John Mark Karr

Alexis Valoran Reich (born December 11, 1964) is an American male-to-female transgender person formerly known as John Mark Karr who in 2006 falsely confessed to the unsolved murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey. She has, on other occasions, faced a number of other criminal charges.

Childhood

Karr was born in Conyers, Georgia and spent his early childhood in Atlanta. His father, Wexford Karr had married Patricia Elaine Adcock (John's mother) on August 21, 1958, when he was 37 and she was 18. Wexford filed for divorce in 1973, saying the marriage was "irretrievably broken," and that John and his older brother, Michael, were in his custody. Soon after, Wexford Karr, then 52 years old, married 29-year-old Susan Simpson, his neighbor in the same apartment complex. His marriage with Simpson ended in divorce six months later.

A family friend, George McCrary, has said that Karr's mother believed John Karr was possessed by demons. His mother allegedly built a pyre of kindling around him and attempted to burn him alive as an infant. Adcock was committed to the Central State Hospital, a mental hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, and later lived in a group home, according to her stepmother Shirley Adcock.

Karr moved to Alabama to live with his grandparents when he was about 12 years old. He grew up in Hamilton and graduated from Hamilton High School in 1983. Karr returned to live in Atlanta at least twice: once to attend one semester at Riverwood High School in Sandy Springs from January to May 1981, and again some years after graduating from high school.

Marriages

In 1984, Karr married 13-year-old Quientana Ray Shotts. Karr evidently told Quientana to lie about her age, and took her out of Alabama, where they both lived, to marry her. Karr and Shotts lived together as a couple in Hamilton after their wedding, and Karr "was abusing her every way there was," according to Melissa Shotts. Court records show that, in 1985, a 14-year-old girl sought an annulment of what the records call a "ceremonial marriage," saying she had feared for her life when she agreed to marry Karr in 1984. Karr admitted to the court that she was a minor, but disputed she had been 13. The marriage was annulled in 1985. Shotts later remarried and now bears a different surname.

Karr married Lara Knutson in Alabama on May 19, 1989, when he was 24 and she was 16 and pregnant. She was carrying twin daughters who were delivered via a home birth on September 1, 1989. The girls, named Angel and Innocence, died later that day. The couple went on to have three boys in close succession, the oldest, John born in 1990, Damon in 1992 and Seven Exodus in 1993. The couple divorced in 2001 following Karr's arrest for five misdemeanor counts of possession of child pornography in Petaluma, California. In the divorce petition, his wife wrote that Karr was never physically violent towards her, but that he was "very controlling" of her. A restraining order against Karr was granted. Knutson said he purposely set out to get her pregnant, telling her the pregnancy would allow them to skirt the law and get married, according to statements she made in divorce records.

In 2007, Karr became engaged to a 23-year-old woman named Brooke Simmons who had a three-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Career

Karr had been working as a substitute teacher in Petaluma, but Bob Raines, the Superintendent-Principal at Wilson School in Petaluma said he was an ineffective substitute teacher: "He just seemed like somebody who thought he wanted to be a teacher... After a day, I could see it just wasn't for him." He worked from December 2000 through June 2001 in as many as 14 schools in the Petaluma, Old Adobe, Liberty and Wilmar elementary districts. His last paycheck for teaching work in Petaluma was issued in April 2001, the same month that he made his first court appearance for the aforementioned pornography charges. When he failed to show up for a readiness conference in December 2001, a judge issued a warrant for his arrest, which was still outstanding as of August 2006.

In March 1996, Karr registered the domain Powerwurks.com and used it as a cover, claiming on Usenet to be "a world wide support organization for kids, teens and college students." As well as seeking troubled or depressed children, he also solicited discussion on sex.

Karr also operated a day care center in northwest Alabama. The Marion County Department of Human Resources issued a license for Karr to begin operating a day care out of his home in June 1997. Under the license, Karr was allowed to care for as many as six children at a time, ranging in age up to 14 years old.

