BANGKOK - John Mark Karr, the American primary school teacher suspected of killing child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey a decade ago, was expected to be deported to the United States later today, a Thai policeman said.
Karr, 41, was due to be put on a direct flight to Los Angeles,
said the official, who asked not to be identified.
He was then expected to be flown to Boulder, Colorado for questioning after telling reporters in Bangkok he was with the six-year-old child when she died at Christmas 1996, but that her death was an accident.
JonBenet was found in the basement of her Boulder, Colorado, home, strangled with a garrote made from a stick and cord, her skull fractured.
The body was found by her father hours after the girl's mother stumbled on a bizarre, three-page letter claiming she had been kidnapped for $118,000 ransom.
Karr, arrested in Bangkok on Wednesday, said he loved JonBenet and answered "No" when asked whether he was an innocent man. But he did not say how she died.
However, there are doubts about whether Karr was the killer.
His ex-wife Lara told KGO-TV in San Francisco Karr was with her in Alabama the entire Christmas season that year and did not believe he could have been involved in JonBenet's murder.
- REUTERS
