E-mail address.(News)

Byline: Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News

The e-mail address that helped track down John Mark Karr in Thailand was December251996@yahoo .com - the day before JonBenet Ramsey's body was found.

E-mails to Boulder journalism professor Michael Tracey included a now-infamous request that Tracey stand at JonBenet's Boulder house on the anniversary of her death and say aloud a poem to "JonBenet, my love."

They came from that address and were signed "Daxis," according to information given to Thai authorities by U.S. officials seeking their help in finding and arresting him.

Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, of the Thai Immigration Police, said Karr told him Daxis was simply a word he invented.

The search for the man now accused of JonBenet's murder began when Tracey sent e-mails from Daxis to independent investigators in Colorado Springs.

When the e-mails reached the Boulder District Attorney's Office, prosecutors found enough in them to warrant a serious look at Karr as JonBenet's killer.

They actually began tracking John Mark Karr a couple of months ago, Tumrongsiskul said.

"We were informed by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) that the suspect of this case has come to Thailand," said Tumrongsiskul. He added that ICE didn't know the man's name at that point. But they had an e-mail address, his Internet provider, and therefore the neighborhood of Bangkok where he'd been e-mailing.

The neighborhood was Thung Maha Mek, barely a kilometer from the general's office.

News reports in Bangkok say U.S. investigators got a break when Karr sent an envelope to Tracey by regular mail, and wrote a return address on the envelope of Bangkok, Thailand.

The address had the name of a major thoroughfare, but no number or cross street.

Then ICE came up with the name: John Mark Karr. And Thai immigration police began searching for him.

Although Thai hotels report foreigners, the records are not automated, and the search took some time, the general said.

"And on the 11th of August, we found him," the general said. Karr had been in the country off and on since October.

That was a Friday, and the general's office immediately informed ICE.

Not wanting to lose Karr, "we sent two or three officers to stay in that apartment building" to keep an eye on his whereabouts, Tumrongsiskul said. That was a major commitment of his officers' time, but "for the Americans, our good friends, we do it," he said.

The officers watched the suspect leave in the morning on his bicycle, but did not follow to see where he went. "He came back in the evening. Most of the time, he stayed in his room."

Thai officials do not believe he violated any local laws, the general said.

Within four days of the Thais finding Karr, the Boulder District Attorney's Office had a warrant for Karr's arrest on murder charges signed Aug. 15. Prosecutors sent it to Thailand. On Aug. 16, the general received it and immediately revoked Karr's visa.

Karr is now back in the United States facing the possibility of five charges, including first-degree murder - after deliberation. That implies prosecutors think they have enough evidence to prove the killing was planned. Another charge on his arrest warrant is first-degree murder - felony murder, which brings the full weight of a murder charge on anyone involved in a felony that leads to a murder.

Karr also likely faces charges of first- and second-degree kidnapping and sexual assault on a child.