Published: August 19, 2006 04:43 pm      

Local handwriting expert says he believes Karr wrote ransom note

Nearly a decade since her brutal murder in the basement of her parents’ home, the JonBenet Ramsey case was once again thrust into the public eye last week, when authorities arrested John M. Karr for the murder of the six-year-old girl. Since his arrest, Karr has confessed to the murder of Ramsey, although the validity of his confession is being questioned by those investigating the case due to inaccuracies in his testimony.

Local handwriting expert Don Lehew, of Mt. Selman, has obtained several samples of John M. Karr’s handwriting, as well as, a copy of the Ramsey ransom note, and according to his analysis, they are all written by the same person. Lehew compared the ransom note to an old yearbook entry by Karr and an employment application Karr filled out when applying for a teaching job.

“I have seen enough similarities in the samples and the ransom note to be convinced that the person who wrote this (the yearbook entry) is the same person who wrote this (the ransom note),” Lehew said. “A colleague of mine and I spoke together about the samples, and we found 13 separate similarities that are, in many cases, very unusual, and that makes it a match to me. It certainly indicates to me that John Karr did write the ransom note.”

According to Lehew, several writing features on the yearbook entry were identical to the ransom note, including the unusual curvature of Karr’s “D”s and “L”s, and the odd angle of his “S”s.

“In both samples the slant of the writing is mixed; sometimes it slants right, and sometimes it slants left,” Lehew said.

Not only does Lehew say Karr wrote the ransom note, he also believes Karr’s writing style identifies him as a pedophile.

“Over the last three years, by collecting samples of known pedophiles, I have created a profile, by identifying the things that are common in their handwriting,” Lehew said. “I’ve looked at writing samples from 23 or 24 known pedophiles to create this profile. I’ve been doing this research for about three years.”

According to Lehew, his profile cannot identify if a person is a pedophile, only that they possess the propensity to be or become one.

“I can’t look at someone’s handwriting and say, “That’s a pedophile.” What I can do is look at it and say, of all the handwriting samples that I have looked at, about 10,000 of them in the past 25 years, this one closely approximates and relates to the handwriting of known pedophiles.”

Based on Lehew’s pedophile profile, Karr’s writing style displays several of the hallmarks of a child molester.

“Triangles or figure eights in the lower zone, retracing, leading in from below the baseline, these are all behaviors that have been observed in convicted pedophiles,” Lehew said. “He (Karr) has the tendency — he scored high on the pedophile chart.”

Lehew is originally from Dallas, where he gave up a successful business at age 46 to pursue a career as a handwriting expert. Lehew is a member of the American Board of Forensic Examiners and teaches questioned document courses at Handwriting University.

Since 1986, Lehew has given opinions in more than 200 questioned document cases and has served as a handwriting expert in county courts, state district courts and U.S. District courts. Lehew has been a guest speaker at Cambridge University in England, where he spoke on handwriting analysis. Lehew is currently certified by the Department of Public Safety to teach questioned document examination to law enforcement throughout Texas.

While not enough evidence for a conviction, Lehew believes handwriting analysis will help prove Karr’s involvement on the Ramsey killing.

“According to my findings, it’s not looking good for Mr. Karr,” Lehew said.