Father says John Mark Karr has left country

John Mark Karr’s father said his notorious son has been run out of town by neighbors who made him feel anything but welcome.

Grant Park residents worried that Karr was moving into their community say they’re relieved to hear the news.

The slight former schoolteacher — who achieved a bizarre celebrity two years ago when he implicated himself in the JonBenet Ramsey murder, then was cleared — had been spotted in the neighborhood several times in recent weeks.

“Everyone’s talking about it,” said Eric Nankervis, who lives just a few blocks away from a Glenwood Avenue home owned by Karr’s father, Wexford Karr.

The elder Karr said his son has left the country but did not say where he’d gone.

“He knew he’d never be able to live a normal life here,” Karr said.

He’ll get no pity from his neighbors, whether in Sandy Springs, where Karr was living with his father, or Grant Park.

“People are very concerned,” said Amy Martin, who lives a block away from the Karr house on Glenwood. “This is a family-friendly neighborhood.”

John Mark Karr has never been convicted of any crime, though he faced child pornography charges in California when he emerged as a potential Ramsey suspect. He was extradited from Thailand in 2006, before Boulder, Colo., officials cleared him when his DNA did not match the male DNA found on the child beauty queen’s body. He was also cleared of the porn charges due to lack of evidence.

Grant Park residents said they don’t want Karr in their neighborhood because of the number of young children in their community. The Grant Park Neighborhood Association estimates that more than 700 children live in the neighborhood. There’s a preschool a block away from the Karr home, and a charter school within a half-mile.

In the past, Karr, 43, has seemed to enjoy his notoriety.

In an interview in August 2007, Karr stood by the statement he made to reporters after his extradition: “I loved JonBenet, and she died accidentally,” he said. Asked if he was an innocent man, he replied, “No.”

Karr also spoke of wanting to live a normal life in Atlanta. At the time he was living with his father and 23-year-old fiancee, Brooke Simmons, in Sandy Springs, where neighbors spoke about doing what they could to make Karr “uncomfortable.”

“He’s been treated like a criminal,” said Wexford Karr in an interview Sunday night. “We’ve all been placed in the same cauldron, and now they’ve brought it to a boil.”

Karr said his son never planned to move into Grant Park. “He was just helping me with some of my properties,” he said.

When interviewed last year, Karr said he’s had a difficult time finding employment. Before his arrest in Thailand, Karr worked as a educator. A report on an online free-content encyclopedia that Karr was teaching fourth grade at a Atlanta primary school is apparently unfounded. Atlanta school officials say records show he’s never been employed by them.

And the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, which licenses teachers, says Karr has never held a teaching certificate in Georgia. In fact, Gary Walker, the organization’s deputy executive secretary, said commission officials have flagged Karr’s name in its files so that if he ever applies for a certificate, his application would be denied.

He lost his first teaching job, in Marion County, Ala., after parents complained about his interactions with female students.

The Conyers native’s personal life is also unsettled. Simmons broke off their engagement a few months ago, telling the syndicated television show “Inside Edition” Karr still believes he had something to do with JonBenet’s murder.

“He never said that he made it up. Never,” she said. Twice-wed, Karr’s wives were 14 and 16, respectively, when he married them.

“I think it was more than she could shoulder,” Karr’s father said of Simmons. “This has been tough on all of us.”

“I’ve lost all my friends,” he said. “Some I had for many, many years.”

Though they hold no ill will toward Karr’s father, residents in Grant Park hope he’s telling the truth about his son’s self-imposed exile.

“We don’t want him living here,” Martin said.

Staff writer Laura Diamond contributed to this report.