2001 arrest

On April 13, 2001, Karr was arrested for possession of computerized child pornography. He pled not guilty four days later. On October 15, 2001, after a series of court hearings, Karr was released from jail, but was ordered to report to a probation officer. The court records in the case were sealed. In December 2001, Karr failed to appear and a "No Bail" warrant was issued by a Sonoma County Superior Court Judge. Since then Karr had been on the run, living in Asia, Europe and Central America, until his arrest in Thailand.

Events of 2006

Initial investigation

Main article: JonBenét Ramsey

Authorities were made aware of Karr via e-mails he exchanged over the course of four years with Michael Tracey, a journalism professor at the University of Colorado.

In June 2006, the Boulder District Attorney's office received copies of the suspect's emails from Tracey, who received the emails from a person with the email address "December261996@yahoo.com." December 26, 1996, was the date of JonBenét's murder. At least one of the emails was signed with the signature "Daxis."

Armed with the email address and Internet service provider, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) determined the general location of the suspect in Thung Maha Mek, a neighborhood in Bangkok, Thailand. At the time, the suspect's name and exact location was not known.

Discovery of Karr's whereabouts

Authorities identified and found Karr when he sent an envelope to Tracey by regular mail with a return address bearing the name of a major thoroughfare in Bangkok, but no number or cross street. Tracey sent Karr another kind of mail – a photograph delivered to a Thai post office box. Agents arranged a controlled delivery and were ready to spot their suspect. The man who arrived to pick up the mail delivery was using a 21-speed bicycle, the purchase of which was mentioned in e-mails sent by the suspect. The agents followed Karr to his residence and learned his name.

On August 11, 2006, they notified ICE officials, and from that point on, Karr was placed under surveillance by Thai immigration officials. A sealed arrest warrant, signed by Boulder County District Judge Roxanne Bailin, was sent by the Boulder District Attorney's office to officials in Thailand on August 15, 2006. The next day, upon receipt of the warrant, Thai immigration authorities revoked Karr's visa.

Arrest

Karr was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 16, 2006, by Thai authorities, then released to U.S. agents and flown first to Los Angeles, California, then to Boulder for further investigation. On August 28, prosecutors announced they had decided not to pursue charges in connection with the murder after DNA tests failed to place Karr at the scene, although serious doubts had been expressed about the veracity of his admission even before the tests were conducted. Karr was held in Boulder until September 12, 2006, when he was transported to Sonoma County, California to face unrelated misdemeanor child pornography charges. The charges were dismissed by a California judge on October 5, 2006, and Karr was immediately released.

Detention in Thailand, deportation to United States

Karr was detained in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 16, 2006. Karr said he was with JonBenét when she died, and told a press conference that her death was an accident. He said: "I love JonBenét," and "I was with JonBenét when she died; she died accidentally." When asked if he was an innocent man, he said: "No." Thai Immigration Police Lieutenant General Suwat Tumrongsiskul stated that Karr admitted attempting to kidnap JonBenét Ramsey for an $118,000 ransom to be paid by the Ramseys, only to strangle her after his plan went awry. While he was detained in Thailand, officials there had Karr on a 24-hour suicide watch.

Karr returned on a business class flight. He was not handcuffed or under arrest during the flight, ate from a free choice of menu and drank Champagne on the Thai Airways Airbus 340-500 he took to the United States. Experts, such as Denver attorney Larry Posner, have speculated that Karr was given the food and drink to get him to start talking about his involvement in the murder of JonBenét:

Karr was escorted by investigators working for the Boulder district attorney. He had been detained in Thailand because his visa had been revoked by request of Boulder County, Colorado, but he was released to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to ensure he returned to the U.S. Karr was not legally arrested until August 20, 2006, after the airliner touched down at Los Angeles International Airport. He was first admitted into the country, then he was arrested at the airport on a warrant from Boulder County by the waiting officers of the LA County Sheriff's Department, and taken by helicopter to Twin Towers Correctional Faci