This is horrible. Marc Klass is on John Kasich and he is absolutely livid! He is really striking hard at the BDA for this international disaster without doing any checking into Karr beforehand. But worse, he's horrified that his daughter has been dragged into this mire. I feel so terrible for Marc I could cry. This is sooooo wrong.
He has every right to feel the way he does, Ginja. This is a very well respected man. As for DA Mary Lacy's statement, it was an insult to people's intelligence, and a waste of valuable time. Marc Klass is right.
He is on CNN now and just happened to mention the message boards! He was showing an example of how someone might be aware of case information that the general public didn't stop and take the Freaking time to care about. RR
I added to my post, Punisher. He didn't mention us by name but he did cover the fact that ten years later, there are people still talking about this case every day. RR
Whoaaaa Elle, hope you didn't misunderstand me, because I feel he has every right and more to be freaking out like this. What's upsetting is that he has to go through this fiasco, and why? Prosecutorial incompetence? Unfortunately, Lacy's office has started putting out excuses to save their collective incompetent asses!
Ginj - I missed that show, what set Mark off? Anything in particular or just the whole situation? Maybe Punisher can share after he watched the tape. RR
Richard Allen Davis' belongings were searched and they found nothing. Karr claims they corresponded. http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=5299895
Elle_1, You are so right. I can't believe that Mark Klass has to endure another nightmare that concerns his little girl. Polly should have never been mentioned. :nono: The Bolder DA has futher proven incompetence. Next thing you know Karrthefruitcake will say he killed JFK.
I saw it when Klaas was informed on one of the shows this afternoon that Karr had a copy of Polly's death certificate at his home in California when it was searched back in 2001. Klaas was very clear that his daughter deserved more dignity than to be bouncing around in this "sick pervert's" head...approximately what he said. You could see him stewing then. It maybe got to be too much hearing about that *** who murdered his daughter again in contact with ANOTHER sicko pedophile who was focused on his child, as well. Kaar also had a letter at his home from Polly's killer. I don't know how they do it. They'd have to knock me out.
Thanks, KK I don't know how he does it either, but Mark set the stage that the Ramseys failed miserably on. RR
They failed all right. "Ginj - I missed that show, what set Mark off? Anything in particular or just the whole situation? Maybe Punisher can share after he watched the tape." He came IN set off! he thought he didn't have to have his little girl's name brought up again!
He is my Hero I did catch the replay late last night. I have watched Mark over many years and only when the pig Davis set him off in the courtroom have I witnessed an event more heartbreaking than last night. People need to see the real pain that real victims suffer and even though Mark is one of the strongest men on this planet, he could have done without this. RR
JonBenet Link Unsettles Klaas Town By MARCUS WOHLSEN and MICHELLE LOCKE Associated Press Writers 11:04 AM PDT, August 19, 2006 PETALUMA, Calif. — Carla Ballestrasse still has a Polly Klaas button pinned to an old raincoat from the days 13 years ago when she, like hundreds of other residents, kept vigil for the missing 12-year-old. So it was a jolt when she learned that the man arrested in another high-profile child murder, the JonBenet Ramsey case, had briefly lived and taught in the small wine country town of Petaluma. "I can't say Petaluma is a place where crazy people and weird people come because it's not," Ballestrasse said as she waited on customers in her downtown beauty salon Thursday. Still, she said, John Mark Karr's arrest this past week in Thailand was "a harsh reminder." For Polly's father, Marc Klaas, it was beyond disturbing. Karr didn't move to Petaluma until long after Polly's killer had been sent to death row, but court documents indicate he took an interest in the case and told a sheriff's detective he had a copy of Polly's death certificate. "This is getting creepier by the minute," Klaas said in a telephone interview from Southern California, where he was campaigning for Jessica's Law, an initiative that would force many sex offenders to wear satellite-tracked monitoring devices for life and restrict where they could live. After Polly's death, Klaas became an advocate for child safety, forming the foundation KlaasKids. "I had gotten myself at a place in my life where I remember the good things," he said. "This is just dragging up the really hideous stuff all over again in about the most disturbing way you could even imagine." Karr, 41, claims he was with JonBenet when she died in Boulder in 1996, although he has said her death was an accident. However, some experts say some of his details seem off and raise suspicions. School officials say Karr briefly was a substitute teacher in the Petaluma area until early 2001, when he was charged with possessing child pornography. He disappeared before his trial was due to start in January 2002. Karr's apprehension is likely to prompt a re-examination of missing-girl cases in other regions where he passed through, said Dave Johnson, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's San Francisco office. Until March, Johnson was chief of the crimes against children unit at FBI headquarters in Washington. "The FBI will pursue all logical investigation in these types of cases until we reach a resolution," Johnson said, declining to comment on the specifics of the JonBenet case. Tenuous or not, the Petaluma link between JonBenet and Polly startled many. "Total amazement," said Glena Records, director of communications for The Polly Klaas Foundation, another missing children's center founded after Polly's kidnapping and murder. Thirteen years ago, Records and her two young daughters were among the volunteers who stuffed envelopes to get the word out about Polly's disappearance. Now, she said, "it is quite an irony, quite an unfortunate coincidence that Petaluma should figure, however tangentially, in two such tragic murders." Polly was kidnapped from her bedroom where she and two friends were having a sleepover on Oct. 1, 1993. The case made headlines partly because of the audacity of the attack -- Polly's mother was asleep in the next room -- and the shock of such a crime taking place in a small city best known for charming Victorian houses. Interest in the case remained high, stoked by the extraordinary community effort in which hundreds of people turned out to answer phones, search fields and post flyers. The search ended about two months later when Richard Allen Davis led police to the body. Davis, who had a record of assaulting women, was convicted in 1996 and is under sentence of death. Divorce records indicate Karr and his then-wife moved from Alabama to Petaluma in 2000 with their three children. Karr seems to have been interested in both JonBenet and Polly. His father, Wexford Karr, has told reporters his son "researched everything he could," about JonBenet. In addition, court documents connected to a search of Karr's home in October 2001 show that Karr told a sheriff's detective he had a letter from Davis and a copy of Polly's death certificate. Prison guards searched Davis' death row cell Thursday after learning that he and Karr may have corresponded, but found no letters. Mike Kerns, the former Petaluma police sergeant who served as the department's main spokesman in the Klaas case, was struck by the "tremendous coincidence" of Karr's Petaluma stay. Still, he pointed out that a lot of people move to Petaluma, about 45 miles north of San Francisco, drawn by its quiet setting and good schools. "Basically, it is a nice safe, town," said Kerns, now a Sonoma County supervisor. As someone who knew Polly, her case is rarely far from his mind. "Those memories never go away," Kerns said. * __ Associated Press Writer Scott Lindlaw contributed to this report from San Francisco.
