OMEN
08-19-2006, 09:09 PM
BANGKOK: Thai authorities hope to deport the American accused of the 1996 murder of child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey to the United States this weekend, officials have said as questions surfaced over the schoolteacher's story.
John Mark Karr, 41, arrested in Bangkok this week, told reporters he was with six-year-old JonBenet when she died but her death at Christmas a decade ago was an accident.
Casting doubt on his story, his ex-wife Lara told KGO-TV in San Francisco he was with her in Alabama the entire Christmas season that year and did not believe he could have been involved in JonBenet's murder.
But Thai police denied US media reports that Karr had said he had drugged JonBenet, despite no evidence of drugs being found in her body. They also denied he said he had picked her up from school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday.
"Karr did not tell interrogators he drugged the girl," Thai Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumroungsiskul said. "He said he had sex with her and her death was accidental."
Watching cable television reports from his Bangkok cell, Karr expressed displeasure at the media coverage of the case.
"He said he did not drug her. He said he wants the world to know the truth. He asked for another press conference," said a Thai police interrogator who had been with Karr in his cell.
It was not clear whether his request would be granted. Thai officials said they were more interested in getting Karr out of the country.
"We want him to be out as soon as possible," the interrogator told Reuters. "We are aiming for this weekend. But it is up to the Americans to find an available seat on a commercial flight for him."
DAZED
Karr, whose arrest was the latest twist in the sensational December 26, 1996 murder, was paraded before reporters on Thursday, looking pale and dazed and surrounded by police. Asked if he was innocent, Karr shook his head and said, "No".
"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr said. "The death was an accident."
JonBenet was found in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home, strangled with a complicated garrotte made from a stick and cord, her skull fractured.
The girl's body was found by her father hours after her mother stumbled on a bizarre, three-page letter claiming she had been kidnapped for $118,000 ransom.
Slender, sandy haired and dressed in a blue polo shirt and beige trousers, Karr spoke to reporters in a quiet voice. "I loved JonBenet," he said.
His father, Wexford Karr, told the Denver Post his son had been so interested in the JonBenet case that he wanted to write a book about it.
SUICIDE WATCH
Karr, to be taken into custody in Boulder to await trial, was under constant watch in his cell at Bangkok's immigration bureau. His request for a shaving razor was turned down, a police officer said.
Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy suggested his arrest came sooner than she would have liked, prompted by "exigent circumstances", and said more work remained to be done in the case.
Karr started teaching second grade in a Bangkok school on Tuesday and investigators would have liked more time to develop evidence, she said.
But public safety worries and the possibility of flight sometimes prompted an arrest in criminal cases, she said.
"There is much more work to be done now that the suspect is in custody," she said. "John Karr is presumed innocent."
Lacy would not say what evidence her office had against Karr, who came to the attention of authorities by contacting a Colorado journalism professor who has made documentaries about the murder.
Reuters
John Mark Karr, 41, arrested in Bangkok this week, told reporters he was with six-year-old JonBenet when she died but her death at Christmas a decade ago was an accident.
Casting doubt on his story, his ex-wife Lara told KGO-TV in San Francisco he was with her in Alabama the entire Christmas season that year and did not believe he could have been involved in JonBenet's murder.
But Thai police denied US media reports that Karr had said he had drugged JonBenet, despite no evidence of drugs being found in her body. They also denied he said he had picked her up from school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday.
"Karr did not tell interrogators he drugged the girl," Thai Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumroungsiskul said. "He said he had sex with her and her death was accidental."
Watching cable television reports from his Bangkok cell, Karr expressed displeasure at the media coverage of the case.
"He said he did not drug her. He said he wants the world to know the truth. He asked for another press conference," said a Thai police interrogator who had been with Karr in his cell.
It was not clear whether his request would be granted. Thai officials said they were more interested in getting Karr out of the country.
"We want him to be out as soon as possible," the interrogator told Reuters. "We are aiming for this weekend. But it is up to the Americans to find an available seat on a commercial flight for him."
DAZED
Karr, whose arrest was the latest twist in the sensational December 26, 1996 murder, was paraded before reporters on Thursday, looking pale and dazed and surrounded by police. Asked if he was innocent, Karr shook his head and said, "No".
"I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr said. "The death was an accident."
JonBenet was found in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home, strangled with a complicated garrotte made from a stick and cord, her skull fractured.
The girl's body was found by her father hours after her mother stumbled on a bizarre, three-page letter claiming she had been kidnapped for $118,000 ransom.
Slender, sandy haired and dressed in a blue polo shirt and beige trousers, Karr spoke to reporters in a quiet voice. "I loved JonBenet," he said.
His father, Wexford Karr, told the Denver Post his son had been so interested in the JonBenet case that he wanted to write a book about it.
SUICIDE WATCH
Karr, to be taken into custody in Boulder to await trial, was under constant watch in his cell at Bangkok's immigration bureau. His request for a shaving razor was turned down, a police officer said.
Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy suggested his arrest came sooner than she would have liked, prompted by "exigent circumstances", and said more work remained to be done in the case.
Karr started teaching second grade in a Bangkok school on Tuesday and investigators would have liked more time to develop evidence, she said.
But public safety worries and the possibility of flight sometimes prompted an arrest in criminal cases, she said.
"There is much more work to be done now that the suspect is in custody," she said. "John Karr is presumed innocent."
Lacy would not say what evidence her office had against Karr, who came to the attention of authorities by contacting a Colorado journalism professor who has made documentaries about the murder.
Reuters