JonBenet Suspect's Lurid E-Mail Trail

Correspondence Between Karr And Professor Reveal JonBenet Obsession

(CBS/AP)  The day before Christmas Eve 2005, John Mark Karr sent an e-mail to University of Colorado professor Michael Tracey. It was one of a disturbing series of e-mails between Tracey and a person investigators believe to be Karr.

A source close to the investigation told CBS News the reason investigators moved in on Karr was because of details in these emails about the Ramsey house that had not been made public, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella.

According to the source, Karr wrote about a check stub on John Ramsey's desk in the amount of $118,000, specifics about a staircase in the Ramsey’s home and details about the basement where JonBenet was killed.

The e-mails were suspicious for other reasons as well. Correspondence obtained by the Rocky Mountain News included one message in which the professor was asked to visit JonBenet's home in Boulder to read aloud an ode called "JonBenet, My Love."

"JonBenet, my love, my life. I love you and shall forever love you. I pray that you can hear my voice calling out to you from my darkness, this darkness that now separates us," read one of the e-mails, which the newspaper said Friday it obtained from a source close to the investigation.

In other e-mails, Karr said he was under federal investigation for "child murder and child molestation" in four states.

"I don't know that he's guilty," said Tracey. "Obviously, I went to the district attorney for a reason, but let him have his day in court and let JonBenet have her day in court and let's see how it plays out."

In another e-mail, the Rocky Mountain News reported, Karr said he sympathized with Michael Jackson, who was accused but later acquitted of molesting young boys.

"I will tell you that I can understand people like Michael Jackson and feel sympathy when he suffers as he has," Karr wrote.

"I can relate very well to children and the way they think and feel," one Karr e-mail said. "I think you are asking if I am much a 'Peter Pan.' In many ways, the answer is yes. In other ways, I suppose it is no, because I am trapped in a world that does not understand."

In another correspondence, Tracey asked whether Karr's "fascination with little girls, which clearly has a strong erotic component, is a way of going back."

"Maybe I am not going back but have simply stayed consistent," Karr responded. "My peer group has not changed since I was a little boy, and girls were the people I was with always. Referring to them as a peer group is somewhat incorrect, but might also be the very definition of what they continue to be in my life."

Meanwhile, in California, prison guards searched the death row cell of a child killer after learning he may have corresponded with Karr, authorities said Friday.

Guards at San Quentin State Prison searched Richard Allen Davis' cell Thursday, but no letters were found from Karr, said Lt. Eric Messick.

In Washington, federal law enforcement officials said Karr's comments since his arrest have piqued their interest and they want to question him. Regarding Kerr's purported claims in e-mails that he was under federal investigation for child murder and molestation, one law enforcement official said "there is no four-state federal case" in which Karr is wanted or even suspected.

Meanwhile, investigators continue to unravel an elaborate and hazy narrative woven in part by Karr himself, much of it constructed around a clear and chilling theme — a yearning to be close to children.

That desire, in retrospect, appears as heartfelt as it does disturbing.

In an interview for an English-teaching job at one of Bangkok's elite Thai schools, Karr left a good first impression. He was clean-cut, articulate and had a resume detailing experience in schools in the United States, Japan and elsewhere.

But after just two weeks on the job, Karr was asked to leave.

"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 Chompowong, assistant director of Bangkok Christian College's English immersion program, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Karr is a man who, while wanted as a fugitive on child pornography charges, sought to impress prospective employers with a long record of accomplishment preparing young lives "for a successful future."

Karr went through his teen years mostly unnoticed, one of his classmates told CBS News 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty, keeping mostly to himself.

He is a man who twice married teenagers — one just 13 at the time. Both would later claim they had been coerced.

And he is the man who years ago confided to family members that he was deeply troubled by the murder of the Colorado 6-year-old, who told U.S. investigators that he picked JonBenet up at school, drugged and had sex with her before accidentally killing her in Colorado in 1996, Thai police Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul told The Associated Press.

