After searching for more than a month, authorities finally located John Mark Karr last Thursday at a familiar address – his father’s residence near Chastain Park.
Sandy Springs police, at the request of the San Francisco police, served Karr with a restraining order on behalf of 19-year-old Samantha Spiegel. “The detectives met with Karr for about three minutes and then left the residence,” said police spokesman Steve Rose, who declined to elaborate.
Karr, who’s legally changed his name to Alexis Reich, sent several threatening e-mails to Spiegel, writing in one, “If you deceive me, I will kill you.”
Spiegel said Reich plans to undergo gender reassignment surgery so he can get closer to little girls.
Authorities tracked the 46-year-old former teacher to Sandy Springs following a tip from a Chicago tourist who crossed paths with Reich, dressed in androgynous garb, in Paris.
Christina Nieves told Inside Edition she struck up a conversation with Reich in the womens' bathroom at Charles deGaulle Airport. She soon recognized him as the man who, in 2006, claimed to be JonBenet's killer. Reich later told Nieves he was headed to Atlanta to visit his father.
Reich had lived at his father’s home before, moving in after he was cleared of any wrongdoing in the Ramsey case -- though he maintains his guilt. He left town in 2008 after it was rumored he was moving to Grant Park. Neighbors there let it be known he wasn't welcome.
“He knew he’d never be able to live a normal life here,” his father, Wexford Karr, told the AJC in 2008.
He hasn’t lived a normal life on the West Coast, either. Reich, married twice before to girls 16 and 14, reconnected with Spiegel, a former student in his fourth grade class, online. Their relationship quickly blossomed, and, when she was 17, Spiegel said she and Reich got engaged. Her parents intervened, and Spiegel, now 19, turned against Reich following more than a year of psychological care.
Spiegel insists Reich has started a cult that seeks to recruit “Immaculates” -- young girls who look like JonBenet.
In one of his last messages to Spiegel, written on April 10, Reich wrote: "If you cost me my little girls I will hunt you down and kill you."
Calls to Reich’s father’s residence were not returned. It’s unknown if Reich is still residing there.
It’s also unclear why he was in Paris last month, though he’s often said he hopes to teach again.
"My passion is my work with children," he writes on his web site. Despite his bizarre behavior, Reich has never been convicted of a crime.
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