Following his arrest on Wednesday, the 41-year-old suspect said he raped and unintentionally killed six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in 1996 in Colorado. He said he was in love with the child beauty queen.

Pol Lt-General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said yesterday that Karr will be deported tomorrow and his air ticket was ready. Karr had already signed a document that he will fight the case against him in the United States, he said.

Karr has visited Thailand five times over the past two years, arriving most recently in Bangkok on June 6 to look for a teaching job. That month, he taught English for two weeks at Bangkok Christian College elementary school - one of the country's most prestigious - before he was rejected for being too strict.

Earlier this year, Karr also applied to teach at the exclusive girls-only St Joseph's Convent School, said a teacher there who asked not to be named.

She said Karr had applied as an English teacher and had a one-week trial in February. "He did not pass our criteria. His performance was below the acceptable standard," she said.

Karr was arrested in a surprise breakthrough in a case that has gripped Americans for a decade. On Thursday, the American made a stunning confession to reporters, saying that he was with JonBenet when she died but insisted that the death was an accident.

At the time of his arrest, he had just begun teaching at another school in Bangkok.

2004-2005 - A resume for "John Karr" purportedly posted on a teaching recruitment website, with a photo that strongly resembles Karr, claims he taught various subjects, recruited English teachers and maintained a library at La Esperanza School in Honduras. He also says he instructed corporate executives in English in San Jose, Costa Rica.

2002-2003 - The resume claims Karr was a private English teacher and care-giver in Germany and the Netherlands, apparently for three families with young children. It lists Stuttgart and Munich as cities he has visited. Public prosecutors in both cities say they have no record of any investigation involving Karr.

2001-2002 - Karr taught English to children aged six to 12 in Seoul, South Korea, and volunteered as an English teacher in Heemstede, the Netherlands, according to a resume posted on an English-teaching institution website. The school took down the posting after a reporter called. South Korean immigration officials have declined to comment.

1996-2001: The resumes claim Karr taught elementary-school students from "high-profile families" in prestigious US institutions. His resume says he has been in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, though no dates or schools are listed. Karr has admitted since his arrest to being with JonBenet when she died in Boulder, Colorado in December 1996. The Ramsey family's attorney said Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Georgia.

Karr apparently taught children in Georgia and Alabama. He was also a substitute teacher for four school districts in and around Petaluma in California.

Some people here who were acquainted with Karr said they were not aware of anything unusual about him.

La-ong Sangwanmaneerat, a cleaner at Blooms Residence, where Karr stayed, described him as a simple, clean and friendly man.

"I once saw him giving an iron and an ironing board to another cleaner. I never thought he could be a murderer," she said.

Kewaree Tangkham, a representative of the apartment's management, said Karr had stayed there for more than a year and he always paid the rent, even for his periods away.

She described him as a "reserved" person.

Security guard Boonta Hommala, 48, gave a different account of the occupant.

"He looked mental and irritable. He complained every time other vehicles were blocking his bicycle," Boonta said, adding that he would have liked to have nabbed Karr himself had he known he was wanted.

"I heard there was a big bounty involved," he said.

An Internet cafe clerk in Karr's building said Karr was a regular customer who kept a close eye on users in neighbouring booths, as if he was afraid they were spying on him.

"He never wanted to chat," said Nii, the clerk.

"Actually I was afraid of talking to him. He always seemed to be in a bad mood. He rushed in, then rushed out."