But questions have been raised about some of his claims, including whether he drugged the 6-year-old, sexually assaulted her or was even in Colorado at the time of the slaying.

[violetta2]

John Karr no more killed JonBenet than Mickey Mouse. It is a false confession by a delusional mentally disturbed person.

The person who should be charged is Michael Tracey, the professor. This goes on for 4 years and he only contacts the authorities in May?

While corresponding with Karr, Tracey produced a documentary which falsely pointed to a suicide victim and his friend as suspects. The friend was supposedily on the run and was "wanted." Noone would buy the documentary except a station in the UK and someone there was able to screen capture this guy's name from his record, they did a Google search and found that he had a website and was selling jewelry in another state and did not even live in CO at the time of the murder. After being exposed, Tracey completely edited this out of his fictional documentary.

Mr. Tracey has a long time history with Lou Smit and the ramsey detectives, they worked on the documentaries together. Lou Smit has the entire files, he won the right to retain them in court. Who is to say that they did not share some information with Karr? There also is a nut job housewife in North Carolina who professes to be a case historian and also has access to everything, she even sold the Ramsey's interrogations to the National Enquirer for $40,000!! So to arrest someone on NO physical evidence and just because he knew "elements" of the crime only known to authorities is very WRONG, I think the Boulder D.A. is stupider than the Boulder police at this point.

[opinionated2]

This guy is a freak! Definately guilty of something, but not this murder. He's obsessed with the stories. Why would his ex-wife lie? She has no reason to.

[sunnysmile58]

I will reserve judgement as to the nature of his 'confessions'. The one good thing about this is that another child predator is off the streets! I do pray that her murderer WILL found, and dealt with acordingly...whether it be this sick man or no.

[gaiakin]

I want to know what tied karr to the Boulder DA? Did they have any thing that they knew for sure? Or, were they just nabbing a nasty man.

I think that this is something that has to be looked at deeply and we should not cater to his sick story.

What prompted the Bolder Police to think that they had enough evidance. What is it?

[CoffinNails]

Well he is getting out of Thailand safely and getting the notoriety he so desperately seeks.

[igitit]

If Karr did kill Polly Klaas, why wasn't that brought up at Davis's Trail? Would Davis would protect a twinky like Karr?

What evidence is yet to be revealed that would make a DA with a good reputation think that Karr should be arrested. All the public evidence so far indicates that the Confession is bogus.

Perverts are (I hope)are a small community they probably exchange fanatasies, does Karr know who did commit the murder?

[jurasc109]

There are (4) seperate cases that he is being sought for questioning for and that's why he can never return to the US. The children he claims in his online resume that he "cared for" and "taught" were children ages 7, 11 and 12. I can't help but think that he fanasizes about "caring for" his victims even though they are dead. I think that he paid Richard Davis to steal Polly Klaas from her home and that he is the real killer. She would be the 12 yr. old that he fantasizes about caring for and teaching. Who is the 11 yr. old? The 7 yr. old could be JonBenet or possibly the 4th victim. His mother tried to raise him as a little girl, his father was not around much and he was always around girls as a peer group. Could he have seen his own self in JonBenet? I even see a resemblence to her. Polly Klaas seems to have been a slightly troubled girl who may have had some kind of "friendship" with Karr and perhaps was involved in her own kidnapping initially. He may have built expectations of how an encounter (to come and be with him) might go, but it all went awry when the children protested so he "accidentally" killed them. After reading exerpts of a book called "The Story of Polly Klaas" I think he is her real killer. He was obsessed with her case and has worked in Petaluma. Isn't it true that killers will often return to the scene of the crime? Look at Scott Peterson, for example. I bet there is a murder in Alabama that he can be tied to as well.

[highlife0713]

I dunno , i think this guy is a total *** and he is full of it , i dont think he has the brains nor the strength , mentally or physically to do it .