JonBenet murder suspect deportation looms

BANGKOK, Aug 19 (Reuters) John Mark Karr, the American primary school teacher suspected of killing child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey a decade ago, should be deported to the United States by Tuesday, a top Thai policeman said.

Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumroungsiskul told Reuters the Thai government hoped the paperwork for sending the 41-year-old Karr back would be completed in time for him to leave tomorrow.

But that was not yet certain, he said today and it could be Tuesday before Karr could be sent back.

Other doubts about the timing of the deportation of a suspect in a Christmas 1996 murder which caused a media frenzy in the United States included finding a seat for Karr on a direct flight.

Thai Airways, the only carrier flying directly between Bangkok and the United States, reported all its seats tomorrow flights were fully booked, travel agents said.

An indirect flight would mean addition paperwork which could delay Karr's departure further.

Karr, arrested in Bangkok on Wednesday, has told reporters he was with the six-year-old JonBenet when she died but that he loved her and 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 dollars ransom.

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 MS RAI1322