Yes, indeed. EXCEPT that the ransom note exposes a strong familiarity with the Ramseys, including the bizarre wording, the ransom demand equal to John's bonus, etc. This would rule out a passing stranger, yes? So how many sex fiends are good pals with the Ramseys? Wouldn't the list of possible suspects decrease dramatically if you still want to accept that somebody *outside* the immediate family killed the child? And wouldn't any competant police department (this might not include Boulder's) be able to round up the possible suspects and begin crossing names off the list? Whoever did this knew at least who the victim was and the victim's father.
Now, you've lost me here. You claim the killing was a "sexual homicide" but them you turn around and say of beauty pageants :
I too find it to be embarassing and obnoxious but it has NOTHING to do with this case.
So, if your hypothesis is correct, why would you presume that the sexual deviant wasn't somebody who was turned on by Mommy dressing up her six-year-old to look like "Daddy's Little Hooker"? True, the man may have seen Jon Benet in skimpy clothes in some other setting but probably not around Christmastime in Colorado, don't you think?
I don't know how you can escape the conclusion that this was an "inside job" so, therefore, the list of possible suspects should be rather small - people who KNOW John Ramsey and his daughter. Once you establish that fact and the Ramseys' constant reluctance to beat down the door of the BPD demanding justice for their daughter's death tells me THEY KNOW WHO DID IT. They don't want the killer prosecuted.
How many people in the Ramsey's sphere on influence would they have such strong feelings about that they would not want to see the killer in their midst brought to justice? For most people, that would only mean beloved family members.
That's why, to me, the trail leads right to John, Patsy or Burke and that, however the death took place, they conspired to cover it up - maybe even to the point of stringing the girl up, providing some post-mortem blows and writing a fake ransom note to throw police and forensics off the trail.
While bizarre, this scenario fits the known facts of the case more to me that some wandering deviant who randomly breaks in and kidnaps the girl in her own bed and kills her in the basement while the parents are unaware.
If kidnapping is a ruse (and I agree it is), the ransom note is a key clue to what took place - not because of who it implicates but who it eliminates. It eliminates people with less than a passing knowledge of John Ramsey and his daughter. To me, that conclusion is inescapable.