This shit just keeps getting weirder...
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/082106dnintkarr.1a1f147b.html
JonBenet suspect en route to U.S.
09:16 AM CDT on Sunday, August 20, 2006
Associated Press
ABOARD THAI AIRWAYS TO LOS ANGELES - The suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey left Thailand on Sunday aboard a flight to the United States, where he faces charges in the killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen.
John Mark Karr, escorted by three U.S. officials, was on Thai Airways International flight TG794 bound for Los Angeles. It took off from Don Muang International Airport just after 8 p.m. (9 a.m. EDT.)
The 41-year-old teacher is to end his journey in Boulder, Colorado, where he faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault in connection with the 1996 killing.
Karr, who is not charged with any crime in Thailand, is being expelled from the country because he is regarded as an undesirable person. He is not being extradited.
He sat in a business class window seat next to Mark Stray, an investigator with the Boulder District Attorney's office. A U.S. Embassy official and a security officer with "Homeland Security" emblazoned on his T-shirt were also part of the escort party.
Before take-off, Karr took a glass of champagne from a cabin attendant and clinked classes with Stray, who had selected an orange juice.
Before entering the aircraft, he chatted amiably with passengers at the departure area. He wore a red short-sleeved, button-down shirt and tie.
Just hours before his departure a doctor at a clinic that specializes in sex-change operations said Karr had been one of his patients. But Dr. Thep Vechavisit refused to provide details of the treatment.
Thep has received considerable local publicity for his male-to-female operations and the clinic is one of the sponsors of an annual beauty pageant for transsexuals in the seaside resort of Pattaya.
A staffer at the Pratunam Polyclinic, speaking on condition of anonymity since she was not authorized to make statements to the media, said Karr had consulted the doctor about a sex-change operation. This could not be confirmed.
Karr was whisked into the immigration and customs zone at the airport after arriving in a white van from an immigration jail in downtown Bangkok. At the departure gate, he chatted amiably with fellow passengers.
Bangkok, where Karr lived on and off for two years, is regarded as a major global center for sex change operations, which cost a fraction of the price charged in Western countries.
The JonBenet case, which people in Thailand were generally unaware of before Karr's arrest, has been drawing increasing attention. The local focus has been on the qualifications of expatriate teachers, and whether there are checks in place to weed out criminals and deviants.
A divorced father of three children once detained on charges of possessing child pornography, Karr in recent years apparently traveled to Europe, Central America and Asia to search for teaching jobs.
He was arrested a day after he began teaching second grade in Bangkok, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy told reporters in Colorado. Thai authorities said he had also worked at two schools in Thailand.
An official at one of the Thai schools, the prestigious elementary school at Bangkok Christian College, said Karr was fired in mid-June after only two weeks on the job because he was too strict with students.
Thai Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang said Saturday he had ordered his ministry to look into the screening of foreigners seeking teaching jobs.
It has been too easy for unqualified foreigners to be hired, in part because those with the proper qualifications are too expensive for many schools, Chaturon was quoted as saying by the state Thai News Agency.
