec. 26, 1996, slaying of JonBenét Ramsey, he said.

John Karr had disappeared after his release from jail in 2001. Karr, who relatives said had long spoken of a fascination with the Ramsey case, told his father at the time that he was being held for investigation of murdering the girl.

In truth, John Karr was being held while awaiting trial for five counts of child pornography, said Sgt. Rob Giordano, spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department. When he finally was released on bond, he disappeared and was convicted in absentia.

Wexford Karr had never heard that his son had been arrested on any previous criminal charges. But a Colorado state official said John Karr has an extensive criminal record for sexual assaults across the South, including Tennessee.

John Karr's father said his son didn't go to college as a youth because he didn't have enough money to send him. John and his wife, Lara, had three sons in three years, his father said. The oldest boy is about 14, he said.

It wasn't until all three children were born that John Karr went to college, majoring in education. He graduated with honors, Wexford Karr said.

"He is just an exemplary son," he said.

His son's troubles can be traced back to a decision while he was still in college to write a school paper about the JonBenét Ramsey case several years ago, Wexford Karr said.

John Karr's college professor was so impressed with the paper that he encouraged him to write a book about JonBenét's case, his father said.

"He researched everything he could about her," Wexford Karr said.

John Karr spoke with JonBenét's grandparents, but her parents refused to speak with him, Wexford Karr said. John Ramsey told 9News on Wednesday that he does not believe the family knew Karr.

When Wexford Karr asked his son about what he uncovered for his book, John was quiet.

"He wouldn't talk about it," he said.

The research continued when John Karr moved his family to Petaluma, Calif., and he told his father he had taken a job at a Catholic girls school in San Francisco.

While teaching at the school, John joined the Catholic Church, his father said.

Karr applied with a school district in Sonoma County, Calif., to be a substitute teacher in their K-12 system and received a state teaching permit in January 2001, said Superintendent Carl Wong.

In April 2001, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department alerted school officials that John Karr had been arrested on a "non-school-related incident," Wong said.

"Based on the serious nature of that, we issued a notice of personnel action in June 2001, and he was never again employed in any capacity in the K-12 public school system," he said.

Asked whether students, teachers or parents ever had a complaints about Karr, Wong said, "None whatsoever."

After John Karr's arrest, Lara Karr filed for divorce.

"She said the name Karr has destroyed her life," Wexford Karr said.

The divorce prohibited John Karr from seeing his three sons.

"He loved those boys," Wexford Karr said. "They meant everything to him."

He said his son never lived in Colorado and had nothing to do with the crime.

"We are taking no stock in it because it's not his nature," Wexford Karr said. "This JonBenét Ramsey has destroyed my life as an old man. I thought my son was dead. I couldn't take it."

- Denver Post

[eljeque]

QUOTE(eljeque @ 2006-08-17 16:16:29)

How did he get a working visa without a school sponsor? Is this possible?

Is this becoming a discussion about work permits!

No, and I beliee this man to be guilty and deserving of the death penalty. And, when information is brought forward from the police or anywhere else and it sounds unusual, I question it. It is quite possible that we have been provided with "A" and "L" but not B-K, and so it sounds iffy. We may very well learn about B-K later, and so the visa situation will sound normal, but until then .......

[Papa_Lazarou]

QUOTE(eljeque @ 2006-08-17 16:16:29)

No, and I beliee this man to be guilty and deserving of the death penalty.

Oh he's guilty alright.

You just have to look at him. He looks like a psycho.

[SamuiJens]

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.

Don't know what you mean by ugly iceburg, I think this is good , to get the paedophiles where they belong; Behind bars!

[John K]

QUOTE(eljeque @ 2006-08-17 16:16:29)

No, and I beliee this man to be guilty and deserving of the death penalty.

Oh he's guilty alright.

You just have to look at him. He looks like a psycho.

Comforting coming from someone with such an interesting personal photo.

Sorry Papa, I could not resist. So where was his apartment?

Edited August 17, 2006 by John K

[turbog]

isn't it funny that when a farang country is involved in a news story everyone writes in saying "good show" and "well done" ... but when a thread is Thai - it's all backstabbing and slagging off of the great nation that make us their guests.